American AAdvantage is the largest frequent flyer program in the world. It began with 283,000 members in 1981 and has grown to more than 43 million members.
Credit cards are the number one way to earn miles without flying, followed by telephone usage.
The average active member of a frequent flyer program earns 11,364 miles per year. It is estimated that some 107,000 frequent flyers have earned at least 1 million miles in their programs. In the first 20 years of frequent flyer programs, there has been a cumulative of 9,769,300,000,000 miles earned by members of these programs. This includes miles banked within credit card and hotel programs that historically will be exchanged for miles. That's right, some three million cereal boxes were turned in for miles.