15 TOP Airline Affiliate Programs — Best CPA Airline Networks and Offers of 2024 for Sites and Online Bloggers        

“An airline ticket”, “traveling”, “blogging”, and “special offers” — the list of these words sounds heavenly. If you begin drawing a picture of a relaxed blogger under palm trees on a sandy beach, just wake up and come back to Earth. We are here again to remind you that money talks. And today it’s all about making money on airline affiliate programs.

Let’s peek into numbers in this industry to get an idea of income perspectives. The total contribution of travel and tourism to the international economy is $9.25 trillion, with an impressive amount of $2.1 million per minute spent on airline traveling in the US alone.

The global airline industry was down to $686 billion due to COVID-19 and global lockdowns and is expected to reach almost $777 billion in 2021, according to Statista.

Thus, the travel niche seems lucrative and the same applies to its sub-niche – airline tickets. In fact, airline companies were quick to adapt to online business opportunities creating affiliate programs. Hence, if set and promoted the right way, airline affiliate programs might earn you a solid chunk of money.

How to Choose the Best Affiliate Program

There are several key factors to consider while selecting an affiliate program. The reality is that these factors are almost the same for any niche you decide to work with. When it comes to the travel niche, particularly, airlines, quality is the dominant factor. One of the distinctive features of airline affiliate programs is that quite often there are different programs targeted at different regions; therefore, whatever country your visitors are from, you can find GEO-customized offers and promotional materials.

Before joining any program you should carry out thorough research and keep in mind the following aspects:

• Commission rates.  This is your potential income, so the higher the commission is, the better for you. But if rates seem suspiciously high, read reviews of your fellow marketers to make sure the program (or network) is reliable.
• Cookie duration. Airplane tickets are expensive, so potential customers are worried about getting into a bad deal with an untrustworthy company or paying too much. Even if a customer clicks on your ad, it might take some time to make a purchase. There is a high chance that people will compare prices and make a decision later. Look for programs with a cookie period of 30 days and more. In this case, if a person clicks on your link and buys a ticket within 30 days, you will be paid a commission.
• Customer support. Some marketers ignore this aspect and they are wrong. Support is important while working with a program. Just think: even higher commission rates can be discussed with a support team let alone any potential problems.
• Payout methods and schedule. Some programs offer payouts only via Direct Deposit, while others offer several methods, including PayPal and various e-payment systems. Another point to consider is a minimum withdrawal threshold and payout schedule: it can be weekly/bi-weekly/monthly payments if you reach the minimum amount ($50 or $100 usually).
• Available marketing instruments. Many advertisers offer a variety of ad tools, including links, banners, widgets, etc. Some companies provide customizable banners and widgets that can be adjusted to fit your platform perfectly.
• Reputation and quality. Check various rankings for airlines (or flight search platforms) and notice the position of the chosen company, and whether a company makes a solid impression. Read customer reviews. This is important as you don’t want to promote a company known for its sub-quality service. So, do your homework thoroughly.

Many marketing experts (well, those who have been in the field for decades) still utilize the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) model:

• Attention. You need to attract attention with an ad so that a targeted audience will know about availability (or special offers, discounts, or bonuses).
• Interest. Here people learn more details about the promoted product and why it stands out.
• Desire. At this stage, people learn what problems the advertised product helps to solve and why they need it.
• Action. You make a product appealing and wanted so that a customer clicks and completes a purchase. A ‘call-to-action’ is usually used in this stage.

Affiliate In-House Programs vs. Affiliate Networks

If you have been in affiliate marketing for a long time you can skip this part as you probably are quite aware of the difference, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of both options. However, beginners might find the information below useful.

An affiliate program is an agreement between a merchant (advertiser) and a marketer (publisher/affiliate) where a publisher promotes the advertiser's products or services and sends traffic for a specified commission.  Among the companies with in-house airline affiliate programs, there are some well-known names, including Lufthansa, British Airways, Expedia, Kayak, Jetradar, Aviasales, etc.

An affiliate network is a “one-stop” platform for both merchants and marketers where advertisers post their offers to promote and affiliates have numerous options to choose from. Naturally, networks earn their commission from advertisers but actually, they take a part of the publishers’ commission; hence, commission rates for affiliates might be a bit lower. However, this reduction is compensated with the comfort of a large base of offers placed on a single platform, a single affiliate account (and dashboard) to manage multiple affiliate campaigns.  Advertisers also benefit from affiliate networks as they become visible to a huge number of affiliates. Many well-reputed affiliate networks, such as CJ Affiliate, Peerfly, ShareASale, and FlexOffers, have airline affiliate offers to promote.

The matter is that some top-tier offers in the travel niche – and airline offers aren’t an exception – are available only through well-reputed networks. Unfortunately for beginners, some time-proven networks and, in some cases, businesses with in-house affiliate programs set minimum requirements for affiliates in terms of monthly traffic. The good news is that this niche is very populated, so you can always find an affiliate program that welcomes all affiliates with no minimum requirements for the traffic volume.

How Much You Can Earn on Airline Affiliate Programs

Probably you have already noticed the lower commission rates for airline programs compared to Finance or E-commerce niches. Keep in mind the average price of an airline ticket and remember that many marketers avoid these affiliate programs due to the lower commission rates. This means less competition between affiliates.

Generally, most airline affiliate programs offer commission rates from 1% up to 2%. In many cases, affiliates can earn higher commissions if they sell a specific number of tickets per month. For example, with the Aviasales affiliate program, you get a 1.4% commission instead of 1.3% if your links lead to 50+ sales per month.

Some flight search platforms offer affiliates 50-60% (Jetradar) of their profit from every ticket purchased via affiliate links – that is around 1.5% of a ticket price.

Some programs pay per click. For example, the Wego program pays affiliates based on ‘exit clicks’ – when a visitor clicks on your affiliate link, goes to Wego search results, and then goes to Wego’s partner booking sites. Affiliates are paid from $0.05 up to $0.40 per click.

Working with airline programs you may pick some adjacent products and services to promote, such as insurance or some travel necessities. Webmasters and bloggers with platforms within a travel niche often join the Amazon Affiliate Program to earn on traveling-related products, including suitcases, backpacks, power banks, and so on.

How to Join Airline Affiliate Programs

As a matter of fact, it is very easy to join an affiliate program. You just select a program, send a request (usually you have to fill in an application form), and wait for approval. If you are an experienced webmaster or blogger with solid monthly traffic, you should have no trouble. However, some airline companies can be pretty picky when it comes to their in-house affiliate programs. Anyway, you don’t lose anything if you apply. As we’ve already mentioned above, many airline companies accept webmasters and bloggers of all levels from all over the globe.

Affiliate networks also represent an attractive option as they have a large base of advertisers, including many airline companies and flight search aggregators. If you are registered with any network, you can search for available airline programs. Cooperation with a network saves some time as you can run several ad campaigns for different advertisers and manage all of them via a single dashboard, as well as receive commissions from several campaigns in one payout.  Again, the downside of working through an affiliate network is profit sharing. With in-house programs, affiliates receive the specified amount, but affiliate networks take part of the commission paid by an advertiser, so affiliates receive less than promoting the same offer via the in-house program.    

If you are still doubtful about affiliate networks not being scams, join a couple of specialized forums (yep, they are still alive) and read recent reviews from other marketers and webmasters. Give a look at Warrior Forum, Black Hat Forum, AffiliateFix, or any other platforms of your choice.

How to Promote Airline Affiliate Offers on Websites and Blogs

Recently, people got addicted to travel-oriented websites and blogs and they ignore traditional travel guides and travel agencies. Despite the 2020-2021 global pandemic situation people still look for available options to spend their vacation time and search for new destinations online. Here you come with your blog and content dedicated to traveling.  

Actually, website and blog owners have many options to promote affiliate programs. Usually, advertisers provide various types of ad materials, including banners, affiliate links, widgets (see an example below), etc.  

Content ads in the form of links are considered the most efficient, so a dedicated series of posts might work pretty well. You can write posts on how to save on flight tickets or about seasonal sales, special discounts and offers, using miles for free airplane tickets, and so on. Season your posts with a simple widget, and ta-da! – your readers have a chance to calculate airplane tickets to the desired destination!

You can solidify your traffic through your social media pages (communities) and YouTube channels. Make new post announcements with SEO-based descriptions to redirect traffic to your blog or website. Despite high competition in the niche, you can still make your way by highlighting offers targeted specifically at your audience. Yes, niche-down to match the interests of your readers. For example, if your blog is about budget traveling, write posts on how to find cheap flights. Conversely, websites about luxury trips are the perfect ground for ads of the top-rated airline companies that provide superior service.

FamiliesLoveTravel niche is down to “flights with family and young kids” and provides reviews of airlines that ensure great service for young passengers. Yes, their articles contain affiliate links that fit organically into the high-quality helpful context.

As a webmaster or blogger, you don’t need to convince people to travel because we all love traveling, the challenging task is to let them travel using your affiliate links. Thus, you need to sound well-founded and persuasive. If you provide valuable content and people trust you, they will follow your recommendations. We are all here, in affiliate marketing, for income, but we can do nothing without traffic. Think about your visitors as the most valuable asset and provide your readers with useful content that answers their questions. Otherwise, they will consider you as another money-making spammer. Try to promote services and brands you use and know well.

Case Study: Matthew Kepnes Deploys Airline Affiliate Programs on His Award-Winning Travel Site

With over 1.5 million visitors a month and income over $750 000 a year, Matthew Kepnes, the owner of Nomadic Matt earns impressive amounts on affiliate programs. Note that despite the number of affiliate links on his website his articles are always sincere, useful, and upright. This fact explains the huge traffic volume he gets.

Actually, Matt utilizes the best approach to earn via affiliate programs. In the context of airline programs, he offers an in-depth article on how to find cheap flights seasoned with affiliate links. From the position of an experienced traveler, Matt explains step-by-step how to search for flights and how important flexibility in terms of airlines is. At the end of the post, he used an affiliate widget (as a flight search form) from one of the flight search aggregators.

No doubt, his readers used the form after learning Matt’s hacks and tricks of searching for budget flights.    

Conclusion

Actually, the choice of the best airline affiliate programs depends on you and your platform: your audience and your content.  If your blog is focused on budget traveling, there is no sense promoting private jets, but you can benefit from airline ticket aggregators’ affiliate programs as they provide an option to search for ‘the lowest price’. Whether you go with an in-house program or an affiliate network, there are plenty of variants to suit any webmaster. Again, you can promote several programs at once;  for instance, insurance is a must-be thing for all travelers, as well as a suitcase or a credit card.