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Redeeming miles for partner award flights is an easy way to get greater value from your frequent flyer miles and credit card points. However, the process is commonly misunderstood and can be daunting for first-timers.
How do you know which airlines you can book with your miles? Can you use them to book flights on a different airline? Does redeeming miles on partners cost the same as a standard saver award? In addition, the one question that rules them all: How on earth do you find airline partner award availability?
In this article, we’ll cover the basics of finding airline partner award availability so you can start searching for partner awards on your own.
Before we go any further, remember that when you book a flight on a partner airline, you can't transfer your miles from one airline program to another (such as from
What Exactly Is a Partner Award?
Airlines make award seats available to their own members, but they can also release some of those seats to partner airlines.
For example, United Airlines makes seats available to book with MileagePlus miles. MileagePlus members can also use those same miles to book flights on partner airlines like Air Canada, Lufthansa, or Singapore Airlines.
Here's the difference:
- A traditional award uses United MileagePlus miles to book United flights.
- A partner award uses those same MileagePlus miles to book a flight operated by one of United’s airline partners.
Partner awards can also work in both directions. You might use United miles to book a Lufthansa flight from San Francisco to Frankfurt, or use Lufthansa Miles & More miles to book a United flight on the same route. The important thing is that the airline you want to fly must partner with the frequent flyer program whose miles you’re using.
Related: How To Book an Award Flight: A Step-By-Step Guide
The usefulness of partner award flights
A key reason why we place so much focus on partner award flights is that you may find better value by booking partner awards. For example:
- Delta operates nonstop flights from Atlanta (ATL) to Sao Paulo, Brazil (GRU). On a sample date, the Delta SkyMiles program charged 77,000 SkyMiles for a one-way basic economy award.
- However, Flying Blue — the
loyalty program Rewards
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Basics of Booking Partner Award Flights
Can I use miles to book any airline?
No. To book a partner airline using miles, the airline you want to fly must partner with the frequent flyer program you use to book the award.
Most airline partnerships stem from the three big airline alliances: Star Alliance, SkyTeam, and Oneworld. However, many airlines have partnerships with airlines in different alliances and with non-alliance airlines. A few major airlines outside the three global alliances have built independent networks of partner airlines.
For example, Air Canada is a member of Star Alliance, and you can use your Aeroplan points to book flights on more than 50 airlines (including Air Canada itself). Most of these are Star Alliance partners, and this list includes the likes of United Airlines, SWISS, and Lufthansa. However, Air Canada's partners also include Cathay Pacific — which is a Oneworld alliance member — and Emirates (not a member of any alliance).
The Emirates Skywards program is another example. While Emirates is not part of a major airline alliance, you can use Skywards miles to book partner award flights with many airlines, including Japan Airlines, Qantas, South African Airways, United Airlines, and Air Canada.
The bottom line is that you can’t use your miles to book just any airline. You’ll need to check which airlines partner with the program you plan to use.
Related: How Many Miles Do You Need for a Free Flight?
Partner award flights require “saver” award space
To book a partner award flight, the partner airline needs to have the lowest level of award space available. This is often referred to as “saver award” space.
Airlines only make a limited amount of space available at the lowest (saver) level. Additional seats are available for a higher price (standard awards), but those seats are typically held for the airline's own program and not shared with partners.
Unfortunately, some airlines obscure the difference between saver and standard awards. Conversely, some carriers clearly label saver award space, but most don't.
The main U.S.
Benefits of Booking Partner Awards
Partner awards can do more than just save you miles. They can also help you reach destinations your airline doesn’t serve and give you more ways to use the points and miles you already have.
For example, United doesn’t fly to the Seychelles, but you can use United miles to book a partner airline like Ethiopian Airlines to get there, as long as partner award space is available.
Flexible rewards can make partner awards even more useful. Points from programs like
It’s also worth paying attention to the rules of the program you book through. Airline award ticket change and cancellation policies can vary quite a bit, so the cheapest award isn’t always the best option.
Beware of phantom award space and limited partner availability
The internet is rife with horror stories of folks who checked award availability on a partner airline, transferred points from a flexible currency like
The best way to avoid getting tricked by phantom space is to confirm availability before transferring points. Check more than one website that can book the award or call the program directly. Point transfers are typically final once processed, so this is not a step you want to skip.
Keep in mind that some airlines also release more award seats to their own loyalty members than they do to partners, making partner availability harder to find.
Finally, not all airline partners can be booked online. Some partner awards may require calling an agent to book.
Best Websites To Search for Airline Partner Award Flight Availability
Each alliance is home to member websites that provide reasonably accurate partner award availability. Use these to help you find partner award space efficiently.
Star Alliance
United MileagePlus and Air Canada Aeroplan are two of the best places to start. United offers a useful calendar view, while Aeroplan does a good job displaying partner availability across a wide range of Star Alliance airlines.
ANA Mileage Club can also be useful for confirming space, though its website is less beginner-friendly.
Oneworld
SkyTeam
SkyTeam is a little trickier because there isn’t one clear best search engine. Delta SkyMiles and Air France-KLM Flying Blue are both decent places to start, while Korean Air SKYPASS can sometimes help confirm availability on certain partners.
Other airlines
For airlines outside the major alliances, the best search option depends on the carrier. Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards can be useful for partners like Air Tahiti Nui, Condor, Icelandair, and Starlux.
Related: Here's How Much You'll Pay When Redeeming Aeroplan Points for Emirates Flights
Search Tools
One way to reduce the tedium of searching for flights across multiple airline websites is to use an award search tool. These services are relatively new to the market and help you search across multiple airline programs more efficiently. Most tools have a no-frills free version as well as more robust paid options.
For example, seats.aero can search specific award programs across all of its partners. In the screenshot below, we are searching American AAdvantage for flights from North America to Asia, and the results show you awards when flying with partners Japan Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
This is just one example of how award search tools work.
How Do I Know if Award Space Is Available?
While there are exceptions to this rule, in general, you can assume that if a seat is available for one partner to book, it should be available for all partners to book.
What does this mean? If you're on the Aeroplan website and see an award seat available on a United flight, there’s a good chance it may also be available through other United partners.
Effectively, partner awards are airlines saying, “We'll offer these seats up for partners to grab, and the rest we'll hold for our members.” Remember, this isn't a 100% guarantee. You should always double-check availability.
Final Thoughts
It takes time to wrap your head around how partner award flights work. But once you do, they can unlock significantly more value from your miles. The ability to fly Delta using Virgin Atlantic points is a great way to save a few miles on some routes. The same can be said for flying Cathay Pacific business or first class using Alaska points — a fantastic premium cabin redemption that you may not otherwise fly if you had to earn miles directly through Cathay Pacific's program.
If you want an even easier option, you can always reach out to our Award Booking Service. We'll handle the heavy lifting of finding the best flights for your trip.
For me, the easiest way to identify an airline’s current code-share partner, is to check its profile in Wikipedia. Wiki articles on airlibe are organized similarly and codeshare info is part of the formula.
i have found that Lufthansa no longer allows using United Miles for booking seats on its flights from the USA, whereas before COVID it allowed Business Class as well. Any idea what caused this change? Lufthansa did not give an explanation when I inquired.
Hi Charles, I have found United award for Lufthansa flights departing the U.S. just in the past 2 weeks. Can you tell me more about what you’re seeing/not seeing when you search?
I understand this premise, but execution is eluding me. I fly AA for work, but also have CSR. So before booking a sAAver flight, it’d be smart to look at partnering sites to see if they’re listing it for less, use UR points, & save my AA miles for another day?
Sorry, I don’t quite follow your comment about “see if they’re listing it for less” — Perhaps you could provide an example of a specific trip you’re thinking about taking and use those flights/origin/destination as an example — then I could give a little more insight.
As in, if I found a sAAver flight from clt-mad for 45k miles, there’s a chance BA might list the same flight for less? If so, my best bet would be to convert UR points to Avios & book through BA to fly on AA metal?
It is possible — but only because BA charges different prices and their prices are distance-based. That said, a quick check on BA’s website will tell you what the price will be for any given route. More here on BA:
https://awardwallet.com/airlines/british-airways-club/book-with-avios/
I have Skymiles but want to use less than the 285,000 mileage points they want for a round trip first class from PHX to MAD. (No business class option). I was going to see if Flying Blue would require less miles. Do I need a Flying Blue account to even see this information? Also, I think my concern is similar toCamilla’s above?
If so, how then do I use my Skymiles for partner airline redemption? Sorry, I’m a novice, need more details than the rest.
Minnie, if you create an account at AirFrance.com or KLM.com you’ll have a Flying Blue account. You can then search as if you were booking through your Flying Blue account. Couple of things:
1) Delta doesn’t sell first class international tickets. Perhaps you’re seeing first class on the domestic flights and business class on the international segments?
2) If Delta is charging 285,000 miles my gut says all of the flight segments are on Delta and they’re charging you a premium for access to those seats — which means those seats wouldn’t be available to members of Flying Blue. Remember, Delta (along with all other airlines) offer up X amount of seats on their aircraft to partner airlines for redemption with miles. When those seats are gone the only people that can book those seats with miles are people using miles in the native program (SkyMiles in this case). You should expect to see a price more in the 140k to 170k round-trip with Delta for it to be bookable by a partner – https://awardwallet.com/airlines/delta-skymiles/how-many-delta-miles-for-a-flight/.
3) If you search through Flying Blue and don’t see any of these flights, it simply means that Delta has either not released any seats for partners to book or that those seats have already been booked.
I hope this helps clear things up!
So, if I have United miles and want to go to Hawaii, how do I book using Singapore? I can see availability for my cities on the dates I want on United but want to use less miles. If I try to do it on Singapore’s site, my origination city won’t take.
You cannot. You must have miles with Singapore to redeem with Singapore. Think of each as a currency. For example, you can’t use Euros to buy something at your local Best Buy or Target in the US — you’d need US Dollars.
It seems to be getting harder and harder to find the saver awards on American Airlines.
There is basically no such thing as a “Saver” Award in Business or First Class on United operated flights. Finding one is like finding a needle in a haystack. It’s a joke.
Just plan on booking a premium award on a partner airline if you have the points.
Everything about the Big 3 has a similar ring to it: devaluation of the product disguised as cleverly worded monikers like “Everyday Awards”, “Basic Economy”, etc.
My question is simple, let’s say I have an Aeromexico frequent flyer program which partner with Sky Team. When I want to redeem my miles on any airline on Sky team, should I go into my Aeromexico frequent flyer program and it is going to find me a fly on Sky Team? Or should I go to the Sky Team web page and write my frequent flyer number there??
No, unfortunately you cannot search for partner awards on Aeromexico’s website. You’ll need to search partner award availability via Korean, Air France, or Delta’s website, and phone it through to the US based Aeromexico reservation line. Catch the details on how to book Club Premier awards here – https://awardwallet.com/airlines/book-aeromexico-club-premier-awards/
I just got back from a trip to Hawaii, booked via Korean on Delta for 25k RT. Used Air France to search for the dates
Sometimes it can be so frustrating trying to pin down the best flights. United’s site is great for initial searches, but even then my FFP (Aegean) doesn’t seem to get all those flights. It’s all very hit and miss, makes it much more satisfying when you eventually get the booking you want!
Thanks for the useful information on this article.
Great info! Searching partner availability can be tiresome. A good phone agent can be invaluable. The phantoms do exist. Keep at it though. Scored some nice 1st class and great destinations in past.
I have some problems for a Copa flight booked with Lufthansa Miles and More miles.
United showed me some flights, Copa different ones and when I called Lufthansa to book the availability was again different.
Now I see my flight on Lufthansa with the Lufthansa booking code but I don’t see my flight on Copa with Copa booking code.
Anyway, when I try to do the check in online in the Copa site the system reply me that it’s still too early to do the check in (this give me at least some confirmation that the booking is present in the Copa system).
To sum up, in some case there are a lot of problems.
nice summary and explanation! thanks!
UA has shown some phantom space on partners when I’ve look recently.
Thanks for explaining partner booking. I now have a. Enter understanding of how to do it. I like that you detailed who partners with whom as well. As always a great resource.
It is hard to wrap your mind around using United miles on another airline or to try to use United to do open jaw and stopover itineraries. Mind blown! I want to figure out how to go to Hawaii using the least amount of miles.
Great overview of this process! Definitely cleared up some confusion
I have 234,176 points with Amex Platinum.
I want to cancel the card as last year I had terrible experience in 3 countries as I did not get access to Lounges as they would not recognise Amex (Canada). If I cancel the card I loose the points so I have to transfer or continue the card.
1. Where shall I transfer my points (Best)
2. Or should I stick with Amex and pay $399 fee.
I also have points/miles with the following and would appreciate your Expert Advice as if i should transfer to one best points/miles program as some sites never have space, example BA for 3 years tried and never get seats:
Aeroplan over 237,000
Airmiles over 26,000
MBNA not sure
RBC over 900,000
British Airways over 300,000
Please advise
I’d recommend calling Amex to see if there are other benefits on the card to help you decide if it makes sense to keep or not; I’m not versed in all the benefits on the Canadian Amex Platinum card.
If you’re going to transfer the points out, transfer to a partner that makes sense based on your upcoming travel. BA or Aeroplan would be a the top of my list.
Amazing reference. It has always been a pain to find partner award availability, then calling our own frequent flyer programs to book them was a pain too. Hopefully in the future everything can be booked online! (Given that airlines run on stone age software, probably not)
Favorited for future use. I’m accumulating points all over the place, but have no travel plans because my current job doesn’t provide any paid time off (neither holidays nor vacation days). Not sure I can really get any good redemptions for weekend-only travel.
Thanks. I need to book Etihad soon but their website is a little clunky
Thank you for providing ‘everything’ in one place.
Great post. Thank you! Things are always changing and nice to have a reference point.
Whoa, this article is really dense, not for quick browsing. I’m going to have to study this more carefully at a later date. Seems like very useful information.
Sometimes we try to come up with ones that you need a cup of coffee to get through.
good summary of the hoops you have to jump through
The Air Canada and United partnership is great for me being very near the border here in Michigan. Was even bumped last year on the free flight and given great vouchers from AC, can’t beat that.
Question for you: you said “You could redeem 45K SkyMiles for a roundtrip economy award on Delta, or, for that same flight, you could redeem 25K Korean SKYPASS miles or 30K Flying Blue miles for the same seats on Delta. In this case, it’s cheaper booking a partner award via SKYPASS or Flying Blue to fly Delta, than it is to book a Delta award using its own SkyMiles program.”
It’s possible I misunderstood, but if I was trying to book a Korean Air award seat, would I spend the 25k in SkyMiles or would I need to convert them into SKYPASS miles first? I know you’d said early in the article that you don’t have to transfer your (in this example) SkyMiles to a partner, but based on the above quote it sounds like I would need to redeem SKYPASS miles instead of SkyMiles.
Hopefully that all makes sense. In any event, you’re right it’s a lot of info. Thanks for putting this together to help the newbies to award redemptions, like myself! I very much look forward to your subsequent articles on the individual alliances.
Megan, you cannot convert Delta SkyMiles to Korean SKYPASS.
In this case, you would need to redeem Korean SKYPASS miles for a seat on a Delta aircraft. You call Korean (or search Korean’s website) and pay in Korean miles for your seat on Delta. Check this out: https://awardwallet.com/airlines/redeem-korean-air-skypass-miles/
Your currency is Korean SKYPASS miles, which you can obtain if you have Chase Ultimate Rewards, and you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards to Korean SKYPASS miles at a ratio of 1:1. Make more sense?
It does, thanks for your reply! I am more of an AA flyer so I look forward to your tips on AA awards with its partners. As another commenter has mentioned, I really want to take advantage of an Etihad 1st class Apartment using AA miles!
This blog is going to save me so much time and money in the long run haha.
Great article.
Thanks for the warning on phantom award space.
United website is one of the better ones on the list. Good tips.
Once again a very informative article, many thanks.
My favourite partnership has to be Etihad using AA miles, you can get EY 1st for as little as 62,500 AA miles and Biz for 40k AA.
Using your miles on a partner airline offers some amazing benefits. When one carrier is not so good in say business the partner airline could offer an amazing product instead, great example would be BA – Qatar.
You mention there’s more award space open to members of airlines own ff programs. Example- an A.A. award flight is 57500 miles, I have 500 miles in my AAdvantage acct, i simply transfer 57000 UR to “top off” my AAdvant acct. As a AAdvantage member, did i have more options open to access all possible award space, different than someone searching the B.A. site for A.A. partner availability? Realizing this thought is not “earn & burn,” because I’ve had those 500 miles just sitting, and say i do this w/multiple f.f. progs. Besides the logistics of multiple prog upkeep, what are the obstacles to that option? Are there more negatives than positives to this approach? Or, is this so obvious & of course everyone already functions this way, LOL! Looking forward to reading more on this topic. Thank you!
This scenario won’t quite work. You cannot transfer Ultimate Rewards to AAdvantage so thjat wouldn’t work. AAdvantage members have access to additional seats not available to partners, but they’ll pay a premium (expect 100% premium in price) for those seats.
If you search AA the number of sAAver seats you see are the number of seats available to partners. So, if someone searches BA’s website for AA flights, the only flights they’ll see with seats are ones that AA displays as sAAver on their site. At the same time AA will display AAnytime seats, which are only available to AAdvantage members.
I hope this clears things up!
thanks so much Howie, yes makes sense.
looking forward to continuing to learn!
I have booked flights on Lufthansa using United miles and flights on Qantas using AA miles. Very good advice, call reservations before transferring your Ultimate Reward points to verify awards seats are actually available.
Good information but I got a question .
You said Qantas is one of the oneworld partners . I did a search on Qantas with their classic award program and it displays between London and Dubai flights operated by Emirates , can I book them with my AA advantage since they appear on their search results ?
You cannot because Emirates is not a partner with AA. In this case, remember, we’re using Qantas to search for award seats, but the seats displayed must still be offered by an airline that is a partner of AA if you want to use AA miles.
I just recently booked an award on Flying Blue/AF from JNB- MSP for a relative on Delta metal. It saved him a ton of money! I just wish Delta was still a partner with Alaska. 🙁
Thanks for the Award.Flights link. Seems like it is a pretty cool site that will help a lot with my award searches. Pointimize is another great website that I use a lot to help me prioritize which awards to search for first.
On a separate note, I wish JetBlue had a fixed-value point system and airline partners because booking a JetBlue Mint seat through some random partners miles could potentially get me so much more value than JetBlue’s own points. Oh well.
I’ve noticed for the past few months that NH does not seem to be the most accurate for *A awards like in the past. I usually see one extra seat for partners in C / F cabins compared to AC / A3
Not sure if anyone else is facing this issue. Lately I stopped searching NH.
In the meantime perhaps Awardwallet can post some of the flight searching tools that are useful.
Thanks!
May be you can guide me with the right information I am going to book united award flights from BKK to SYD in business class for 30K for March 2018 travel. After United devaluation in November 2017 this flight will cost more miles.
My question is what happens if I decided to change the dates of my travel from March 2018 to December 2018 after devaluation. Do I just have to pay the change fee or will I require more miles?
Thanks,
You’ll be responsible for the change fee and increase in miles.