AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. Terms Apply to the offers listed on this page. Enrollment is required for select Amex benefits. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers.
All Nippon Airways (ANA) is Japan’s largest airline and offers one of the most rewarding frequent flyer programs for travelers willing to learn the ropes. As a member of Star Alliance, ANA Mileage Club gives you access to award flights on dozens of partner airlines. It also partners with a few non-alliance carriers like Etihad and Virgin Atlantic, adding even more flexibility.
But navigating ANA’s program can feel unfamiliar at first — especially with its quirky award rules, hard mileage expirations, and a website that sometimes doesn’t play nice with complex itineraries.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through:
- How to earn ANA miles (including U.S. credit card transfer options)
- Key fees, surcharges, and award rules to know
- Step-by-step instructions for booking awards online
- Tips for booking partner flights and advanced itineraries
Let’s dive into what makes ANA Mileage Club a valuable — albeit challenging — tool in your award travel toolkit.
Page Contents
How to Earn ANA Mileage Club Miles
Earn miles through credit card spending
First, one of the most common questions when dealing with foreign frequent flyer programs is “how do I get the required miles for an award?” First National Bank of Omaha offers a U.S.-based co-branded ANA credit card, the ANA Card U.S.A..
Would we recommend it? Probably not. Although it offers perks such as 2x miles per $1 spent on ANA purchases and a fast track to Bronze elite status, it doesn't hold up compared to the other ways of earning ANA miles that we will cover below.
That said, the card is available to you even without a credit history, and could work as an entry-level card for those looking to build their credit profile. As an added bonus, the card also offers free FICO® scores.
Related: A Beginner's Guide to Building Healthy Credit
Transfer points to ANA
Another way to obtain ANA miles involves transferring points. Mileage Club is a transfer partner of the following rewards programs:
You can tell at a glance that some of these transfer rates are better than others. As such, we're breaking them into two categories below.
Best option: Membership Rewards
As a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, you can transfer points to ANA from any Membership Rewards-earning card — including some of our favorites listed below.
(Terms Apply)
- Earn 2X points on everyday business purchases such as office supplies or client dinners. 2X applies to the first $50,000 in purchases per year, 1 point per dollar thereafter. Terms and limitations apply.
(Terms apply)
- 4X Membership Rewards® Points at restaurants worldwide, plus takeout and delivery in the U.S. (on up to $50,000 per year in purchases, then 1X)
- 4X Membership Rewards® points at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000 per year in purchases, then 1X)
- 3X Membership Rewards® points on flights booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com
- 2X Membership Rewards® points on prepaid hotels and other eligible travel booked on amextravel.com
- 1X on other eligible purchases
(Terms apply)
- Earn 5X points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel® (up to $500,000 in purchases per calendar year).
- Earn 5X points on prepaid hotels booked with American Express Travel®.
Decent options: Marriott Bonvoy® and Hyatt
Also, as one of Marriott Bonvoy’s 40+ airline transfer partners, Bonvoy members can transfer points to ANA at a 3:1 ratio with a bonus 5,000 ANA miles when you transfer in blocks of 60,000 Bonvoy points. And not that you'd necessarily want to transfer your valuable Hyatt points to ANA, but, in a pinch, the 5:2 transfer rate isn't terrible.
Thus, these cards can help you earn ANA miles:
(Terms apply)
- 6x Marriott Bonvoy® points on each dollar of eligible purchases at hotels participating in the Marriott Bonvoy® program.
- 4x Marriott Bonvoy® points on each dollar of eligible purchases made at restaurants worldwide, at U.S. gas stations, on wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers and on U.S. purchases for shipping
- 2x Marriott Bonvoy® points per dollar on all other eligible purchases
(Terms Apply)
- 6X points on purchases at Marriott Properties
- 3X points at restaurants worldwide, including takeout and delivery
- 3X points on flights booked directly with airlines
- 2X points on all other eligible purchases
- Up to 9X total points per $1 spent at Hyatt – 4X points per $1 on qualifying purchases when you use your card at Hyatt hotels & 5X points per $1 you can earn as a World of Hyatt member
- 2X points per $1 spent on fitness club and gym memberships
- 1X point per $1 everywhere else
In addition, you'll earn 2X points per $1 spent in your top three spend categories each quarter. Eligible categories include:
- Dining
- Shipping
- Airline tickets when purchased directly with the airline
- Local transit & commuting
- Social media & search engine Advertising
- Car rental agencies
- Gas stations
- Internet, cable & phone services
Redemptions you might want to avoid
Maybe you've found yourself with a few orphaned Hilton or IHG points languishing in your account. If that aligns with a desperate need to top off your ANA miles for a flight, know that you can transfer Hilton or IHG points to ANA. However, these occur at such a poor transfer rate that you won't want to utilize them unless you're out of other options.
Rules, Fees, and Charges for ANA Mileage Club Awards
Before we get too deep into the how-to side of booking, we’ll touch on the award fees and charges passed on by ANA, and a few of the rules around changes and cancellations.
- Fuel surcharges: ANA passes on carrier-imposed surcharges for (most) partner airlines that collect them, some of the exceptions being Air Canada, Air New Zealand, and United Airlines (although you will see United surcharges when flying from the U.S. to Asia).
- 3,000 points cancellation fee: ANA charges a 3,000-mile fee per person when refunding miles for unused awards. The 3,000 miles will be deducted from the refund and are subtracted from the oldest accrued miles.
- Cannot book awards within 96 hours of departure: ANA doesn’t allow you to book close-in award fares within 96 hours of departure.
- $25 phone booking fee: ANA charges a $25 phone reservation fee for award tickets issued in the U.S. The fee is roughly the same in other ticketing countries, but is charged in the local currency.
- No change fees: There are no change fees; however, the deadline for changing is 96 hours before departure.
- Stopovers, layovers, and open jaws: By far one of the hardest parts of booking ANA awards to understand, we cover this in more detail in our post on ANA charts. Essentially, you can plan up to one stopover and one open jaw per round-trip award, though not on a one-way award.
- Cannot mix certain partners: For example, if you want to fly Etihad, you need to fly this airline for the entire itinerary. By contrast, you can mix and match Star Alliance carriers to build award trips if you stick within the alliance.
Related: Airline Award Ticket Change and Cancellation Policies
How to Book ANA Mileage Club Award Flights
You can book ANA awards for up to 10 family members within two degrees of the primary account holder. The caveat is that all members must register to become part of the family account before booking an award. Be sure to get the details correct, as you’ll pay a 5,000-mile fee to change or delete account details once registered.
Before you search for award availability, remember to check the ANA region definitions (which differ slightly from other carriers). Additionally, check the seasonal award rates to determine if you need to look for awards solely on ANA or if ANA and partner awards cost the same.
Now, to book ANA Mileage Club economy award flights. The first step is to sign into your Mileage Club account. You'll then be brought to the home page, where you can select “Flight Awards.”
Once there, click “Award Reservation.”
This will bring you to the dedicated award reservation page. From here, you can select “Round-trip,” “One way,”or “Multiple cities/Mixed classes” and enter your departure/destination and dates. And yes, ANA now allows one-way award tickets!
Just be sure to check the box to “Compare seat availability +/- 3 days” to find extra availability on nearby dates.
After that, choose the available date.
Then you'll choose your award type and flights.
Last, you'll receive a breakdown of the flights, required mileage, and taxes and fees.
If you’re happy with the award, you can then proceed to the passenger details and payment page. For reference on what constitutes a decent ANA redemption, refer to our guide to maximizing ANA Mileage Club award sweet spots.
In the end, searching for economy awards is straightforward, and you’ll see availability for a week at a time if you choose that option. In addition, results will typically also show available Star Alliance partners.
Searching business class and open-jaw awards
Compared to economy fares, searching for business-class awards and any itinerary that involves more than two segments can be an entirely different beast. We run into trouble trying to book complex open jaws and stopovers, even sticking well within the region definitions supplied on ANA’s website. The online booking engine often returns a “no results” error code, even after we’d checked the individual segments before attempting the booking.
One tip that will save you time is searching via another Star Alliance carrier — like Air Canada or United — to find availability. After that, confirm it's available on the ANA website.
Another thing to note: This pop-up window appears if you're eligible for a waitlist.
Remember: If you can’t get the booking to work online, you can always pay the $25 fee and book over the phone with one of ANA’s reservation agents.
Can You Book All ANA Partner Awards Online?
Unfortunately, no. You can only book ANA and Star Alliance awards online. For ANA’s remaining partners, listed below, you’ll need to search for the available award space elsewhere and book over the phone:
- Air Dolomiti
- Air Macau
- Etihad Airways
- Eurowings
- Garuda Indonesia
- Olympic Air
- Philippine Airlines
- Vietnam Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic
- Virgin Australia
The ANA Award Reservations line is open 24 hours daily at 800-235-9262. We've typically experienced excellent customer service.
Does ANA hold awards?
Data points show that ANA will only hold award flights if you have the necessary miles in your account to book the award. Unfortunately, Membership Rewards transfers to ANA typically take a day, though they can be instant in some cases. If you can't hold the award until the transfer is complete, it can be a little off-putting, as transfers are final and non-refundable. That's especially off-putting considering ANA miles have a hard expiry date.
Final Thoughts
It can feel a little daunting to book awards with a foreign carrier. But with some instruction and a little practice, the process becomes more familiar. One of the best features of the ANA website is that it lets you search award availability without the required miles in your account. That means you can play around with routing and different destinations, getting a feel for the site before transferring miles across.
If you still find this completely overwhelming, get in touch with the AwardWallet Award Booking Service and let us do the hard work for you!
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express (Rates & Fees), American Express® Gold Card (Rates & Fees), The Platinum Card® from American Express (Rates & Fees), Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card (Rates & Fees), Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card (Rates & Fees), and World of Hyatt Business Credit Card (Rates & Fees)
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
