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As Japan's largest carrier, travelers should familiarize themselves with All Nippon Airlines (ANA). Not only is ANA a member of the world's largest airline alliance, Star Alliance, but it also has partnerships with several non-alliance airlines, including Etihad and Virgin Atlantic. This post will focus on obtaining ANA miles, the award booking process with ANA Mileage Club (including which awards you can book online), and some award rules and fees you should know about.
Here's everything you should know about booking ANA Mileage Club award flights.
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. When compared to the American Express cards below, the ANA card doesn't offer competitive perks, flexibility, or any bonus categories.
That said, the card is advertised as “an opportunity to build credit history in America” 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:
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.
Decent redemptions: Membership Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy®, and Hyatt
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. 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, a 2.5:1 transfer rate isn't terrible.
Thus, these cards can help you earn ANA miles:
- The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express
- American Express® Business Gold Card
- The Business Platinum Card® from American Express
- Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card
- The Platinum Card® from American Express
- The World of Hyatt Credit Card
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 a terrible transfer rate. Here are some of the cards that will earn you Hilton or IHG points:
- Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card
- The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card
- IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card
- IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card
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).
- Airport fees: ANA passes on the standard airport/government fees and taxes charged for all award tickets.
- 3,000 points cancelation 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 which is offset by the fact they don’t charge a close-in ticketing fee.
- $25 phone booking fee: ANA charges a $25 phone reservation fee for award tickets issued in the US (the fee is roughly the same in other ticketing countries but charged in your 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, which brings us to the last point.
- No one-way awards: All ANA international awards are round-trip. And just for added confusion, you cannot mix alliance and non-alliance partner awards. So, 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 and choose “ANA Mileage Club.”
Next, scroll down to find “Using Miles.” Beneath that, choose “International Flight Awards.”
From here, choose the red button that says “Reserve (Purchase) Apply for an ANA International Flight Award.”
Next, select either ‘Round-trip‘ or ‘Multiple cities/Mixed classes‘ and enter your departure/destination and dates. 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 Aeroplan 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!
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