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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.
