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Redeeming miles for partner award flights is an easy way to get greater value from 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 or find 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 how to find airline partner award availability. Hopefully, this will leave you with an understanding of how to search for partner awards on your own. Remember that this overview is broad and won't cover every possible scenario in each airline alliance.
Page Contents
Before we go any further, we want to point out that when you book a flight on a partner airline, you don't transfer your miles from one airline program to another (such as from Delta SkyMiles to United MileagePlus). You use the miles you have in the program they're in to book flights operated by another airline. We'll explain further, but make sure you remember this key point.
What Exactly Is a Partner Award?
Airlines release award seats to their members to book its flights with its branded frequent flyer miles. For example, United Airlines makes seats available to book with MileagePlus miles. However, airlines also make a certain number of award seats available to partners. These are the seats you can book as a partner award flight.
Here's the difference between a traditional award flight and a partner award flight, using United Airlines' MileagePlus program as an example:
- A traditional award uses United MileagePlus miles to book United flights. This can be either a mainline United or United Express aircraft, but you remain fully within the United ecosystem on United-marketed flights.
- A partner award uses those same MileagePlus miles to book flights on one or more of United’s partner airlines. This can be another Star Alliance member — such as Air Canada, Lufthansa, or Singapore Airlines — or it can be one of United’s other worldwide partners outside of Star Alliance (e.g., Emirates or Hawaiian Airlines). In this case, you use United's miles to book your ticket, but your travel is operated by the partner airline.
Partner airline awards nearly always go in both directions. You can book partner award flights using United MileagePlus miles (such as a Lufthansa flight from San Francisco to Frankfurt using United miles), and you can book a United flight from San Francisco to Frankfurt using Lufthansa Miles & More miles.
Related: How To Book an Award Flight: A Step-By-Step Guide
Partner awards in a nutshell
In a nutshell, partner awards are when you use miles from Airline A to book a flight on Airline B. You use on program's rewards currency to book another airline's flight.
It’s important to note that you are not transferring miles to the partner airline (like you would a flexible rewards currency). Instead, you're booking the partner airline through United using your MileagePlus miles. Where it gets confusing is when comparing airline miles with flexible rewards currencies like Chase Ultimate Rewards because you can send these points to numerous different transfer partners.
But what about all this talk of transferring miles?
Think of airline miles and flexible travel rewards (i.e., bank points you can send to numerous programs, like Chase Ultimate Rewards or American Express Membership Rewards), each as their own currency.
- Each has a “bank” that issues them (either the airline or credit card program).
- A bank exchanges them (that same program).
- Each point/mile has an exchange rate that can change at any time.
- Each program has rules and criteria for redemption.
The biggest difference between cash and airline miles or flexible travel rewards is that it is a closed system where value, exchange rates, and the issuing/redemption all happen within the program. This is not an open market system. You can't use your miles and points for anything and everything, as you can do with cash.
Some programs offer more redemption options than others (e.g., the variety of uses of Amex points is much wider than possible uses of Avianca LifeMiles). The key is to understand how to extract maximum value from each program.
The usefulness of partner award flights
A key reason why we place some focus on partner award flights is that you may find better prices/value by booking partner awards. There are times when a partner award is far cheaper than booking an award flight through the program of the airline you want to fly with. We'll cover this in more detail later, but here is a quick example:
- Delta operates flights from Atlanta (ATL) to São Paulo, Brazil (GRU). The Delta SkyMiles program often charges obscene numbers of miles for a ticket in its economy cabin on its own nonstop flights — many days show a price of over 100,000 miles, but my sample date had a price of 94,000 SkyMiles for the one-way basic economy award. Delta SkyMiles is a transfer partner of Amex Membership Rewards.
- However, Flying Blue — the loyalty program of Air France and KLM — charges just 31,500 miles for the exact same Delta economy flight. As Flying Blue is also a partner of Membership Rewards, I could save 62,500 points by transferring my points to Flying Blue instead of Delta.
This is an extreme example, but it's certainly a real one. It directly compares two partner programs where you can use a partner award flight to save a significant number of points.
However, there are other aspects to consider, such as the airline programs' award change and cancellation policies. In some cases, booking a partner award flight isn't worth the savings, as you may be harshly penalized for canceling or changing a reservation. It's important to take all of these factors into consideration when booking awards.
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.
Here is an example of an independent partnership.
Air Canada is a member of Star Alliance, and you can use your Aeroplan points to book flights on nearly 50 airlines (including Air Canada itself). Most of these are Star Alliance partners, and this list obviously 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).
Let's actually take a quick look at the Emirates Skywards program. While the airline is not within one of the three major airline alliances, you can use Emirates Skywards to book partner award flights with many airlines — including Japan Airlines, Qantas, South African Airways, United Airlines, and Air Canada.
So, while you can't book every airline as a partner award flight, you usually have a decent number of options. Obviously, the more options, the better. These are just a couple of examples, but it proves the point.
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. If the only award space you can find on the partner is standard, you’ll have no luck booking a partner award via another frequent flyer program.
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. frequent flyer programs have gotten worse over the past several years with a slow move into dynamic award pricing. This obscures award pricing and what type of award you're seeing. The one exception to this obfuscation is United. While United now has fully dynamic award pricing for its own flights, it still clearly labels whether a flight is a saver award.
Benefits of Booking Partner Awards
Save miles using partner frequent flyer programs
Let’s say you want to fly from the mainland U.S. to Hawaii using points. Some options include flying American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, and Southwest Airlines. All of these carriers operate flights to Hawaii, and you can book these flights using miles from their respective loyalty programs. However, in many cases, you can also book flights using partner miles — and may spend less doing so.
For example, I could redeem 25,000 United MileagePlus miles for a one-way economy award from Newark to Honolulu. At first glance, this isn't bad for one of the few nonstop options from the East Coast to Hawaii.
For a seat on the same flight, I could redeem 22,500 Avianca LifeMiles. This is a modest savings. I would likely opt against it, though, due to Aeroplan's much more draconian cancellation policies.
But what if you could take the same flight for just 10,000 miles by booking with Turkish Miles & Smiles? Now we're talking.
In this case, it's far cheaper to book a partner award via Miles & Smiles (and then fly on United) than it is to book this United flight using United's own program. Mind blown yet?!
Reach more destinations with partner airlines
Booking partner awards also increases your available destinations well beyond where the parent airline flies. If you want to fly to the Seychelles using your United miles, for example, you can do so. United doesn't operate flights there, but you can reach this island nation using partners.
For example, you can fly Star Alliance partner Ethiopian Airlines to get there. However, remember that Ethiopian needs to release saver award availability for you to book the flight with United miles.
Whether you have Chase points earned from your Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (Rates & Fees), Marriott points from your Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card, or Amex points earned via the American Express® Gold Card, you can transfer points to airline partners and redeem those miles on other airline partners. This provides maximum flexibility in your travel.
Related: How To Transfer Marriott Bonvoy® Points to Nearly 40 Airlines
Expand your award reach with flexible points
When asked about points and miles strategies, one of our primary recommendations is to collect flexible rewards currencies like Chase Ultimate Rewards and Amex Membership Rewards. These open up so many potential redemption opportunities. You can collect points from several cards that earn Amex points, transfer them to programs like Virgin Atlantic Flying Club or Avianca LifeMiles, and redeem them for premium cabin award space that you might never afford if you had to pay cash.
Take advantage of better change or cancellation policies through partner programs
While airline award ticket change and cancellation policies are better post-COVID, some carriers still hit you with fees in the event you change or cancel a ticket. The cool thing is that you can sometimes book using partner miles in order to take advantage of a better cancellation policy (e.g., using United miles to book Avianca flights or Delta miles to book Air France flights).
It can be beneficial to book with a carrier that requires fewer miles, but you may give up some flexibility in the process. Carefully consider whether this is worth it. I prefer to book with programs that allow free cancellation — or at least only charge a nominal fee. It's painful to pay upwards of $200 to get my miles back. But sometimes, the savings is worth the risk — especially if you're set on taking the trip.
When you need to change or cancel a ticket, you follow the rules of the program you booked with. Which airline you're scheduled to fly is irrelevant here, so booking flights through a change-friendly program can be beneficial.
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 across from a flexible currency like Citi ThankYou Points, and attempted to book the flight only to discover the award space they could see online was phantom award space — a glitch in the award travel matrix.
Calling a reservations agent to confirm the award space before you transfer points is the best way to avoid getting tricked by phantom award space. We recommend checking more than one of the websites that allows you to book the ticket in question. Point transfers are typically final once processed, so this is not part of the process you want to skip.
We also need to consider the fact that many airlines release more award seats to their own loyalty members than they do partners. Partner award availability can be harder to find on those carriers.
A good example of this is Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer program, which releases more saver-level seats to KrisFlyer members than it does to partners. Singapore’s awesome first-class product is only available using KrisFlyer miles. United does similar things for MileagePlus credit cardholders.
Finally, not all airline partners can be booked online. Each frequent flyer program may have some partners that can only be booked with an agent over the phone.
Best Websites To Search for Airline Partner Award Flight Availability
Each alliance is home to member websites that provide fairly accurate partner award availability. Use these to help you find partner award space efficiently.
Star Alliance
- United MileagePlus: A great place to start your initial search! United’s booking engine can handle most itineraries, and you don't need to be logged in to search. You can view up to 30 days of availability at a time. It doesn’t show premium cabin award space on Singapore Airlines, but the search engine is beginner-friendly and a great place to start your award search. It's my first stop for nearly all Star Alliance awards.
- Air Canada Aeroplan: We’ve detailed the booking process for Aeroplan in a previous post. The results are laid out in a five-days-at-a-time format, and the multi-city search function works surprisingly well. Plus, you’ll find Singapore Airlines alongside the rest of the Star Alliance members. Aeroplan is the most accurate of the Star Alliance carrier websites for partner awards. You will need to sign in to search for award availability.
- ANA Mileage Club: Efficient in the Japanese sense that it almost shows too much information, ANA shows fairly accurate results and is a great place to confirm award availability you’ve found on Aeroplan or United. You’ll need an account and must log in to search awards. Catch the details in our guide to booking ANA awards.
Oneworld
- British Airways Executive Club: It’s a toss-up between the British Airways and Qantas websites for Oneworld availability. The latter is my favorite — more from familiarity than because it turns up better results. BA’s website is easy to use and will show availability for all member airlines. The search results are accurate and easy to understand. However, the main downside is that you have to search one day at a time.
- Qantas Frequent Flyer: The Qantas website offers an easy search experience when compared to the likes of ANA. Qantas offers a month-by-month view and allows you to isolate the results by class of service, which is great if you’re scanning results to piece together dates. However, it doesn’t show all routes flown by Oneworld carriers and doesn't accept Doha as a departure city — even though Qatar Airways (based in Doha) is a Oneworld partner.
SkyTeam
- Delta SkyMiles: Delta may no longer publish an award chart, but its partner search ability isn't to be overlooked. It's not great, just good. Unlike Oneworld and Star Alliance, there is no “best” booking engine for SkyTeam awards, with Delta, Air France, and Korean Air each having pitfalls. The upsides to the Delta site are the five-week search window, plenty of options to filter results. It's also nice to see options in an easy-to-digest format that instantly shows saver-level partner awards if available. Just don’t expect all results to be accurate.
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue: Although the Air France/KLM websites are renowned for displaying phantom space, it’s still the most reliable of SkyTeam’s member websites to search for partner award flights. Flying Blue offers sharp and accurate search results for Europe, although those results do tend to favor its own flights over partner airlines. Using the calendar feature is handy, as well.
- Korean Air SKYPASS: Korean’s revamped website has become another good resource for searching SkyTeam partner awards. In addition to showing much more of its own premium cabin space than the two sites above, we find it a great method for searching availability on other Asian carriers like China Southern and Garuda Indonesia. The interface is easy to use, but it's prone to throwing up strange error messages when searching premium cabin space and multi-city searches.
Emirates and Etihad
You’ll get the best results for Emirates flights available to partners by searching for space on Qantas. You'll also get decent results searching Emirates' own website. Aeroplan is another solid option.
The best resource for Etihad awards is the Etihad website. Search for GuestSeat space, which should be bookable with partner programs like AAdvantage and Aeroplan. The latter two are decent choices for finding Etihad availability since you're likely booking with these miles anyway.
Related: Here's How Much You'll Pay When Redeeming Aeroplan Points for Emirates Flights
Other airlines
For other airlines outside major alliances, there is usually one solid option for finding partner award flights. For Air Tahiti Nui, Condor, Icelandair, and Starlux, use the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan award search. These are not airlines most people would normally earn miles with anyway. For WestJet, use Delta.
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 is available on a United flight, it should be available through all of United's partner airlines.
Effectively, partner awards are airlines saying “We'll offer these seats up for all of our 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. However, it's a reasonably safe working assumption.
I've run into issues here just once when trying to book a Cathay Pacific business class flight using Alaska miles. After searching British Airways, I found three award seats available. However, upon calling Alaska to book, agents could only see two. I ended up booking premium economy for the segment instead of business, which wasn't terrible after connecting from long-haul business class.
Final Thoughts
It takes time to wrap your head around how partner award flights work. The return on this investment is an exponentially greater value for your miles. The ability to fly United using Singapore KrisFlyer miles 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 miles — a fantastic premium cabin redemption that you may not otherwise fly if you had to collect miles in Cathay's own rewards 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 rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (Rates & Fees)
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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/blog/how-to-search-book-british-airways-avios-flights/
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/blog/unofficial-delta-skymiles-award-chart-flights-us/.
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/blog/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/blog/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.