AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. 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.
Avianca recently devalued its partner award chart, impacting award rates on several routes and airlines. This post is in the process of being updated to reflect the adjusted pricing. Click here to learn more about the devaluation.
Though it’s becoming increasingly rare for U.S.-based airlines, many airlines still publish flight award charts. These charts serve as guidelines for frequent fliers to redeem their points for flights near and far. Even the airlines that do not publish award charts anymore still have, more or less, a general pricing structure for their award flights.
However, sometimes the published mileage costs do not align with the actual costs in practice. That can be a bonus for travelers who are positioned to take advantage of awards that cost fewer miles than they should.
Here's how you can save miles by using unpublished award sweet spots.
Page Contents
Types of Unpublished Award Sweet Spots
When it comes to these unpublished award sweet spots, two types come to mind:
- Taking advantage of published award chart quirks to lower overall costs.
- Awards pricing is lower than what is found in published award charts.
The first kind might be more broadly applicable, but the second kind opens the door to realizing greater point savings. The examples below highlight just a handful of possible awards that fit these categories.
Fly Longer, Save Miles
Consider a business-class trip from North America to Europe that requires a connection on a flight where business class isn't available. Many frequent flier programs won't give you a discount for flying in economy. Instead, they charge the full business class mileage cost.
However, some airline loyalty programs will price the flights on a more individual basis. Thankfully, you can push the boundaries of this concept to potentially save big.
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles and Avianca LifeMiles are examples of two frequent flier programs that make these kinds of awards possible. I find the LifeMiles website is the easier of the two for award searches, so I’ll use that for the examples below.
Example 1: Flying Transatlantic with a short connection in economy
A number of Star Alliance routing options exist to link Chicago with Zagreb, Croatia. Business class flights between the two cities cost 63,000 Avianca LifeMiles each way.
However, travelers willing to fly in economy for the intra-Europe leg have the chance to lower that mileage cost. That's because the LifeMiles program prices the total award proportionally based on miles flown in each cabin.
In this case, you'll pay just 60,490 LifeMiles total for the two flights. That's less than if you simply booked a nonstop Chicago to Frankfurt flight in business class (63,000 LifeMiles)!
In this example, the savings are not extensive, but most travelers won’t miss much swapping intra-Europe business class for economy class. This is especially true on such a short flight.
Example 2: Stretching the savings
In the first example, less than 10% of the total flight distance was in economy. Increasing the percentage of the total trip in a lesser cabin helps you stretch your miles further. In the next example, economy class travel makes up 38% of the journey — dropping the mileage price under 50,000 LifeMiles!
The transatlantic portion of the trip is still in business class, but now the second leg in economy is over 2,100 miles long. As a result, LifeMiles discounts the mileage price by over 13,000 miles vs. about 2,500 in the previous example. Daring Toronto-based travelers might even think about booking this kind of itinerary and conveniently “miss” the second leg of the trip.
Awards That Price Lower Than Published
As fun as it can be to manipulate published award charts, it’s even better when discounted awards require no manipulation. In addition to published monthly promotions like Flying Blue Promo Rewards and Miles & More Mileage Bargains, unpublished discounts exist as well.
Generally, these unpublished discounts pertain to very specific routes. But, if those routes align with travel plans, the savings can be staggering.
Example 1: Economy class discount to Europe
Once again, Avianca LifeMiles features heavily when it comes to unpublished award discounts.
For instance, consider a one-way economy-class flight between New York and Brussels. According to the LifeMiles award chart, such a flight should cost 30,000 miles. However, in practice, such an itinerary prices at just 22,000 miles.
An 8,000-mile savings might not seem monumental. However, this is a savings of 27%, putting it roughly in line with some of the LifeMiles transfer bonuses that pop up from time to time.
Be aware that the routing does not appear to influence award pricing for this example. The screenshot below shows a New York Kennedy (JFK) to Brussels (BRU) through Frankfurt (FRA) routing entirely on Lufthansa. The overall points cost remains the same 22,000 LifeMiles as the nonstop flight.
Example 2: Discounted business class awards to Europe
A discount of 8,000 miles (again, that's around 27%) on an economy-class flight might not be enough to raise eyebrows. After all, many economy class options exist between North America and Europe for even fewer points.
But, perhaps a 7,000-mile discount in business class would do the trick? On flights between New York (JFK) and Zurich (ZRH), business class awards should cost 63,000 points. Yet, in practice, these awards clock in at just 56,000. That's around 11% less than the published cost.
Again, awards do not need to be nonstop flights nor confined to SWISS metal. This also creates the bizarre situation where selecting economy class for the intra-Europe leg on an itinerary with a connection actually increases the price of the award vs. business class.
Example 3: Serious savings in business class
Saving thousands of points on award costs should sound great (and it does), but more discerning travelers likely have their eyes on steeper discounts. Luckily, the LifeMiles program delivers there as well. Once again, New York's JFK airport is involved in an example — this time to Lisbon.
Instead of the published cost of 63,000 LifeMiles, a business class award from New York JFK to Lisbon (LIS) only costs 35,000! That translates to a savings of 28,000 miles one-way, or around 44% off the published price.
Just like in the second example, you do not need to book a direct flight in order for this discount to apply. Check out an itinerary routing through Brussels on the exact same day, pricing at the exact same 35,000 Lifemiles cost as what was shown above:
Our Take
As award cost increases become more prevalent, any opportunity to stretch points and miles further will stand out. Some programs, like Singapore Spontaneous Escapes, advertise the opportunity to save on awards. As much as we like these published promotions, scoring unpublished discounts can be even more fun.
If you know which programs to explore or which routes to take, then that will help present opportunities to save in ways that an award chart won't say.
Sure, there are limitations to these unpublished award sweet spots, but award travel is inherently limited by award availability in the first place. With enough patience (and luck) in searching award space, there’s the chance to uncover even more unpublished gems.
Do you have another favorite unpublished award chart sweet spot that we didn't list?
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.
