Beginners Guide to How to Book Flights With Miles

It’s pretty frustrating to save miles for a big trip, only to discover that you can’t use them to get where you want to go. You might have saved up many miles over the years but are not sure what is a good award redemption and what flights you are better off booking with cash. One of the most common problems faced by beginners is a poor understanding of their options. They often wonder what flights they can and can't book with miles.

In this post, we’ll explain how award availability works and how to find and book your next flight with miles like a pro.

What Is Award Availability?

Award availability — sometimes also referred to as award space — refers to the seats on each flight that you can pay for with airline miles instead of cash. Folks who are new to traveling with points and miles often don’t realize that the options for booking award travel are significantly limited compared with booking cash fares.

Most airlines only give up a relative few of their seats as award redemptions, so you may see tickets for sale with cash but no seats available on that same flight when using miles — even if the plane is less than half full. In addition, some seats may be significantly more expensive to book with points than with cash directly.

Credit: Mpumelelo Macu/Unsplash

The exception is revenue-based programs like Southwest Rapid Rewards and JetBlue TrueBlue, where all seats can be booked with points. That's because the number of points you need is directly tied to the cash price of the ticket.

Why Are Miles Subject to Blackout Dates?

The reason airlines limit award availability is simple: They would rather sell seats for cash than miles. Most frequent flyer programs don’t directly tie the price in miles to the retail cost of a flight, but some will use dynamic pricing with the cash price of the ticket potentially used as part of the calculation to determine the award price of a ticket. Depending on the mileage program, award pricing can also be determined by either the region of the world you want to visit or the distance you fly.

For example, in a region-based award chart, it might cost 25,000 miles to fly round-trip from New York to Los Angeles. It doesn’t matter whether the cash price is $100 or $500, it would still cost the same 25,000 frequent flyer miles for that flight. To learn more about award pricing, check out the resource below.

Related: How Many Miles Do You Need for a Free Flight?

In a dynamic pricing model, an airline might have vastly different prices for a ticket depending on the day you travel. One such example is with American Airlines. While the lowest business class nonstop fare from New York to Delhi is 55,000 miles, most nearby dates cost hundreds of thousands of miles.

Credit: American Airlines

To make sure they don't give away awards seats that could have been sold for cash, airlines actively manage the award availability on each flight. If they expect to sell out the cabin with cash fares, award space may be removed for that flight. On the other hand, if a flight is expected to depart half-empty, the airlines may allow passengers to book additional seats with miles.

Since the award price doesn’t change with demand in fixed-price programs, there are usually far more travelers who would like to spend miles than the award space can accommodate. As a result, you'll find you can use your miles for a small subset of all the flights you can book with money. Knowing how to find these seats and knowing how to find valuable award redemptions is the key to maximizing your miles.

Frequent Flyer Programs vs. Airlines

Before we cover the types of award availability, it’s important to understand the difference between frequent flyer programs and airlines. Both play an important role in determining what flights you can book with your miles (and when you can book them).

For example, consider American Airlines AAdvantage^®, the frequent-flyer program of American Airlines. You can redeem AAdvantage miles on many AAdvantage partner airlines — including Oneworld partners:

• American Airlines
• Alaska Airlines
• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific
• Finnair
• Iberia
• Japan Airlines
• Malaysia Airlines
• Qantas
• Qatar Airways
• Royal Air Maroc
• Royal Jordanian Airlines
• SriLankan Airlines

… and non-alliance partners:

• Aer Lingus
• Air Tahiti Nui
• Cape Air
• China Southern Airways
• Etihad Airways
• Fiji Airways
• GOL Airlines
• Hawaiian Airlines
• IndiGo
• JetSMART
• Silver Airways

The inverse is also true: You can use points or miles from programs like Cathay Asia Miles or British Airways Executive Club to book flights operated by American Airlines since these airlines are partners in the Oneworld alliance.

One way to think of it is that a frequent flyer program is like a travel agent that lets you pay with miles — but only on specific partner airlines and with fewer options than you’d get with cash. When you use your American AAdvantage miles to book a flight on American’s partner British Airways, the AAdvantage program pays British Airways a pre-negotiated amount of money. But that payment is typically a lot less than the cash ticket price.

British Airways is happy to take some money from American AAdvantage if the seat you’ll be occupying is likely to be empty. But British Airways would prefer to sell that seat to a paying customer for a lot more cash. Tying this back to our earlier discussion of award availability, it is the airline that is actually operating the flight (British Airways in this case) that decides how much award space to make available to their partner programs for redeeming points and miles.

Partner Award Space Is (Mostly) Universal

Generally, the award space an airline offers to one partner is available to all of its partners. If United has two economy-class award seats available on its Washington, D.C. to Frankfurt route and you see those seats on one partner's website (such as Air Canada Aeroplan), you generally can book those seats with another partner (like Avianca LifeMiles).

If I want to fly to Frankfurt with two friends, we could each use a different type of miles and book seats right next to each other on the same flight. For example, United MileagePlus, Avianca LifeMiles, and Air Canada Aeroplan all can book award tickets on United Airlines flights.

But as you can see, even though you're booking a seat on the exact same United Airlines flight, the cost in miles and taxes/fees varies depending on which program you book with. Additionally, in many cases, airlines have removed their award charts, which can make it more challenging to know how many miles an award “should” cost.

Different airlines programs, different award rates

Consider a United Airlines economy flight from Austin (AUS) to Frankfurt (FRA) with a connection in Houston (IAH). Here are the comparative costs of booking with these three programs we mentioned:

• United MileagePlus: 40,000 miles + $5.60
• Air Canada Aeroplan: 40,000 points + $56.96
• Avianca LifeMiles: 30,000 miles + $26.70

While most airlines offer the same award space to all partners on a first-come, first-served basis, they often play favorites with their own frequent-flyer program. As we'll explain in a moment, airlines will offer more award space to their own customers than to partners. Additionally, frequent flyer programs may offer more of the cheapest awards to their own members than they make available to partner programs.

In a relatively new development, some airlines are forging partnerships to offer higher-priced awards to certain partners. For example, if there isn't saver award availability on Qatar Airways, Alaska Mileage Plan members may be able to pay double the saver price to still book a Qatar Airways award.

Standard Awards: More Options at a Higher Price

Historically, award availability was a binary option: There was availability or there wasn't. But then as reservation systems became more sophisticated, many airlines introduced new levels or categories of award space at different prices.

For example, American Airlines no longer publishes an award chart for its own flights. Instead, when you search for a flight, it will list a variety of different prices for the same route.  You can sort and filter by price, stopovers, duration, and a number of different factors. Here's an example of what it might look like when booking a flight between Los Angeles and Paris:

Credit: American Airlines

It's important to note that not all of these flights would be bookable by American Airlines' partner frequent flyer programs. Usually, only the lowest-priced tickets will be available via partner airline programs like Cathay Pacific or British Airways. Typically, you'll need to find “saver” award availability with an airline in order to book the ticket with partner miles.

Related: How To Find Airline Partner Award Flight Availability

United also offers higher-priced award space to its own MileagePlus members. In the screenshot below, the economy United flight labeled “Saver Award” can usually be booked with miles from partner frequent flyer programs, but the Premium Economy and Business flights would not be available to partners like Air Canada Aeroplan or Singapore KrisFlyer.

Credit: United Airlines

Special Award Availability

The rule that the lowest-priced saver awards are available to all partners does have some exceptions. Singapore Airlines offers some saver-level awards exclusively to its own KrisFlyer members. Even if you're a member of other Star Alliance partner programs like United MileagePlus or Avianca LifeMiles, you may not be able to use those programs to book the same ticket Singapore offers.

In this situation, a person with Singapore KrisFlyer miles might be able to book the nonstop flight from Singapore to Newark, but someone redeeming United miles might only have access to a connecting itinerary (or maybe no flights at all). Saver availability on the nonstop flight costs 115,000 Singapore KrisFlyer miles.

Credit: Singapore Airlines

Notice that on that same date, United MileagePlus (below) is charging 170,000 miles for a one-way, business class award — with a connection! Booking this connecting award will set you back more than the price of a nonstop Singapore Airlines flight booked with Singapore KrisFlyer.

Credit: United Airlines

The price difference is even more significant when you consider that both United MileagePlus and Singapore KrisFlyer are Chase transfer partners. If you have Chase Ultimate Rewards and want to fly business class from Southeast Asia to the States, it's better to transfer points and book through Singapore vs. United in this case.

United no longer publishes an award chart, so the price difference might vary by date and by route, but this can give you an idea of the power of booking with different sets of miles.

Elite status and co-brand credit cards can also impact award availability. United Airlines reserves extra award space on its own flights for MileagePlus members with elite status and non-elites who hold a United credit card.

When Can I Book With Miles?

Airlines usually start selling tickets up to a year before departure. If you plan trips that far ahead, you may be able to improve your chances of booking with miles by searching for award space when the schedule opens.

For award tickets, the program whose miles you plan to use and the airline you want to fly can both impact how early you can book your flight. Generally, frequent-flyer programs let you redeem miles on the same day their own airline opens its schedule for cash ticket sales.

Related: How Far in Advance Can I Book Award Tickets?

Things are simple if you want to use United miles to fly with United Airlines. However, it becomes more complicated when your itinerary includes partner airlines.

Award booking windows when booking partner awards

For example, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, and American Airlines open their schedules at 360, 354, and 331 days in advance, respectively. So, if you want to use British Airways Avios or Cathay Pacific Asia Miles to book one of American's flights, you'll have to wait until that flight goes on sale, 331 days before departure. American Airlines flights will not be available for sale before then, even for Cathay Pacific, whose booking calendar may already be open.

While this scenario is easy enough to understand, it's important to consider which airline or program might be the limiting factor before you start your search. Consider, for example, a trip from London to Kansas City. If you plan to use British Airways Avios, and the transatlantic flight is operated by British Airways, you can book the first flight 355 days in advance. But, to get from the North American hub to Kansas City, you'll have to fly American. If you search for an award ticket all the way to Kansas City, you're likely to get a big fat error in the search results.

However, the message from the Executive Club booking engine is misleading. It isn't true that British Airways and its partners do not fly this route. If you search for a departure two months earlier, you'll find American Airlines flights are available from London to Kansas City.

While you're lamenting your lack of options, points-and-miles savvy travelers will be busy confirming a business-class award to Dallas or New York, adding the flight on American when the schedule opens. You may also want to consider doing this since the business class award space to Dallas or New York will dissipate sooner. However, keep in mind that airlines outside the United States may charge you extra fees to change or cancel your routing, even if you are flying U.S.-based carriers.

The inverse situation — where the miles you want to use are the limiting factor — can be equally problematic. If you plan to use American AAdvantage miles to fly with British Airways, you’ll have to wait until American allows you to book: 331 days in advance. Meanwhile, everyone with Cathay Pacific Asia Miles or British Airways Avios points is having a field day booking all the award space. This means that award space for a flight next year from Chicago to London may already be booked up even before the American Airlines booking calendar opens up.

This is one of the core reasons it's important to diversify your points or concentrate on earning rewards with flexible points programs. Not only do different points programs have different costs for flights and different strengths, the length of time that their booking calendars are open varies as well.

Before You Start Your Search

Before you start looking for award seats on specific dates, you want to make sure you are including all the possible options in your search.

Award redemption partners

What flights could you book with your points or miles? If you have a specific destination, see what airlines fly there and then determine which points or miles you have that can book that award space. For example, you can book 50 different airlines using Aeroplan points.

Here's our dedicated post on airline partners and alliances to help you understand your options. And if you've honed in on a flight that you want to book, go to that airline's website and search for its partners. The vast majority of those partners can be used to book the flight, providing options for what points and miles you can use.

Know the pricing

Each frequent flyer program sets its own pricing for award tickets, and there can be big differences. It helps to know in advance which programs offer the best prices so you can prioritize your award search.

If you have several types of frequent flyer miles — or transferable points like American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards, or Citi ThankYou Points — you can save a lot of points and money by booking with the right program. Check out our guide to award pricing for a full breakdown.

Know the mileage program sweet spots

One thing to keep in mind is what each mileage program's strengths are. For example, Alaska Airlines MileagePlus program now offers the best way to book American Airlines flights from Washington, DC to destinations including Chicago, New York City, and Raleigh: just 4,500 miles plus fees. On the other hand, if I want to fly from the United States to Australia and New Zealand on an Oneworld carrier, American Airlines miles are better than Alaska Airlines miles.

Our article on the best mileage program sweet spots has links to different mileage programs' best redemptions and how to earn miles for excellent value award tickets. AwardWallet also has additional articles pertaining to certain destinations, such as our article on the best business class redemptions to Europe.

How To Find Award Space

Airline websites rarely show all your award options. Sometimes, you need to know where to look in order to see all of the possibilities. One example is that American Airlines has two dozen partners, but not all of them will show up in online search results. If you want to use your AAdvantage miles to fly on American’s partner China Southern Airlines, you won’t find these flights on aa.com. You can book the ticket by calling American AAdvantage, but if you want to look for flights before you get on the phone, you'll need to use another partner site (Air France Flying Blue, for example) to see what is available.

It can be a bit overwhelming and time-consuming to check several different websites for award availability. Thankfully, there are a few simple tricks you can use to get the most out of your miles. For more detailed information on the best airline websites to use, check out our complete guide on how to find airline partner award availability.

Another recent development has been the introduction of websites that allow you to easily compare different options. Here are a few of the more popular, along with our reviews and guides:

• Seats.aero guide
• Point.me review
• Roame.Travel review
• PointsYeah review
• ExpertFlyer review

Here's a screenshot from one of the tools (PointsYeah) showing your options for a booking from Chicago to London:

Another screenshot from Seats.Aero showcases how you can quickly search a wide variety of dates and routes for economy, premium economy, business class, and first-class availability between the U.S. and Asia:

Final Thoughts

Award availability is one of the most important concepts to understand if you want to maximize the value of your frequent flyer miles. Here are the key things to remember:

• The number of flights available to book with miles is smaller than those available to book with cash.
• Most airline miles can be used to book flights with numerous partners, not just the airline associated with the rewards program.
• Airlines determine their award availability and offer those seats to partner programs and their own frequent flyers.
• Some airlines play favorites and offer more seats to their own members.
• If an award seat is available to one partner, it's usually available to all partners. Although this is getting to be less true recently.
• Both the program whose miles you plan to use and the airline you want to fly can impact how far in advance you can book.
• Many frequent flyer programs won't show all your options online. You may need to call to book.
• There are lots of tools out there that make it easier to search for award space, whether you are new to traveling with points and miles or someone who has been redeeming awards for years.

Armed with this knowledge, you are far ahead of most people who are competing for limited award space. It takes some time to learn, but the investment will pay big dividends.

Did you learn something new from this post? Is there another topic you'd like to see us cover in a beginner's guide? Let us know in the comments!

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