Fare
Based Award Ticket Redemption (FBATR) project Fast Track Release — Provides limited base functionality to align with the Polaris Chicago release timing
Not exact matches
Unlike most other airlines, Southwest
award flight
redemptions are
based on the cost of the
ticket in most cases.
Miles, which are earned when you fly
based on
ticket price and SkyMiles Status **, are used for
Award Travel and other
redemptions.
Revenue -
based programs generally link their
award redemption rates to the cost of a
ticket, which is why it's probably the easiest kind of program to understand.
One of the worst ways to use your Hawaiian miles is with Jet Blue, which operates its own
award program on a value -
based redemption system that pegs the price in TrueBlue points to the current value of the
ticket.
Though you'll see a somewhat similar approach with some domestic carriers, like Virgin America and Jet Blue, who charge their frequent flyers a
redemption rate
based on the current cost of the
ticket, most carriers break out their
award redemptions into zones.
Unlike most airlines, Asia Miles
redemptions are distanced -
based and have different
award charts depending on the number and type of carriers you are flying on a single
ticket.
Their
award rates are
based on the
ticket fare so there's no standard
award chart for their
redemptions.
Instead of having a pretty straight forward distance
based award chart with
redemption rates by fare class for economy, Economy FlexyFlyer, Premium Economy and business class
tickets, PAL introduced multiple
award levels for each fare class: In addition to the Standard Economy
awards, there are no Flex 1, Flex 2, Flex 3 and Flex 4
awards.
We can go back and forth about what
award tickets are worth, and it's not my place to judge whether you should
base your
redemption value on what a premium fare costs in cash (correct) or instead use the price you believe you would have paid (wrong).
Other posts include Master FAQ Post on British Airways 100,000 Mile Offer, Spotlight on Taxes and Fees, Distance -
Based Awards, Travel Together Companion
Ticket, Household Accounts, Using Avios to Upgrade Paid
Tickets, The Avios and Cash Option, Using Avios For Non-Flight
Redemptions.
People love Aeroplan because they offer some pretty great
redemption options (90,000 miles for business class to Europe, though they've recently changed their
award chart to be less valuable)-- see here for details, and they love ANA because with their distance -
based rewards you can get some great values (63,000 ANA miles for a business class
ticket on Virgin to London which until recently did not require Virgin's outrageous fuel surcharges).
Since British Airways has a distance -
based award chart, the lowest
redemption costs for Europe
tickets will be from departure cities on the US East Coast.
Pros: The ability buy miles cheaply and price out
awards combining both miles and cash
based on your needs, no fuel surcharges even on premium
tickets, relatively low
redemption rates for many
awards.