The only limit to what airline miles can do to help you travel more for less is your imagination and desire to learn about various
airline award chart sweet spots.
About a month ago I wrote about my interest in comparing
different airline award charts from a European perspective in order to better understand where the sweet spots are.
Upgrade rates are no longer included in the
Hawaiian Airlines award chart, but cost roughly 25,000 miles for flights when First Class Saver awards are available and 50,000 when only Flex awards remain.
For example, prior to the most recent American
Airlines award chart devaluation, they were offering bonuses in many different channels such as large bonuses when purchasing or sharing miles.
That's because Korean, unlike most
other airline award charts, considers Hawaii one of the U.S. states, rather than a separate region.
In effect Alaska is aligning its American
Airlines award chart with the one American Airlines offers its own AAdvantage members.....
The
Turkish Airlines award chart sets this region to include not only the United States, but also Netherlands Antilles, Bermuda, Canada, and Mexico.
The Turkish
Airlines award chart sets this region to include not only the United States, but also Netherlands Antilles, Bermuda, Canada, and Mexico.
While with
many airlines the award chart sweet spots are found using one airline to fly a partner, Korean Air gives great rates to fly its own wonderful first - class suite from one of its more than a dozen U.S. destinations, with first - class seats for 80,000 miles one way.
Getting two nonstop business or first class seats on a non-stop flight to Paris during warm weather would not normally be an easy proposition, but the born - again
Delta Airlines award chart still shows awesome availability to Paris and other European cities in the late summer 2015.
I've also written about a nice opportunity to get free stopovers on domestic flights, making the Alaska
Airlines award chart particularly valuable: How to Book Awards on Emirates with Alaska Airlines Miles Alaska Airlines Awards: Two Domestic One Ways for the Price of One It does take 90,000 miles each way to fly First Class, however, and the big downside is that Alaska... [Read more...]
Good or bad: Though it's nice to have all the miles in a single account, this will reduce options as we'll only have a
single airline award chart to use them.
Whether it's luxurious international premium cabin travel or domestic travel on high - demand routes, it is often possible to get 3 - 4 cents per point or more with a little skill in
navigating airline award charts.
These devaluations in the American
Airlines award charts need to be taken in context alongside the other changes to the AAdvantage program that have been announced — and that just makes them even worse (and you thought that wasn't possible!).
If you utilize the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) program and have a ton of Starpoints, you will still get your best value out of the
Japan Airlines award chart when it comes to the mileage required.
These are hard - core travel geeks who have
memorized airline award charts and flight routes, and instinctively know how to redeem the fewest points for the best flights.
I'm most interested to see what changes if any there are to the
partner airline award chart since that's all based on the same inventory as before, not revenue - based, so charging more miles doesn't get more availability.
While the
Hawaiian Airlines award chart isn't necessarily the cheapest way to get to Hawaii, it can make a lot of sense if you're located in one of their gateways, or you can board a feeder flight from JetBlue or Virgin America.