Instead of paying the astronomical American
Airlines award miles needed for a one - way business class flight, he booked the flight through the American Express Centurion Concierge.
Second,
airlines award miles differently when flying on tickets issued by their partners.
Just like yesterday, where I showed that American Airlines and United Airlines now have identical elite qualification requirements, here we can see that American Airlines and United
Airlines award miles towards elite qualification in exactly the same way for flights they market.
On November 15, I gave a presentation to the San Francisco Travel Hackers meetup about strategies for accruing frequent flier miles now that most US - based
airlines award miles based on the amount of money paid for your ticket.
Travelers often get frustrated when they attempt to redeem
airline award miles.
On Tuesday I took a look at the qualification criteria set by the Big 3 US legacy airlines for anyone looking to earn status in their respective rewards programs and yesterday I followed that up with a post on how the Big 3 US
airline award miles towards elite qualification.
Singapore
Airlines awards miles based on distance flown but, because the airline throws in a multiplier based on the class of ticket you purchase, the cheaper the ticket the fewer miles you will earn.
The past year has seen a fundamental change to how American
Airlines awards miles and elite status.
Not exact matches
Airline frequent flier programs have become less rewarding over the last few years by offering fewer upgrades to elite fliers and requiring more
miles than ever for
award tickets.
Great rewards credit cards will
award perks such as cash back and points for gift cards and
airline miles, but the APR will be rather high.
For example, if you are short 3,000
miles for an American
Airlines AAdvantage
award, you can transfer just 3,000 points to your account and book your
award flight.
Some look for the best
airline miles card that they can use to earn
award tickets, while others prefer hotel cards.
When you join the
award - winning Alaska
Airlines Mileage Plan ™ program, you have a wide range of options to quickly earn
airline miles that will get you closer to your next dream getaway.
Score
miles or points toward an
award flight, lounge access, or other perks after applying for a promotional offer with an
airline credit card.
In addition to this, Asiana
Airline miles can be used to book
award travel with two partner
airlines: Qatar Airways and Ethihad Airways.
Airline frequent flyer programs have their good times and their bad times, and no one wants to earn
miles with a carrier that suddenly decides to devalue their
miles or change their
awards requirements.
Japan
Airlines» Mileage Bank program provides the cheapest option at 42,000
miles for a one - way business class
award ticket.
All Marriott hotels participate in the
award winning Marriott Rewards frequent travel program that allows members to earn hotel points or
airline miles for every dollar spent during each stay.
Courtyard hotels proudly participate in the
award - winning Marriott Rewards ® frequent travel program that allows members to earn hotel points or
airline miles for every dollar spent during each stay.
* Partner bonus
miles on qualified purchases are
awarded in addition to the 1
mile per $ 1 spent on all purchases made with a Hawaiian
Airlines ® MasterCard ®, and 1
mile per $ 2 spent on the Bankoh Hawaiian
Airlines ® Visa ® Debit Card when you sign for your purchases.
If consumers must pay taxes or
airline - imposed fees when booking a flight using frequent - flyer
miles, the ad must display at least the minimum amount of government taxes and mandatory carrier - imposed fees that could apply to that itinerary together with the mileage
award levels, and the fees must be displayed as prominently as the mileage requirements.
The card helps users earn Elite status with the
airline, in addition to
awarding AAdvantage
miles.
Co-branded
airline or hotel cards will allow you to directly use your
miles to redeem
award flights or stays through the loyalty program connected to the card.
Other cards, like the Discover it ®
Miles and the Barclays Arrival Plus ® World Elite Mastercard ®,
award users what they call «
miles» but are functionally more like points — that is, they can be redeemed for more things than simply flights with that
airline.
This is because points and
miles will inevitably decline in value as the
airlines and hotels charge more for a given
award.
A standard rate of 1.5
miles per dollar spent on any type of purchase is
awarded to Club Business Card holders; additionally, purchases made directly with United
Airlines receive two
miles per dollar, a 33 % increase.
Some
airlines have now separated your qualifying
miles from
awards miles, but Southwest keeps it simple.
United's MileagePlus program offers
award flights on a wide variety of partner
airlines, and there are plenty of ways to stretch those
miles even further.
Platinum Plus ® cardholders earn two
miles for every dollar spent on associated Alaska
Airline purchases, and one
mile is
awarded for every dollar spent on general common purchases.
Because Mileage Bank
miles are a bit harder to earn, it could be easier for you to use American AAdvantage
miles to book off - peak economy class
award tickets for 45,000
miles round - trip on flights operated by American
Airlines.
Not all
airlines allow holds on
award tickets, but when they do you should definitely take advantage of it when buying
miles!
This allows you to use
miles in order to book
award travel even with destinations not served through Alaska
Airlines.
Japan
Airlines Mileage Bank will require the fewest
miles from the East Coast for an economy class
award ticket, at just 39,000 Mileage Bank
miles round - trip.
If you are booking an economy class
award from the west coast, we suggest you consider using 45,000 American AAdvantage
miles to fly American
Airlines during their off - peak season as you can easily earn the necessary
miles their co-branded Citi and Barclays offerings.
Instead, stick to redeeming for
award travel on
airlines; these are the best ways to use United MileagePlus
miles!
On your
airline website's reservations page, there usually will be an option for you to select «book
awards flights» or «use
miles.»
Every time you book an
award flight using your American
Airlines miles, the
airline will give you back 10 percent of the
miles you spent, up to 10,000
miles per calendar year.
Even if you don't regularly fly American
Airlines, having access to this carrier's award miles gives you access to fly with American's partner a
Airlines, having access to this carrier's
award miles gives you access to fly with American's partner
airlinesairlines.
So you might begin to see some of the considerations
award travelers must keep in mind when deciding which
airline to fly with, as well as which points or
miles to use.
On the other hand,
airlines like American and United have fixed - rate
award charts that make it easier to understand how far your
miles will get you.
But the best benefit of this card is the 10 percent redemption rebate program: Every time you book an
award flight using your American
Airlines miles, the
airline will give you back 10 percent of the
miles you spent, up to 10,000
miles per calendar year.
So long as the alternative flights are operated by the
airline whose
miles you redeemed, not a partner, it will be able to open up
award space in response to a schedule change that affected your reservations.
Airline credit cards may offer an equivalent cash value of from 1 to 5 cents per
mile you earn, but it's difficult to consistently quantify the value because
award flights and availability are dynamic - always changing based on demand, flight prices, routes and other factors.
By transferring some of her hotel points to American
Airlines miles she'll have enough
miles for this
award.
You can also do your own check to see how many
miles you need from the
airline's website: Just look under the reservations page, and search for the section that mentions
award flights.
For instance, Alaska
Airlines doesn't fly to Paris either, but you can redeem its
miles for
award flights on several of its partners that offer overseas service.
The Citi / AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard stands out for American
Airlines frequent flyers, while also offering nonloyalists an opportunity to break into the OneWorld
airline alliance and diversify the
miles in their
award portfolio.
For example, an American
Airlines frequent flyer can use AAdvantage
miles to book a flight on British Airways, and the cost of that ticket will be based on the American
Airlines mileage
award chart.
For the most part, you'll be
awarded miles faster when making purchases with a participating credit card than with the
airline or hotel's loyalty program directly.
Reward plans can be combined and with the same credit card you can have
airline miles, products, gas, etc.
awarded to you due to your purchases.