With that in mind, let me share what I consider to be 10 of
the best premium cabin award redemption values, in no particular order:
Not exact matches
KrisFlyer miles are
best used for
award travel on Singapore Airlines» own flights, especially in
premium cabins.
KrisFlyer Miles are
best used for Singapore Airlines
premium cabin awards but there are some other sweet spots as
well.
In addition, upgrade availability is often in greater supply than low - level
award availability, meaning you have a
better chance of being able to work your way into a
premium cabin in the first place.
Well, United Airlines may call its domestic
premium cabin «first class», but it codes
award space as business class.
For most long - haul
premium cabin partner
awards you are
better off booking through other Star Alliance partners such as Aviana, ANA or Asiana.
Yes, you could argue that United's
premium cabin award availability is still
better than that offered by American....
I expect United to be quite tight with
premium cabin award availability on this flight until they get a
better idea of what load factors are going to be like....
While the number of miles needed for a Business Class redemption isn't exactly low (you're
better off trying to get to / from Europe on United's own aircraft which will only cost 115,000 for roundtrip Business Class), the taxes for a
premium cabin award are low for a European route.
Normally the
best use of frequent flyer miles is for international
premium cabin awards because these are expensive tickets if you pay with cash but not very expensive if you pay with miles.
It appears to be a commonly held belief that while Delta decimates the value of SkyMiles on a quarterly basis and while American Airlines stubbornly refuses to make
premium cabin saver
awards available,
award availability via United is quite
good.
And onboard both airlines, you'll experience intuitive, personal service,
award winning entertainment, innovative products and stylish comfort in some of the
best premium cabins in the sky.
With Ft. Lauderdale's proximity to Miami and most other things South Florida offers this route is a nice bonus for Avios collectors — we suddenly have a lot more
premium cabin space flying in / out of the Miami metropolitan area and that should be
good for fares and
award availability (hopefully!)
Well, United Airlines may call its domestic
premium cabin «first class», but it codes the
award space as business class.
You'll often get the
best value for your miles for
awards in
premium cabins.
I already discussed what I thought would be a
good use of AAdvantage Miles during the Cyber Monday promotion —
premium cabin awards on airlines whose rewards are going to rocket in cost when the devaluation kicks in.
Alaska is also
well known for offering
well below market prices on international
premium cabin awards.
You can forget about using the miles you buy for
premium cabin saver
awards on American Airlines — they're so hard to find they may as
well not exist nowadays.
On the negative side the aircraft swap will see the route go from having 53
premium cabin seats (16 First Class and 37 Business Class) to just 30 Business Class seats — not
good news for upgrades or
awards.
Now that Singapore Airlines is actually flying aircraft with their new
Premium Economy product (e.g. A350 service between Singapore and Amsterdam) the airline has decided to upgrade its
award charts to reflect the new product (as
well as to re-price certain
premium cabin awards to / from Europe).
United Airlines may not have many
cabins that one would call aspirational (The latest Polaris seats on the 777 - 300ER are nice but there's hardly any of them in service) but it offers far
better award availability than American Airlines and requires considerably fewer miles for
premium cabin awards than Delta — that makes it a valuable transfer option to have.
But you get
better returns with
premium cabin awards for international travel.
Korean is known for having some of the
best premium -
cabin award availability, although it isn't always easy to book.
Though United has majorly devalued its
award chart, the fact that it doesn't charge or pass on fuel surcharges makes MileagePlus miles one of the
best ways to book many highly desirable airlines and
premium cabins that would otherwise require at least $ 500 in fees.
This is about 70 % cheaper than most other
awards between the US and Africa and represents one of the
best values for getting to Africa in a
premium cabin.
Unfortunately it's because
premium cabin award space isn't even nearly as
good as it used to be.
Delta seems to add some as the schedule opens but their
best premium cabin international
award availability is much closer to departure, this is one of the reasons for the outcry over Delta's new 72 hour rule for changes / cancellations, since it prevents members from converting medium or high availability to low availability when low space opens at the last minute).
While I generally prefer redeeming miles for
premium cabins, there's no denying that American's off - peak Europe
awards can be lucrative as
well.
That was pretty unfortunate, given that Virgin Australia is the airline which releases the most
premium cabin saver level
award space between the US and Australia, making it one of the
best uses of SkyMiles.
The
good news is, the program is lucrative for crediting partner flights,
awarding 200 - 300 % of miles flown for tickets in
premium cabins on several partners including Air Canada, Air China and Lufthansa.