Alaska MileagePlan does offer
cheaper award redemptions to Japan when you opt to fly American, Hainan, or Cathay Pacific business class.
Which airline offers
the cheaper award redemptions for your chose cabin and the time of year you want to fly?
ANA is a hot program where you can make some of
the cheapest award redemptions like 88,000 roundtrip to Europe.
Not exact matches
And oddly enough, the needlessly complicated 5 - tier Delta
award chart (which of course doesn't actually exist, wink, wink) means that when lowest - level
redemptions aren't available on any airline and you're considering a more expensive
award, Delta may actually be
cheaper than the others thanks to all their intermediate
award tiers.
If the airline thinks it can sell those seats for cash, it's much less likely to release the seats for
cheap mileage
redemptions — making
award space extremely limited on the most popular travel dates.
I tried searches from each American and US Air hub, on the logic that perhaps a
cheap cash ticket to that hub would allow for a better
award redemption.
Although it was a very expensive
redemption, other
awards are quite
cheap.
Etihad also presents a wealth of opportunities, including Etihad's own first class
redemptions,
redemptions on American at the old, pre-devaluation levels, as well as the
cheapest transatlantic business class
award seat
redemption in the world.
At that point, it's all about using the
cheapest redemption methods to cover those costs and by focusing on the 1.67
redemption value, I'm able to better compare my options between
award programs.
Mile
redemptions aren't always available for the Saver (
cheapest)
award.
Premium cabin
redemptions took the biggest hit with American charging more for most routes, Alaska getting rid of its bargain Emirates
awards and Singapore removing
cheaper rates for flights to parts of Europe.
British Airways eliminated its 4,500 - Avios
redemptions, but American and Delta introduced
cheaper short - haul
awards.
This discount makes the first class
award ticket to Asia one of the
cheapest redemptions among frequent flyer programs.
Inter-island
award redemption price out
cheaper than typical domestic
award tickets.
Keep in mind changes were expected as some of the
awards were dirt
cheap compared to other airlines especially for Business and First class
redemptions.
Virgin Atlantic
awards can be
cheaper than British Airways
awards so, if you're not in the middle of saving up for a British Airways
redemption (and if Virgin Atlantic fly to where you want to go), this may be something for you to consider.
If you're looking for a
cheap point
redemption, or a decent hotel near the Vatican, look no further than this Quality Inn, because
award bookings for only 10,000 points do not happen often and is a true steal, or as what I like to call a #DoubleWideDelight!
That's probably going to be the
cheapest redemption rate you'll ever find but even though the fees are reasonable you could get a roundtrip paid ticket for under $ 120, so you'd be better off just paying cash for an
award like that.
Sometimes you'll see a lot of different
redemption rates for a route that vary drastically but sometimes there's a
cheap award that's a bit of hidden.
So in some instances, business class
redemptions are
cheaper per the new
award chart.
But I have to admit this was an instance where Delta had the
cheapest award ticket available, and it was even a relatively decent
redemption.
With the introduction of so many different
award classes, the miles needed for an
award have changed drastically: Some of the «Standard»
awards have dropped by more than 20 % — that was to be expected as all the routes in question have offered very
cheap economy fares over the last year, making a
redemption on these routes generally unattractive.
On the
redemption side, the program offers very
cheap short - haul
awards (as low as 4,500 miles in economy or 9,000 in business class), thus perfect for domestic flights within Japan (with no taxes!)
So much
cheaper to utilize
award redemptions from card churning and MS.
The simplest way to do this is to not alter my planned earning and
redemption at all: if all my trips are already optimized between revenue fares (paid for with
cheap Ultimate Rewards points and Flexpoints) and
award trips, then I can convert my Delta transportation voucher directly into airfare for new trips.
Avianca LifeMiles can be a
cheaper way to book Star Alliance
award flights and help you save other flexible points currencies for future
redemptions.
One of
cheapest redemptions on the United
award chart is 10,000 miles between different parts of Latin America.
I already mentioned that American Airlines» AAdvantage is my favorite loyalty program in the world and that you can use it for
cheap Business Class
award redemptions from the USA to South America, or Europe to the Maldives.
Korean Air has reasonable
redemption rates, which are downright
cheap compared to United's new partner
award redemption rates, for example.