Here is a chart of some randomly chosen British Airways routes from London together with the number of Avios and AAdvantage Miles required for a roundtrip Business
Class award ticket on each route:
For 46,000 Avios, you can book a one - way business
class award ticket on Iberia's partner Royal Air Maroc.
Check out our step - by - step guide to learn the best ways to book business
class award tickets on American Airlines.
Another solid option to book first
class award tickets on Lufthansa is Air Canada's Aeroplan program.
Check out our step - by - step guide to learn the best ways to book business
class award tickets on American Airlines.
Check out our step - by - step guide to booking business
class award tickets on United Airlines.
One of the most common ways to book business
class award tickets on EVA Air from the U.S. is through United Airlines» MileagePlus program.
Singapore Airlines requires the fewest number of miles when booking economy
class award tickets on Alaska Airlines from Zone 1 and Zone 2 at 24,000 and 23,000 miles, respectively.
You can book first
class award tickets on Japan Airlines through their own Mileage Bank program, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, or one of their Oneworld partners.
However, the lack of first
class award tickets on international routes does impose an upper limit since those often represent the most valuable use of miles.
And while this isn't Jen's situation, since she has first
class award tickets on Singapore, note that only Business and First Class award ticket holders are able to select seats in advance on Singapore Airlines.
Not exact matches
On an American Airlines flight, business
class and first
class award bookings will include about $ 280 in taxes and fees for a round - trip
ticket.
If you prefer, you can book a business
class award ticket... but the taxes and fees for each person will be the same as those
on a first
class award.
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.
This is especially frustrating for business
class and first
class award tickets, and even worse if you book
on an airline that hits you with steep carrier - imposed surcharges (such as British Airways).
Generally, the only time it makes sense to book a British Airways first
class award is by using the British Airways Travel Together
Ticket so you can get 2 first
class seats for the miles of
on.
In fact, the pricing
on Business
class Saver
awards is so reasonable that cardholders who normally couldn't afford business
class could easily rack up enough United Miles to fund a round - trip
ticket to Europe or Asia in business
class.
With this in mind, British Airways»
award chart provides a great option to book nonstop economy
class award tickets from the West Coast to Hawaii
on both American Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
Landing a premium
class award ticket in First or Business
class on Singapore has traditionally been a difficult task for North American points and miles collectors due to the common Singapore Airlines practice of offering first and business
class award space almost solely to members of their own KrisFlyer program.
Expect to pay ~ $ 400 in fuel surcharges and taxes per long - haul segment
on award bookings, but that's still cheaper than paying for a business or first
class ticket.
The taxes and fees
on a round - trip first
class award ticket will be roughly $ 700 but for two 10 - hour flights in first
class, that's not bad at all.
Upgrade
awards on Korean Air flights are limited to generally expensive fare
classes on paid
tickets, so your
ticket may not be eligible.
Thanks to four credit card applications, we were able to book two first -
class round - trip
award tickets on Cathay Pacific to Bali, via Hong Kong, for this past summer.
If you've still got an Aeroplan / SWISS First
award ticket (s) hanging around in an ambiguous state it might be worth holding
on to it until you can change it to a Lufthansa First or Business
Class ticket.
• Korean Air miles can be used
on Delta and offer more availability for Upper
Class award tickets to Asia than most other programs.
It does have a restriction
on economy
class awards, so that could be as much as 20,000 LifeMiles discount
on a roundtrip economy
class ticket to Colombia, or 18,000 miles to Central America.
The confusion began when the new
tickets were booked in «Y»
class instead of the original «T.» T is the common code used
on award tickets and Y usually indicates paid coach fare.
Often overlooked, All Nippon Airways (ANA) Mileage Club is a great way to book Star Alliance partner
award tickets... and booking business
class awards on EVA Air is no exception.
If you'd rather not spend that much, Miles & More has great deals
on domestic round - trip business
class award tickets.
If you manage to avail such
award at 50 % off rate
on the Europe — North America route, you'll need to pay only 25,000 FlyingBlue miles for one way business
class tickets and 12,500 miles for one way economy
class tickets, making it an excellent deal!
A United round - trip
ticket in business
class will only cost you 88,000 ANA
award miles, or 55,000
award miles in economy, and ANA doesn't add fuel surcharges
on United flights.
In the past, you could not mix an Economy
Class seat into a First
Class award, and would have to find your way to the gateway city
on another
ticket.
The key thing to note is that sometimes all of the economy saver
awards sell out before all of the business saver
awards do — and the price of the economy
award tickets are then actually higher than a business
class award seat
on the same flight.
You can fly Emirates or Qatar Airways in business
class on a one - way
award ticket for 66,000 Enrich miles from the U.S. East Coast to the Middle East.
Airlines will generally issue a limited number of lower mileage «saver»
award tickets on a flight in each
class of service, and then offer additional
award seats to flyers at a premium.
You will generally receive a 25 - 50 % discount
on economy and business
class award tickets from Europe to specific cities.
While there is nothing wrong with economy
class or budget travel, many points - pinching travelers miss out
on bargains because they aren't even looking at the price of the business -
class award tickets.
But while there are lots of great ways to earn bonus miles, Etihad has squashed one of our favorite benefits
on first
class award tickets.
The
award miles earned
on these
tickets will also depend
on the fare
class.
For 50,000 Flying Club miles, you can book a round - trip
award ticket on South African Airways in business
class from Washington - Dulles (IAD).
You can check out this first
class product
on this route for 75,000 Flying Club miles round - trip while a one - way
award ticket would cost 37,500 miles.
With this in mind, British Airways»
award chart provides a great option to book nonstop economy
class award tickets from the West Coast to Hawaii
on both American Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
Premium economy
tickets can be booked for 35,000 - 55,000 miles depending
on the route, with Upper
Class awards priced between 95,000 - 135,000 Virgin miles.
You can upgrade
award tickets to a Big Front Seat for cash, which is equivalent in size to standard domestic first
class on most airlines.
A business
class ticket on Cathay Pacific between Los Angeles and Hong Kong falls into Asia Miles
award Zone D (5,000 to 7,500 miles) and costs 120,000 miles per roundtrip.
Quick tip: if you are planning
on using miles to upgrade, search for business
class award space prior to booking your premium economy
ticket.
Use Singapore miles
on a premium
class domestic
award ticket on United (including Alaska) without fuel surcharges.
The Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program isn't that great either since they charge heavy taxes and fuel surcharges
on award tickets (100K points plus ~ $ 1,300 in taxes from LAX to LHR round trip Upper
Class).
For Economy
Class flyers this will probably make little difference as the British Airways Executive Club already essentially factors in the cost of a fare when it
awards Avios — that's why the cheaper Economy
Class tickets only earn Avios based
on 25 % of the distance traveled.
Economy
class award tickets to Lisbon cost about the same
on all of the alliances, except for American Airlines» off - peak
awards.