Given the devaluation of United MileagePlus, and the reduction by Asiana of first
class partner award seat allocations (including A380s), Korean looks like a better option for spending Chase Ultimate Reward points.
Not exact matches
SWISS first
class awards are not bookable using KrisFlyer Miles and neither are premium economy
seats on Star Alliance
partner airlines.
Finding first
class award seats on Cathay Pacific is getting tougher and tougher as the airline keeps limiting the number of available bookings made through
partner airlines.
Simply put, if you want to experience this product, there is no other way to get this
award ticket, other than transferring your points to Singapore — because Singapore doesn't release its first
class award seats to its
partners.
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer members have access to premium cabin
awards (such as first and Suites
class seats) not released to other
partner airlines.
Lufthansa generally only releases
award seats to
partners within a week or so of departure, so you can book business
class and change to first -
class if availability opens up.
Many people like to transfer points to an airline loyalty program to redeem first
class flights or
partner flights as they have better
award values than your typical economy
seat.
Though Delta isn't known for offering a generous amount of
award space to its
partners, I was able to find four first -
class award seats available in August from Denver to Maui via Los Angeles and Seattle using the online
award search engine for Alaska Airlines, which you don't even need an account to use.
Lufthansa first -
class seats on many planes include a bed completely separate from your
seat, but it is one of the hardest
awards to get and they only appear on
partners» websites a couple weeks before take - off.
Awards seats in business
class may still be a little hard to come by but by getting creative with your routes and combining alliance
partners, you should eventually be able to piece something together.
Premium
class award seats on Asiana flights and some Star Alliance
partner flights are notably cheaper when bought with Asiana miles rather than United MileagePlus miles.
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.
In some limited circumstances, it might make sense to book an
award seat on a Star Alliance
partner in business or even first
class.
Another 30,000 miles (25,000 transferred Starpoints) would get you a one - way flight from Europe in Lufthansa first
class, with increased access to
award seats compared to redemptions of
partner award miles.
Booking directly with Miles & More
award miles is the easiest way to get in Lufthansa's coveted first
class cabin, for which
seats only open for
partner airlines» frequent flyer bookings two weeks before departure, and SWISS first
class, which is only open to Miles & More members.
Since U.S. SkyTeam
partner Delta doesn't allow first -
class partner awards, there is much less competition for these
seats than you would find on other airlines.
While a route serviced by an A350 should be an aircraft where premium
award seats can be made available, it's likely that availability for business
class seats will be scarce so I wouldn't rely on booking these
seats with
partners like United.
While airlines are raising the price of their first
class award redemptions (United announced a recent hike from 160,000 to a whopping 280,000 miles for first
class from the US to the Middle East on its
partners, and Delta will not even allow fliers to cash in miles for international first
class seats), there are still some good deals out there.
They generally only release first
class award seats to
partner airlines within two weeks of travel, so your approach is probably similar to Cathay Pacific in terms of booking something else and then changing to Lufthansa.
The
award chart is somewhat competitive, and some premium
class award seats are made available to members while only being released two weeks in advance to
partners.
It's not unusual to see flights with four to nine
award seats in business
class (you can't redeem
partner miles for Air France first
class).
If by the time the trip starts and a first
class award seat hasn't opened up so my
partner can be with me in first, I'm SOL, right?
It has trouble with some
partner award availability and pulling up
awards with mixed cabins (for instance, if one flight has a business -
class seat availability but the next segment only has economy
awards available), though that seems to have gotten better lately.
Delta SkyMiles have long been derisively referred to as «SkyPesos» due to their many limitations, including terrible domestic
award availability and the inability to redeem them for first -
class seats on
partner airlines.