Much as I love
flying on award tickets, I hate the process of finding and booking award flights.
Complimentary Premier upgrades — Premier members
flying on an award ticket may be upgraded on select domestic United - operated flights depending on available space.
Don't forget to factor in the fact that you don't earn award miles, Premier qualifying miles or Premier qualifying dollars when
flying on an award ticket.
We were
flying on an award ticket from Liberia, Costa Rica, and weren't quite sure if we could get in, but figured that we'd try none - the-less.
American has a codeshare with British Airways, and if
you fly on an award ticket using American miles on British Airways flights to Europe, you will have to pay fuel surcharges and landing fees to Europe.
Not exact matches
If you need to transfer points to your
Flying Blue account before booking, some friendly phone agents have been known to put
award tickets on hold for a couple of days which leaves plenty of time for transfers to process.
ANA Mileage Club does pass
on carrier - imposed surcharges when booking
award tickets with many partners, but not
on flights with United Airlines, so you won't have to worry about that when
flying to London.
Get there:
Fly Star Alliance carrier TAP Portugal direct to Porto (OPO) or connecting in Lisbon (LIS)
on a partner
award ticket booked through United Mileage Plus.
Use United miles earned from a United Mileage Plus credit card or transferred to United from Chase Ultimate Rewards to
fly on a partner
award ticket on Turkish Airways via Istanbul, or South African Airways vis Johannesburg.
American Airlines surprised many today when it announced several customer - friendly changes to its frequent - flier program.The new «One - Way Flex
Awards» will allow customers to book one - way
tickets for half the amount of miles needed for a round - trip
ticket, and will also let passengers book multi-city itineraries and combine
award seats with non-
award seats.Under the old paradigm, passengers could only book round - trips to and from the same city and were forced to
fly in an
award seat of equal value for both legs of the journey.This often made booking
award travel an exercise in futility — for example, an
award seat might be available only
on an outbound journey, but not the return trip.But now passengers will be able to
fly to New York in an
award seat, and return in a premium - fare seat if a return
award seat is not available.
Additionally, this new partnership will allow you to
fly much more extensively throughout India, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia
on the same
award ticket.
Another thought: you could use the United miles to get around in SA — like
fly on to Capetown as part of the
award ticket, then open jaw from Durban, stopover in Joberg
on the way home - now you have hit 3 cities and only had to buy a oneway.
And because British Airways has an
award redemption chart that's organized by distance
flown instead of region, you'll only to cash in 25,000 British Airways miles
on a roundtrip
ticket from Los Angeles to Honolulu instead of the 45,000 miles American requires for that same flight.
Yes, there has been a Centurion Lounge at LaGuardia Airport for some time... but if you are
flying out of NYC
on an international
award ticket, you're probably going out of JFK.
Soon, the
award miles you earn
on Delta and United flights will no longer be based
on the miles you
fly, but
on how much you paid for your
ticket.
If you don't want to splurge
on a more expensive
award ticket to
fly a partner airline across the Pacific Ocean, you can still get a taste by booking an intra-Asia
award.
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.
As long as there's qualifying activity
on your Mileage Plan account — including
flying on Alaska, Virgin or their airline partners, redeeming miles for
award tickets, eating at Mileage Plan Dining restaurants, buying items via Mileage Plan Shopping portal and credit card spending — your miles won't expire.
There has been a lot of talk lately about a shift in the industry to revenue - based frequent flyer programs, where travelers are
awarded miles based
on the cost of the
ticket and not the number of miles
flown.
You can
fly on Star Alliance partner Austrian by booking with a frequent - flyer program such as United MileagePlus from 60,000 miles per round trip or even by booking via Avianca LifeMiles, also for 60,000 miles per round trip, though without the $ 75 close - in
award ticketing fee that United charges within 21 days of travel.
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).
This includes Mileage Bargain and
Fly Smart
award tickets, so you should be certain you can travel
on the flights when you book.
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.
You should avoid
flying this airline
on long - haul journeys because they have high surcharges that American will add to your
award ticket.
Miles, which are earned when you
fly based
on ticket price and SkyMiles Status **, are used for
Award Travel and other redemptions.
Remember, Alaska Airlines»
award tickets allow stopovers
on one - way
tickets, but you can only
fly one partner per itinerary.
1
Flying Co mile for every # 5 spent will be
awarded on Virgin Trains East Coast
tickets purchased at www.virgintrainseastcoast.com.
JetBlue doesn't offer a fixed
award chart, but instead the number of miles required to
fly is dependent
on the current cash price of the
ticket.
As far as booking an
award ticket on a partner flight goes, let's clear something up: If you want to use
Flying Blue Miles to
fly to Hawaii
on Delta Airlines, you would transfer your UR points to the
Flying Blue program, NOT Delta's, and then call Air France or use their website to book the partner flight
on Delta.
You probably already know that
flying on the actual holiday itself or at least
flying a day or two before or after the big crowds can save you money when paying cash for an airline
ticket, but it also can save you a ton of miles when shopping for airline
award tickets.
What really makes Southwest the top choice in my opinion is the ability to use the Southwest Companion Pass, where you can designate a partner to
fly for free with you (
on paid or
award tickets) for up to two years!
But you can
fly there
on an
award ticket to cut costs.
The best process for booking
award tickets via Asiana depends
on if you want to
fly on Asiana metal or if you want to book a partner
award.
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).
Throughout the year,
Flying Blue has Promo
Awards that offer special pricing
on flights for economy and business class
tickets.
Although I don't
fly United very often (mostly because when I do I deal with nasty / clueless employees or my travel reservations simply aren't honored), I rank their frequent flyer miles as the most valuable mileage currency out there thanks to low fees
on award tickets, the ability to book one - way
awards and great airline partners in Star Alliance.
I'll be writing a post in the next couple days
on how to use the
Flying Blue website to search for and book
award tickets as part of a continuing series related to my Award Maximizer search
award tickets as part of a continuing series related to my
Award Maximizer search
Award Maximizer search tool.
So this means that I can sign up for the American Airlines AAdvantage frequent flyer program, earn miles while
flying on Alaska Airlines and once I've accumulated enough miles for an
award ticket, use those miles
on Cathay Pacific using the
award booking system
on AA.com.
The notification for the available
award ticket will show up
on your Virgin Atlantic
Flying Club statement and it must be used within one year of issue.
Under the new system for
award miles, flights
on partner carriers not issued
on 016
ticket stock — meaning they don't earn PQDs — will earn
award miles based
on distance
flown and fare class as under the current system.
Tickets issued by United but operated on Star Alliance or MileagePlus partners will earn mileage via the new system, but tickets issued by those airlines directly will earn award miles based on distance flown and the purchased fare
Tickets issued by United but operated
on Star Alliance or MileagePlus partners will earn mileage via the new system, but
tickets issued by those airlines directly will earn award miles based on distance flown and the purchased fare
tickets issued by those airlines directly will earn
award miles based
on distance
flown and the purchased fare class.
American have continued their assault
on award redemptions to Hawaii by implementing a 40 % increase in the number of miles needed for a Business Class
ticket but, in the case of partner
awards, this doesn't make much difference as most people would be
flying to Hawaii
on American Airlines and not a partner airline anyway.
Earning
award miles with MileagePlus will be based
on the cost of your
ticket, not the distance
flown.
If you
fly United, that's enough for a roundtrip business class
ticket from North America to Europe
on a Saver
Award and enough for two round trips from North America to Europe in economy
on a Saver
Award.
ANA Mileage Club does pass
on carrier - imposed surcharges when booking
award tickets with many partners, but not
on flights with United Airlines, so you won't have to worry about that when
flying to London.
However, since AeroMexico Premier Club passes along fuel surcharges
on award tickets, the value you'll ultimately get from the program depends
on the airlines and routes you
fly.
Unlike most airlines, Asia Miles redemptions are distanced - based and have different
award charts depending
on the number and type of carriers you are
flying on a single
ticket.
The number of miles and the fees required for an
award ticket will depend
on which airline you choose to
fly.
It's important to remember that it's the airline that issues the
ticket that counts when it comes to how miles are
awarded and not the airline that you end up
flying on.
If you pay for Business or First Class flights then you can still rack up a lot of miles from
flying but those of us
flying at the back are seeing a far lower rate of return than ever before — Delta and United (and soon American) base the number of miles they
award travelers
on the cost of the
ticket purchased (less taxes) so the cheaper
ticket you by the fewer miles you'll earn.