Not exact matches
While that guarantees that you'll be able to get anywhere in the world, booking through a smaller foreign carrier may result in less
award seat availability and the
redemption rates might be
higher.
While Delta SkyMiles can be tough to use for booking
award flights to Australia because of incredibly
high redemption rates, your miles can be useful if you find saver level
award space.
It is possible to find
higher redemption rates for your points, but in some cases (especially with lower cost flights or hotel nights), the 1.5 cents per point value can be better than redeeming for an
award directly through the airline or hotel programs.
Oftentimes, hotel
award redemptions in New York City suffer from the city's premium status, with properties commanding
rates several categories
higher than a similar hotel in another city might.
This hotel went for 95,000 points per night (the
highest award price for a standard room) which came out to a
redemption rate of.62 cents per point.
While the brand isn't flawless by any means and while room
rates can be
high, the fact that the most an
award night can cost you is 30,000 points (at the time of writing) makes these properties great for
award redemptions.
Anytime fares are your typical standard
award, offering a
high redemption rate just a touch below the Business Select fares.
As shown on their Star Alliance partner
award chart, flights from North America to Europe can be booked as low as 55,000 miles, but partner airlines are not given the 15 % discount and the
redemption rates are
higher, so the deal is not to sweet (though still decent).
Though Miles & More
awards carry
high fuel surcharges, their
redemption rates are relatively comparable to the main domestic airlines, though occasionally with a bit of a discount, such as 50,000 miles for round - trip flights between the U.S. and Europe in economy class.
My biggest complaint with them is that they they eliminated their
award chart in 2015 in favor of dynamic pricing, which means
award prices fluctuate and that you're often left guessing and hoping for a certain
redemption rate (that's probably on the
higher side).
But when you dig in a but, you may realize that these are mostly Category 7 resorts with such
high standard
redemption rates it's hard to get a great deal — except maybe if you can find
award availability at very peak times.
Once you start trying to combine different
award rates, the search engine will automatically reprice the entire reservation at the standard (
higher)
redemption rate.
Standard
Awards are available for
redemption using United miles at a
higher redemption rate.