While several airlines, including United, Japan Airlines, and All Nippon Airways, offer direct flights between New York and Tokyo, Korean Air offers
the most frequent flyer award availability — useful for us, since we only had a little bit of schedule flexibility — and is a transfer partner of Chase, whose points we had already started to earn.
Not exact matches
For
most of the partners, cardholders can transfer a Membership Reward (MR) point at a 1:1 ratio to the ensuing
frequent flyer or hotel loyalty program to use in an
award booking or stay.
You'll find quick links to
frequent flyer programs,
award charts, useful travel websites and resources, as well as our
most useful travel articles.
In addition, the programs that offer transfers to airline miles and hotel points can be great for
award travel enthusiasts who really know how to get the
most value from different
frequent flyer programs.
Booking a premium cabin
award aboard Lufthansa through a partner airline is very difficult since the carrier reserves
most those seats for its own
frequent flyer program members.
Those standard restrictions that limit
most frequent -
flyer awards won't even be an issue.
Most importantly, Delta left untouched the basic deal between
frequent flyer programs and their members: you can redeem your miles for «aspirational»
awards in premium cabins anywhere their partner airlines fly.
Although these are definitely not mainstream programs for
frequent flyers based in the United States, programs that everyone else isn't searching sometimes have the
most award space.
AAdvantage used to be the
most valuable
frequent flyer program bar none, but since March 22nd it's more on par with other legacy programs like United and Delta that have undergone severe business and first class
award devaluations.
For example, United Airlines has the
most generous policy on round trip international
frequent flyer award tickets.
So which airlines are the
most or least generous when it comes to
frequent flyer award seat availability?
To clear things up, we've put together a comprehensive resource that shows you where to search for
award space when using some of the
most popular
frequent flyer programs.
Co-founder of
frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie
Awards, and named one of the «World's Top Travel Experts» by Conde» Nast Traveler (2010 - Present) Gary has been a guest on
most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty.
United Airlines is one of the
most popular
frequent flyer programs in the U.S., and there are some great ways to earn United miles for
award flights.
Once again,
Frequent Business Traveler is collaborating with FlyerTalk, the world's largest online community, to reveal which aspects of the award redemption process bother the frequent flyer t
Frequent Business Traveler is collaborating with FlyerTalk, the world's largest online community, to reveal which aspects of the
award redemption process bother the
frequent flyer t
frequent flyer the
most.
We'd like to know which
frequent flyer award redemption pet peeves irritate you the
most.
Frequent flyers love United because it has some of the
most flexible
awards out there, which can easily be molded into free one - ways, European city tours or round - the - world adventures.
The Membership Rewards points you earn with the American Express Premier Reward Gold card can be transferred to 17
frequent flyer programs, making it the second
most flexible
award program.
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.
Despite the dramatic devaluation in terms of earning and redeeming miles in 2014, United MileagePlus remains one of the
most valuable U.S.
frequent flyer programs with the biggest number of airline partners and a generally good
award availability.
Though Air Canada spun off its
frequent flyer program Aeroplan years ago, making it a separate for - profit entity, it is still one of the
most valuable ways to travel on
award tickets in the Star Alliance, the largest global airline alliance.
Though you'll see a somewhat similar approach with some domestic carriers, like Virgin America and Jet Blue, who charge their
frequent flyers a redemption rate based on the current cost of the ticket,
most carriers break out their
award redemptions into zones.
Those standard restrictions that limit
most frequent -
flyer awards won't even be an issue.
Why, because of their greed, you see the way the
frequent flyer system is going, in
most cases you have to pay a fee to get an
award, if you want a ticket in a week you have to pay a lot of money.
Knowing where and how to search for
award space is one of the
most complicated and important aspects of using your
frequent flyer miles effectively.
Delta has been taking flak from
frequent flyers for years, for a variety of valid reasons: Their
awards are much harder to come by than those of
most major domestic airlines; you cant book one - way
awards without...
But today,
most major US airlines now
award frequent flyer miles based on the amount that you paid for your ticket, starting at five miles per dollar and rising if you have elite status with their
frequent flyer programs.
Knowing where and how to search for
award space is one of the
most important, and
most complicated aspects to using your
frequent flyer miles effectively.
Cathay Pacific's Asia Miles is probably the
most confusing
frequent flyer award chart I've ever seen.
Travelling in premium cabins is a dream for
most of us, but it can be reality if you can redeem
frequent flyer miles for a premium cabin
award seat.
Frequent flyer programs used to
award miles to members based on the distance they've flown, but
most programs have now moved to a revenue - based model.
In conclusion, I truly believe that Alaska Airlines is one of the
most limiting
frequent flyer program due to routing rules and inability to mix partner
awards.
Note that
most airline websites will ask you to register for their
frequent flyer program before you can search for an
award flight.
While Delta's recent announcements of their sweeping
award program changes have caused an uproar among
frequent flyers, one of the areas
most likely to trip up leisure travelers are the airline's new cash plus points
awards.
In the 2014 Freddie
Awards, which recognize
frequent flyers most beloved
award programs, Lufthansa jumped from the number four spot the previous year to take the top ranking, in no small part because of the access to Lufthansa's outstanding first class products that the higher elite levels provide.
You wrote: «
Most frequent flyer programs don't allow free stopovers on
awards, let alone on one - way
award tickets.»
Most frequent flyer programs don't allow free stopovers on
awards, let alone on one - way
award tickets.
While
most frequent flyer programs charge flat rates for
award flights between certain regions (say, the continental U.S. and Europe), the British Airways program prices its
award flights based on the distance flown.
In addition to offering the fifth night free on
award bookings, the Starwood Preferred Guest program also allows you to transfer points out of the program and into some of the
most popular
frequent flyer programs.
But for
frequent flyers they are a pain because some airlines —
most notably European and Asian
frequent flyer programs, but also a handful of North American programs (Aeroplan on about half of its Star Alliance partners, American predominantly on British Airways, and Delta on several partners)-- add fuel surcharges onto
award tickets.
Unlike United, American and
most other
frequent flyer award programs, it's not possible to book a one way
award using US Airways Dividend miles for half the price of a roundtrip — you'd pay the same amount as the roundtrip.
As
most of you probably know by now, Delta will be radically altering their
frequent flyer program in 2015, whereby they'll begin
awarding miles based on how much you spend on your ticket as opposed to how many miles you fly.
A few
frequent flyer programs operate a distance based
award chart (with British Airways being the
most notable).