Korean Air offers an excellent product, reasonable prices and a lot of availability, with anywhere from two to four
premium cabin award seats on many flights.
There are also
some premium cabin award seats available, though not nearly as many as you will find in economy.
For a trip this complicated — and any time you're looking for
premium cabin award seats for more than 1 person — that timeframe is normal and strongly suggested.
Nonetheless, this is where you'll get the most value for your points, particularly when it comes to
premium cabin award seats on long - haul flights.
If you'd like to visit some South Pacific islands, KrisFlyer miles can be a great choice over United miles if you want to book
a premium cabin award seat.
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.
Not exact matches
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.
Most airlines just release 1 to 2
premium cabin seats per route so even if you're incredibly aggressive with searching for
award seats, you may never have a chance.
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer members have access to
premium cabin awards (such as first and Suites class
seats) not released to other partner airlines.
Flights between L.A. and Sydney feature a 777 - 300ER with excellent configuration in both first and business class
cabins, but
premium class
seats on this route are virtually impossible to get at saver
award rates.
Under this type of program, Cathay would only
award status - earning points to travellers who purchase
premium cabin seats or the most expensive economy class
seats (which are often just as expensive as the cheapest
premium cabin seats).
Economy
cabin awards on this route are often easier than
premium seat redemptions.
On the negative side the aircraft swap will see the route go from having 53
premium cabin seats (16 First Class and 37 Business Class) to just 30 Business Class
seats — not good news for upgrades or
awards.
United Airlines may not have many
cabins that one would call aspirational (The latest Polaris
seats on the 777 - 300ER are nice but there's hardly any of them in service) but it offers far better
award availability than American Airlines and requires considerably fewer miles for
premium cabin awards than Delta — that makes it a valuable transfer option to have.
Just keep in mind that Singapore Airlines often restricts
awards for their
premium cabins to their own members, so you might struggle to find any open
seats to book with Virgin America miles.
While you can't redeem points for Even More Space
seats (
premium economy), you can often buy up to that section of the
cabin using cash after you've made your
award reservation.
There's no way to get an outsized value by scouring
award charts or splurging on
premium cabin seats.
Although BofA points might not be worth as much as Citi ThankYou points or Chase Ultimate Rewards points, for those who value flexibility when redeeming (and might not be trying to redeem for
premium -
cabin award seats), the
Premium Rewards card is tough to beat since it has such a high earn for cardholders who are members of the BofA Preferred Rewards program.