The first rule for finding an affordable award flight is to
search for partner flights through the major carriers.
Not exact matches
The Department of Transportation is issuing a third «Enhancing Airline Passenger Protections» final rule to enhance protections
for air travelers and to improve the air travel environment as follows: expanding the pool of reporting carriers
for service quality data; requiring reporting carriers to include service quality data
for their domestic scheduled
flights operated by their code - share
partners; enhancing the Department's code - share disclosure regulation to codify the statutory requirement that carriers and ticket agents must disclose any code - share arrangements on their websites on the first display presented in response to a
search of a requested itinerary
for each itinerary involving a code - share operation; and prohibiting undisclosed biasing based on carrier identity by carriers and ticket agents in any electronic displays of the fare, schedule or availability information of multiple carriers.
Unlike with Delta award
flights, you will have to call Korean Air to book as their online
search function only allows you to
search for award space on SkyTeam
partners.
To find award space on United
flights to Sydney (SYD) and book with ANA Mileage Club miles, you simply need to run a
search for partner awards on ANA's website.
If you have an airline you're loyal to or you want to book
partner flights within a certain alliance, you can specifically
search for that.
Because you can't transfer your points directly to the
partners, you'll have to
search for award
flights and then call AAdvantage (1-800-433-7300) to book the
flights.
To find award space on United
flights to Sydney (SYD) and book with ANA Mileage Club miles, you simply need to run a
search for partner awards on ANA's website.
You can
search for award tickets on Delta.com and can easily redeem SkyMiles on
flights with Delta Air Lines and
partner carriers when using their
search engine.
While you can simply
search for award
flights and see the resulting prices
for available
flights, you may want to scan the
partner award charts and
search specifically
for the carriers that offer the cheapest
flights to your destination.
You can choose to
search for award
flights on any or all
partner airlines.
You can
search for and book award
flights on Delta and many of its
partner airlines on Delta's website.
Keep in mind that to keep prices as low as possible, Orbitz often books
flights through the operating airline's
partners —
for example, in the above
search for a
flight from ORD to LHR, Orbitz is showing a
flight operated by American Airlines but booking it through British Airways.
While you can do an online
search for Virgin Atlantic
flights on their own site,
searching partners for awards space isn't so simple.
Three of Delta's
partners require other
search methods plus a call to Delta to redeem SkyMiles
for award
flights.
Some of these programs will allow you to
search for their own
flights plus their
partners»
flights and book online while others require a little more effort that might involve a second site and a phone call.
Well, now you have a much better option as Singapore Airlines allows you to
search for and book award
flights with Star Alliance
partners online.
Unlike with Delta award
flights, you will have to call Korean Air to book as their online
search function only allows you to
search for award space on SkyTeam
partners.
FareNexus Group, with its worldwide association of travel
partners, is the most reliable place to
search and compare air ticket rates
for international and domestic
flights.
Their website's
search engine allows you to pull up
partner flights (and even
search for specific
partners); however, it gave me errors every single time I tried to continue with a booking to sample total fees.
Asiana's website has decent functionality
for Asiana operated
flights, but is very bad at pulling up
partner space and therefore you will want to
search elsewhere.
If you live in the USA and
search for flights within the US on British Airways
partner airlines, its nearly impossible to find a
flight.
You just
search for a
flight either by city or airport codes, then select one of the desired programs such as CHASE Ultimate Rewards, Citi Thank You Points, AMEX Membership rewards, SPG Preferred Guest, and / or sixty airline programs (sadly they don't have AA as a
partner yet).
Search around
for a transfer
partner that offers a valuable award
flight for your trip, and you'll likely be able to get more value out of your points than you would by booking travel directly through Citi.
In order to
search for a
flight with a
partner airline using JMB miles, choose «JMB
partner airlines award ticket reservation» instead of the JAL international award ticket option.
Except
for flights on American Airlines to Tokyo,
searching online
for availability on
partner airlines originating in North America often triggers the following message, so you'll need to call JAL to book the
flight:
One thing to keep in mind is that ANA won't always show you the
partners available
for booking, so you sometimes you'll need to
search United and Aeroplan
for flights to Bangkok and then call up ANA to locate the
partner award seats.
However, if you're booking a
partner airline, it might be a good idea to perform an online
search first and see what
flights are available
for your destination.
To find available award space,
search for available
flights on the
partner airline's website and then call Virgin Atlantic to book.
When
searching for flights to Europe with American Airlines you'll see a lot of
search results
for British Airways and some other
partners.
Throughout the
search process you'll want to ensure that you have selected «Classic
Flight Reward,» which is the Qantas term
for partner award travel.
The
flights I was looking
for were shown on united.com (not on the BA award
search, as mentioned in the previous post, since it's only
for BA and not
partners), but in my exploring, I did discover the Avios.com site that would seem to have the ability to
search all Avios award availability.
But again since you've decided to potentially go with alliance
partners like United, you'd be able to
search for award
flights with United that you'll use Singapore Airlines miles on.
Searching about 5 to 6 months out, it was very easy to find awards
for partners, such as ANA or Asiana in business class but a bit more difficult
for me to find actual United
flights on its own metal.
You'll have to call American Airlines to book your
flight, since you can't
search for the above
partners on American's website.
US Airways» award
flight search engine,
for example, only shows award availability
for US Airways operated
flights, and none of the
partner flights.
I do nt see the option to
search for partner airlines, it shows and states only will display BA
flights.
Using miles
for partner flights online is pretty easy thanks to a comprehensive — but not perfect — online award
search engine.
Even though, we're
searching for award
flights on British Airways and using British Airways currency, Avios, the actual
flight booked will likely be flown by one of their
partners.
Unfortunately American does not prominently disclose that these
partners are missing during the process of
searching for an award, meaning many members pay more than they need to on American's own
flights, thinking the website represents all available options.
You can still book award
flights on these
partners by
searching for award availability on other Oneworld airlines» websites; via ExpertFlyer; or by calling AA and seeing what's available.
As it's not possible to book
partner flights or
search for seats online, you'll need to look
for available award seats on the
partner airlines website.
Anytime you are looking to book award
flights with a
partner, it is usually helpful to first go to the airline that is operating your
flight to
search for award space.
* You can also use Delta's website to
search for availability but keep in mind that in order to book a Delta
flight with either of the Ultimate Rewards Skyteam
partners, there must be award space available at the saver level on Delta.
That's not only because United has such wide coverage here in the US as well as an extensive international route network that includes many of the longest
flights to / from the country, but also because its website is a decent tool
for searching Star Alliance availability, and MileagePlus is one of the travel transfer
partners of the Chase Ultimate Rewards program.
From there, you can
search for flights on Avianca itself or on its
partners.
I sometimes
search for awards on routes that Delta shares with a
partner (e.g., New York - JFK to London - Heathrow), and in virtually all cases, the
flights on Delta metal are priced much higher than those operated by
partners.