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.
While Air France was one of the best options due to you can
still book award flights to Europe on British Airways, Icelandair, Condor, and Finnair.
Not exact matches
As a bonus, you'll
still earn points on
award flights bookings.
And that we
still have ~ 4 months to
book new
award flights.
Fortunately, Etihad's
award chart for American
still allows you to
book flights on American Airlines at pre-devaluation levels.
While this isn't a perfect solution, it
still allows you to help friends and family
book award flights.
It also provides more flexibility because you don't have to find
award space, you can just
book paid
flights and
still get solid value for your points.
The airline that ticketed the
award still needs to communicate with the airlines that operate each
flight, so if you
booked a partner
award you may want to wait a couple days and then call the other airline to confirm it has your reservation on file.
Fortunately, Etihad's
award chart for American
still allows you to
book flights on American Airlines at pre-devaluation levels.
You will
still want to
book as early as possible to ensure you can get one of the low - cost Saver
Awards, but, this is one less way you can get nickel - and - dimed by the airlines if you can not
book a
flight until the last - minute.
Award Availability and Fees The primary Cardmember can use miles to book award travel on any United - operated flight at the MileagePlus ® Everyday Award level, including award travel booked by the primary Cardmember for an authorized user under the primary Cardmember's MileagePlus number, as long as tickets are still available for sale for the applicable cabin on such fl
Award Availability and Fees The primary Cardmember can use miles to
book award travel on any United - operated flight at the MileagePlus ® Everyday Award level, including award travel booked by the primary Cardmember for an authorized user under the primary Cardmember's MileagePlus number, as long as tickets are still available for sale for the applicable cabin on such fl
award travel on any United - operated
flight at the MileagePlus ® Everyday
Award level, including award travel booked by the primary Cardmember for an authorized user under the primary Cardmember's MileagePlus number, as long as tickets are still available for sale for the applicable cabin on such fl
Award level, including
award travel booked by the primary Cardmember for an authorized user under the primary Cardmember's MileagePlus number, as long as tickets are still available for sale for the applicable cabin on such fl
award travel
booked by the primary Cardmember for an authorized user under the primary Cardmember's MileagePlus number, as long as tickets are
still available for sale for the applicable cabin on such
flight.
Because it's not that rare to find Business Class
flights between the US and London coming in at under $ 2,000 and, on top of that, if you're
booking an
award you
still have the issue of finding availability... and that hasn't been easy in recent years.
The one drawback here is that for
flights within the US the lowest
award price is 7,500 Avios, but this
still represents a solid savings over a typical roundtrip economy
award booked with one of the three US legacy carriers.
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).
Also, even if you are
booking an
award flight you can
still get this benefit so long as you use your explorer card to pay for the fees and taxes associated with your purchase.
All Mileage Plan members with status
still get unlimited upgrades when available; now that also includes
flights booked with miles (
award tickets).
While I generally
book award flights, I
still want to make sure I maximize my return on my paid
flights.
These
awards still have fuel surcharges, but they are usually much less than when
booking premium cabin
flights on Virgin Atlantic metal.
The airline is
still working out the kinks, so you'll have to call to
book those
award flights.
This means you can confirm your
flight availability with a Virgin agent, then complete the transfer and
book your
award while the agent is
still on the phone.
If you're looking to
book international
flights in premium cabins, those fares tend to be quite a bit higher than domestic first, so while you'll
still get two cents per points in value, you'll likely need fewer points or miles to
book traditional
award tickets.
While some
flights require more than 25,000 to redeem
award travel, depending on the published base fare of
booking, the chosen
flights, and the applicability of peek travel periods, you can
still manage to find excellent
award rates to exciting vacation destinations with air miles ranging from 10,000 to 25,000 miles.
However at a value of 2 cents a mile, you would
still have to
book an
award ticket that normally costs $ 250 one way in Economy to get that value per mile on a domestic
flight.
Even though KLM doesn't offer domestic
flights here, you may
still want to use their website to
book an
award on Delta Air Lines, for example, or to
book an
award on another carrier in a different part of the world.
I expect
award prices to go up somewhat in 2015, but we
still have months to
book at current prices for
flights throughout 2015.
Not all airlines do this (some will just say no
award tickets available) but American Airlines actually
still lets you
book a ticket on their own
flights (it can not be a partner
flight) even if no
award seats are available.