Introduction
Credit Card Points
Airline Miles
Hotel Points

Welcome to what will undoubtedly be the most controversial part of this series. There’s nothing quite as fun as valuing airline miles on the internet, because I’m about to be called an idiot by people that value their miles somewhere between 0.5 and 12.5 cents each. So I’ll once again make reference to my disclaimer in the introduction of this series by saying that these are my subjective valuations based on what I typically redeem my miles for, and based on what I value those flights at (not their retail value, because in virtually all cases I wouldn’t otherwise pay for first or business class). I’ve also added several programs below that I didn’t value last time, which I hope you guys find useful.

Since there’s a lot of information below, I figured I’d summarize my valuations upfront, which are as follows:

• Air Canada Aeroplan – 1.3 cents/mile
• Air France Flying Blue – 1.1 cents/mile
• Alaska Mileage Plan – 1.6 cents/mile
• American AAdvantage – 1.8 cents/mile
• AviancaTACA Lifemiles – 1.2 cents/mile
• British Airways Executive Club – 1.3 cents/Avios
• Delta SkyMiles – 1.3 cents/mile
• Korean Air SkyPass – 1.4 cents/mile
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer – 1.6 cents/mile
• Southwest Rapid Rewards – 1.4 cents/point
• United MileagePlus – 1.8 cents/mile
• US Airways Dividend Miles – 1.6 cents/mile
• Virgin America Elevate – 2.0 cents/point
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club – 0.8 cents/mile

With that in mind, here are my explanations:

Air Canada Aeroplan – 1.3 cents/mile (previously 1.3 cents/mile)

Going back a couple of years Air Canada Aeroplan miles were hands down the single most valuable mileage currency out there. Then after a devaluation of their award chart and the addition of fuel surcharges for travel on most of their partner airlines, they took a big hit.

There’s still some value in their program, though. Business class between the US and much of Europe, for example, costs just 90,000 miles roundtrip, and you’re allowed either one stopover and one open jaw or two stopovers. If you travel on Brussels, Swiss, United, and US Airways there won’t be any fuel surcharges either. So while Aeroplan miles aren’t what they used to be, they are still a good option for those with a Membership Rewards balance they’re looking to redeem for premium cabin travel.

Great use of Aeroplan miles without fuel surcharges

Best credit card(s) for earning Aeroplan miles: American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers 3x points on airfare, 2x points on gas and groceries, and 15,000 bonus points for any year in which you spend $30,000 on the card. Also the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal Card and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Business Card, which offer one Starpoint per dollar spent on all purchases, and two Starpoints per dollar spent at Starwood properties. Points can be transferred to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio, and for every 20,000 points transferred you get a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re essentially earning 1.25 Aeroplan miles per dollar spent.

Air France Flying Blue – 1.1 cents/mile (not previously rated)

Flying Blue miles can be quite valuable in a limited set of circumstances. You can redeem them for one-way travel on Delta at half the price of a roundtrip (which you can’t do directly through Delta’s program), and as long as you’re originating in the US there are no fuel surcharges. Furthermore, they can be redeemed for travel on Aeromexico without fuel surcharges between the US and South America, which is another great option given how much award space they release. They even have lower pricing than Delta in many cases. For example, roundtrip business class on Delta between the US and Israel costs just 100,000 miles, assuming there’s award space at the saver level (while Delta would charge 120,000 miles for the same award).

These miles have also become more valuable for travel on Air France. Previously Air France gave their own Flying Blue members and Delta SkyMiles members access to the same saver award space. Nowadays they only give Delta access to a part of that inventory, to the point that they’ve blocked off Delta award redemptions for travel on Air France for just about the entire summer. So while Flying Blue does charge hefty fuel surcharges, it may just be the only practical option for redeeming on Air France.

Flying Blue business class award space between Washington and Paris for this summer (none of the space is being released to Delta SkyMiles members)

Though a word of caution — Flying Blue’s call center is indescribably useless and excruciatingly painful to work with. You’ve been warned.

Best credit card(s) for earning Air France Flying Blue miles: American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers 3x points on airfare, 2x points on gas and groceries, and 15,000 bonus points for any year in which you spend $30,000 on the card.

Alaska Mileage Plan – 1.6 cents/mile (previously 1.5 cents/mile)

Mileage Plan is one of those programs that’s sooo close to being awesome. They partner with many airlines across multiple alliances, so the flexibility of the miles is great, in theory. Unfortunately they have some rules that really prevent these miles from being more valuable. One of those rules is that you can’t mix partner airlines on an award ticket. This can be really tough to do given that multiple airlines are needed to get to some destinations, and that can require multiple award tickets. Furthermore as of now they don’t allow one-way awards on partner airlines, though rumor has it that one way awards will soon be possible on select partners.

That being said, Alaska recently unveiled their mileage redemption chart for travel on Emirates, and while it’s not amazing, it certainly adds some value to the program. First class to the Middle East or India is 180,000 miles roundtrip, while first class to Africa or Asia is 200,000 miles roundtrip.

Emirates onboard shower suite

Those are decent redemption rates though they aren’t amazing, Then again it’s one of Emirates’ few mileage redemption partners, so it’ll have to do. So I think the miles deserve a bit of a boost compared to last year, though I really can’t value them at over 1.6 cents each.

Best credit card(s) for earning Alaska Mileage Plan miles: Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal Card and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Business Card, which offer one Starpoint per dollar spent on all purchases, and two Starpoints per dollar spent at Starwood properties. Points can be transferred to Mileage Plan at a 1:1 ratio, and for every 20,000 points transferred you get a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re essentially earning 1.25 Mileage Plan miles per dollar spent.

American AAdvantage – 1.8 cents/mile (previously 1.8 cents/mile)

The value of American miles remains unchanged for me over the past year, which is a great thing. For me their most useful single partner is Cathay Pacific, which continues to release a good amount of first class award space between the US and Asia. Not only is it a great value at 135,000 miles roundtrip for first class, but they release quite a bit of availability both 11 months out and within a couple of weeks of departure.

Five Cathay Pacific first class award seats available on a single flight

American miles are also great for travel to South America given both American’s route network and their partnership with LAN. Star Alliance and SkyTeam can’t even begin to compete on that front. And their partnership with Etihad is also great for travel to the Middle East and India.

Their other partners certainly come with some weaknesses, though are still useful in many instances.

American also has a distance based award chart which can be extremely lucrative for travel to multiple destinations, and is both one of the best kept secrets and values in the airline industry.

Malaysia Airlines recently joined OneWorld which opens up a lot of new destinations using American miles, and Qatar Airways is expected to join the alliance next year. These partnerships really solidify the value of American miles, and are really narrowing the gap between Star Alliance and OneWorld.

Best credit card(s) for earning American AAdvantage miles: Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal Card and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Business Card, which offer one Starpoint per dollar spent on all purchases, and two Starpoints per dollar spent at Starwood properties. Points can be transferred to AAdvantage at a 1:1 ratio, and for every 20,000 points transferred you get a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re essentially earning 1.25 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent. For the sign-up bonus it’s also worth considering the Citi AAdvantage Visa Card, Citi AAdvantage American Express Card, and Citi AAdvantage Business Visa Card, each of which offer 50,000 miles after spending $3,000 within four months.

AviancaTACA Lifemiles – 1.2 cents/mile (not previously rated)

Last year a lot of attention was given to the Lifemiles program, given that AviancaTACA joined the Star Alliance. They have a rather unconventional award chart for a non-US frequent flyer program, if for no other reason than that they don’t impose fuel surcharges on award redemptions. What’s also quite interesting is that as long as you have 40% of the miles needed for a redemption in your account, you can purchase the remaining miles for 1.275 cents each.

So why am I not valuing these points more highly? Because of their ridiculous policy to not allow cabins to be mixed on an award ticket. If you book a first class award you can’t have any segments on the ticket in business or coach class, for example. So if you want to book a first class award and live in a small city with single cabin service you’re out of luck. Or if you’re connecting somewhere within Europe that’s only served by an aircraft with business class and coach… no soup for you! If they’d change that silly restriction I’d say their miles would go up in value by about 25%, but as it stands I just find these miles kind of impractical to redeem.

Best credit card(s) for earning AviancaTACA Lifemiles: Lifemiles Visa Signature Card, which offers one mile per dollar spent, and one additional mile per dollar spent on AviancaTACA.

British Airways Executive Club – 1.3 cents/Avios (previously 1.1 cents/Avios)

About 18 months ago British Airways devalued their award chart, which was a big blow to the value of their Avios. Instead they now operate exclusively on a distance based award chart, which I’ve come to appreciate more by the day.

Avios award chart

I’ve found myself redeeming Avios lately more than any other currency, because there are certain markets in which they’re invaluable. A one-way coach award for a distance of less than ~650 miles costs just 4,500 Avios one way, which is an incredible value, whether you’re trying to get from New York to Toronto or Lima to Cuzco.

My major frustration with Avios redemptions to Europe was that at the time they imposed fuel surcharges for all their transatlantic flights, though nowadays they don’t impose fuel surcharges on Aer Lingus, Air Berlin, or Iberia if you play it right.

So while Avios typically aren’t the best currency to have for aspirational redemptions, they’re extremely practical to have for everyday redemptions.

Best credit card(s) for earning British Airways Avios: British Airways Visa Signature® Card, which offers 1.25 British Airways Avios per dollar spent. For more flexibility the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal Card and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Business Card are also good, given that they offer one Starpoint per dollar spent on all purchases, and two Starpoints per dollar spent at Starwood properties. Points can be transferred to British Airways at a 1:1 ratio, and for every 20,000 points transferred you get a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re essentially earning 1.25 Avios per dollar spent. Lastly, another great option is the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers 3x points on airfare, 2x points on gas and groceries, and 15,000 bonus points for any year in which you spend $30,000 on the card. Points can be transferred 1:1 to British Airways.

Delta SkyMiles – 1.3 cents/mile (previously 1.1 cents/mile)

It shocks me that I’m saying this given the lack of Air France business class award space using SkyMiles, though I think the value of SkyMiles has actually gone up lately due to a variety of factors. Generally speaking SkyTeam gets all the “sloppy second” airlines, so for the most part the airlines you can redeem your miles on aren’t all that exciting. Furthermore you can’t redeem your SkyMiles for international first class, so for me that makes SkyMiles less valuable than AAdvantage and MileagePlus miles right off the bat.

But we’ve seen some improvements lately that make SkyMiles much more attractive, including:

• Delta is no longer imposing fuel surcharges for travel on Virgin Australia, which is huge. They release the most business class award space between the US and Australia, now making SkyMiles the most valuable points currency for travel to Australia, in my opinion.
• Alitalia and Korean Air awards are now bookable on delta.com (both of which were previously an absolute pain to book).
• China Southern started Airbus A380 service between Los Angeles and Guangzhou with what looks like an amazing business class product with excellent award availability.

At least nine China Southern business class award seats available on a flight

So I do think the above has made SkyMiles more valuable. In my opinion they’re the most valuable mileage currency for travel to Australia and Tahiti (given that they partner with both Air Tahiti Nui and Air France), and have also become extremely competitive to Asia.

Best credit card(s) for earning Delta SkyMiles: American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers 3x points on airfare, 2x points on gas and groceries, and 15,000 bonus points for any year in which you spend $30,000 on the card. Points can be transferred 1:1 to Delta SkyMiles.

Korean Air SkyPass – 1.4 cents/mile (not previously rated)

When most people think of SkyTeam frequent flyer programs Delta SkyMiles comes to mind. But if you’re like me and like to redeem your miles for international first class, it’s Korean Air’s SkyPass program you should be looking at.

They have reasonable first class redemption rates between the US and Asia. For example, flying to Japan or Northeast Asia costs just 160,000 miles roundtrip. What’s actually best about them is the amount of first class award space they consistently release. It’s common to see 2-5 first class award seats per flight, which isn’t the case for most airlines.

Tons of first class award space!

They also allow one way awards for travel on Korean Air at half the cost of a roundtrip, though for partner airlines roundtrip travel is required.

The one major downside of Korean Air is the booking process, which is unnecessarily complicated and restrictive. Still, for first class on SkyTeam airlines, this is the way to go.

Best credit card(s) for earning Korean Air SkyPass miles: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Visa Card, which offers double points on dining and travel and a 7% annual points dividend, the Chase Ink Plus® Business Card and Chase Ink Bold® Business Card, which offer 5x points on office supply stores, cable, TV, phone, and internet, and 2x points on gas and hotels, and the Chase Freedom® Visa Card, which offers 5x points in rotating quarterly categories.

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer – 1.6 cents/mile (not previously rated)

The past year has been amazing for the value of KrisFlyer miles. Amazing. Early last year Singapore began making first and business class award redemptions in their new products available at the saver level. It’s ridiculous it took so long, given that their new product was nearly fleet wide, yet you couldn’t redeem for it at the lowest level since they were trying to “protect” the cabins. It wasn’t until early last year that they actually allowed KrisFlyer members to redeem for it at the saver level.

Then late last year they began allowing saver award redemptions in Suites Class, which was almost completely off limits with miles up until that point. Singapore Suites is probably the most aspirational airline product out there, so being able to redeem miles for it at a reasonable cost is awesome. Last May I wrote a post explaining all the basics of redeeming KrisFlyer miles for travel on Singapore Airlines (though note at the time Suites Class redemptions weren’t permitted, so that’s not reflected in the post).

Singapore Airlines Suites Class

Singapore has rather reasonable premium cabin redemption rates, and while they impose fuel surcharges, they’re quite mild. For example, San Francisco to Hong Kong roundtrip in first class costs 140,250 miles plus ~$371.30 in taxes and fuel surcharges.

Given that booking through KrisFlyer is one of the only ways to redeem miles for travel in Singapore Airlines longhaul premium cabins, I’d say these have quickly become one of my most coveted mileage currencies.

Best credit card(s) for earning Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles: American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers 3x points on airfare, 2x points on gas and groceries, and 15,000 bonus points for any year in which you spend $30,000 on the card. Points can be transferred 1:1 to KrisFlyer.

Southwest Rapid Rewards – 1.4 cents/point (not previously rated)

Southwest has a revenue based frequent flyer program, where the cost of an award ticket is directly tied to the cost of a paid ticket on that flight. For “Wanna Get Away?” fares you can book an award ticket at the rate of 60 points per dollar — that’s a rate of ~1.66 cents per point. By booking an award ticket vs. a revenue ticket you’re giving up at least six points per dollar that you’d otherwise earn, which knocks about 10% of the value off. I also think it’s worth knocking a bit more off since redemption rates are higher for “Anytime” and “Business Select” fares, which brings me to my valuation of 1.4 cents per point.

Rapid Rewards redemption chart

Best credit card(s) for earning Southwest Rapid Rewards points: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Visa Card, which offers double points on dining and travel and a 7% annual points dividend, the Chase Ink Plus® Business Card and Chase Ink Bold® Business Card, which offer 5x points on office supply stores, cable, TV, phone, and internet, and 2x points on gas and hotels, and the Chase Freedom® Visa Card, which offers 5x points in rotating quarterly categories.

United MileagePlus – 1.8 cents/mile (previously 1.8 cents/mile)

Fortunately nothing major has changed with United since the last time I valued them, so I think they’ve maintained their value pretty well. I still love United miles for how generous their routing rules are, for the fact that they allow one stopover and two open jaws on a roundtrip award ticket, and for how reasonable the change fees and policies are on award tickets compared to virtually any other airline.

United’s partnerships have more or less remained the same since last May, with the exception of Qatar Airways, which they lost as a partner. Some aspects of using United miles remain frustrating — Swiss doesn’t release any first class award space at all, Singapore doesn’t release any longhaul first class award space, and Lufthansa only releases first class award seats at most 15 days out, and I’ve found as of late they’re getting stingier and stingier even at that point. So that really does limit the aspirational redemptions using United miles, at least for those that need to plan in advance.

You can still redeem for Lufthansa first class within 15 days of departure

On the plus side a lot of Star Alliance carriers have improved their business class products lately, making for some attractive business class redemption opportunities.

So not only does United have amazing airline partners, but their miles are just so easy to use, between a (mostly) functional website, computers that automatically price awards (rather than leaving you at the mercy of clueless agents), extremely reasonable fees, and generous routing rules.

Best credit card(s) for earning United MileagePlus miles: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Visa Card, which offers double points on dining and travel and a 7% annual points dividend, the Chase Ink Plus® Business Card and Chase Ink Bold® Business Card, which offer 5x points on office supply stores, cable, TV, phone, and internet, and 2x points on gas and hotels, and the Chase Freedom® Visa Card, which offers 5x points in rotating quarterly categories.

US Airways Dividend Miles – 1.6 cents/mile (previously 1.5 cents/mile)

US Airways, US Airways, US Airways… what can I really say? I love ‘em with a passion. I hate ‘em with a passion.

There’s no doubt with the upcoming merger my valuation will be changing soon, though as of now they still have a gem of an award chart. For 90,000 miles you can fly from the US to Asia via Europe as I recently did, and that’s an amazing value. In a way flying business class is more desirable lately, as we’ve seen more and more Star Alliance airlines introduce fully flat business class products.

Even though they got rid of off peak business class awards to Europe I still think the value of their miles has gone up, as we’re seeing more of a trend in Star Alliance whereby airlines release business class award seats instead of first class space.

Austrian’s new business class

Best credit card(s) for earning US Airways Dividend miles: Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal Card and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Business Card, which offer one Starpoint per dollar spent on all purchases, and two Starpoints per dollar spent at Starwood properties. Points can be transferred to Dividend Miles at a 1:1 ratio, and for every 20,000 points transferred you get a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re essentially earning 1.25 Dividend Miles per dollar spent. It’s also worth considering the US Airways Premier World MasterCard® for the sign-up bonus, given that this card probably won’t be around for long given the upcoming merger.

Virgin America Elevate – 2.0 cents/point (not previously rated)

The past couple of weeks I’ve been focusing quite a bit on the value of Elevate points, as they have some really unique and lucrative partner redemption opportunities.

Virgin America has a revenue based frequent flyer program, meaning redemptions costs for travel on Virgin America are based on the revenue cost of a ticket. Regardless of what the fare is, each Elevate point gets you roughly 2.2 cents towards the cost of a ticket. Factoring in that you’re not earning the usual five Elevate points per dollar spent on airfare when redeeming points, I think it’s fair to value Elevate points at about 2.0 cents each.

Correlation between paid ticket and redemption ticket

In addition to that there are some amazing partner redemption options which have fixed pricing, especially for travel on Hawaiian, Singapore, and Virgin Atlantic. The problem is that the “gems” on the chart are very limited in scope. For example, the Hawaiian award chart is most valuable for travel between the west coast and Hawaii, while the Singapore award chart is most valuable for travel on longhaul flights in coach. Certainly not a program that’s for everyone, though definitely a goldmine for some.

Best credit card(s) for earning Virgin America Elevate points: Virgin America Visa® Signature Card which offers one point per dollar spent. In comparison Membership Rewards points only transfer to Virgin America at a 2:1 ratio.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club – 0.8 cents/mile (not previously rated)

There’s no polite way to say this, these miles are bloody useless. While British Airways has partner redemptions on which you can not only get decent mileage costs, but also not pay fuel surcharges, that’s not really the case with Virgin Atlantic.

You can redeem miles for travel on Virgin Atlantic with massive fuel surcharges, and those partners without fuel surcharges really aren’t a very good value.

High taxes, fees, and fuel surcharges for travel on Virgin Atlantic

One bright spot to their program has been that you can convert miles into Hilton HHonors points at a 1:2 ratio, but now that Hilton has destroyed the value of their program, the above valuation of miles is more reflective of my reduced valuation of Hilton points.

Best credit card(s) for earning Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles: Virgin America Visa® Signature Card which offers one point per dollar spent. In comparison Membership Rewards points only transfer to Virgin America ta  2:1 ratio.

The Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal Card and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Business Card offer one Starpoint per dollar spent on all purchases, and two Starpoints per dollar spent at Starwood properties. Points can be transferred to Virgin Atlantic at a 1:1 ratio, and for every 20,000 points transferred you get a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re essentially earning 1.25 miles per dollar spent. Lastly, another great option is the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers 3x points on airfare, 2x points on gas and groceries, and 15,000 bonus points for any year in which you spend $30,000 on the card. Points can be transferred 1:1 to British Airways. The Virgin Atlantic American Express is also worth considering for the sign-up bonus.

Conclusion

This has been a great couple of years for the value of airline miles. Without exception my valuation of miles has either remained the same or gone up from last year, which is extremely rare. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for hotels, which I’ll be valuing in the next installment. I definitely wouldn’t take the current mileage values for granted, as I wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar slaughtering of airline award charts next year as we’ve seen with hotel charts this year.

So, release the hounds, I wanna hear what you guys think. Agree or disagree with the above valuations?

(In the interest of full disclosure, some of the above links earn me a referral bonus, and all are for the best available offers for each card — thanks for your support!)

Have you ever tried to redeem an award ticket with Korean Air’s SkyPass program or Asiana’s Club program? If not, consider yourself lucky.

As much as both airlines have pretty good mileage programs, their policies make me want to proclaim miles worthless.

Gary has written about the process of redeeming Korean Air SkyPass miles, and what a pain it is. Basically you can only redeem miles for yourself and your family members out of your account, and they require proof of your family relationship to make a booking using your miles. So if you’re just traveling with a friend you have to ticket the reservations out of separate accounts. And that can be a challenge since Korean Air SkyPass is a Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partner, though technically you’re only allowed to transfer Ultimate Rewards points to a frequent flyer account in your name. So technically that means you can no longer even redeem Ultimate Rewards points for a Korean Air SkyPass award in the name of anyone except the account holder.

Even if you’re ticketing an award reservation for yourself you have to fax in a redemption form along with your ID, which will be processed within a couple of days. At that point you have to call back to find out what the taxes are and have the ticket issued. It’s ridiculous, and by far the most illogical system for redeeming awards I’ve ever seen. Or so I thought.

Then there’s Asiana Club, and I’ll let their policies speak for themselves.

Think you can redeem your miles online or over the phone? Fuggedaboutit:

1. Bonus award tickets can only be ticketed through Asiana Airlines. When making reservations members should visit any local Asiana Airlines branch ticketing counter or airport ticketing counter and present your reservation number (PNR), membership card and identification card and issue bonus award and seat upgrade tickets within the advised ticket time limit. Tickets not issued until the advised ticket time limit reservation can be cancelled. Upon ticketing members are responsible for taxes, inspection charges, airport tax and all applicable tax and government charges & fees, fuel surcharges and war insurances and surcharges and commissions.
2. Third parties requesting tickets on your behalf must be in possession of an authorization letter singed by you, Asiana Club card, your ID and third’ parties’ ID to pick up your tickets.

Wanna redeem your miles for a friend? better be a Diamond member:

Transfers
Do you want to transfer your award ticket to family or friends? To make easier use of miles, Asiana Club members can transfer award tickets to certain family members as listed below. To do so, proof of family relationship (It is limited to a copy of the resident registration or a certificate of family relations that personal identification no. is verified and shows family relationships. The document should be issued within 6 months. and award transfer certificate. Members of Platinum, Diamond Plus (new), and Diamond can give his or her mileages to anyone with an award transfer certificate. However, people who get the mileage transfer should be a member of Asiana Club.

The best part is that not only does Asiana not display award space for Star Alliance partners online, but you can’t even call them to get the ticket on hold. You can call them and they’ll fill out the request form, which is then forwarded to the single Star Alliance award agent. Once the agent has a chance to review it they’ll call you back within a few days, at which point award space could be gone.

So the next time you think booking an award ticket with United or US Airways is a PITA, think again. Asiana and Korean Air make the “mail in rebate” industry look straightforward.

…on Saudi Arabian Airlines. Hear me out.

I know you were thinking I was going to point out the “usual” good uses of Ultimate Rewards points like 22,000 points for a night at the Park Hyatt Tokyo or 70,000 points for Lufthansa first class from New York to Frankfurt to Singapore. But nope, I’ve done those, and I’m looking for a different type of aspirational award. Though perhaps it’s not aspirational as much as I’m just taking one for the team.

When I first started collecting Ultimate Rewards points I figured the only two “useful” transfer partners were Hyatt and United. While they have lots of other partners, the points currencies of those partner programs aren’t as valuable, in my opinion.

But I enjoy trying a new airline product that may very well be awful for the sake of exciting you guys, as much as I enjoy flying Lufthansa, Asiana, or Thai first class, all of which are products that I’m very familiar with.

That’s why I’ve increasingly been intrigued by Korean Air’s SkyPass program, which is also transfer partners with Ultimate Rewards.

Yeah, you don’t have to tell me, I know. If this whole blogging gig doesn’t work out I have a career as a graphic designer.

Korean Air is part of SkyTeam, which Delta belongs to as well. When it comes to redeeming for coach and business class travel, booking through Delta SkyMiles is almost always a better deal. They typically have lower redemption rates and in many cases no fuel surcharges. Furthermore, Delta is transfer partners with American Express Membership Rewards, and I value a Membership Rewards point less than I value an Ultimate Rewards points. One of the (many) weaknesses of the program is that it’s not possible to redeem SkyMiles for international first class travel. The reason is that since Delta doesn’t have an international first class cabin, they can’t claim award seats in first class on their partners.

But the beauty of Korean Air’s SkyPass program is that you can also redeem miles for first class on Korean Air and many of their partners. In this post I briefly discussed the redemption opportunities for travel in Korean Air Airbus 380 first class, which is wide open.

Here’s Korean Air’s award chart for travel on Korean Air (prices are roundtrip):

As you can see, first class from the US to Japan or Northeast Asia would run you only 80,000 miles one way. Given how excellent award availability is, that’s an amazing bargain (though keep in mind there are blackout dates).

For example, there’s plenty of award space from New York to Hong Kong via Seoul Incheon in Airbus 380 first class the whole way for just 80,000 miles (and available can easily be searched on ExpertFlyer):

But Korean Air has plenty of other airline partners, including the following:

A couple of those immediately jump out to me as being interesting due to their first class products.

One of those is China Southern, because they’re taking delivery of their first Airbus 380 and operating it on the Los Angeles to Guangzhou route starting in October. They have only eight first class seats and award space is wide open, so it’s also quite tempting to fly with them.

Per Korean Air’s partner award chart, that redemption would cost 80,000 miles one-way in first class:

Okay, for those of you that think redeeming miles for China Southern first class is a waste when they could be redeemed for Lufthansa first class, stop reading now. Seriously.

Over the weekend I was emailing back and forth with Gary, and I think he may have very well baited me, much like my good friends in Bangkok, Shanghai, and Kuala Lumpur. I suspect he’s still miffed over how right I was with my valuation of Hilton points.

He mentioned in passing how tempted he was to transfer Ultimate Rewards points to Korean Air in order to book Saudi Arabian first class. Admittedly my sarcasm detector was probably a bit screwy or he was just baiting me, but it sounded like a… brilliant idea!

Not only is Saudi Arabian a dry airline (as long as Diet Coke is on tap that’s fine by me!), but I can’t find a single trip report on them. Let me take that a step further — I can’t even find a single picture of their first class product. Or of their lounge. Or of anything. Perhaps that’s for good reason, but I’m always up for a bit of fun. They have a ridiculous amount of award space as well, and on some dates release seven first class award seats on their Washington to Riyadh flight (which makes me wonder how many seats are in first class, since I can’t find a seatmap online).

This redemption would also cost 80,000 miles one-way, and I’m thinking of making my final destination either Bahrain or Amman.

What do you guys think? Am I entirely nuts for even thinking of redeeming 80,000 miles for Saudi Arabian first class? I like to run this blog pretty democratically, so I’ve created a scientific, objective poll below, and will go with whatever answer the majority of you choose:

 Loading ...

All kidding aside, I actually would consider giving them a shot if it interested you guys. Assuming I don’t end up in Saudi Arabian prison for taking pictures or requesting my nuts be warmed…

Superstar reader Mac points to this FlyerTalk thread, which suggests that Delta is now imposing fuel surcharges for award redemptions on Korean Air.

A few weeks ago I wrote about how Korean Air is actually a hidden gem of SkyTeam, given that they have excellent business class award availability to Asia. While they have blackout dates for nearly six months of the year, award space is wide open during any other time period. And they also serve lots of US destinations, I think more so than any other Asian airline, so they’re a great option for redeeming otherwise not-so-valuable SkyMiles.

Up until now Delta only imposed fuel surcharges for travel originating in Europe and also for travel on select partner airlines, like Virgin Australia and Air Tahiti Nui), though not for travel originating in the US on any SkyTeam partners .

Unfortunately it appears as if they have just recently added fuel surcharges for redemptions on Korean Air. I just called to price out an award ticket in business class, and it was just under $400 roundtrip, as opposed to the previous cost of under $100.

This seems to suggest they’re now adding on the YR/YQ surcharges, which are the fuel surcharges.

So I’m not sure if this is intentional or a glitch. If this is actually the new policy I’d say it’s a huge blow to the SkyMiles program, since this was just about the best use of SkyMiles.

If anyone has any data points with this, please share them in the comments section!

I’ve gone ahead and Tweeted Delta to ask, so feel free to retweet or ask them as well so we can hopefully put some pressure on them and get an answer.

A month ago I wrote about a change which I considered to be the greatest improvement to the Delta SkyMiles program in years. The change was that Expert Flyer started displaying business class award space for travel on Korean Air. If you’re familiar with Delta SkyMiles you probably know that the best way to redeem SkyMiles is for travel on their partner airlines, including Air France and Korean Air. Air France is a great option, as they’re good about releasing award space and it’s easy to search award space online.

Korean Air is a bit trickier, though still incredibly useful, at least in theory. They have tons of destinations in the US and are great about releasing award space. There are just two problems. The first, more minor problem, is that they have blackout dates. The second, bigger problem, is that it wasn’t possible to search Korean Air award space online, and you had to put yourself at the mercy of SkyMiles agents. As I’ve written about many times before, SkyMiles agents are absolutely the most clueless agents in the industry. Even when the inventory is known to be available, it can take several calls to get an agent that can actually “see” the flight.

This is why I was overjoyed by the change. I could find the space that I knew to be there and then call up Delta to book it. Now, it still wasn’t an easy task. On one occasion I tried to book a ticket for travel on Korean Air and had to call 11 times (!!!) before I got an agent that saw the space, and that’s after waiting on hold for 10 minutes each time as the agent requested the space. But still, the “game” of booking award tickets on Korean Air went from a wild guessing game to a game of “hang up and call again.”

Suffice it to say I was rather sad to see this disclaimer today on Expert Flyer:

So it appears it’s no longer possible to search Korean Air award availability on Expert Flyer, with the exception of intra-Asia flights. This does make me wonder, though, was this Delta or Korean Air’s doing?

And with this change SkyMiles depreciated just as quickly as they appreciated last month. They’re once again more or less useless for travel to Asia, while still quite useful for travel to Europe on Air France.