Lufthansa offers one of my favorite first class products in the world, though unfortunately over the past few years it has become progressively more difficult to redeem miles for it. They only release first class award space to partner airlines at most ~15 days before departure, and even within that timeframe I’ve found they’re becoming stingier with releasing award space to the point that it’s tough to even find one first class award seat within a few days of departure in many of their premium markets (basically anywhere other than Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, Montreal, Vancouver, etc.).

One thing that causes a lot of confusion regarding Lufthansa first class award space is that for over a year now United’s website has been showing phantom first class award availability on Lufthansa. Not only has United’s website shown Lufthansa first class award space more than ~15 days out that wasn’t actually available, but it has also not shown the correct award space within the timeframe where it’s actually released. In other words, United’s website has been utterly useless for searching Lufthansa first class availability. That’s not a huge deal, given that the ANA website can be used to accurately search Lufthansa first class award space, though it is a bit of a pain to use since you have to search route by route.

There’s finally good news as of a few days ago, though — best I can tell United has fixed their phantom Lufthansa first class award availability issue for the most part. For one, I no longer see them incorrectly showing Lufthansa first class award space more than ~15 days out. I also find that when the United website shows Lufthansa first class award space within ~15 days of departure, it’s accurate.

However, there’s one case in which I don’t find availability displayed by United to be accurate. Take a look at space from Frankfurt to Detroit in first class, for example. ANA shows award space every day between May 22 and June 2, which is 15 days from now.

United.com shows award space for all those dates as well, except June 2. When I checked about eight hours ago (Saturday afternoon) it didn’t show space for June 1 either. So it seems now that United’s website is only showing space for travel within 14 days. That means if Lufthansa releases award space 15 days out, United’s website won’t immediately pick it up. I’m willing to bet that in another 24 hours United’s website will show the space for June 2 as well.

But since award availability can accurately be searched on ANA’s website, why should you care about United’s website now displaying Lufthansa first class award space accurately (for the most part)?

Because ExpertFlyer.com lets you set availability alerts for flights, whereby they’ll email or text you when the space you’re looking for opens up (you specify the flight and fare class you’re looking for). Up until now this has been useless for Lufthansa first class, because ExpertFlyer is pulling their availability from United’s website. That means if United’s website was incorrectly showing Lufthansa first class award space you’d get an alert. Similarly if Lufthansa first class award space was actually available but just wasn’t showing on United’s website, you wouldn’t get an alert.

Anyway, Lufthansa first class award space is tougher than ever before to find, so being able to set ExpertFlyer alerts and getting accurate results is more valuable than ever. Here’s a post I wrote on how to use ExpertFlyer to set award availability alerts.

Hopefully this makes finding Lufthansa first class award space with partner miles a bit easier…

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!)

Over the weekend I summarized the stopover and open jaw policies of the four major US carriers. I figured I’d provide a similar quick rundown of the award ticket change policies of those airlines, along with the corresponding fees for non-elites to make those changes.

American

American will let you make changes to your itinerary even after travel commences. As long as your award type and origin and destination remain the same there’s no fee for making the change. However, if the origin or destination change, there’s a fee of $150 per passenger for making the change.

In order to change the type of award (either regions, saver vs. standard, or class of service) you have to redeposit the current award and book a new one, which costs $150 for the first passenger and $25 for each additional passenger. It’s a bit odd that it’s more expensive to change an award than it is to redeposit an award, if you ask me.

The exception to this is American’s distance based awards, where no routing changes are allowed once the reservation is ticketed.

Delta

Delta won’t allow any changes to award tickets within 72 hours of departure. You can make a change to the return of the itinerary once travel commences, as long as it’s more than 72 hours from your travel date.

Delta also charges a $150 per person fee for any changes outside of 72 hours, be it a date, flight, routing, or airline change. If you change the award type (regions or class of service) you need to redeposit the award and start from scratch, which also comes with a $150 per person change fee.

United

United will let you make changes to your itinerary even after travel commences. If you make a routing change (meaning origin, destination, and type of award remain the same) more than 21 days before departure there’s no fee for making the change. However, for any changes made within 21 days of departure there’s a $75 per person change fee. That fee also applies for changes made to the origin, destination, airline, class of service, etc., more than 21 days before departure.

It’s worth noting, however, that making class of service and zone changes on a United award is much easier than with any other program. If you wanted to switch from a business to first class award with American and US Airways, for example, you’d have to redeposit your existing ticket and book a new one. Meanwhile United is able to “reprice” itineraries and deduct the difference in miles, which is very useful for complex itineraries.

US Airways

US Airways allows absolutely no changes once travel commences, and charges $150 per person for any date, routing, or flight change prior to departure. In the past if you had booked a business class award and were in coach on one segment, you could call US Airways if business class opened up and they’d let you “upgrade” to the cabin you paid for for free. Nowadays 99% of agents even charge for that change.

Summary

I’d say United has the most generous policy for changes thanks to their low fees and liberal change policies both before or after departure. I’d say American ranks second, given the free changes they allow to routings, while it’s frustrating that if you change regions or class of service you have to start from scratch and redeposit your award. Next is Delta, I’d say, which is fine in that they allow changes after departure, though the 72 hour rule is quite frustrating. And last is US Airways, in my opinion, given that they allow no changes once travel commences.

I asked you guys what you’d like to read about, so this post is in response to a question posted there. I’ll address as many of the questions as I can in the coming weeks. Feel free to keep adding to the list and I’ll use it as a basis for future posts.

Reader Col wanted to know the following:

Tips on finding non-united premium award space to Australia. Seems that both AirNZ and AC have almost zero J space over the next year. Tricks? Timing?

As Col points out, using Star Alliance miles for nonstop business/first class travel between the US and Australia/New Zealand can be very difficult.

Air New Zealand releases virtually no business class award space on their nonstop flights between North America and Auckland. In the past they’d consistently release space 60 days before departure, though that’s not the case anymore, and I don’t remember the last time I saw an Air New Zealand nonstop business class award seat out of Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Vancouver.

As far as Air Canada goes, they are quite stingy with releasing business class award space on their Vancouver to Sydney route. That being said, it’s not impossible to find space on it. They occasionally release award seats 11 months out, though not in any consistent pattern. It’s much more common for them to release award space closer to departure, though even then they’re hardly generous.

United does fairly consistently release award space 11 months out and then again within a couple of weeks of departure, but you specifically note you’d like to avoid them, which I can understand.

So in practice the best way to get to Australia using United miles in a non-United premium cabin is by routing through Asia. There are a few options I consider to be pretty awesome:

Asiana through Seoul Incheon

Asiana operates a daily 777 between Seoul Incheon and Sydney. Availability is excellent, as you can see below (the dates in green have both coach and business class saver award space available on the nonstop), even in the high season. The flight is also timed well for US connections, so it’s not too grueling of a journey to make in a single day.

Air New Zealand via Tokyo, Osaka, Shanghai, or Hong Kong

While Air New Zealand is stingy about releasing award space on their US routes, they’re quite generous with releasing space on their Asia routes. While they’re stingy on their Hong Kong route, they release quite a bit of award space to Tokyo and Osaka, and a ton of award space to Shanghai.

For example, in the high season they have business class award space from Shanghai to Auckland almost every day.

Award availability out of Osaka isn’t quite as good, though still decent given that it’s the high season.

And while I’m not seeing much award space out of Tokyo in November and December, the route is fairly wide open the rest of the year.

One note of caution — be sure you book a 777 and not a 767, as those feature Air New Zealand’s regional business class seats, and they aren’t especially comfortable for a ~10 hour flight. However, their longhaul business class product is excellent with fully flat herringbone seats.

Air New Zealand BusinessPremier

Thai Airways via Bangkok

Thai Airways has amazing award availability between Bangkok and Australia/New Zealand. For example, take a look at award space between Bangkok and Sydney, which is operated by a three cabin aircraft (meaning you can redeem for first class on the route).

Thai Airways also offers service to Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth. Award space is also quite good on those routes, though generally Sydney has the best availability.

Thai Airways first class

Singapore Airlines via Singapore

Singapore Airlines only releases first and business class award space for their new first and business class products to those redeeming KrisFlyer miles, while those with partner Star Alliance miles don’t have access to that space. That being said, they do release business class award space on their old product, which they still fly on several of their routes to Australia and New Zealand. As a result, award space on Singapore Airlines is excellent. As you can see, almost every day in the peak season has nonstop business class award space between Singapore and Sydney.

Singapore Airlines also flies to Auckland, Adelaide, Brisbane, Christchurch, Melbourne, and Perth, and award space on those routes is unreal.

Unfortunately the hard product on their old product isn’t great, though you can’t compete with the service on Singapore, which is consistently top notch.

Singapore Airlines Airbus A330 business class

So I guess the short answer is that there’s no “easy” way to get award space on Air New Zealand or Air Canada direct from North America to Australia. But if you’re willing to route via Asia, there are some pretty cool options. Keep in mind that if booking through United you’re entitled to one stopover enroute, so you could break up the journey by stopping in Asia in one direction. You also get an open jaw, so can fly into one city in Australia and out of another.

Any questions/comments?

One of the nice benefits of United Global Premier Upgrades (GPUs) is that they can be redeemed on Lufthansa flights day of on a space available basis. They can be used to upgrade from coach to business if you book a minimum of a “V” fare, or to upgrade from business to first class if you book a “C” or “D” fare. The process for using these upgrades is slightly different than for travel on United, since paper upgrades have to be requested from United, mailed to you, and then presented at check-in. However, you could request these even without a specific flight in mind, and they were also transferable.

Well, starting March 1, 2013, they’ll be changing the process. When I first saw the headline I figured they had a way to make the process easier, like allowing one to request the upgrades online. Unfortunately the reality is quite the opposite. Per UA Insider, here’s the new policy:

Starting March 1, when you request a GPU certificate for use on Lufthansa, we’ll ask you to provide some additional information:

• First and last name of the traveler who will be presenting the certificate to Lufthansa
• Departure and arrival city/airport of the flight segment to be upgraded (reminder: GPUs are used on a per-segment basis on LH)
• Flight number and flight date
• Confirmation number of itinerary associated with segment to be upgraded (this can be the Lufthansa confirmation number or the confirmation number of another airline/travel agency you used to book your ticket)

This information, with the exception of flight date, will be printed on the certificate before it is mailed to you. After that, the redemption process with Lufthansa remains the same.

Lastly, we understand that travel plans can change, and so long as the name of the traveler and the flight segment remain the same, the certificates will be honored by Lufthansa (on a space-available basis). However, it will be at Lufthansa’s discretion to honor the upgrade should any other flight details change. Since this remains a per-segment upgrade product, we do recommend printing certificates specific to each LH segment you might which to upgrade on your full itinerary.

This change is quite customer unfriendly. I can understand they’d want to print the name of the traveler on the certificate (to avoid bartering or theft), but requesting the confirmation number, flight number, and date? That’s ridiculous. Lots of people only book tickets last minute, and it takes a few days for the upgrades to be mailed.

So if your plans change you can apply the upgrade for the same segment, though if you want to use it for a different segment it’s at Lufthansa’s discretion to honor it. Put another way, say you’re flying roundtrip between New York and Frankfurt and you have one systemwide upgrade left that you want for use on Lufthansa. If the outbound upgrade doesn’t clear it would be entirely at Lufthansa’s discretion to decide whether or not they want to let you apply it on the return.

So while I can see the logic in wanting to have the name of the traveler printed on the certificate, the rest of the changes are mindless and a huge devaluation to these certificates, in my opinion.