May 16, 2010

My take on the very best airline mileage award values

View from the wing talked about his take on the very best airline mileage award values and I’d like to add more.

Without a doubt, airline mileage award always get better value when redeeming on business/first class, but I know some people enjoy to visit more places than burning miles all at once, so I will also mention some good redemption on economy too. Back in 2008, I wrote an article to summarize all good value awards, but two years later, lots of them changed. here is my new summary:

American Airline:

70K/90K in business/first from Asia 2 to South Pacific including Easter Island

60K/90K in business/first from Asia 1 and 2 to Middle East

20K/40K in economy within Europe

20K economy within countries like Chile (excluding Easter Island), Argentina

Low season economy to Europe, South America 2 and Asia 1

Also, most importantly, all award can be redeemed for one way at half of RT cost.

Alaska airline:

Besides what’s Gary has mentioned in his blog, 7500 for one way travel within Alaska is also a great value

British Airways:

all economy/business award on single partner Lan from NA to South Aemrica(especially Southern South America) are excellent value.40K in economy, 80K in Business, all can be redeemed for one way at half of RT cost. Note: IPC(Eastern Island) is considered as part of Chile, so same amount as to South America

Also, all econ/business award on lan within South America/single country are also good value. 20K economy for within same country, 25K economy within south america, times 2 for business, divide by 2 for one way.

All BA awards allows unlimited stopover provided u are using the most direct routing, that means from LAX-IPC, you can get at least 2 stopovers, one in LIM, another one in SCL.

BA single airline to Asia in business class is considered a great value too.

British Midland:

BD still offers one the best award redemption table in business class. as mentioned before, no big changes since then. besides the great value in business class, there are some excellent value in economy class too.

one way Non stop flight within Europe from Zone 1 to 2, for Cash+miles, this award costs only 3000 miles+some cash. some non stop flights can be very expensive within the region.

Economy/business class within zone 5 or btw zone 5-6, within zone 5 costs only 5000 miles+cash in economy one way, but zone 5 covers almost entire Middle East/Central Asia/North Africa all the way to Tanzania.

Continental:

CO currently has exactly same redemption table as UA, but routing and award rule/availability are much much better than UA.

From North Asia-South Asia business class costs only 30K, you can go as far as Indonesia and you can find some crazy routing on Co website.

In addition, unlike most *A carriers program, you can combine non *A carriers with *A carriers when u searching online, that’s including VS upper class.

Don’t forget, you can one stopover+one open jaw with CO miles

For same amount, you actually get much better value with CO mile than UA.

Delta:

After NW and DL merged, DL have the worst availability in the entire industry, especially for award to Asia. However, with help of KL and AF, award to Europe/Middle East/central Asia/Africa are not that terrible yet.

100K business from US-EU with open jaw and stopover
110K business from US-EU, with stopover in EU, then open jaw from Africa/ Middle East/Central Asia or v.v
120K business from US-any Africa/ Middle East/Central Asia with stopover in EU and return from another region

If you are still wondering how to travel btw these regions Africa/ Middle East/Central Asia, BMI miles I mentioned above is your friend.

Also, 20K in economy anywhere within Asia is not that bad.

Note: Delta Awards allow one stopover+one open jaw for travel to/within any region provided their stupid system can recognize it.

KLM/AF:

KLM and AF offer 50% off redemption award year round to selected destinations, a lot of times, economy award from US-Europe can be as low as 25K, also business class award often half off too.

United:

Really, I can not find any,as I said, UA and CO have exactly identical redemption table, but UA has too many restrictions such as *A blocking, open jaw or stopover, not both. Non*A partner can not be combined with *A partner, etc……

US airways:

I just mentioned US airways few days ago, it’s one of the best program is US now.

US airways consider Russia as North Asia, from Russia-Hong Kong 20K in economy and most program consider Russia as Europe, so you only need 40K from Hong Kong to Europe in coach RT, first to Russian with US airways miles+AA miles from Russia to Europe.

or even better, fly to LED, then take a cruise to HEL.

Low season redemption on US own flight is a excellent deal too.

ANA:

I mentioned here and here how to best use ur ANA(AMEX rewards) miles.

Virgin Atlantic:

Whenever award is on sale

Lan(distance based)

Dan deals had a summary on Lan kilometers, best is for non stop short haul flight.

Once again, there are many good redemption levels to certain regions/countries on different programs worldwide, but accumulating and managing miles on those programs may not as easy as programs mentioned above, so I won’t suggest to put your miles into a program you are not to familiar with or just for a particular award unless u need to travel to/from that region frequently.

Posted by Troy under American Airlines, AMEX Membership Rewards, BMI Diamond Club, British Airways, Continental Airline, Delta, General Frequent Flyer Advice, Other Airline Reward Programs, United Airlines, US airways | 5 Comments to Read