Editor’s observe: We’ve up to date this put up with new info.
Becoming a complicated award traveler requires you to grasp two separate expertise: incomes factors and miles and successfully redeeming them. By growing a portfolio of the most effective journey rewards bank cards, you possibly can grasp the primary talent. The second talent is more difficult.
Here at TPG, we’ve devoted numerous hours to serving to you redeem your transferable Chase Ultimate Rewards factors, American Express Membership Rewards factors, Citi ThankYou factors, Capital One miles, Marriott Bonvoy factors and Bilt Rewards factors on the most worth. Where most vacationers run into points, nevertheless, is discovering award house.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a common rule you possibly can comply with to make trying to find award house simpler. Each airline and award search engine has its execs, cons and quirks to pay attention to. Luckily, instruments like ProfessionalFlyer (owned by TPG’s mum or dad firm, Red Ventures) and level.me may help you seek for award availability throughout the main applications.
But, should you do not need to use a service like level.me, we’ll additionally talk about the place it’s best to seek for award house relying on which airline you need to fly. Let’s dive in.
ProfessionalFlyer
In this information, we’ll talk about which airways supply the most effective award search engines like google. But there’s additionally a strong software that makes it simple to seek for award house on a number of airways in a single place: ProfessionalFlyer.
If you’re unfamiliar with ProfessionalFlyer, learn our newbies information to award searches on ProfessionalFlyer to familiarize yourself. ProfessionalFlyer means that you can seek for award stock from most main airways on one interface. You can seek for as much as seven days at a time and seek for a number of cabins (i.e., first and enterprise class) in a single search.
ProfessionalFlyer doesn’t help each airline on the market (notable absences are Cathay Pacific, Delta and Japan Airlines), but when your airline of selection is supported, it’s best to begin your search there. The solely factor to recollect is that the outcomes aren’t all the time completely correct, so double-check with the airline earlier than you switch factors to e book your award.
Related: How to make use of ProfessionalFlyer alerts to snag a greater seat
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Point.me
Point.me is a paid net service that checks for award house on 33 applications throughout over 100 airways. You can search your required itinerary, the dates and the variety of vacationers. Point.me will then provide you with some real-time out there award choices you possibly can e book.
For instance, once I looked for a business-class flight from Newark to Munich, level.me prompt transferring 54,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards factors to Air Canada Aeroplan with the present switch bonus.
In our exams, the platform does not all the time give probably the most correct info (e.g., taxes and costs are sometimes inaccurate and generally award house is inaccurate), nevertheless it’s a terrific place to start out your searches. You should purchase a 24-hour cross or join an annual plan.
North American airways
To maintain this manageable, we’ve cut up up the information by geographic area, beginning with airways based mostly in North America.
You’ll discover just a few in style airways are lacking from this listing. If you propose on flying Southwest, JetBlue or Spirit with factors and miles, you must e book instantly by means of their loyalty applications and gained’t have to fret about selecting which associate to go looking with. These airways have restricted or no airline partnerships and use revenue-based loyalty applications.
U.S. legacy carriers are among the many best to cope with as a result of all of them have comparatively strong and complete search engines like google. More importantly, they’re all tilting towards dynamic pricing, which implies should you’re attempting to redeem United miles, it’s best to all the time search by means of United earlier than checking award availability with a associate.
One of the (many) downsides of dynamic pricing is that there’s much less saver award house out there, the bottom pricing band that’s usually required to e book awards by means of companions. Even when there may be saver-level award house, it’s not all the time simple to determine. If you propose on reserving your United flights by means of a associate like Avianca LifeMiles or Aeroplan to reap the benefits of decrease award charges, it’s best to search instantly with that associate program.
Air Canada Aeroplan is a reasonably engaging loyalty program, too — particularly for business-class flights to Europe. Regardless, examine pricing with Avianca LifeMiles earlier than transferring your bank card factors.
Related: How to keep away from gasoline surcharges on award journey
European airways
Lufthansa
Lufthansa top notch is arguably one of the best ways to fly between the U.S. and Europe with factors and miles, however you’ll should be cautious about which program you utilize to seek for award house and e book your ticket. Lufthansa solely releases first-class award house to its companions 30 days out, so that you’ll want some last-minute flexibility to make this occur.
Avianca LifeMiles fees a really cheap 87,000 miles for the one-way first-class award. Alternatively, you possibly can e book with Air Canada Aeroplan, however awards begin at 100,000 factors to or from East Coast airports, with longer flights charging extra miles. However, one of many upsides to utilizing Aeroplan is which you can add a stopover for five,000 factors on a one-way ticket.
This similar sample applies to different Star Alliance carriers as effectively. You’ll all the time need to examine Avianca LifeMiles and Air Canada Aeroplan to see which one has the most effective pricing on any given route. Award availability must be related throughout all these companions, so you will have a neater time looking with whichever program you propose to e book with if you have already got miles readily available.
Oneworld flights to Europe
Generally, you’ll have the most effective luck trying to find American, British Airways, Iberia and different Oneworld associate flights to Europe with American AAdvantage. Just observe that you just’ll need to e book Iberia flights with Iberia Plus Avios for the most effective charges. Likewise, you’ll get a greater deal reserving connecting tickets with AAdvantage miles as a substitute of Avios since British Airways fees per phase based mostly on distance.
All Oneworld applications tack on big gasoline surcharges for British Airways flights, however you possibly can scale back them should you e book with Cathay Pacific Asia Miles. Asia Miles persistently fees roughly half the gasoline surcharges you’d pay with different Oneworld applications.
SkyTeam woes
The two largest SkyTeam applications — Delta SkyMiles and Air France-KLM Flying Blue — use dynamic award pricing. So trying to find SkyTeam awards is sophisticated.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club nonetheless makes use of award charts, although. And you possibly can e book a one-way Delta One flight from the United States to Europe for simply 50,000 Flying Club factors.
Related: 6 ideas for reserving Lufthansa first-class awards
Asian airways
Singapore Airlines premium cabin awards
With Asia-based carriers, you’ll largely need to seek for award house based mostly on the alliance you’re flying with, however there are just a few notable exceptions. Singapore doesn’t launch any long-haul premium-cabin award house to most of its companions, besides Alaska Mileage Plan. So as a common rule, all the time seek for Singapore Airlines award house on the Singapore web site and verify the award worth on Alaska Mileage Plan earlier than deciding which program to e book with.
Cathay Pacific flights may be complicated
Cathay Pacific can also be difficult, as ProfessionalFlyer doesn’t help the airline. Cathay Pacific awards lately grew to become bookable utilizing Alaska’s web site. However, should you plan to e book with Asia Miles, search there first, as this system has traditionally opened extra commonplace award house to its members.
Make certain you’re getting the most effective deal on ANA award tickets
You’re usually finest reserving with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club factors if you wish to fly ANA. First-class ANA awards begin at simply 110,000 factors round-trip, which is a wonderful deal. ANA first-class flights departing the U.S. value 110,000 miles (or extra) one-way when booked with United MileagePlus miles. You can’t e book these tickets on the Virgin Atlantic web site. Find saver award house on the ANA or United web site, and name Virgin Atlantic to substantiate availability earlier than you switch rewards to e book.
You may also e book off-peak ANA business-class tickets beginning at 75,000 miles round-trip from the U.S. to Japan with ANA Mileage Club. These tickets are bookable on-line on ANA’s web site. Plus, you’re entitled to a free stopover elsewhere in Japan so that you could go to two cities for the worth of 1. Off-peak tickets to different locations in Asia are additionally a superb deal, however they may value extra factors.
SkyTeam isn’t any simpler
The similar SkyTeam woes that apply to looking for flights from the U.S. to Europe apply right here too. I like to recommend trying to find flights with Flying Blue and Delta SkyMiles for award house and pricing. Unfortunately, resulting from dynamic pricing, you’ll doubtless pay a giant chunk of factors whatever the route.
Related: The finest methods to fly to Asia in enterprise class
Other airways
If you need to fly on | Search for award house with |
---|---|
Avianca | Avianca LifeMiles
United MileagePlus |
LATAM | Delta SkyMiles
LATAM Pass |
Emirates | Emirates Skywards |
Etihad | American Airlines AAdvantage
Air Canada Aeroplan Etihad Guest |
El Al | Qantas Frequent Flyer |
Qantas | American Airlines AAdvantage
Qantas Frequent Flyer British Airways Executive Club |
Qatar | American Airlines AAdvantage
British Airways Executive Club |
South African Airways | Avianca LifeMiles
Air Canada Aeroplan United MileagePlus |
Getting to the Middle East isn’t (too) laborious
The Gulf carriers and their opulent premium cabins are a bucket listing merchandise for a lot of award vacationers. Unfortunately, you possibly can now not use Alaska miles to fly Emirates. So if you wish to use your miles to journey on Emirates, you are caught with Emirates Skywards, this system that is notorious for among the worst gasoline surcharges.
While award house is uncommon, you possibly can e book Qatar Qsuite on American’s web site. One-way Qsuite flights from the U.S. to the Middle East value simply 70,000 AAdvantage miles.
Etihad awards usually don’t seem on American’s web site, however you will discover Etihad award house on Air Canada’s web site. If you discover Etihad “guest first” availability, you possibly can name American Airlines to get it ticketed.
LATAM has left Oneworld
LATAM left Oneworld in 2020 and teamed up with Delta Air Lines. You’re finest off on the lookout for award house utilizing the Delta or LATAM web site after which calling your associate to e book your ticket. The airline has stored non-alliance partnerships with many Oneworld members, like Alaska Airlines.
Related: How to get to (and keep in) Dubai utilizing factors and miles
General ideas
Now that you understand the place to seek out award house in your subsequent journey, let’s take a look at just a few methods I take advantage of to make the method simpler.
Search phase by phase
This is an odd quirk of most award search engines like google, however you’ll typically get completely different outcomes should you seek for your full itinerary as a substitute of 1 flight at a time.
For instance, let’s say you need to fly Cathay Pacific top notch from Chicago to Bangkok. If you go to the British Airways web site and seek for a flight from Chicago to Bangkok, chances are you’ll not get any availability. If you do, there’s an opportunity it may very well be on British Airways flights connecting by means of London with excessive gasoline surcharges.
However, should you break your search into two, one for the Chicago-to-Hong Kong leg and one other for the Hong Kong-to-Bangkok leg, you will discover the flights you could piece collectively the itinerary. Then, you possibly can name the airline you’d prefer to e book with and have it e book the itinerary for you over the telephone.
Another approach to consider that is to attempt to construct longer journeys from the within out. I lately helped a buddy e book a visit from Miami to Bali. But with a minimal of two stops in that itinerary, we by no means looked for award flights from Miami to Bali. Instead, we looked for flights from New York, Chicago and Washington to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific. Once we discovered house on the longest phase, we regarded for positioning flights within the U.S. and Asia.
Take notes and are available ready
Many airline customer support brokers are good at their jobs, however you’ll get significantly better outcomes if you do the work your self.
So earlier than you name to e book an award flight, it’s best to have the precise dates and flight numbers you need. Make that recognized early within the dialog.
As quickly as I inform the agent the place I’m attempting to go, I’ll throw in, “I have the flight numbers here whenever you’re ready for them,” so that they don’t waste any time attempting to go looking on their finish. If you’ve achieved your homework to make sure that there may be award house and your routing is legitimate, these calls will go a lot simpler.
Related: Book this, not that: Star Alliance award tickets
Bottom line
Learning the right way to discover and e book award flights is among the hardest issues about award journey — particularly if you’re seeking to e book premium-cabin seats on a protracted flight.
You could have seen that regardless of the handfuls of airways coated on this put up, solely 5 or so important frequent flyer applications maintain popping up. Spend a while familiarizing your self with them and follow trying to find award house. That approach, if you’re able to fly, it would really feel like second nature.
Additional reporting by Andrew Kunesh and Kyle Olsen.
Source: thepointsguy.com”