Which Star Alliance Program Is Best For First and Business Class Awards?

This is extremely helpful. Thanks! This is the question I have been asking for a couple of months.

How does ANA measure mileage for their distances? For example if I stick the airports on my itinerary into GC mapper is that (more or less) the distance I should expect ANA to come up with? I assume that it must be based on adding up all of the segments and not just on the distance between origin and ultimate destination, right?

Lufthansa?

@RakSiam
It is the sum of the distance of all the flights.

@ RakSiam -- Correct, it's the sum of the distance of all segments. If you enter the itinerary into gcmap.com you should get a similar number to what ANA will calculate. Sometimes there's a slight difference as some airlines calculates the distances between airports, while others calculate the distances between cities.

Great analysis! How about earning miles on these programs? I think United has the more generous earning chart for discount economy classes. And how about elite status? If you add these to your analysis, it would be a perfect one. Specially, since I am thinking of switching from United...

very sad indeed... even before this article i was actually decided i will credit my next United flight to Avianca. i understand the risk of devaluation but i think in this case it's better the devil you don't know... than United.

What about TK's program, any view on it?

If i remember correctly, ANA allows 4 stopovers on an award ticket.

@ XX -- Whoops, you're right, thanks.

I think the Miles % More chart is not bad if you credit miles flown on business or first class, as the distance is multiplied by 2 or 3 instead of the traditionals 1,25 or 1,5. But if you get miles from credit cards, it´s not that good.

Is ANA allow oneway redemption?

@ VV -- You have to originate and terminate in the same country. So in most cases it's not practical to do a one-way.

@ Lucky - For those that can´t get those big credit card signups bonuses, which programs sell miles at reasonable rates? Anyone besides Lifemiles, AAdvantage and MileagePlan on promotions?

@ Carlos -- Not really unfortunately. Only consistently decent offers are from Alaska, American, Avianca, and US Airways.

I’ve received dozens of similar questions lately, and there’s no doubt that economically booking premium cabin Star Alliance awards will become much more difficult as of March 30, 2013.

@Lucky, Don't you mean March 30, 2014?

Lucky, thanks for this very helpful post. Is there any chance that some time between now and maybe the end of February, you could do up a post to help people decide what their best options are for US Dividend Miles before and after the alliance switch? Or just the pros and cons of each alliance, given the current US Dividend Miles award chart and routing rules?

My current travel plans through 2014 are mostly set and booked, so I might just hold off and use the miles with OW, but I also don't want to miss some excellent value itinerary that's possible with *A but not so much with OW. Any travel through Europe, for instance, looks like it will be less value on OW because most routings will result in the insane London fees/taxes.

I'd love to do Air New Zealand for something in the southern spring or summer, but it looks like that's just not an option, given how closely they hold their seats for NA-NZ non-stops. Are they still really tight on availability? Prefer business, but would consider coach, given the relatively high cost of those flights.

@ Jim -- Whoops, you're right, thanks. Fixed!

@ Autolycus -- Great idea, let me write a post about that for tomorrow.

It has been months since I've seen an award seat on a mainland US to New Zealand flight. If you are willing to route through Asia availability is often a bit better.

The United devaluation has really increased the relative value of Amex MR points. Hopefully they come out with some good offers this year.

Although United's devaluation makes it a worse deal before, depending on how routing rules change, you can still do Africa + Asia for 160K miles in business class, which is not much more than Aeroplan and no surcharges.

Or Oceania for 150K. For those of us in the US, it's still easy to rack up a lot of Chase points, 3 successful card applications (and the minimum spend) will get you to around 160K.

I also have the question about booking directly on lufthansa and how that compares to the choices you mentioned

@lucky, I look forward to that post, thanks for listening to my suggestion!

That's what I was afraid of with NZ. Due to spousal concerns--mostly with total travel time to destination--a routing through Asia is probably not an option. Sounds like the best option for that future trip is gonna be a revenue ticket in a shoulder season (in coach, blech!, unless routing through SYD or BNE on VA (with SkyMiles) isn't too much longer total time than LAX-AKL.

@ Autolycus - I did see a small amount of NZ Y availablity in December for travel that month on SFO-AKL, but J space has been non-existent in my experience for at least a year, probably closer to 18 months. Perhaps Ben has been luckier than I though 🙂

If you route through Asia (PVG/NRT) NZ does have the 787 in the schedule from ~ Nov 10, with good Y space. The NRT option doesn't seem to have any J space open, but there is the odd J seat PVG-AKL.

There is also the Fiji Airways option to NZ/Australia but from my quick look a couple of months ago they did not seem to release much J space on LAX-NAN. Definitely worth keeping an eye on though.

For ANA:

1. Are one way awards allowed, or only r/t?
2. Do they release more premium award space to their own members like LH/Miles and More?

Thanks Lucky!

@ Dan -- Your travel has to originate and terminate in the same country, so in most cases it's not practical to do one-way awards. They release the same space to their own members as they do to partners.

@ Autolycus -- In that case I'd say going through Australia is your best bet. Maybe your wife would be okay with it if you had a stopover there as well? 🙂

@ Carlos @ jimltravels -- So there are definitely some "sweet spots" on the Lufthansa chart, but for the most part the redemption rates are fairly high (up to 290,000 for roundtrip first class out of North America), fuel surcharges substantial, and the points aren't that easy to rack up through credit card transfers. But if you're crediting premium cabin flights they can be a great option.

very timely and informative post. Thanks again!

Thanks for the article Lucky. I'm looking for new earning opportunities that come with worthwhile sweet spots on the redemption chart. I'm really sick of the fuel surcharge angle. I expect to pay taxes and mandatory airport levies but anything else should be rolled into the points cost in my view.

I used to be an ANA diamond member, when their program was much better than it is now.
There are downsides as well.

Miles expire, and unless you are a diamond member, there is almost no way to extend the validity (unless you live in Japan).

Issued awards have different degrees of flexibility.

Rules are sometimes quirky. Unlike US airways, NH staff knows the rules, very very well, and there is absolutely no way that they will misinterprete, or bend them for you.

ANA is also great, perhaps the best option of any frequent flyer program, for around-the-world tickets, as long as you're not doing a crazy amount of north-south distance that would jack up your award cost. I'm not sure if the award chart is exactly the same as it was then but a few years back I did a RTW trip in business class using ANA miles for 125K miles covering a few cities in each of Asia and Europe. RTW tickets also allow you a greater number of stopovers, I think it might be 8.

Is AmEx MR points to ANA transfer instant? If not, usually how long does it take? Thx!

@ DJ -- It usually takes 24-48 hours.

I think redeeming SQ miles for *A F between Europe and Middle East at the rate of 37.5K miles is not bad a deal.

A friend of mine said he'd do a US 90k with me, which I think is a great idea since I've never been to Asia and am widely known as a pretty awesome travel companion. However, said friend has not followed through on this offer and I don't want to bug him about it. I was considering going by myself but I worry about getting kidnapped and sold into sex slavery.

[…] Mile at a Time discusses some alternatives to US Airways and United Airlines if you want to book an award ticket on Star Alliance […]

@Andrew B
You can safely do Tokyo; You can also do Beijing if in good hotel, just do not do a Lucky with the pearls shop offer
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I am booking awards like crazy with North Asia - EU and back for everyone I know.
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Lucky, what about Aegean or Turkish?
The old days are sure gone from Star Alliance - I guess the stars (for redemptions) Aeroplan, US and UA are getting dim.

The best values on US are still the 90k North Asia in C (120 F)
and 110k Australia in C (140 F)
There is still good availability out there after the summer with some flexibility
EU to NZ/SYD for 120k in C is also another good value on US.

I forgot, the death of BMI was the start of the end.

Thank you, Lucky! Do I recall correctly that all of them except SQ KF allow partner award bookings online?

SQ KF own award chart is good, especially if you book online (15% discount). *A chart isn't horrible - I believe it was 80K in F for IAH-DME-VIE (one-way). Not being able to book that online is a downside but their call center is generally good and they simply do a reservation/hold on your route and you can pay online later. Lastly, what I really, really like about KF awards is not being charged fees to change dates (even same-day is $75) -- no need to have a certain status (at least, for F awards). And they are open 24 hours a day too.

@ Ivan Y -- Yep, of the above programs they all allow partner bookings online, except KrisFlyer.

Was the sex slavery comment/response genuine or a joke?

Thanks for the helpful analysis.

Does ANA, or any of these other programs for that matter, make J/F award space more available for their own members? When using the ANA search tool for Star Alliance partner flights, it seems like they do, but I couldn't tell. Given it's hard to come by via partner awards, it would seem like this would be a huge incentive to use the ANA program directly.

@ Ty -- There are some Star Alliance airlines that make more award space available to their own members than to members of partner programs. For example, Lufthansa, Singapore, and Swiss do. However, most carriers don't, and ANA seems to give partner members and members of their own program access to the same space.

great post!