My 10 Top Tips For Redeeming Airline Miles & Points, To Maximize Value

My 10 Top Tips For Redeeming Airline Miles & Points, To Maximize Value

11
In the interest of full disclosure, OMAAT earns a referral bonus for anyone that’s approved through some of the below links. These are the best publicly available offers (terms apply) that we have found for each product or service. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of the bank, credit card issuer, airline, hotel chain, or product manufacturer/service provider, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Please check out our advertiser policy for further details about our partners, and thanks for your support!

There’s a big learning curve to using miles and points well. As many OMAAT readers can attest to, it can take some effort to redeem for first and business class award travel, but the benefits of doing so can be awesome.

While most of us would never pay cash for international first and business class tickets (they can sometimes cost $10,000+), miles make these kinds of experiences attainable, for pennies on the dollar. Admittedly it’s sometimes overwhelming for people to get into miles and points, so once in a while I think it makes sense to go back to the basics and look at the “big picture” of redeeming miles.

If you’ve redeemed miles for an international first or business class partner award ticket at the saver level, feel free to skip this post, as you likely won’t learn a lot. If you’ve redeemed miles mostly for domestic flights at the “rule buster” or standard award rate, hopefully this post helps. And if you have any questions, let me know in the comments section below.

Emirates’ new first class — attainable with airline miles

With that in mind, below are my top tips for maximizing how you redeem your airline miles, roughly ranked in the order that I think they’re important.

Earn flexible points currencies with credit cards

Most savvy consumers in the United States with good credit don’t earn a majority of their airline miles through actually flying, but rather through credit cards. Credit cards offer huge welcome bonuses, and great bonus categories on spending. While you could get an airline credit card and earn a specific mileage currency, I wouldn’t recommend that in general.

Instead I’d recommend getting credit cards that earn transferable points currencies. Specifically, I’m talking about the following four main currencies:

Not only do these cards often have massive welcome bonuses and a great return on spending, but the key thing they offer is flexibility. Points currencies all have different values, and the beauty of transferable points currencies is that you can transfer them to over a dozen partner programs at a 1:1 ratio.

In other words, instead of earning a specific mileage currency that could easily be devalued overnight and that offers limited flexibility, earn points that can be transferred to over a dozen programs, and in turn can be redeemed on 100+ airlines.

Just as an example, below are the Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partners, all of which allow 1:1 transfers.

Airline Partners
Hotel Partners
IHG One Rewards
Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partners

Why earn just Air Canada points, or JetBlue points, or Southwest points, or United miles, when you can use a card that earns points that could later be transferred to any of those programs? As I’ll explain below, you’re not limited to actually flying those airlines, as those airlines have lots of other partnerships as well.

Earn transferable points currencies whenever possible

Understand airline partnerships & alliances

Most people assume that they should earn miles with the airline that they actually want to fly with. Well, that’s not the case, and this creates the beautiful world of award redemption arbitrage opportunities. Most airlines have a variety of partnerships with other airlines, whereby you can earn or redeem miles when traveling with one of their partner airlines.

This is designed to give loyal passengers of each airline as much global coverage as possible — since an airline can’t take you everywhere in the world, hopefully their partners can at least get you close. Many airlines belong to one of the “big three” alliances (oneworld, SkyTeam, and Star Alliance), while other airlines just have individual partnerships.

Air Canada Aeroplan points are among my favorite points currencies, so let me use that as an example, as the program is transfer partners with most major transferable points currencies. On top of that, Air Canada belongs to the Star Alliance, so you can redeem your Aeroplan points on any Star Alliance airline (listed below).

Aegean Airlines
Austrian Airlines
EVA Air
TAP Air Portugal
Air Canada
Avianca
LOT Polish Airlines
Thai Airways
Air China
Brussels Airlines
Lufthansa
Turkish Airlines
Air India
Copa Airlines
Shenzhen Airlines
United Airlines
Air New Zealand
Croatia Airlines
Singapore Airlines
All Nippon Airways
EgyptAir
South African Airways
Asiana Airlines
Ethiopian Airlines
SWISS
Star Alliance airlines

But it gets even better than that. Aeroplan has all kinds of partnerships with non-Star Alliance airlines, ranging from Air Mauritius, to Air Serbia, to Gulf Air, to Oman Air — the redemption possibilities are extensive. So always research the website of the airline with which you have miles, in order to figure out who they partner with.

Let me give one last example of this, which demonstrates the extent to which there are arbitrage opportunities. Say you want to fly All Nippon Airways’ amazing first class from the United States to Japan (assuming you could find award availability).

All Nippon Airways belongs to the Star Alliance, so you could book through United MileagePlus. The catch is that United charges a minimum of 242,000 MileagePlus miles one-way for such an award. Say you could instead earn Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points (Virgin Atlantic partners with all major transferable points currencies). That award would now cost you just 72,500-85,000 points, which is less than half as much.

Now, all that being said, there are discrepancies in award availability between programs. We are increasingly seeing some airlines add restrictions when it comes to redeeming partner rewards currencies, so do keep that in mind.

All Nippon Airways’ Boeing 777 first class

Redeem miles for first & business class

The average consumer assumes that an international first or business class ticket isn’t a realistic goal. While that might be true if you have to pay cash, it’s a different story if you have access to miles. In many cases, a credit card welcome bonus alone is enough for an international first or business class ticket.

The reality is that while an international first class ticket might cost 10x as much as an economy ticket when paying cash, it might only cost 2-3x as much when paying with miles. Obviously everyone has different travel goals, but if you’ve always dreamed of flying first or business class and have a good credit score, know that this is a realistic goal.

Redeem just 80,000 American miles for Japan Airlines first class

Learn how & where to search award space

Back in the day most airlines didn’t display partner award availability on their websites, making it really tricky to actually search award availability. You often had to book partner awards by phone, and many agents weren’t properly trained in how to book awards.

Fortunately airline websites have improved considerably over the years, making it easier to search award space and ticket reservations with miles. Most airlines will show most partner award availability through their website, though that’s not the case in all situations. Furthermore, if you’re trying to search weeks of availability at a time, some websites are better than others.

If at all possible, try to search award availability for yourself online, rather than phoning up the airline and relying on an agent to help. As far as searching award availability with the “big three” alliances goes:

  • For oneworld, I find the websites of Alaska, American, and British Airways, to be best for searching award availability; Alaska and American are especially useful for having calendar views, so you can search availability over time
  • For Star Alliance, I find the websites of Air Canada and United to be best for searching award availability; Air Canada is noteworthy for showing all partner awards online, and displaying the most accurate inventory
  • For SkyTeam, there’s not really a best website, since SkyTeam airlines tend to only release some award space to partner airlines; I find Air France-KLM Flying Blue to be the most useful SkyTeam program, so I usually search availability through there

There are some other third party websites that are also useful for searching award availability:

  • One great resource is point.me, which really simplifies the process of searching award availability and redeeming miles; you can find all the award space that would be bookable based on which transferable points currency you have, and then you’ll be walked through the process of booking
  • Another great resource is seats.aero, and in particular the “tools” the site has, where you can see all Lufthansa first class availability, all Qatar Airways business class availability, etc., across routes

You’ll also generally want to be strategic about how you search award availability. For example, if you are planning a long haul award and live near a small airport, maybe look at award availability from other nearby airports. Even look at awards from major international gateways, and then consider booking your ticket separately to that gateway.

Nowadays most airlines show partner award space online

Know when airlines open their schedules

Many people understandably have specific periods where they can travel, perhaps based on school holidays or the ability to take time off work. In those situations, you’re often best off trying to book as soon as the schedule opens.

Airlines all open up their schedules at different times, typically somewhere between 10 and 12 months before departure. Knowing when they open up award space can be the difference between finding award space and not finding award space.

Below is a chart covering when many major airlines open their award calendars.

Airline Loyalty Program
How far in advance you can book
Air Canada Aeroplan
355 days
Air France-KLM Flying Blue
359 days
Alaska Mileage Plan
330 days
All Nippon Airways Mileage Club
355 days
American AAdvantage
331 days
Asiana Club
361 days
Avianca Lifemiles
360 days
British Airways Club
355 days
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
360 days
Delta SkyMiles
331 days
Emirates Skywards
328 days
Etihad Guest
330 days
Finnair Plus
361 days
Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles
330 days
Iberia Club
330 days
Japan Airlines Mileage Bank
360 days
Korean Air SkyPass
361 days
Lufthansa Miles & More
360 days
Qantas Frequent Flyer
353 days
Qatar Airways Privilege Club
361 days
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
355 days
United MileagePlus
337 days
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
331 days
When airlines open award calendars

It’s important to understand that airlines don’t release award space in all cabins on all flights, so if you check space the day it opens and there’s nothing available, that doesn’t necessarily mean someone else “beat you to it.”

Some airlines do nowadays have an award space guarantee, where they promise that award seats will be released when the schedule opens. Specifically, British Airways and Finnair both have this promise.

British Airways has an award space guarantee

Don’t be afraid to book last minute

This is probably the single greatest trick when it comes to finding award space. A lot of people assume that airlines release award space right when the schedule opens, and then don’t release any after that.

Quite to the contrary, many airlines release the most award space last minute, when there are unsold seats that would otherwise likely go out empty. While these tickets might often cost the most when paying cash (since airlines assume these seats are booked by business travelers), they can be a great deal with points.

Admittedly this doesn’t work for many peoples’ schedules. However, if you’re feeling spontaneous and want to travel to Europe for the weekend in comfort, airline miles can make that happen pretty efficiently at the last minute.

I’ve booked Lufthansa first class awards day of departure

Be flexible & spontaneous with travel

I know this sounds obvious and for many people is the reason they don’t like miles, but you do have to be a bit flexible if you want to book award tickets. Rather than looking at needing to be flexible as a huge obstacle, keep in mind just how much value you can get out of miles if you’re redeeming them properly.

While it might be a pain to be flexible on dates when you’re trying to redeem miles for a one-way ticket between Los Angeles and San Francisco, hopefully we can look at it a bit differently if we’re talking about redeeming miles for business class between Los Angeles and Singapore, for example.

I’m also not suggesting that you should decide where you’re going to travel based on where there’s award space, but I do tend to think it can be a fun motivator at times. We all have a bucket list of destinations we’d like to visit, so if you see a bunch of award availability open up to a destination that has been on your list (but maybe not at the very top), that could be worth considering.

For example, sometimes an airline may kick off a new frequent flyer partnership, or launch a new route, and that comes with a massive amount of award availability. As an example of a bucket list destination, we’ve seen this several times before with Fiji Airways, where the airline suddenly opens a lot of business class award space.

Let award availability influence where you go (sometimes)

Read trip reports before booking

Not all first and business class experiences are created equal. Assuming you have a choice of products at the same mileage level, I suggest reading some online reviews and trip reports of the airlines before making a booking.

For example, if your goal is to fly international first class, you’re going to have a very different experience flying American Airlines’ Boeing 777 first class than you’ll have flying Singapore Airlines’ A380 Suites.

Singapore Airlines’ spectacular A380 Suites

Study award change & redeposit fees

Thanks to the pandemic, airlines offer a lot more flexibility than they used to, including with award tickets. Airlines have vastly different fees when it comes to changing and cancelling award tickets, and those policies are worth being aware of.

Why does it matter so much? Maybe you want to lock in a great award tickets 11 months in advance, but you’re not 100% sure you’ll be able to take the trip. You might not want to lock in that award if the cancelation fee were $200 per person, while if you could cancel it for free, maybe it would be worthwhile.

So when at all possible, book with programs that have low or no change and cancelation fees, since that gives you a lot more flexibility, and can save you lots of money.

American AAdvantage has no award change & cancelation fees

Accept that miles aren’t ideal for everyone

Everyone has different travel goals. Some couples may want to travel to Thailand in business class, while some families may want to travel to Orlando for spring break. Both kinds of travel are great, but miles and points won’t get you equal value there.

The fact is that traditional mileage currencies can get you great value on long haul, international tickets, as well as first and business class tickets. However, if you’re wanting to travel domestically in economy on specific dates, you’re usually going to be better off earning cash back (or a cash back equivalent points currency) instead.

It’s important to view credit card rewards in terms of opportunity cost. Some people are best off getting something like the Citi Double Cash® Card (review), which offers 1% cash back when you make a purchase and 1% cash back when you pay for that purpose (in the form of ThankYou points). By the time you’ve paid your bill, you’re earning two cents back for each dollar spent.

Accruing that cash back and then being able to redeem it toward whatever travel experience you’re eyeing (or anything else) could be a good option as well, especially if you just want to travel domestically and don’t have much flexibility.

Sometimes you’re better off earning cash back instead of miles

Bottom line

There’s a learning curve to efficiently redeeming airlines miles and points, but the rewards can potentially be huge. International first and business class tickets are attainable with a bit of effort, just by maximizing credit card rewards. The above are some of my top tips to make sure you’re getting the best value.

Do you have any tips for redeeming miles and points that I haven’t mentioned?

Conversations (11)
The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.
Type your response here.

If you'd like to participate in the discussion, please adhere to our commenting guidelines. Anyone can comment, and your email address will not be published. Register to save your unique username and earn special OMAAT reputation perks!

  1. hal Curette Guest

    I have 80K AA miles and want to go Greece. Any hints

  2. iamhere Guest

    I think for many people it is about their overall plan. If you frequent for whatever reason one airline alliance or one hotel group. You might redeem Oneworld points for a less than satisfactory deal if you don't frequent their alliance group but as a way to at least obtain some value from the points, for example.

  3. Alan2 Guest

    Recently I used Chase points to book a flight simply because I could not believe the flight was available through their portal. I was invited to a wedding in Siberia and transited Beijing on the way to Russia flying on Air China. United's website would not even list the destination city. All US and western European travel consolidators refuse to list any flights to Russia so I still cannot believe the Chase portal does. You...

    Recently I used Chase points to book a flight simply because I could not believe the flight was available through their portal. I was invited to a wedding in Siberia and transited Beijing on the way to Russia flying on Air China. United's website would not even list the destination city. All US and western European travel consolidators refuse to list any flights to Russia so I still cannot believe the Chase portal does. You can even book flights on some Russian Airlines. Of course I saved a bit of money since I could still use 1.5 points per dollar but the novelty was my justification in this case. United did permit me to credit the flight as well.

  4. MichaelB Guest

    IMO, the points game long ago transitioned from one where you could reliably use points for long haul premium cabin travel into one where that is only realistic on opportunistic basis. As business class fares now fluctuate widely, I first look for good cash deals before turning to points options. And, as you note, I also find that cc options that let you use points agnostically provide the greatest benefit. Typically, I now find that...

    IMO, the points game long ago transitioned from one where you could reliably use points for long haul premium cabin travel into one where that is only realistic on opportunistic basis. As business class fares now fluctuate widely, I first look for good cash deals before turning to points options. And, as you note, I also find that cc options that let you use points agnostically provide the greatest benefit. Typically, I now find that transferring points to hotels (especially Hyatt) maximizes value. When flying, I always seek the most efficient routing that minimizes layovers and transfers in large hubs That is very hard to do when trying to secure award inventory. And, the thought of having to purchase a “positioning flight” just to take advantage of award inventory that may be available from some random hub holds little appeal.

  5. Lune Diamond

    I use pointsyeah.com and that seems to work pretty well. Point.me and seats.aero seem to require subscriptions to get any useful results, and I don't see any trial option, so I've stayed away.

    Anyone who has used them, are they worth the money? Are they better than pointsyeah?

    1. Brent Guest

      I've not used any of the paid versions, but seats.aero lets you see 60 days out for free and do 2 weeks of award inventory searches on a single route. It is certainly powerful. I use it just to get a feel of how common late opening space will be. Many, many people swear by it. It would probably be the one tool I would consider purchasing. It doesn't search a lot of connecting routes...

      I've not used any of the paid versions, but seats.aero lets you see 60 days out for free and do 2 weeks of award inventory searches on a single route. It is certainly powerful. I use it just to get a feel of how common late opening space will be. Many, many people swear by it. It would probably be the one tool I would consider purchasing. It doesn't search a lot of connecting routes and secondary cities, but it will give you a good idea of the "over the ocean" options. It will just miss some married segment inventory.

      PointsYeah is my first stop, but I've been using Roame a little more lately and started to play with Award Tool. They mostly show the same stuff, but Roame has more programs. Award Tool is useful because they give some free alerts (like PointsYeah) and have a nice grid interface. The PointsYeah daydream explorer is extremely valuable for trip planning if you are flexible with destinations. Right now we are planning a London trip. I have the outbound and first hotel booked, but we have to leave London to get back home (because of the insane UK departure fees and YQ on UK carriers). Daydream explorer has been really great for getting a feel of what might pop open in a couple months to help us get back.

    2. Ed Guest

      I've got a pointsyeah membership. The extended search window, additional airport option, and extra alerts are very helpful, especially if you're looking at multiple trips and are flexible on origin/destination. For me it has been worth it for this year, not sure what next year holds (as far as travel needs) though so not sure if I will renew.

  6. Les Guest

    All of this sounds great, but at least on AA, international business awards at less than 200K (sometimes 400k) one-way have become very hard to find, even 11 months in advance. The BA partner flights at 57.5K usually add a $700-$900 supplemental fee, and where there used to be availablity for them almost every day in both transatlantic directions, they are becoming rarities. Now add the new Citi Strata card to the mix, and there...

    All of this sounds great, but at least on AA, international business awards at less than 200K (sometimes 400k) one-way have become very hard to find, even 11 months in advance. The BA partner flights at 57.5K usually add a $700-$900 supplemental fee, and where there used to be availablity for them almost every day in both transatlantic directions, they are becoming rarities. Now add the new Citi Strata card to the mix, and there will be thousands of additional cardholders chasing the same awards--not a good situation for the future.

    1. Santos Guest

      The BA partner flights at 57.5K usually add a $700-$900 supplemental fee, and where there used to be availablity for them almost every day in both transatlantic directions, they are becoming rarities.

      - What is the total opportunity cost cpm and total vs cash fare for your itinerary; be flexible

      Now add the new Citi Strata card to the mix, and there will be thousands of additional cardholders chasing the same awards--not a good...

      The BA partner flights at 57.5K usually add a $700-$900 supplemental fee, and where there used to be availablity for them almost every day in both transatlantic directions, they are becoming rarities.

      - What is the total opportunity cost cpm and total vs cash fare for your itinerary; be flexible

      Now add the new Citi Strata card to the mix, and there will be thousands of additional cardholders chasing the same awards--not a good situation for the future.

      - see my comment in the thread and the article in the NYT today about Citi's expansion in the card game; not a threat. CSR and Amex Plat were introduced before the advent of AI; "savvy" customers will not be as blindly led.

  7. Khatl Diamond

    Iberia release 361 days out not 330.

  8. Santos Guest

    Great post. I would add one:

    Consider Opportunity Cost

    Example: I don't particularly want to part with my Avios, AA or AS miles for AA metal flights but if there's a decent price with an itinerary that makes sense for a TATL J flight eastbound, why the hell not? I know I'll be sleeping the majority of the flight. Any lie-flat will do. Now, if I'm coming westbound, it's a different story. Longer flight,...

    Great post. I would add one:

    Consider Opportunity Cost

    Example: I don't particularly want to part with my Avios, AA or AS miles for AA metal flights but if there's a decent price with an itinerary that makes sense for a TATL J flight eastbound, why the hell not? I know I'll be sleeping the majority of the flight. Any lie-flat will do. Now, if I'm coming westbound, it's a different story. Longer flight, sleep less a priority, looser itinerary for connections and thus hard and soft product more of an issue.

    E.g., often good deals in AA J RDU-LHR. Not the sexiest way to get across the pond but saves me a ton of work getting my trip into gear. I value hitting the ground running over connecting through a major east coast gateway and introducing more variables.

    A lot of folks bend themselves into pretzels trying to fly the "best" product for every leg but sometimes any lie-flat and operational reliability trumps CPM redemption value.

Featured Comments Most helpful comments ( as chosen by the OMAAT community ).

The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

iamhere Guest

I think for many people it is about their overall plan. If you frequent for whatever reason one airline alliance or one hotel group. You might redeem Oneworld points for a less than satisfactory deal if you don't frequent their alliance group but as a way to at least obtain some value from the points, for example.

1
hal Curette Guest

I have 80K AA miles and want to go Greece. Any hints

0
Alan2 Guest

Recently I used Chase points to book a flight simply because I could not believe the flight was available through their portal. I was invited to a wedding in Siberia and transited Beijing on the way to Russia flying on Air China. United's website would not even list the destination city. All US and western European travel consolidators refuse to list any flights to Russia so I still cannot believe the Chase portal does. You can even book flights on some Russian Airlines. Of course I saved a bit of money since I could still use 1.5 points per dollar but the novelty was my justification in this case. United did permit me to credit the flight as well.

0
Meet Ben Schlappig, OMAAT Founder
5,527,136 Miles Traveled

39,914,500 Words Written

42,354 Posts Published