I think people spend too much time focused on the past, at least when using selective memory. It’s like when people talk about “the good old days of flying,” when service was good, people dressed up to fly, etc.
What they selectively forget is that flying is a fraction of the price it used to be, and that in many ways getting on a plane isn’t that different than getting on a bus. The way I see it, it’s a net positive that flying has become so accessible. Similarly, while some elements of flying are less luxurious than in the past, that’s not the case across the board — there weren’t showers on planes 30 years ago.
The same concept is probably true when redeeming miles. My goal with this post isn’t to say that “the good old days” of award redemptions are behind us (there are still many amazing award sweet spots), but rather to look at some of the award redemption possibilities from past years that I miss.
I’ll share these roughly in chronological order of when they were pulled, and I’m curious how many OMAAT readers remember these deals. For those who have been around miles & points for a long time, I hope you’ll share any deals that come to mind as well. Here we go…
In this post:
Aeroplan first class awards from the US to Asia for 120,000 miles
Air Canada’s Aeroplan frequent flyer program used to offer the best premium cabin redemption rates of any program out there, in my opinion. For 120,000 miles you could fly roundtrip from the US to Asia with no fuel surcharges. Best of all, you could have two stopovers in addition to your destination, and you could route via Europe.
San Francisco to Munich to Zurich to Bangkok to Hong Kong to Seoul to Frankfurt to Seattle for 120,000 miles in first class with no carrier imposed surcharges? Yes please.
In 2011 Aeroplan devalued its award chart, and shortly thereafter Aeroplan also added carrier imposed surcharges on most partners. The Aeroplan program has been completely reinvented since then, and still has some great award redemption opportunities.
Lufthansa opening 4-8 first class award seats in advance
Lufthansa used to be one of the most generous airlines in the world when it came to releasing first class award space, even in advance. That’s because Lufthansa used to have Boeing 747-400s with 16 first class seats, so it was perfectly normal to see four to eight first class award seats in advance. It was actually one of the easiest first class products to book with miles.
Then in 2011 Lufthansa shrank the size of its first class cabin, and the 747-400 went from having 16 first class seats to having eight first class seats. That caused a huge reduction in the amount of first class award space, and then shortly after that Lufthansa implemented a policy where the airline would only release first class awards to partner frequent flyer programs at most 15 days before departure.
Earning British Midland Diamond Club miles for award flights
British Midland (bmi) is my favorite airline that I almost never flew. The airline had one of the best frequent flyer programs in history, though unfortunately British Midland was eventually taken over by British Airways.
Not only did bmi make it super easy to qualify for Star Alliance Gold status, but the airline was known to credit miles for award flights. As if that’s not cool enough, Diamond Club had among the most lucrative mileage earning rates of any program — under some circumstances, Lufthansa first class tickets would earn 600%+ miles. You could basically earn back as many miles as you redeemed.
Unfortunately the British Midland Diamond Club program was discontinued in 2012. I can’t imagine why. 😉
Oneworld Explorer awards with wild rules
American AAdvantage used to offer oneworld Explorer awards, which were distance based rather than zone based, and allowed unlimited stopovers. American ended up discontinuing them in 2014 (with no notice), though at that point they weren’t even as useful as they were originally.
Back in the day — a couple of years before they were discontinued — the Explorer award cost was based on where you chose to have stopovers, rather than the cumulative distance you flew. Traveling continuously from Tampa to Chicago to Hong Kong to Sydney to Los Angeles to Miami without any stopovers? Well you’re just going from Tampa to Miami — you’ll be charged based on your ~200 mile flight from Tampa to Miami. Yes, that’s actually how this was enforced.
Obviously that was too good to last.
Being able to book SWISS first class with partner airline miles
SWISS used to be one of the airlines that made first class so readily available to anyone redeeming miles. I remember that back in the day when SWISS’ A330s had eight first class seats, I’d often see flights with six to eight first class award seats. Being able to redeem US Airways miles for those flights was a heck of a deal.
Unfortunately as of 2014, SWISS went from one extreme to the other. SWISS went from making first class awards wide open for members of partner programs, to restricting them exclusively to Miles & More Senator members and above, meaning that first class awards are off limits for most of us.
There have been some limited opportunities to redeem partner miles for SWISS first class since then, but that was generally when there were glitches.
Star Alliance first class from the US to Asia via Europe for 70,000 United miles
In 2014, United MileagePlus devalued its award chart. While this wasn’t quite as good of a value as some of the above redemptions, using 70,000 miles for something like Los Angeles to Frankfurt to Bangkok in first class was tough to beat.
US Airways business class awards from the US to North Asia for 90,000 miles
I sure do miss US Airways Dividend Miles, and specifically, the ability to redeem just 90,000 miles for roundtrip business class from the United States to North Asia. The best part was that you could route through Europe. The even better part was that Dividend Miles agents were geographically challenged, so you could get away with even more than that. Is Madrid in Spain or Argentina? Frankfurt is really in Kentucky, right? 😉
I have so many amazing memories of Dividend Miles redemptions, like New York to Warsaw to Zurich to Beijing to Addis Ababa to Frankfurt to Washington. I don’t think there’s an award I’ve ever booked more of than this one. Given that US Airways used to sell miles for 1.1 cents each, you could basically book these for $1,000 each. Not a bad deal.
This award redemption was discontinued in 2014.
Domestic US awards via Europe on Lufthansa
Back in the day, LifeMiles’ website would let you book domestic first class awards within the United States on Lufthansa. But wait a second, Lufthansa doesn’t operate flights within the US. That’s correct, so you could do something like Los Angeles to Frankfurt to San Francisco for 25,000 miles in first class, the same price you’d pay for flying United first class from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
There are still many great uses of Avianca LifeMiles, but nothing like this.
25,000 British Airways Avios for transatlantic business class on Aer Lingus
Sometimes distance based award charts work in our favor, and other times they don’t. With British Airways’ old award chart, the program charged just 12,500 miles for economy or 25,000 miles for business class on flights of up to 3,000 miles one-way. As luck would have it, Boston to Dublin covered a distance of ~2,990 miles.
Flying across the Atlantic for the price of a domestic ticket was a steal. Unfortunately British Airways devalued its award chart in 2015, and at this point that award will cost you 13,000-20,000 Avios in economy or 50,000-60,000 Avios in business class.
Wild Emirates first class routings with Alaska miles
In 2012, Alaska and Emirates launched a partnership, which at the time, allowed first class redemptions. The routings possible with Mileage Plan were incredible, as you could fly Emirates first class from the United States to Europe via Dubai.
But it got even better than that. For quite some time, the pricing was determined based on the origin and destination, and as long as you didn’t have more than a 24 hour stopover in a place, it didn’t really “break” the pricing.
So San Francisco to Dubai to London in Emirates first class cost the same number of miles as flying from San Francisco to Dubai to Mauritius to Dubai to London, as long as you stayed in Mauritius for under 24 hours. Those were the days! Sadly that “trick” was pulled in 2016.
Cathay Pacific first class for 67,500 American miles (with two seats in advance)
Up until 2016, American charged just 67,500 miles for first class between the United States and Asia in Cathay Pacific first class.
But what I’m really looking back longingly on is when Cathay Pacific used to make two first class award seats available in advance. Now that was awesome. Unfortunately for the past several years Cathay Pacific generally only releases one first class award seat in advance, making it more challenging to book this as a couple. For that matter, availability is even quite limited for a single traveler.
Bottom line
There’s no denying that over the years airline award redemption rates have been devalued, and many sweet spots have been discontinued. At the same time, miles are easier to earn than ever before, and there are still some amazing sweet spot opportunities out there.
Nonetheless I thought it would be fun to look back at some of the best award values over the years. There are many more I can think of, but the above are some of my favorites, and sure bring back some fond memories.
Anyone have experience with any of the above, or have any other great deals from back in the day to share?
That 90k US Airways trip was the best award redemption of my life!
Lufthansa first class from SFO-FRA using Asiana miles, transferred from SPG (50k for the redemption, but only required transferring 40k Starpoints given the 5k bonus for every 20k transferred). 40k for one-way first class is hard to beat these days. RIP SPG.
My best back-in-the-day redemption was a combo of two mentioned here. DCA-JFK-HKG in Cathay First booked via American miles (67.5k or something like that) and then my absolute favorite was LH First Class HKG-FRA on the 744 with the seat/bed combo on the upper deck followed by an overnight in FRA "connecting" to FRA-IAD in the new 748 using one US Airways redemption. :) Was also able to score a DCA-CLT-LAX-SYD roundtrip on US Airways and QANTAS for 90k.
I always loved the 60K UA miles for basically going anywhere in LH F, which was available until early 2014. I used it to fly ORD-FRA-Nagoya, Japan in 2014 for a friend's wedding. 744 on ORD-FRA with the bed/seat combo on the upper deck, all day luxuriating at the LH F lounge in FRA, then a wonderful A340-600 in F from FRA-NGO where I had the seat and the seat across from me was empty...
I always loved the 60K UA miles for basically going anywhere in LH F, which was available until early 2014. I used it to fly ORD-FRA-Nagoya, Japan in 2014 for a friend's wedding. 744 on ORD-FRA with the bed/seat combo on the upper deck, all day luxuriating at the LH F lounge in FRA, then a wonderful A340-600 in F from FRA-NGO where I had the seat and the seat across from me was empty so the flight attendant converted it into a bed. Not bad, and those LH F for 60K miles were pretty readily available. I loved it.
Recently, though not as cheap, is UA miles to fly Ethiopian to Africa. 80K each way from DC to Kigali, which I used this past March.
Its good to dream. I do not think things in the travel industry will get better, go back to good old things, until a Musk type person comes in, to the airlines and the hotels.
For hotels, it looks like the CEO's and upper management are focused on new brands, new properties, forgetting about their current guests who are feeding their bottom line.
We are definetly in need new ideas and new ways.
But even till a few months ago, got a RTW itinerary with ANA for 145k miles and 750 bucks. Did a DEN-MUC-DEL-BKK-SIN-HKG-TPE-ICN-TPE-SEA-DEN all in J. Even the SEA-DEN part.
Ben,
Methinks you overshot believability on this one. Yes, some things are better now, and some things are worse.
But to cite that some airplanes have showers is a hoot. How many planes fly everyday? How many have showers? Do you honestly think showers on planes will be commonplace? It is commonplace for those that can afford the tariff, as well as those points from credit cards.
You always miss the greatest of them all….US Airways Concorde redemptions on BA in the 90’s. Those were the days as a 20 something year old and numerous times flying Dulles to LHR for free on the Concorde.
My best was a one world explorer booked in 2009, 220k miles all in business class. Here was the routing:
American Los Angeles to Miami
Lan Miami to Lima
Lan Lima to Santiago
Lan Santiago to Easter Island
Lan Easter Island to Santiago, then Santiago to Madrid on Iberian
British Airways Madrid to London
British Airways London to Entebbe
British Airways Entebbe to London
Royal Jordanian...
My best was a one world explorer booked in 2009, 220k miles all in business class. Here was the routing:
American Los Angeles to Miami
Lan Miami to Lima
Lan Lima to Santiago
Lan Santiago to Easter Island
Lan Easter Island to Santiago, then Santiago to Madrid on Iberian
British Airways Madrid to London
British Airways London to Entebbe
British Airways Entebbe to London
Royal Jordanian London to Amman
Royal Jordanian Amman to Delhi
(separate paid ticket Delhi to Mumbain)
Qantas Mumbai to Sydney
Qantas Sydney to Auckland
Qantas Sydney to Los Angeles
Great way to see the world over 2 months. Was a whirlwind trip, though. If I ever have a big chunk of time off like that again I'd do fewer places with less flying (which doesn't go with the majority reading this blog)
60k AA miles DFW->AKL (family of 4) business class from just 2 years ago seems like it belongs on this all time list quite frankly. To me, anyone who argues that AA miles aren’t the only worth collecting really doesn’t understand things.
No love for the legendary 40k UA F award from KIX to ICN via SFO????
It was 1995. My wife & I booked two, roundtrip first class tickets on a United 747 from ORD to SIN for a total of 250,000 miles PLUS we received 10 nights free rental car use AND 10 nights of hotels at 50% of their regular rate, both of which could be used during our vacation or booked separately within the next 12 months. At that time, Car Rental agencies and Hotels did not have their own frequent guest programs.
Now those were the good ole days!
You couldn't even cross the Atlantic for half a person using Skymiles in 2025.
In the US, you are regularly starved or fleeced at an airport concession for a cold soggy preserved-meat sandwich.
"Oh, but your fare is $2.50" doesn't cut it. And for that $2.50 "savings" you also get to schlep your entire baggage onboard, and the boarding and deplaning experience is now a stressful and very long affair.
Yes, flying used to be much better.
Not even a question.
So many classics. You used to be able to do JFK-HKG-LHR on CX First for the price of JFK-LHR, 75k BA Miles!
I’d say the best redemptions in the last ten years are any using simply miles. 0.4c per mile.
Los Angeles time return $400 in biz.
Chicago Tokyo $600 return in first.
Sydney Los Angeles return $800 in first
Wish I’d bought more than 1.5m miles. I’ve used them all up now
Going back many years in time (1985, forty years ago), I was able to book an open jaw itinerary for two persons, first class, SFO=>JFK=>CAI and then TLV=>JFK=>SFO on TWA for 90,000 miles total! (Unfortunately, I had to pay cash for the one hour trip from CAI=>TLV after touring Egypt for a week!) This was before Carl Icahn bought TWA and quickly flew it into the ground!
And you're probably one of the reasons why TWA owes money in Israel.
I remember that award but the 50k award on TWA got you a first class ticket and a second seat in first when paying the least expensive coach ticket. No capacity controls back then either.
Plus the miles you earned with the second ticket put you well on the way to another 50k award.
Plus, in those days, at least on TWA, you identified your frequent flyer account with your ticket by placing a pre-printed sticker (provided by TWA) on the ticket itself. Apparently, TWA didn't check whether the ticket was a mile redemption on not. Thus, you could somewhat “double dip” by placing your frequent flyer account sticker on a free ticket and accumulate miles for the free trip!
I wasn't going to mention that, but it's true. My account went "critical" meaning that each award flight created more miles than the awards cost.
It was pretty crazy.
I flew RT to Japan from JFK for 120K LifeMiles on the A380 Asiana first class. Both my wife and I. My only time ever on first class and one of my first redemptions.
Great article! You missed the best one though. Back in the 80’s…for 25K AAdvantage miles you could upgrade from First to Concorde on BA. Did it 4 times!
@Ben, controlling for inflation, how expensive was to generate miles (e.g., aeroplan) back in those days?
My favorite was JFK-YVR on CX for...35k?...miles via AS, which got you Flagship First dining.
I loved the Washington to Accra (I think) on South African airways (I think) for 40k (I think) using United miles.
You were spot on about the US Airways 90k business class redemptions to north Asia. My wife and I flew CLT-JFK-SIN-KUL (3 night stopover)-SIN (3 night stopover)-JFK-CLT for 90k miles each in 2005. I never understood how KUL and SIN were in "north Asia" but it worked for us. The SQ flights between JFK and SIN might have been our best flights ever.
I remember 50k UA one way for J to Asia. I was in sticker shock after covid when CI was 95k in J to Asia. I miss KE being a transfer partner for Chase and pretty much have open seats for a family whenever. BR releasing seats like clock work about 5 days out. I always had a stash of 95k NH miles at the ready to book one seat in J on BR and...
I remember 50k UA one way for J to Asia. I was in sticker shock after covid when CI was 95k in J to Asia. I miss KE being a transfer partner for Chase and pretty much have open seats for a family whenever. BR releasing seats like clock work about 5 days out. I always had a stash of 95k NH miles at the ready to book one seat in J on BR and another way out and just kept changing it until I got the dates I wanted. Sadly lost those miles after covid as the lack of inventory killed all those miles.
BA First AMS - SFO, 50% discount on all redemptions during covid in 2020. Paid 53K Avios + 180 euro's tax/fuel charges.
Booked the ticket in summer 2020 for travel in 2021, managed to rebook to summer 2022 for free. That was a pretty amazing deal.
Jeez I miss those US Dividend Miles days - I was really looking forward making a reservation (call) with them back then!
Best Deal:
DRS-FRA-ICN-PVG (24 hr stop) - AKL // AKL-PER-JNB (2 weeks stop) // JNB-ADD-FRA-DRS - for 240K for two (!) on LH/OZ/NZ/SA/ET -
Of the current "many amazing award sweet spots," one is no longer available (ANA J with VA points) and another requires Turkish miles, which are only semi available via transfer.
The good old days are definitely behind us :(
Best Previously Available Redemptions (Outside of the Insanely Good LifeMiles Offer):
25k International First Class Transcontinental on United
40k First Class Bangkok-Sydney (Personally surprised this one wasn't on the list)
Singapore RTW Award Tickets (Some of the routings one was able to put together were fantastic)
Can still use 40k AA miles for biz from Asia to Sydney. And I think 60k for first (was 50k up until recently).
fun fact, the AS trick that was "pulled" on EK actually never went away, since AS IT was so bad that they just patched it for EK. Until the annihilation of the old chart by late 2024, you can still do things like LIM-JFK and stop for less than 24hr, and then do JFK-SCL, all in J for 25k miles. You could do this for QR for like AKL-DOH-PER until 2022 too.
The absolute best redemption was a sale, yes a sale Aeroplan had in 2012 or 2013. It even applied to partner airlines and I booked a pair of RT tickets from YUL to NRT via ZRH in First with SWISS. 200k miles for both ticket round trip with very little taxes.
YUL, BOS and ORD where basicaly wide open for F with Swiss. I remember being AT the airport abd booking a ticket in front of the check in counter...the good old days!
Jealous!
I miss being able to fly to Japan or Europe or South America on AA metal for only 57.5k in business class, with decent availability.
My best redemption was business class Japan - Oceania with United MileagePlus for 30 000 miles one way (2013)
I did HND-SIN-AKL-PPT-AKL-BKK-NRT for 60K miles….
And also I did CSA OK Plus miles Prague-ICN-HNL operated by Korean Air in J and back for 80 000 miles rt (2010).
Good old days :-))
Well 12 years later you can use 36k lifemiles (if you’re a subscriber) or 40k AA miles to fly Japan to Oceania on ANA or JAL respectively. Obviously forget using mileage plus (although it wasn’t that long ago they had similar pricing. In 2023 I think it was only 40k mileage plus for me to fly syd Brisbane Taipei on virgin Australia and EVA in biz.
40k to fly on Garuda to Indonesia too.
And Singapore spontaneous sales often have sub 50k Asia to Oceania.
Oh, thanks for a tip! Actually I am long time away from United, I moved to ANA, but due to basically no award availability I now moved again, to Turkish.
No problem! I see ANA availability all the time (but close in). 1-2 seats a few times a week in biz using lifemiles for Sydney to haneda. I’ve flown it loads of time (noting it’s becoming a bit sad and outdated).
I am based in Europe and ANA has almost no availability on EU - Japan flights. And to grab two seats ok the same flights is mission impossible
Can't leave out the greatest redemptions of them all:
AF Concorde flights for 120,000mi on Continental OnePass, and later 180,000mi on Delta SkyMiles, roundtrip.
This was pretty standard throughout the late '90s with CO, and until around the aircraft's retirement with DL.
Alitalia (via cc transfer (maybe Amex?)) 90k business round trip US-BKK on the then renewed China Airlines business class that was good. 2016
I certainly remember using Avios to buy Reward Flight Saver tickets for Comair flights to Zimbabwe. That was most definitely a deal.
My best ever was Emirates First Class award of JFK -> Dubai -> Bangkok -> Milan -> JFK for 155k Japan Mileage bank miles obtained by transferring 125k spg points where each 20k points transferred generated additional 5k bonus. All flight legs were on A380 with the showers and total taxes paid was under $100!
These old products look awful. It’s hard to believe a seat that today would be Premium Economy was considered “first class” a couple decades ago.
LH old F class was the best ever. It was not flashy, it was just extremely comfy and felt open and spacious. No silly doors or 36 inch TV screens. Just a big comfy seat that looked great and amazing food and service with a visit to a nice lounge when time permitted.
I'll add Alaska awards on Cathay first for 70K, where you could originate in Africa or the Middle East enroute to the US.
Well 12 years later you can use 36k lifemiles (if you’re a subscriber) or 40k AA miles to fly Japan to Oceania on ANA or JAL respectively. Obviously forget using mileage plus (although it wasn’t that long ago they had similar pricing. In 2023 I think it was only 40k mileage plus for me to fly syd Brisbane Taipei on virgin Australia and EVA in biz.
40k to fly on Garuda to Indonesia too.
And Singapore spontaneous sales often have sub 50k Asia to Oceania.
In 2018 I booked 3x seats in advance on Cathay for 70k Alaskan miles in first and business from Chicago to Hk (3 day stopover) to Sydney. Second leg in business as no first class cabin Hk to Sydney. So good
In 2003, I flew JFK-LHR on Concorde, followed by LHR-SIN-SYD in BA 747 First. And same way back.
Was 165k BA miles.
Pan Am first class round trip for two from SFO to CDG . . . 100k points.
Pan Am first class roundtrip SFO to South Africa. I can't remember how much but it wasn't much. Did it twice. Included a free week rental car from Hertz.
How about wild routings w/ Lifemiles? I once priced (but never flew):
EWR-FRA-YVR in LH F for 35k
YVR-MUC-EWR in LH F for 35k
Of course there was also lots of fun to be had w/ GUM, SAW, HOB, HAC, CJJ, KHV, NTQ and ALA :-)
“there are still some amazing sweet spot opportunities out there”
Which opportunities out there do you think are anong the better ones today?
The way the game is better today is that (in the US at least) we're all richer in miles. The transferrable points/CC landscape means that we can rack up hundreds of thousands of points in a relatively short period of time.
This is important because virtually all the past examples you cite are using X currency to fly Y airlines, and that's just not as much a thing anymore. If you want to fly Cathay...
The way the game is better today is that (in the US at least) we're all richer in miles. The transferrable points/CC landscape means that we can rack up hundreds of thousands of points in a relatively short period of time.
This is important because virtually all the past examples you cite are using X currency to fly Y airlines, and that's just not as much a thing anymore. If you want to fly Cathay Pacific in business class, you can find 4 seats on their program, 2 seats via Avios (maybe) and 0 via AA. You can find deals on Air France J via Flying Blue, but never on Delta.
So I don't really think there are many "sweet spots" any more. I think we just have the ability to move points to where the best value is in a way we really didn't use to.
Unfortunately this is not (mostly) case in Europe…the credit card bonuses and spending points are close to 0
And to earn several hundreds of miles with flying is tough :-)
Honzak you can still buy lifemiles, aeroplan miles, avios and Alaskan miles to access some of these deals. At 1.2c there’s still tons of value with lifemiles. I booked Sydney to LAX to LHR for around 65k miles in biz (as a subscriber).
Last year I flew syd to Delhi to Frankfurt on air India and vistara for around 90k miles.
The latter using aeroplan miles.
True but no capacity controls meant if you had the miles, you got to go.
Yeah certainly not the case anymore you are right!!