I do what I can to write about the best deals for earning and redeeming miles. In this post I wanted to share what I consider to be some of the most useful sweet spot award redemptions right now. I wanted to provide a fresh look at how you can get the most bang for your buck when redeeming points.
The thing about sweet spot awards is that they tend to get pulled over time. Loyalty programs undergo periodic devaluations, and as you’d expect, the best value redemptions are often the ones to see the biggest price hikes. Fortunately there are still some great deals to be had, including some new ones that have been introduced in recent times.
In this post:
Aspirational vs. practical award sweet spots
Before I share my top picks, I want to emphasize that my goal is to make a list of sweet spot awards that are practical. This means that there’s wide use for them, the points are pretty easy to accrue, the redemption process is fairly easy, etc. However, this will be different than my list of the most useful frequent flyer programs.
I’ll intentionally be leaving out some niche redemptions that make a great headline, but won’t be useful for a vast majority of OMAAT readers. Let me give an example, just to demonstrate why.
Assuming you wanted to redeem miles for Lufthansa first class, you can redeem just 50,000 Asiana Club miles for a one-way award between the United States and Europe. That’s an incredible price, on the surface much better than the 90,000-100,000 Air Canada Aeroplan points you’d pay for similar redemptions. That being said:
- Asiana Club isn’t transfer partners with any of the major transferable points currencies, so the points are hard to rack up
- Asiana Club passes on carrier imposed surcharges, which total nearly $1,000 one-way between the United States and Europe in Lufthansa first class, which basically negates the mileage savings, by most reasonable points valuations
- You need to book by phone through the Asiana Club call center, and it’s not even open 24/7
- Asiana Club requires you to ticket awards at least 72 hours in advance, and often Lufthansa only opens first class awards last minute
Of course redeeming just 50,000 miles for Lufthansa first class makes a great headline (and is a good value overall), but practically speaking it’s not something most people will use.
My favorite airline mileage sweet spots
I wanted to share some of my favorite airline mileage sweet spots. I’m specifically focusing on redemptions with points that are easy to accrue (ideally with transferable points currencies), where the booking process is fairly easy, and where there’s wide appeal.
With that out of the way, here are some of my favorite award redemptions, in no particular order.
Virgin Atlantic business class using Virgin Atlantic points
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club recently introduced dynamic award pricing, which you’d think would be bad news. However, this has actually proven to be a real positive. At least based on current pricing, Upper Class (business class) across the Atlantic starts at just 29,000 points, plus $250 in taxes and fees.
While that pricing won’t be available on all flights, it’s not too hard to find with a bit of searching, and it’s an amazing value. Of course that pricing can change in the future, but for now, it’s pretty unbeatable.
How do you book Virgin Atlantic awards? These awards can be booked directly on virginatlantic.com. Given that the program is dynamic and has wildly variable award costs, use the reward seat checker to find the best deal.
How do you earn Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points? Virgin Atlantic is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou, so there are quite a few ways to earn their points. Also look out for transfer bonuses, which can stretch your points even further. Flying Club also often sells points at a discount.
JetBlue business class using Qatar Airways Avios
JetBlue is known for its great Mint business class product, which is available on select flights across the Atlantic, including from New York and Boston to London and Paris. The best way to redeem points for these flights is through Qatar Airways Privilege Club, at the cost of 78,000 Avios one-way.
Understandably, you might be saying “well that doesn’t sound like that amazing of a price.” Fair enough. The reason I value this redemption option so highly is because availability is excellent. You’ll find that many flights even have seven more Mint award seats available, even in the peak of summer.
There’s not another transatlantic business class option that’s both so high quality while also being readily available with points.
How do you book JetBlue awards? These awards can be booked directly on qatarairways.com.
How do you earn Iberia Plus Avios? Qatar Airways is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards and Citi ThankYou, and often sells Avios at a discount. On top of that, you can transfer Avios between the various “flavors,” including British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus, Finnair Plus, and Aer Lingus AerClub.
ANA first & business class using Virgin Atlantic points
All Nippon Airways has a phenomenal first class and business class product, and the best way to book this is through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. Specifically, redemption rates are as follows (one-way):
- Flying between the US West Coast and Japan costs 52,500 Flying Club points in business class or 72,500 Flying Club points in first class
- Flying between the US East Coast and Japan costs 60,000 Flying Club points in business class or 85,000 Flying Club points in first class
This is an incredible redemption value, though the major catch is finding award availability, especially for multiple passengers. While there are fuel surcharges on these redemptions, they’re quite mild.
How do you book All Nippon Airways awards? You can search award availability through another program (Aeroplan, MileagePlus, etc.), and then call Virgin Atlantic Flying Club to book — they can be reached at 800.365.9500. Seats.aero also has a useful tool for finding ANA first class awards.
How do you earn Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points? Virgin Atlantic is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou, so there are quite a few ways to earn their points. Also look out for transfer bonuses, which can stretch your points even further. Flying Club also often sells points at a discount.
Qatar Airways business class using American miles
Qatar Airways’ Qsuites is one of the best business class products in the world, and the most economical way to book this is with American AAdvantage miles. For one-way travel, you can redeem just 70,000 AAdvantage miles from the United States to the Middle East or India, or 75,000 AAdvantage miles from the United States to Africa.
There are no fuel surcharges on these redemptions. This can be useful whether you’re looking to travel to India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, South Africa or wherever else. Note that for those redemption rates you can also fly Etihad Airways, though I do have a slight preference for Qatar.
The bad news is that nowadays Qatar Airways largely restricts these awards to members of its own frequent flyer program. However, I find partner award availability to be better between other regions, like being able to redeem 40,000 AAdvantage miles between the Middle East and Asia on Qatar Airways, which is arguably an even better deal.
How do you book Qatar Airways awards? These awards can be booked directly on aa.com.
How do you earn American AAdvantage miles? American has several co-branded credit cards, and AAdvantage also frequently sells miles directly at a reasonable cost.
Air France & KLM business class using Flying Blue miles
Air France business class and KLM business class are both solid products, and they’re among the most practical options for crossing the Atlantic with miles. Flying Blue has standardized award pricing, and you’ll pay 50,000 Flying Blue miles for a one-way business class award across the Atlantic. On top of that, Flying Blue even allows stopovers on one-way awards, which makes this an even better opportunity.
While Flying Blue does have fuel surcharges, they’re not too bad compared to some other programs. You can expect to pay around $200 one-way in business class across the Atlantic. Given the otherwise good value in redeeming for these kinds of awards, I’d say that’s fair enough.
How do you book Flying Blue awards? These awards can be booked directly on flyingblue.com (unless you want a stopover, in which case you need to book by phone). Use the secret award calendar to find availability.
How do you earn Air France-KLM Flying Blue miles? Air France-KLM is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou, so there are quite a few ways to earn their points. Also look out for transfer bonuses, which can stretch your points even further. Flying Blue also often sells miles at a discount.
Iberia business class using Iberia Plus Avios
While there’s generally not a whole lot to get excited about with the Iberia Plus program, there is one premium cabin sweet spot that’s worth planning around. Specifically, you can potentially cross the Atlantic in Iberia business class for 34,000 Avios, plus minimal taxes and fees.
Iberia Plus has a distance based award chart, and awards that cover a distance of 3,001-4,000 miles cost just 34,000 Avios in business class, assuming you’re traveling during an off-peak period. For example, this would include Iberia’s routes to Boston, New York, and Washington.
Being able to redeem just 34,000 Avios for a transatlantic business class award is an incredible deal. While there are some carrier imposed surcharges on these awards, they’re mild, and you can expect them to cost you around $100 per direction.
How do you book Iberia awards? These awards can be booked directly on iberia.com.
How do you earn Iberia Plus Avios? Iberia is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One, and Chase Ultimate Rewards, has the co-branded Iberia Visa Signature® Card (review), and often sells Avios at a discount. On top of that, you can transfer Avios between the various “flavors,” including British Airways Executive Club, Qatar Airways Privilege Club, Finnair Plus, and Aer Lingus AerClub. If using points from a transferable points currency, be on the lookout for transfer bonuses.
Transatlantic Star Alliance business class using lifemiles
I’d say the single most common “aspirational” award that people are looking for is a business class ticket to Europe. After all, that’s achievable, and covers a lot of destinations. This is an area where redeeming avianca lifemiles can make a lot of sense.
Now, the lifemiles program recently had a devaluation of sorts, but that created a new sweet spot. Back in the day, most one-way business class awards between the United States and Europe cost 63,000 miles. Now the cost depends on where you’re going.
Awards between the Northeast of the US and the UK cost just 45,000 miles in business class, which is a heck of a deal. Meanwhile awards to most of the rest of Europe cost 70,000 miles, which could still be a great deal, especially given how cheap and inexpensive lifemiles are to acquire.
Just don’t plan on booking anything too complicated through lifemiles, and be aware that in some cases lifemiles might not have access to the same availability as other programs. When the program does have availability, I think pricing is often the most attractive.
How do you book Star Alliance awards? These awards can be booked directly on lifemiles.com.
How do you earn avianca lifemiles? The lifemiles program is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One, and Citi ThankYou, and often sells miles at a discount. Look out for consistent transfer bonuses, which can make your acquisition cost with lifemiles really low.
Aeroplan long haul award with stopover for 5,000 points
I’m going to be less specific with this one than the other awards on the list. I consider Air Canada Aeroplan to be the single most useful frequent flyer program, and I particularly like how the program allows stopovers on one-way awards for an additional 5,000 points. That pairs beautifully with all the unique airline partners that Aeroplan has.
Aeroplan has a hybrid zone and distance based award chart, and generally has pretty lenient routing rules, so see my post on how to redeem Aeroplan points like a pro. Just to give a few examples of potential redemption opportunities (all prices are one-way and include the extra 5,000 points for a stopover):
- For 90,000 Aeroplan points you could fly from Newark to Paris to Bahrain on United and Gulf Air in business class, with a stopover in Paris
- For 90,000 Aeroplan points you could fly from from Toronto to London to Bangkok on Air Canada and Thai Airways in business class, with a stopover in London
- For 85,000 Aeroplan points you could fly from Paris to Mauritius to Cape Town on Air Mauritius in business class, with a stopover in Mauritius
Long story short, any time you want a stopover that’s somewhere around the middle of your journey, Aeroplan offers spectacular value.
Even without a stopover, the value is incredible. For example, I booked an Aeroplan adventure, where I flew in business class from Chicago to Vienna to Rome to Bahrain to Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi for 115,000 points, and then in business class from Hanoi to Frankfurt to Toronto to Miami for 87,500 points.
How do you book Aeroplan awards? These awards can be booked directly on aircanada.com.
How do you earn Air Canada Aeroplan points? Air Canada is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One, and Chase Ultimate Rewards, has the Aeroplan® Credit Card (review) in the United States, which is quite lucrative, and often sells points at a discount.
Emirates first class using Emirates miles
Emirates first class is one of my favorite first class products in the world, particularly on the Airbus A380. The best way to redeem for Emirates class is directly through the Emirates Skywards program, though the catch is that redemption rates can be steep, and surcharges can be high.
The good news is that Emirates operates three fifth freedom flights from the United States, all of which cost a reasonable number of miles, and have very limited surcharges:
- New York to Milan is operated by an Airbus A380 and costs 102,000 miles in first class
- Newark to Athens is operated by a Boeing 777 and costs 102,000 miles in first class
- Miami to Bogota is operated by a Boeing 777 and costs 60,000 miles in first class
Not only are the mileage requirements reasonable, but the surcharges are also way lower than in other markets. Best of all, you get the same great service, from the unlimited caviar, to the Dom Perignon. Ideally I’d fly the Milan route, as showering on the Emirates A380 is one of the greatest avgeek experiences.
How do you book Skywards awards? These awards can be booked directly on emirates.com.
How do you earn Emirates Skywards miles? Emirates is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou, so there are quite a few ways to earn these miles.
Alaska & American awards using Alaska miles
While not as aspirational as some of the above options, Alaska Mileage Plan’s distance based award chart can be incredibly useful for regional awards on Alaska Airlines and American Airlines. Specifically, I’d consider the following to be an underrated sweet spot:
- A flight of under 700 miles will cost 4,500 miles in economy, 9,000 miles in business class
- A flight of 701-1,400 miles will cost 7,500 miles in economy, 15,000 miles in business class
- A flight of 1,401-2,100 miles will cost 12,500 miles in economy, 25,000 miles in business class
I use this all the time for short haul awards on Alaska and American, whether it’s hopping from Miami to the Caribbean in economy for 4,500 miles, or flying business class to Chicago or New York for 15,000 miles.
How do you book Alaska & American awards? These awards can be booked directly on alaskaair.com.
How do you earn Alaska Mileage Plan miles? Alaska Mileage Plan is transfer partners with Bilt Rewards. On top of that, Mileage Plan often sells miles at a discount, and there’s also the Alaska Airlines Visa® Business card (review) and Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card (review).
United domestic awards using Turkish miles
The Turkish Miles&Smiles program isn’t just useful for travel on Turkish Airlines, but it’s also great for domestic flights within the United States. Turkish Airlines is in the Star Alliance, so it’s possible to redeem Miles&Smiles miles for travel on United Airlines.
For domestic flights within the United States, Turkish charges just 10,000 miles in economy or 15,000 miles in business class (one-way). The best part is that this pricing is valid within all 50 United States, including Alaska and Hawaii.
That’s an outrageously good deal. The catch? United isn’t great about making saver level award seats available on domestic flights. Furthermore, these awards aren’t consistently bookable online, and calling Turkish’s call center can be an adventure.
How do you book United Airlines awards? You can search award availability through another program (Aeroplan, MileagePlus, etc.), and then generally have to call Turkish Airlines to book — they can be reached at 800.874.8875.
How do you earn Turkish Miles&Smiles miles? Turkish is transfer partners with Bilt Rewards, Capital One, and Citi ThankYou.
Bottom line
While there are lots of amazing airline award redemptions out there, the above are some of my favorites. I didn’t just choose redemptions that have the lowest cost on “paper,” but rather redemptions that I think are largely actually valuable based on ease of accruing points, award availability, eligible routes, etc.
Unfortunately sweet spots do tend to get devalued over time, and that’s fair enough. A majority of the redemptions that were on my list a couple of years ago are no longer available. Fortunately new sweet spots do pop up every now and then, though nothing is forever. Always take advantage of them while you can!
What are your favorite airline award redemptions?
I'm fairly new to the points game, but I've noticed significantly fewer 50K flights available to/from my home airport IAD on Flying Blue vs just a few months ago. They're still out there, but I've gone from seeing a few each month to many months having none. This is searching with several different final destinations.
As so many have already commented, award inventory made available to partners is the bugaboo. United domestic first via a partner?
Iberia business class awards are also 34k Avios to/from Chicago's ORD, which is a shorter positioning flight from points west in the United States. Like Colorado, where I live. Also, fees are easily $150 per-person each way nowadays. Still a good redemption, though.
I may be wrong but it seems that restriction of access to rewards is a USA issue?.
I have booked AKL-BER (berlin) in J for 85,000AA with Qatar. DOH-HND in F with Qatar/JAL for 50,000AA and NRT-AKL in J with Fijian for 40,000AA , all in May/June 2005. I had to wait a bit for the DOH-HND flight to come up on the dates I wanted but the other flights were pretty straight forward.
Personally...
I may be wrong but it seems that restriction of access to rewards is a USA issue?.
I have booked AKL-BER (berlin) in J for 85,000AA with Qatar. DOH-HND in F with Qatar/JAL for 50,000AA and NRT-AKL in J with Fijian for 40,000AA , all in May/June 2005. I had to wait a bit for the DOH-HND flight to come up on the dates I wanted but the other flights were pretty straight forward.
Personally I think one of the great sweet spots is that for 40,000AA miles I can fly Business from NZ/Australia to almost anywhere in Asia or 50,000 in F for the rare SYD/HND on Japan Airlines. some of these flights are 10 to 12hrs long.
There is availability of partner awards and then there is visibility of partner awards. To see award inventory, there needs to be an IT systems handshake between the booking partner and the flying partner. Within One World, Qantas is known to have the best visibility. Use Qantas to identify an award flight on airline X and then CALL AA or BA or whomever to book. Identify availability exists and be persistent. Best of luck.
Really bummed about VS going with dynamic pricing. During off peak months there are already enough deals going around.
I loved paying a standard points amount when cash tickets are super inflated during the summer and winter holidays.
Oh well! :(
For me its J tickets acrros the pond with aeroplan for 120k or 140k. Even then, I book with cash half the time. And I'm not short on points. Points offer less and less possbilities every year.
You don't need to transfer from BA to Iberia to get the cheaper prices any more. It's the same pricing in either programme. 42,500 avios Madrid to Latin America is unbeatable in my opinion and they always have tons on availability to Bogota and Mexico City
I wonder if he could have an article of all the sweet spots that I’ve been killed in the past two years. I think that less would be pretty long.
Small error. You say "Flying Blue also often sells points at a discount." in the Virgin Atlantic section. It should be Flying Club :)
While availability is limited on some of these programs, I looked at my own experience (mostly One World travel from the East Coast). I'm no points guru, but have done 5 of the 11 sweet spots listed, and agree that they were all great deals. It's mostly been on travel to Europe and the Middle East, not the Far East (yet).
Has anybody seen recent QR business class using AAdantage miles? I haven't and I look regularly. Heck, you hardly see economy awards from US gateways.
We transfer Amex to Avios for QR and book 360 days out. Hoping for a transfer bonus again.
The only AAdantage sweetspots are domestic economy in secondary markets off peak.
Cue the "nothing available" chorus. Part of this game is doing things differently from civilians and one of those differences is sometimes booking last-minute. When seats.aero sends you an alert (because weeks ago you invested an hour setting alerts in your paid seats.aero account) you drop what you're doing and book that ANA F HND-JFK now, from your LifeMiles account. As in, not in 7 minutes, but now. If you "need" the airline to confirm...
Cue the "nothing available" chorus. Part of this game is doing things differently from civilians and one of those differences is sometimes booking last-minute. When seats.aero sends you an alert (because weeks ago you invested an hour setting alerts in your paid seats.aero account) you drop what you're doing and book that ANA F HND-JFK now, from your LifeMiles account. As in, not in 7 minutes, but now. If you "need" the airline to confirm your booking months in advance, or you "need" 5 seats on the same flight, you're a cash customer. But for a decade, I've begun every trip with a oneway, without a homebound booking. I've always made it home. If you want reassurance on availability, search tomorrow and the next 4 days. There's plenty.
To clarify for Flying Blue on AF/KLM, 50k is the saver level award correct? And once those are gone, seats are still available but at higher price levels? I recently did a Flying Blue redemption using Virgin and Flying Blue points for the outbound and inbound respectively, Premium Econ for both. I never did see the saver level business class unfortunately, but on the way home the buy-up for Business Class wasn't bad, just $384 per person.
Correct. When inventory is first released, it is at the lower point price. When those are taken, the point price rises. When those are taken, the point price rises again. Etc. While many criticize dynamic pricing, it does open up award seats. Frankly, in a pinch, I'll take the higher point price than no award seat at all.
Yes, though saver availability isn't necessarily always available as soon inventory is first released. It's not uncommon so see insanely high point costs for seats on the furthest available date out.
As a semi-frequent IB flyer, I've noticed a recent trend where I am consistently finding better business availability on BA's platform than IB's own system. IB always has better economy availability but IB no longer seems best for booking their own business award Tix in many cases.
I have noticed that recently there are hardly any business class award seats between the US an Europe on LifeMiles. Used to be able to find often two business class seats on LOT, Austrian - not anymore, only coach seats.
I respect you so much as a travel writer but I roll my eyes whenever I see this headline because I know you're going to include essentially theoretical sweet spots, like ANA F with Virgin or Qatar J with American.
ANA basically releases nothing in F (and honestly, virtually nothing in J either) to partners and Qatar more or less releases nothing to the US in J. Yes, sure, you can still find two seats from Rome to Doha. Whoopee.
@ Cranky Commenter -- I hear you, but I'm making a quick list with 11 different options, some with great availability, and some with less great availability. Regarding Qatar Airways, I noted how award availability is limited to and from the US, but it's quite good in other regions of the world, and those awards are still useful.
@Ben you could be a lot more honest about the possibility of booking these though. You said you've listed 'some with not great availability'. Seat.Aero has an ANA F seat finder tool and it currently shows two flights across the next year, both between HNL and NRT.
So, not a single F class seat between Japan and the continental US (or to Europe) is available to book with points. Saying this is 'less great availability'...
@Ben you could be a lot more honest about the possibility of booking these though. You said you've listed 'some with not great availability'. Seat.Aero has an ANA F seat finder tool and it currently shows two flights across the next year, both between HNL and NRT.
So, not a single F class seat between Japan and the continental US (or to Europe) is available to book with points. Saying this is 'less great availability' is simply misleading and something an industry expert should know and disclose.
@ Chris W -- If ANA first class is available, it's typically pretty last minute, which is why you don't see a lot of seats available. They come and go very quickly, but a lot of people do book them.
And that section was about first and business class, not just first class. While ANA business class award availability isn't great, there are more than a few seats available over the next year.
Anyway, I...
@ Chris W -- If ANA first class is available, it's typically pretty last minute, which is why you don't see a lot of seats available. They come and go very quickly, but a lot of people do book them.
And that section was about first and business class, not just first class. While ANA business class award availability isn't great, there are more than a few seats available over the next year.
Anyway, I totally get that this is super niche, so people are free to ignore it, and I won't hold it against them. It's really an award for those of us who are flexible and maximizers, willing to lock in awards at the last minute.
The problem is that ANA business class hasn't been bookable by Virgin Atlantic for almost half a year now. The seats always come back as unconfirmable from VS.
This article is a recycled article that you've posted before, but now lacks the context on important gaps in Dec 2024. Like how AA basically has no US availability for Qatar, etc.