The 8 Best Airline Award Ticket Sweet Spots

The 8 Best Airline Award Ticket Sweet Spots

27
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!

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.

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.

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 87,000 LifeMiles or 90,000-100,000 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.

Lufthansa first class 747

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.

ANA first & business class using Virgin Atlantic points

All Nippon Airways has a phenomenal new 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 45,000 Flying Club points in business class or 72,500 Flying Club points in first class
  • Flying between the US East Coast and Japan costs 47,500 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.

How do you earn Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points? Virgin Atlantic is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital OneChase 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.

All Nippon Airways business class 777

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.

While not to or from the United States, I’d note that you can also redeem just 40,000 AAdvantage miles between the Middle East and Asia on Qatar Airways, which is arguably an even btter 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.

Qatar Airways business class A350

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 OneChase 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.

Air France business class 777

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. If using points from a transferable points currency, be on the lookout for transfer bonuses.

Iberia business class A330

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. For these kinds of awards, Avianca LifeMiles charges just 63,000 miles for one-way business class travel.

This can get you flights on a variety of Star Alliance airlines, ranging from Austrian, to LOT, to Lufthansa, to SWISS, to United. There are no fuel surcharges on these awards, so given how easy it is to rack up LifeMiles, I’d say that’s a great value.

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 you can find transatlantic business class availability through LifeMiles for 63,000 miles, I’d say it’s often the best value. That’s especially true since I usually acquire LifeMiles for just over a cent each, or with a transfer bonus from a partner.

How do you book Star Alliance awards? These awards can be booked directly on lifemiles.com.

How do you earn Avianca LifeMiles? LifeMiles 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.

SWISS business class 777

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.

Gulf Air business class 787

Alaska & American economy awards using British Airways Avios

While not as aspirational as some of the above options, British Airways’ distance based award chart can be useful for regional awards on Alaska Airlines and American Airlines. Specifically, you can expect to pay the following for one-way travel:

  • Flying a single segment of up to 650 miles will cost you 8,250 British Airways Avios
  • Flying a single segment of 651-1,150 miles will cost you 11,000 British Airways Avios
  • Flying a single segment of 1,151-2,000 miles will cost you 14,500 British Airways Avios
  • Flying a single segment of 2,001-3,000 miles will cost you 16,000 British Airways Avios

Unfortunately this isn’t quite as good of a deal as it used to be, but there are still situations where this could be worthwhile. For example, flying from Miami to most points in the Caribbean would cost just 8,250-11,000 Avios, while flying from the US West Coast to Hawaii would cost you just 16,000 Avios. If you can find award availability, this is a solid deal.

How do you book Alaska & American awards? These awards can be booked directly on ba.com.

How do you earn British Airways Executive Club Avios? British Airways is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One, and Chase Ultimate Rewards, has the co-branded British Airways Visa Signature® Card (review) in the United States, and often sells Avios at a discount. If using points from a transferable points currency, be on the lookout for transfer bonuses.

American Airlines economy class A321neo

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.

United Airlines economy class Boeing 737 MAX

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.

What are your favorite airline award redemptions?

Conversations (27)
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. mjonis Guest

    I'm not sure how one can search Mileageplus for awards on UA using Turkish miles.

  2. Sol wingman Guest

    I dont know how can not mention transatlantic flights with AA using American, Qantas or Alaska miles between47k and 57 biz

  3. Marios Guest

    Have an upcoming business class trip from Buenos Aires to Athens on Ethiopian for 55,000 Aegean Airlines miles + €80 in taxes. Whereas the ADD-ATH segment is on a 737-Max, the cost would have been the same to anywhere in Europe, on a larger plane with lie flat seats.

  4. Marios Guest

    Have an upcoming trip from Buenos Aires to Athens on Ethiopian for 55,000 Aegean Airlines miles + €80 in taxes. Whereas the ADD-ATH segment is on a 737-Max, the cost would have been the same to anywhere in Europe, on a larger plane with lie flat seats.

  5. Paul Emerson Guest

    Using virgin miles on virgin transatlantic economy is also a sweet spot. With the recent sales I just got FOUR transatlantic one way economy tickets for 32,000 virgin points and $600.

  6. TranceXplant Member

    This is obviously more of a bucket list item than a regular redemption, but ANA's round the world Star Alliance ticket in J is arguably the best value of all. Starting at 125k points for up to 22k travel miles on any Star Alliance carrier with up to 8 stopover, nothing else really comes close.

  7. Mick Guest

    How about using Alaska miles to aus on Fiji airways or Cathay via Hk (harder to find availability atm).

    Or even using aa miles. Often it’s ~86.5k miles or 96.5k miles in first. I’ve booked a few of these recently.

  8. Mick Guest

    On my trip last year to the USA the use of avois for some domestic legs saved me a ton of cash. Eg raleigh to Ord in first and Ord to lax in economy.

    Being based in Australia I use lifemiles for ANA and EVA etc to Asia for 40k in biz and AA miles for one world at 40k in biz and 50k in first (really only ba first is an option).

    ...

    On my trip last year to the USA the use of avois for some domestic legs saved me a ton of cash. Eg raleigh to Ord in first and Ord to lax in economy.

    Being based in Australia I use lifemiles for ANA and EVA etc to Asia for 40k in biz and AA miles for one world at 40k in biz and 50k in first (really only ba first is an option).

    I just redeemed 110k aeroplan miles and $80 to fly syd to Delhi to Frankfurt with a short stopover. Combined air India and vistara. No other carrier seemed to allow routing through India. Will be interesting to compare the airlines!

    Interestingly there were a few options on Vietnam airlines for 90k sky miles which is pretty cheap.

  9. Joachim Guest

    As a BOS based traveler, I love using many of these to get to Europe. Lifemiles is a great cheap way to fly business intra-europe on Austrian and Swiss. LM and Aeroplan often have great Swiss and Lufthansa availability. Air France availability is fantastic BOS-CDG and Iberia is great to MAD.

    Pretty much everything on this list except for ANA (which as another poster commented is a Unicorn anyway) can be used from BOS if...

    As a BOS based traveler, I love using many of these to get to Europe. Lifemiles is a great cheap way to fly business intra-europe on Austrian and Swiss. LM and Aeroplan often have great Swiss and Lufthansa availability. Air France availability is fantastic BOS-CDG and Iberia is great to MAD.

    Pretty much everything on this list except for ANA (which as another poster commented is a Unicorn anyway) can be used from BOS if you are flexible. No need to backtrack to NYC or route through Canada. The key is just to have transferrable points.

    I'll have to look into Qatar availability on AA, there was a lot for a while but maybe they've clamped down as travel ramps back up.

  10. Matt Guest

    I have never been able to score a United domestic award with TK miles. Has anyone been able to do it?

    1. Joachim Guest

      I've done it by emailing my local ticket office (BOS) but this was a while back, probably pre-pandemic. You pretty much have to email a US ticket office IIRC.

  11. Andrew Guest

    So hard to find Qatar Awards with AA miles these days. I dont think they exist anymore :(

    1. Taxi Guest

      Weirdly they're rare with AA, but seemingly super common with B6. TrueBlue is a pretty meh program, but I've found plenty of QSuite availability for 70K TrueBlue points.

    2. Gigi Guest

      Great to know, will take a look. Impossible with AA

  12. Francisco Guest

    Tahnks for the post. Do you have any insight on when the next Iberia Avios promo may come? Thansk in Advance.

  13. claude depardieu Guest

    Thank you for this - interesting.

  14. Pat Guest

    The short haul Avios sweet spot is losing its luster. Not only are the number of Avios for those flights creeping-up, but the number of AA miles is creeping-down. I would even go as far to say that AA's "web specials" (or whatever they're called these days) may be the sweet spot worthy of this list.

    1. Sara Guest

      One-way domestic flights in Japan have done more than creep up. While these were uniformly around ~5k miles one-way as recently as two years ago, I've recently seen intra-Honshu domestic legs for 10-15k. Total rip-off!

    2. Retired Gambler Guest

      Agree on AA awards. Last week I planned a spur of the moment trip to LA (from CLT) for a star filled Jimmy Buffett tribute concert at the Hollywood Bowl on 4/11. Well the same day I got an E-mail from AA On awards from 5000 each way on Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday in April or May. I planned to go Wednesday 4/10 and return Saturday 4/13 checked flights. Sure enough I got a flight...

      Agree on AA awards. Last week I planned a spur of the moment trip to LA (from CLT) for a star filled Jimmy Buffett tribute concert at the Hollywood Bowl on 4/11. Well the same day I got an E-mail from AA On awards from 5000 each way on Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday in April or May. I planned to go Wednesday 4/10 and return Saturday 4/13 checked flights. Sure enough I got a flight each way for 5000 miles (10,000 r/t) for a flight that would have cost $408 in main cabin (I'm not adding the seat fees for MCE but got that confirmed as lifetime elite). Going has a connection and 3 hour layover in Denver but return is non-stop leaving at 1:30 PM from LA and getting to CLT around 9:15 so perfect!

      Hope AA keeps the quick award promotions going. Retired and can jump on a flight on a moment's notice so definitely will take advantage.

  15. James K. Guest

    Two of these are hypothetical sweet spots, not actual ones. Qatar from the US to Asia virtually doesn't exist, ANA F space is a unicorn.

    1. Girls5Eva Guest

      Right, these "sweet spots" only exist if you can stop your life at a moment's notice a hop on whatever random flight happens to be available. Misleading clickbait...

    2. Preacher Guest

      Right. Since before the Doha World Cup QR space has been almost impossible

  16. Ernest Burkhalter Guest

    I stay away from Avios and Aeroplan unless I am sure I am going to fly. Their cancellation fees are very high.

    1. Andy Guest

      Avios cancellation can be low if the taxes and fees are low. For examples if you book an award with taxes and fees of $5.60 and then cancel you will only lose your $5.60, no other cancellation fee is collected.

  17. Daniel B. Guest

    Please mention that for months now there has not been business award availability on Qatar airways using AA points

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.

Paul Emerson Guest

Using virgin miles on virgin transatlantic economy is also a sweet spot. With the recent sales I just got FOUR transatlantic one way economy tickets for 32,000 virgin points and $600.

1
TranceXplant Member

This is obviously more of a bucket list item than a regular redemption, but ANA's round the world Star Alliance ticket in J is arguably the best value of all. Starting at 125k points for up to 22k travel miles on any Star Alliance carrier with up to 8 stopover, nothing else really comes close.

1
Preacher Guest

Unfortunately that’s true.

1
Meet Ben Schlappig, OMAAT Founder
5,163,247 Miles Traveled

32,614,600 Words Written

35,045 Posts Published

Keep Exploring OMAAT
  • December 16, 2022
  • Ben Schlappig
106
Constant Loyalty Program Changes Erode Loyalty
  • December 14, 2020
  • Ben Schlappig
25
Mileage Thieves Charged With Wire Fraud