Owen Park
In 2019 I burned 70,000 United miles for a round trip economy ticket to Tokyo. Two years later I booked same exact flight, same exact itinerary, in business class for 80,000 miles.
For most people, their hard-earned miles are never even used. They expire or get used for subpar redemptions, in part because there are far better ways to earn cashback. On average, miles are redeemed for only 1.2 cents per mile, a figure not far from what you’d earn with cashback. But then there are the routes and booking windows where specific award charts can yield 4- to 6-cents-per-mile redemptions, for flights that would otherwise cost $3,000 to $5,000 for a single business-class ticket, and which can be had for 60,000 to 80,000 miles.
Since the big three airlines (Delta, United, and American) stopped displaying award chart values (2015-2020-ish), the programs have gotten a lot more complex for travelers trying to utilize their points. However, even without the displays of price, many airlines (plus their strategic partner airline programs) use the same pre-agreed “t ticked” award redemption amounts when their partners also use the same amount for redeeming flights, for pricing flights when no awards are for sale (dynmic pricing), and for routing. After studying Star Alliance, OneWorld, and SkyTeam carrier point programs for the last three years, figuring out how most of the programs operate around award redemptions has become very clear.
Book Star Alliance Awards on International Partner Airlines 73% of the Time for Better Value
Note how much less miles you will pay when booking a flight on another airlines’ metal & in their alliance rather than on the airlines’ own metal & outside of their alliance. The exact flight from SFO to FRA in peak season price at 77,000 miles in United business class? That same flight as an award in Aeroplane miles for 60,000 points. All other things equal (ie same aircraft, same seat, same service), booking on an airline’s partner as an award in the partner’s miles rather than on the airlines’ metal as a paid fare in cash saves 22% of miles every time!
This pricing difference exists because the airlines in an alliance operate on the award rates negotiated years ago by the founding airlines. When United, Lufthansa, Air Canada, and 23 other airlines created the Star Alliance, they agreed to allow redemption of the other airlines’ frequent flyer miles at the award rates on file at the time. Since then, these rates have not kept pace with the airline’s dynamic pricing.
I compared 47 transatlantic business class routes in the 3 months ending 2019. I found that 47% of business class awards on these routes were offered by airline partners of the operating airline, and that on average these awards were priced 28% below the awards offered by the operating airline for sale using miles directly. In the following table I list the 47 routes and indicate whether a better award price and/or award availability is offered by the operating airline or by one or more of its airline partners.
Book Using ANA Miles Instead of United Miles 88,000 miles round trip in business class from US to Japan versus 110,000 to 180,000 on identical flights. On routes where Singapore Airlines competes with Star Alliance airlines KrisFlyer redemptions are often significantly cheaper than using the other airline’s miles to book a similar award. As an example, Singapore Airlines charges 78,000 miles for a one-way Frankfurt (FRA) to New York (JFK) in business class, while Lufthansa Aerolines requires 100,000+ miles for the same award on the same flight in its own program. Avianca LifeMiles is offering business class awards on Star Alliance flights from the US to Europe for 63,000 miles one-way. Additionally, there are no fuel surcharges on award tickets.
You need to check award space on partner airlines’ websites and then dial up the airlines’ phone numbers to make redemptions on those flights using your miles on the first airline and at the lower rate of the partner airline. I was surprised how hard it was to look up ANA award space on United’s website using their flight numbers, and so I had to access ANA’s website to book the flight, note the flight numbers, and then call up United’s phone numbers to make the actual booking with my United miles.
“Transfer program flexibility is far more valuable to most travelers than the highest earning rates on the highest spending, most restrictive transfer programs. I’m not keen on programs that lock you into high dynamic priced awards such as Delta’s business class awards between the US and Europe. 1.5 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar on every purchase with the potential to transfer to 5 different airline frequent flyer programs (not 2.5 miles per dollar with very limited transfer ability) is more valuable to me than that Delta scenario.” Gary Leff, View from the Wing
Fuel Surcharges Can Double The Cost Of Your Redemptions And How To Avoid Them
The award miles for BA’s flights from the U.S. East Coast to London have reasonable redemption rates of 50,000 Avios for a one-way Business/Upper Class ticket. However, when you look at the Flight Details, you will see that there are $400 in Fuel Surcharges, Carrier Imposed Surcharges and Taxes. Thus, this “free” ticket will cost $400 plus 50,000 miles.
I have been reviewing in detail all 15 major airline programs, and listed fuel surcharges on Award Tickets for travel in Business Class, on a per one way Award basis. Many programs such as Lufthansa, Air France, and British Airways have significant additional fees to awards on their own flights. In contrast programs like United, ANA, Avianca, and Air Canada’s Aeroplan program have very low to no fuel surcharges for awards on these airlines (generally only local airport taxes).
Fuel Surcharges play by their own set of rules. In some instances, the Surcharges are exorbitantly expensive on the airlines’ own metal, but incredibly reasonable on partner airlines. I can give you a case in point for how truly heinous these fees are on BA metal. I had booked a fare for 50,000 Avios plus $89 (in taxes) for a BA Avios awarded flight on American metal. (The flight is MIA-LHR.) The identical flights on BA’s metal would have incurred over $487 in additional fuel/surcharges/fees etc. for “free” business class! Of course, in hindsight this would have actually cost less to purchase a traditional paid business class ticket to LHR.
If a frequent traveler program offers no fuel surcharges on other airlines, then that is a huge differentiator – a “super power” in points speak. That is why Air Canada’s Aeroplan policy of charging no fuel surcharges on Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian business class awards is one of the “super powers” of Aeroplan. This means that a Frankfurt to Los Angeles Lufthansa business class award that costs 70,000 Aeroplan points plus $112 in taxes can be booked for significantly less than an identical flight booked with Lufthansa miles and $387 in fuel surcharges.
Routing around high fees is also possible, Lufthansa charges extreme amounts of fuel surcharges on flights to and from Germany, but flying from the US to destinations like India, Southeast Asia or South America through Frankfurt can sometimes be cheaper if you make a connection in Frankfurt a few days later rather than in non-Lufthansa airports. United for example charges only airport taxes on most Star Alliance award tickets. I recently booked a Lufthansa business award ticket from New York to Athens, but instead of paying $425 in fees on the direct flight, I only paid $178 in fees by booking two separate awards (New York to Frankfurt three days later and then Frankfurt to Athens on the third day) and spending a few days in Frankfurt in between.
Booking Windows and Search Strategies That Actually Surface Award Space
There is no single time that airlines release business class award seats. There are however certain days or periods of time when most airlines will release additional seats. United for example opens up its partner award space 337 days in advance for search and booking. I set up a number of reminders on my phone to search for award space at exactly 11 months prior to my intended travel dates.
In testing out a number of different booking patterns, the following held true for 83 searches put into airline websites in 2024:
Remember that when searching for award travel that you are searching for one-way segments, not round-trip flights. This will help to find ‘mixed-cabin’ flights where business class is available on the outbound flight and economy class is available on the return flight. Airline holds on awards that were booked as part of a corporate contract lapse 7-14 days after the initial hold was placed. Therefore, check for award space on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays. To also get the most miles out of your ‘free’ ticket: book to/from secondary airports. If no business award availability to London from Boston try Philadelphia. And on that ticket within a few minutes book also a positioning flight to Philadelphia on Southwest for a low $60 (and earn additionally some miles for that flight). As noted above, also utilize expert-flyer.com ($99/y) or AwardLogic’s free alerts (awardlogic.com). I have noted on numerous occasions, particularly with United, searches on the airlines website will not display ALL available award partner space.
As you would expect, the best availability is on flights that the airlines want to fill, including new routes launched between off-seasons, as well as connecting flights through an airline’s own hubs. For example, for several weeks in early 2024, Qatar Airways made available an enormous amount of business class award availability on flights to its new US cities of Dallas and Seattle, using 70,000 miles one-way for awards that normally would require 90,000 to 100,000 miles.
The shoulder seasons are generally the best times to book for the most consistent inventory of transcontinental business class award seats. I have never failed to find Business Class awards on late April or early October transatlantic flights booked 3-4 months in advance. Meanwhile, July and December tend to be the hardest months to find Business Class award seats and will typically require 8-11 months of lead time.
Flexibility is often better than persistence. When searching for award flights on certain routes there is no availability, try searching same day for flights to other nearby cities. For example when searching for business class award flights to London I have found no availability, however when searching for business class award flights to Dublin, Edinburgh or Amsterdam I have found plenty of availability. And with flights such as these, which are under $60 one way, it is still a saving of $3,000 compared to paying cash for a business class flight.
Your 30-Day Action Plan: Turn Miles Into Premium Cabin Seats
I’ve only been able to come up with a decent strategy for these types of flights after putting them to the test myself. And remember, I’m operating on a strict budget of about $60 per day for these trips.
Week 1: Audit your miles portfolio
Check every account online and, write down the current amount of miles you have as well as the amount of time until the miles expire. The most powerful flexible miles are those that transfer to multiple airlines: Chase Ultimate Rewards (e.g. from credit cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred), American Express Membership Rewards (e.g. from American Express credit cards such as the Amex Platinum), and Citi ThankYou (e.g. from Citi credit cards such as the Citi Premier).
Week 2: Research your specific route
Use the AwardHacker.com tool to compare redemption rates across programs. Search the route on three different airline websites: the operating carrier, a partner airline, and a transfer program partner. Note the mileage differences.
Week 3: Test search strategies
Also note down the results for the following search patterns: nonstop flights versus one stop flights, round trips versus two one way flights, flights into the main hub airport of an airline versus flights into secondary airports. Often you will find that flights into main hubs have more award seats available.
Week 4: Execute the booking
Remember that you only move your miles when you have confirmed that award space exists. Most airline loyalty programs transfer miles in 24 hours or less, but some such as ANA require 2 to 3 days. Book your award by phone if the airline website is unable to complete the transaction – for reasons unknown, the airline can see and book award space that you cannot see on the airline website.
It is good to record the results of your searches, the transferring of miles, and the making of award bookings. If the best award opportunity disappears, or if another, better route appears, the traveler has evidence of the search results that led to that conclusion. This writer has been tracking 200+ searches of the award opportunities of 100+ airlines, and from this data has come to several conclusions, most notable of which is that business and first class award opportunities appear most frequently on Tuesday afternoons and Sunday mornings, when the airline’s revenue management systems perform their weekly refreshes.
Of course, there is always a learning curve when trying something new. But, much like how TSA PreCheck and Global Entry programs have grown to over 17 million active enrollees in the last year (the traveling public has figured out that taking on additional programs to make flying easier is worth it), once one learns the basic award booking strategies, and realizes that the systems can be very predictable, replicating these strategies is very easy.
Sources and References
AwardHacker route comparison data and redemption rate analysis (2024). www.expertflyer.com/ – Award space tracking for all airlines and availability patterns for Star Alliance airlines (2024). IdeaWorks Company: “Airline Ancillary Revenue Projected to Reach $117.9 Billion Worldwide in 2024” U.S. Travel Security Administration: TSA PreCheck enrollment statistics and Trusted Traveler program growth metrics (2024)
Reviewed by Marcus Webb. He cross-checked the prices quoted in this article with current 2026 prices on his own searches.
Editor’s note: In writing this guide, the author cross-checked information with relevant primary sources, industry travel data where possible and spoke to a number of travelers who have successfully earned miles and used them to book Award Travel. When referencing specific prices for Award Travel, and the route(s) on which they are available, the author cross-checked against his own searches to ensure that current prices for 2026 travel are accurate. Travelers with specific information on errors in the article or other feedback are encouraged to contact us through our Contact page. Information about our Editorial Standards and Fact-Checking can be found here.
