The best sweet spots for flight redemptions
Quite a number of devaluations have happened over the last few months. While a lot of these were hotel and transfer devaluations, we've seen some pretty unfortunate changes specifically related to Star Alliance awards.
At a high level, the best value for travel follows the below order:
- Flat-rate award charts are best as they typically ignore individual segments or cash prices, but they are subject to availability and blackouts
- Dynamic awards are pretty average, with more expensive tickets costing more miles
- Currencies that are pegged at a cents per point (CPP) value are the worst, as they pretty much follow a 1:1 correlation based on cash price
Here's a roundup of my favorite sweet spots.
In this article:
Domestic US
Jetblue and Southwest peg their points at around 1.3CPP, with some as high as 1.5CPP or as low as 0.9CPP. But otherwise, United, American, and Delta mostly follow a dynamic pricing model. The high-demand flight right before Christmas is going to cost more miles than the random Tuesday in February. But we can do better!
Using Alaska (AS) Atmos miles on short AA flights
Alaska still uses a basic award chart for partner flights. As long as AA makes the seats available, you can often find a better deal booking through AS instead of the program that's operating the flight! Here are the rates for partner redemptions within the Americas:
So short hops like DEN-DFW, LAS-LAX, BOS-DCA, JFK-IND all come in at 4.5k miles one-way in Economy. That's like booking a ticket for $45 flat, and these are often available same-day or next-day, when cash tickets are typically the most expensive! Do note that AS charges a partner booking fee of $12.50 that is nonrefundable, plus the mandatory security fee of $5.60.
Unfortunately, Atmos miles aren't that easy to earn as Bilt is the only transfer partner.
Using KLM/Air France Flying Blue miles on short Delta (DL) flights
Similar to the AS hack above, Flying Blue offers the same thing for flights on Delta. Short hops like SLC-DEN, SEA-PDX, BOS-LGA all come in at 5k miles.
In recent months, this deal has only been bookable 14+ days in advance. I'm uncertain if this is a permanent thing, but I'd imagine it is. So unfortunately, not last-minute booking using Flying Blue.
Luckily, Flying Blue is a transfer partner of every major card currency (Chase, CapOne, Amex, Bilt, Wells Fargo, Citi), so miles are widely available.
Using Air Canada Aeroplan miles on domestic United (UA) flights
Aeroplan charges more or less a flat rate for any flight within the lower 48. Longer flights are priced consistently at 15k, while short flights can be as low as 10k miles. Definitely not as good as the former Turkish deal (see below, RIP)
Unfortunately, Aeroplan charges an exorbitant amount in partner booking fees, so you'll end up paying over CAD$45 compared to the flat $5.60 booking on United directly. But the reason I included it on this list is because Aeroplan is a transfer partner of every major card currency. Say you want to fly United but you don't have United miles or Chase miles. You can still use CapOne to book a flight!
Using Etihad miles on domestic Jetblue (B6) flights
This one is pretty rare to find. For close-in bookings (like same-day or next-day bookings), Jetblue often charges some pretty high fares. A short flight from JFK-BOS could easily be $200 or more if in peak season. And since B6 miles are pegged, it'll still be around ~15k points.
Etihad applies an award chart that would price the above itinerary at 6k miles. But this is where it gets interesting - it's never exactly that price. There's always the odd nickel and cent on award redemptions, and nobody can figure out why. So the ticket might be something like 6,094 miles...Keep that in mind when transferring over.
Note that Etihad also charges a partner booking fee of $13.85 per person, along with the security fee of $5.60. I don't use this often, but if AA, AS, and KLM are all unavailable, this is a worthy backup option.
American Airlines AAdvantage miles
For most flights, AA award rates are consistently lower than UA and DL. If AA only charges 9k for BOS-CLT-LAS when UA wants 15k and DL wants 23k (hence why we call it SkyPesos), that extra layover might just be worth it.
Plus, AA is also now a transfer partner of Citi, which makes it that much easier to get a ton of miles, especially if you have the Double Cash or Custom Cash cards.
Transoceanic
Use Virgin Atlantic miles to book Virgin Atlantic business class
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has dynamic award pricing, but their fares have been very reasonable. Business Class from the east coast of the US to London costs as little as 29k miles + ~$250 in taxes and fees. That's an incredible deal, like paying $540 for business! West coast flights are a bit higher, so consider the cost of booking from west coast outright versus a repositioning domestic flight.
Finding these deals may be a little tougher, but not impossible if given some time. Plus, Virgin Atlantic is a transfer partner of every major credit card currency.
Use Flying Blue miles on promo reward tickets
Air France and KLM share the Flying Blue miles currency. It's widely available as they are a transfer partner to every major currency. Booking through KLM or Air France doesn't matter - it's all the same price and inventory.
What makes Flying Blue unique is that every month, they feature different destinations where flights cost 25% less than normal. There's deals all the time in Economy, Premium Economy, and Business Class. Note that availability varies wildly. While Business flights might be "as low as" 45k miles, it's not uncommon to see prices in the 400k-700k range.
I've taken advantage of these promo rewards a few times. Here are some articles and trip reviews:
Use AA miles on JAL Business and First tickets
Though AA uses dynamic awards on their own flights, their partner awards are still on a static award chart rate. Seats in Japan Airlines Business Class are priced at 60k and seats in First Class are 80k.
I've never experienced the JAL First product, but I can say with confidence that JAL Business beats out AA Business any day! If you are a little flexible with your travel and you can book close to departure, I've been able to find seats to Tokyo from cities across the US.
Just remember that AA search does not show mixed cabin itineraries. You can either call in and have the agent piece it together for you, or you can book the business legs and call in to add a domestic leg. AA does not charge extra for additional US legs in any class, so long as "saver" seats are available (which you can check via AS search).
Stopovers
Air Canada Aeroplan stopovers for 5k
Any long-haul ticket with Aeroplan allows you to add a stopover anywhere along your journey for an additional 5k miles. The stopover must be in the middle of your journey and it can not be in North America, and awards must be available for both of your dates. Stopovers can be anywhere from 1-45 days.
Two stopovers are allowed for open-jaw, multi-city, or round-trip tickets. All pricing is based on a mix of zone and distance.
Flying Blue free stopovers
Any flight operated by Air France or KLM allows for one free stopover up to 364 days. In practice, this typically means a stopover in either Amsterdam and Paris. A more knowledgeable agent may be able to force a stopover anywhere else, but it may impact how the ticket prices because it's technically many additional segments.
Stopovers can not be booked online. Reservations must be done over the phone and some agents may not know how to do this, so prepare to HUCA.
Alaska Atmos free stopovers
Alaska also offers free stopovers on most itineraries. The only rule is that the full journey must cross different regions. So unfortunately you can't spend 4.5k miles to do a BOS-LGA-DCA stopover :)
There is no rule restricting stopovers in North America either. a ORD-SEA-ICN routing with a 15-day stopover in SEA is perfectly valid!
Former deals
Using Turkish Miles&Smiles (TK) on domestic United flights
My favorite sweet spot of all time was Turkish Airlines. They originally had a single award chart for partner airlines, where any domestic flight would cost just 7.5k miles and no partner booking fee. Even better, Hawaii and Alaska were both considered the same country as well!
So you had some pretty remarkable situations, like a EWR-SFO-HNL flight on United:
- Cash price = $450 one-way
- United award cost = 22.5k miles + $5.60
- Turkish award cost = 7.5k miles + $5.60 Pretty much you could book a flight same-day to Hawaii for $80, a savings of ~$370.
United would release saver awards (fare code X) pretty consistently. I used this deal alot because my flights home for Thanksgiving and Christmas would always be 7.5k miles, the equivalent of $80 one way. That was such a sweet deal.
Turkish then updated their award chart to be 10k miles in 2024. Now it's at 15k miles with even higher rates to Hawaii, which makes it about the same as Aeroplan. The reason I called out AC instead of TK Turkish's customer service call center is...quite a disaster...