aa travel award chart

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Guide to the American Airlines award chart

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American Airlines has moved to dynamic pricing. Know what that is? Basically, American reserves the right to charge whatever they want, whenever they want.

There’s still a oneworld award chart if you’re flying on American’s alliance partners. We’ve mapped a chart to help you see what your award flight should cost at a glance. Bookmark this page if you want quick access to an American Airlines oneworld award chart.

This post covers the following:

• oneworld award chart
• AA Award chart (with off-peak prices)
• AA off-peak dates
• How to price your own flight

By opening a couple of American Airlines credit cards , you can stockpile American Airlines bonus miles that will get you to some great travel destinations in Europe, Japan, or Australia.

I’m going to show you how to book American Airlines award travel to find the best deals. And check out our post on the best use of AA miles for some real inspiration.

American Airline AAdvantage miles oneworld award chart

If you’re flying an AA alliance partner, you’ll find below the only AA oneworld award chart on the internet. The one thing not covered in the following award chart is that Europe is the one region that has off-peak (cheaper) prices for all partners, not just American Airlines flights.

Big note: Off-peak dates to Europe cost 22,500 miles. You’ll find this price when searching:

• January 10 to March 14
• November 1 to December 14

American Airlines AAdvantage award chart departing from the U.S.

If you are instead flying on an American Airlines plane (not with a partner airline), you’ll expect to pay the following prices. Again, dynamic pricing doesn’t guarantee these prices, but the general MileSAAver prices hover around the following:

American Airlines off-peak dates

American Airlines generally has five price points for award tickets:

• Economy Web Special (often the cheapest — we’ve seen some ASTONISHING award sales in the past)
• MileSAAver Off-Peak (not available for all regions)
• AAnytime Level 1 (ripoff)
• AAnytime Level 2 (most expensive, never book this one)

To get that ultra-low off-peak price in the second column above, here’s when you’ll have to search for your flights.

To Hawaii :

• December 29 to March 12
• August 11 to November 18
• November 24 to December 10

From Hawaii :

• January 7 to March 19
• August 18 to November 27
• December 3 to December 25

Caribbean, Mexico and Central America :

• April 21 to May 20
• September 9 to November 18
• January 1 to April 30
• July 1 to November 30

From Japan :

• January 16 to April 19
• May 2 to 31
• September 1 to December 31

From Korea:

• January 16 to May 31

To China/Hong Kong:

• July 1 to September 30
• October 11 to November 30

From China/Hong Kong:

• February 1 to May 31
• September 1 to 19
• October 2 to December 31

South America 1:

• January 16 to June 14
• September 7 to November 14

How to navigate the AA award chart (to get an approximate price)

As American has kept its region-based award chart alive, you’ll need only to focus on the following:

• Your airline choice
• Class of service and pricing tier
• Your destination

What airline will you be flying?

As you’ve noticed above, American Airlines has two award charts. The first is for flights on American Airlines; the other is for flights on oneworld alliance and partner airlines.

American Airlines has a long list of oneworld airline partners:

• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific
• Japan Airlines
• Malaysia Airlines
• Qatar Airways
• Royal Air Maroc
• Royal Jordanian Airlines
• S7 Airlines
• SriLankan Airlines

Other partner airlines that are not part of the Oneworld alliance include:

• Air Tahiti Nui
• Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air
• China Southern Airlines
• Etihad Airways
• Fiji Airways
• GOL Airlines
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Interjet Airlines
• Seaborne Airlines

You can redeem your miles with any of the above partner airlines, which gives you a lot of flexibility.

Will you be flying coach, business or first class?

For American Airlines flights, decide whether you want to fly coach, business class, or first class. There are different award prices for each class of service.

As I say, avoid AAnytime airfares. These fares are the most expensive, and in many cases you could book multiple MileSAAver flights for the price of a single AAnytime flight. If you have last-minute travel plans or your dates are not flexible, it may be your only option.

American Airlines explains its fare buckets in detail here .

On a partner airline, you don’t need to worry about pricing tiers because everything is priced the same. Your only decision is whether you want to fly coach, business or first class.

Where are you going?

The final step to figuring out how many miles your trip will take is knowing which region of the world you’re visiting. You’ll find this information on the same charts above. For instance, a flight in coach from the U.S. to Europe should cost around 30,000 American Airlines miles on the MileSAAver fare.

And if you’re wondering how American Airlines defines a region, here is the link: specific region definitions. Some common examples include:

• Caribbean : Includes Bermuda and the Bahamas
• South America Region 1 : Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Manaus (Brazil)
• South America Region 2 : Argentina, Brazil (excluding Manaus), Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela
• Asia Region 1 : Japan and Korea
• Asia Region 2 : Brunei, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam

How to use American Airlines miles

You can find some great deals on American Airlines. The fastest way to accrue a sizable stash of miles is by earning the welcome bonus on credit cards like:

• Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® – 50,000 bonus miles after spending $5,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening
• CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard® – 65,000 bonus miles after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first four months of account opening
• Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® – 50,000 bonus miles after spending $2,500 on purchases in the first three months of account opening
• American Airlines AAdvantage MileUp℠ Card – 10,000 bonus miles + $50 statement credit after spending $500 on purchases in the first three months of account opening

The information for the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select and Citibusiness Platinum Select have been collected independently by Million Mile Secrets. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Here are a few examples of flights you could take if you earn those bonus miles:

• Book short-distance flights within the U.S. Coach flights on American Airlines (500 miles or less) generally cost 7,500 miles one-way
• One-way flight to Europe in business class from 57,500 American Airlines miles, or a round-trip coach ticket from the U.S. to Europe from 45,000 American Airlines miles (during off-peak dates)
• Fly one-way to Japan in business class from 60,000 American Airlines miles
• Book a round-trip ticket to the Caribbean in business class from 50,000 American Airlines miles

You can read more about the best ways to use American Airlines miles to see just how powerful they can be!

Bottom line

American Airlines uses dynamic pricing, but also publishes a region-based award chart making it easy to figure out approximately how many miles you’ll need to book an award flight. We’ve created a oneworld award chart (the only one on the web) to help you see how many miles you’ll need for your desired AA partner award flight.

If you know where to look on the American Airlines award chart, earning any of those welcome bonuses can get you some big travel. You can use the miles for multiple short-haul trips within the U.S. or book a first class flight overseas — which could easily save you thousands of dollars.

Drew Macomber

Contributor

Drew founded the points and miles site Travelisfree.com in 2011 and has also worked with The Points Guy. He and his wife spent years traveling nomadically until they sold Travel is Free in 2019.

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Ultimate Guide to Booking American Airline Awards: Part 2 – Comparing American Airline’s 3 Award Charts

American Airlines has some of the best award options for flights around the world. With the American Airline AAdvantage award program, you can fly practically anywhere in the world using miles that you earn from credit card bonuses and flying on AA flights. By learning some basics about the program you will be a pro at booking your next award flight. In a series of posts, we’ll discuss the different ways American Airlines points can be used to maximize your awards.

Part 1 – Introduction to Using American Airlines Miles and the Partner Airlines Part 2 – Comparing American Airline’s 3 Award Charts Part 3 – Taxes and fees and How to Book Awards (online vs. phone) Part 4 – Stopovers and Open Jaw tickets American Airlines Part 5 – How to Maximize American Airlines Explorer, oneworld and Other Airline Award Charts Part 6 – How to Maximize AA MileSAAver Awards (includes off-peak) Part 7 – Planning an International Award Part 8 – Maximizing AA Miles to South America Part 9 – Maximizing AA Miles to Asia Part 10 – Maximizing AA Miles to Europe Part 11 – Maximizing AA Miles to Africa Part 12 – Maximizing AA Miles to Middle East Part 13 – Maximizing AA Miles in the US and Hawaii

If you’ve been earning and saving American Airline miles and are ready to begin redeeming them, you have a few options when it comes to getting the most out of your miles.

AAdvantage has three awards charts that are available to base your award on. Between the three charts there are 20 airline partners that you can book on for domestic and international flights. The charts include the American Airlines Award Chart, the oneworld and Other Airline Award Chart and oneworld Explorer Chart.

American Airlines Award Chart

To book a basic round trip itinerary or one way, likely the best option would be to book referring to the American Airline Awards chart, especially if it’s a domestic flight and you are not picky on the airline you fly with.

When booking travel using the AA Award chart all travel must be on flights operated by American Airlines or its affiliates--American Eagle or American Connection. You can book flights with American Eagle and American Connection on the AA website, but you won’t be able to book other partners on the website (Alaska Airlines being the only oneworld exception).

You can also book international flights based on the award chart, but you are limited to flights operated by AA or it’s affiliates. You cannot book an award with one of the 25 partners based on this chart. One major convenience factor of basing an award on this chart is that you can book online. The major drawback is that you cannot book flights on any of the oneworld partners.

The miles required to book an award start at 12,500 miles for a one way domestic economy. For international awards, depending on the time of year and the region you are visiting, the miles required for travel will vary.

American Airlines prices out the award based on the season and demand of travel. It will be cheaper to fly in the off-peak times vs. peak travel season. If your travel dates are flexible you can save thousands of miles by booking awards that have travel during off-peak periods.

What are the different award options?

There are three main tiers on the AA award chart that depend on the time of travel and award seat availability. By planning out an award far enough in advance you get the best and cheapest award options. The three types of award options are MileSAAver Off Peak, MileSAAver and AAnytime.

MileSAAver Off-Peak (fewest miles): Off Peak MileSAAver is only available on coach flights and the availability is limited. If you are able to snag an Off-Peak MileSAAVer award and already intend to fly coach, you will be getting a decent deal, more than half the cost of an AAnytime award ticket.

MileSAAver (midlevel miles): MileSAAver awards are the discounted awards seats available on Economy, Business and First class and cost the same as the AAnytime Award. Unlike the AAnytime awards, there is a change fee for any flight adjustments and there are fees for checked in luggage.

AAnytime (most miles): The AAnytime Awards tickets stay consistent with being available at anytime, unlike some of the other categories that are offered seasonally. Perks of the ticket include Priority AAccess boarding pass and no fees for making changes to your flight. Essentially it’s treated as a Y class ticket.

For domestic awards, regardless of where you would like to travel within the US, the cost of the award will stay the same and the amount of miles flown does not matter.

For example, if I wanted to fly from Los Angeles to Washington DC, the base rate would be 12.5k each one way. If I wanted to fly from Los Angeles to Portland, that too would be 12.5k per one way--even though it’s much closer.

The nice thing with American Airline miles is that you have several award chart options to choose from that can help you maximize the miles. When booking international awards you have the choice to book on any of the partner airlines in the oneworld alliance.

oneworld and Other Airline Award Chart

Redeeming AA miles based on the oneworld and Other Airline Award chart is the best option for international award travel. American Airlines is a oneworld partner, but also has several partners that are not associated with oneworld that you can use AA miles on. The options for booking awards to destinations that AA does not operate to is still possible using AA miles, you just have to book a flight on a partner airline.

To book an award on any of the oneworld or other partners, you must call and make reservations with an AA agent over the phone. Booking over the phone comes with a $25 charge and is mostly unavoidable, however it’s a small cost considering you get to book the flights you want.

oneworld and Other Partners

British Airways (affiliate airlines: Cityflyer, Comair, Sun-Air of Scandinavia) airberlin Iberia Finnair LAN (affiliate airlines: LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador, LAN Express, LAN Peru) Cathay Pacific (affiliate airlines: Dragonair) Qantas (affiliate airlines: QantasLink & Jetconnect) Malaysia Airlines Japan Airlines (JAL)  (affiliate airlines: JAL Express, J-Air, Japan Transocean Air) Royal Jordanian Mexicana (suspended indefinitely) S7 (affiliate airlines: Globus) Air Pacific Air Tahiti Nui Alaska Airlines Ethiad Cape Air El AL GOL Hawaiian Airlines Jet Airways Jet Blue Kingfisher Airlines

Using the oneworld and Other Airline Award chart you can book flights on 25 international and domestic partners. Between these partners you can virtually find service to any destination in the world. The award chart is based on zones and regardless of the city you are visiting within the zone, the price will be the same.

Another benefit that this chart offers is Off-Peak rates for economy seats for certain zones which starts at 20k miles. These lower priced awards can save you anywhere from 10k miles for a one way to 20k miles per round trip. Off-Peak awards are available for Asia Zone 1, Central America and South America Zone 1, southern South America, Europe and Hawaii. Unfortunately they are not an option for Asia Zone 2, the Middle East or the South Pacific.

Off-Peak Dates Per Zone

Off-Peak: March 1 to May 31 & Aug. 16 to Nov. 30

Central America & South America Zone 1: Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Venezuela

South America Zone 2: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile (excluding Easter Island), Paraguay, Uruguay

Asia Zone 1: Japan, Korea, Mongolia

Off-Peak: Oct. to April 30

Asia Zone 2: Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Guam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Saipan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam

Off-Peak: Oct. 15 to May 15

Off-Peak: Jan. 12 to March 16 & Aug. 22 to Dec. 15

No Off-Peak

Indian Subcontinent & Middle East: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Maldives, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan

• South Pacific: Australia, Easter Island, Fiji, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Tonga, Republic of Vanuatu, American Samoa and Samoa.

Fuel Surcharges and Taxes

American Airlines does not charge a fuel surcharge, but if you are booking on partner airline using your AA miles they you may have to pay (depending on the airline). Airlines such as British Airways and Iberia tack on fuel surcharges that can be upwards of ~$400.

As far as taxes and carrier fees, AA only charges around $10.

Since I love stopovers I always try to include them. In my opinion they are one of the easiest ways you can really maximize your miles on one trip. AA allows stopovers, but their stopover rules are a bit tricky and not as flexible as what is allowed by United.

You can have a stopover on either a round trip or one way award. The stopover must be in a North American Gateway City (US, Canada and Mexico). The trip must also include an international destination meaning that you cannot have a stopover on domestic round trips. No international stopovers.

The only criteria for a valid stopover city is that it is the last city you connect through in North America, or the first city you connect through on return. In most cases the stopovers can be made in the major AA hubs, but you can route through more desirable North American cities that connect to your international destination. Some of the more interesting stopovers include: Mexico City, Cancun, Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto.

Booking two one way awards essentially gives you two stopover options on a round trip itinerary. This is one of the biggest perks of booking awards with AA miles.

Here’s an example of using stopovers on two one ways:

Outbound one way: LAX - JFK (stopover) - CPT (open jaw with one way)

Inbound one way: MAD - MEX (stopover) - LAX

You could have a stopover in New York since it is the last North American international gateway city--the last connection city before flying to Cape Town, South Africa. You could also have a stopover in Mexico City on your return since it is the first North American international gateway city you route through.

OneWorld Explorer Award Chart

Unlike the other two charts, if you want to take advantage of the oneworld Explorer chart, you can only do so with oneworld airline partners and NOT with AA’s other partners such as:

Air Tahiti Alaska Airlines Cape Air El Al Hawaiian Airline Etihad Airway Fiji Airways Gulf Air Jet Airways Jet Blue Seaborne TAM Airlines WestJet

This may seem like a drawback since you don’t have as many destinations in certain parts of the world, but for the most part oneworld covers most anywhere you can think of traveling.

Explorer Awards are based on distance rather than zone per trip redemption rates. The award price is based on the distance you travel regardless of the number of flights. This means you can fly to as many cities as you like as long as:

a) you have enough miles

b) you complete the trip within 16 segments

c) you complete all travel within one year of booking your award.

d) At least two segments must be on a oneworld alliance partner (not AA)

How to Book oneworld and Other Partners Using American Airline Miles

When booking oneworld or partner flights using American Airline miles you will most likely need to do some research. First, decide which airlines you want to use (if you have a preference).

For example, is there an airline that has a great first class cabin that you’ve been wanting to experience? Or is there an airline that has direct flights to a destination?

Another thing to consider are the taxes and fees and fuel surcharges some airlines charge. I always try to avoid these at all costs because they make free travel...well, not free.

The oneworld award chart categorizes the total miles traveled on one award--starting from the first flight to the last flight--into different distance zones. The distance zone your award falls into determines the amount of miles needed to redeem the award. To get the most value per mile you want to be at the upper end of the zone.

Meaning, if you are booking a distance zone 6 award you want your total trip miles to be closer to 19,999 than 14,001. Since the distance zones are spread across 5,000 miles, you are just giving away whatever miles you don’t use within each distance zone. Basically, just shoot to get as close to the maximum trip miles per zone.

To find out which oneworld airline flies to specific destinations, refer to the oneworld Where We Fly tool . Once you’ve decided which airlines you’d like to fly with, using the tool you can search for the segments you want to book.

Once you find the segments you are happy with, write down the flight number, date and time of each segment and call AA reservations. You have to call an agent to book the flight for you over the phone. The number for the AA reservation line is (800) 433-7300.

Also keep in mind that Explorer Awards are based on total trip miles you’re traveling, so make sure that you have enough miles to cover all segments. An easy way to check the total trip miles is by using the Great Circle Mapper . Enter your segments with airport codes and it will calculate the total miles traveled.

Here’s an example of a calculating a oneworld Explorer Award using the The Great Circle Mapper tool:

The total distance of this trip is 29,300 miles which puts it in the Zone 9 distance category which requires 140,000 miles.

Now that you know all about American Airlines Award charts, you can get ready to learn about award taxes and fees on the next post.

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A Complete Guide to American Airlines Award Travel Rules

Reviewed by Ryan Smith

AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. Terms Apply to the offers listed on this page. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers .

American Airlines AAdvantage ® is one of our favorite mileage programs. Thanks to dozens of partners, you can fly to over 1,000 destinations using AAdvantage miles. And American Airlines has (largely) kept its partner mileage redemption chart the same for over seven years now. In this post, we'll cover all the rules for American Airlines award travel to help you use miles for your next adventure.

One of the key ways to get more value from your rewards is to spend a little time learning the rules for booking awards with the points and miles you acquire. Each program has its own set of strengths and weaknesses. Once you understand them clearly, you’ll be able to choose the program that best suits your goals for a particular trip.

Page Contents

Types of Rules

Award pricing, redemption partners, which airlines can i book using american aadvantage miles, can i use my miles to book for another person, how far in advance can i book my ticket, can i put an aa award travel reservation on hold, does american charge a close-in booking fee, does american charge a phone booking fee, how much does it cost to include a lap infant, how much does american airlines charge to change or cancel an award ticket, does american airlines allow free changes within 24 hours, how can i track award flight changes, can i book a stopover with american miles, can i book one-way travel with american miles, can i book an open jaw with american miles, can i fly with multiple partner airlines on the same trip, can i book an itinerary with multiple classes of service, can i book a round-the-world ticket with american miles, american third-region exceptions, published route requirement, maximum permitted mileage (mpm), american airlines award segment limits, married segment logic, final thoughts.

• Booking rules cover the details you need to know to get your trip confirmed. Can you use your miles to book a flight for your grandma? How much does it cost to add an infant who doesn’t need her own seat? How far in advance can you confirm your flights?
• Change and cancellation rules cover all the fine print to ensure you don’t pay unnecessary fees and know exactly what to expect if your plans change.
• Itinerary rules cover your options and limitations for the flights you add to your trip. For example, can you add a stopover in Europe on the way to Asia? Can you book a one-way flight at half the price of a round-trip? Will you save miles if part of a business-class trip is in economy?

American Airlines AAdvantage Award Travel Costs & Partner Airlines

Before we get started, two important factors aren’t covered in this post: award pricing and redemption partners.

The number of miles you need and the taxes and fees you’ll pay out of pocket are determined by the type of points you redeem. In many cases, the costs in miles and money can be more important than other rules. This post isn't about how much you'll spend for an AA award or a comparison of AA's booking prices against competitors.

You can use AAdvantage miles to book travel with more than 20 partner airlines . But it’s also true that you can use dozens of different types of points to book flights operated by American or its partner airlines. If you aren’t familiar with this, check out our beginner’s guide to award travel planning .

If you’ve done a good job of diversifying your points and miles, you should have the option to use rewards from other frequent-flyer programs to book a similar (or identical) itinerary. When using AAdvantage miles makes the most sense, here are the rules.

American Airlines Award Booking Rules and Fees

Yes, American Airlines will let you book a flight for anyone you wish. However, program terms and conditions prohibit selling miles, so you shouldn’t book for people you don’t know or receive payment to book on someone else's behalf.

When paying for the taxes and fees on award tickets, American Airlines requires that the name on the credit card match the name of the AAdvantage account holder. Thus, your brother can't use your credit card when booking a ticket using his miles.

Related: Rules on Booking Award Flights for Other People

You can redeem AA miles up to 331 days before departure. Some of AA's partner airlines — like British Airways and Cathay Pacific — make awards available almost one month earlier than this, but that requires booking with those programs.

Related: How Far in Advance Can You Book Airline Award Tickets?

American has one of the most generous hold policies of any frequent flyer program. Members can hold an award for five days if the award is booked more than 14 days before departure. Less than 14 days from departure, members can hold awards for 24 hours. Even within 24 hours of departure, you can get a hold until two hours before departure.

American Airlines no longer charges a close-in-booking fee. In February 2020, American Airlines eliminated its $75 close-in booking fee .

What is this? Some frequent flyer programs charge an extra fee when you book a ticket within 21 days of departure. American Airlines award travel no longer has this fee.

American Airlines no longer charges a fee to book reservations over the phone. Before November 2020 , AA charged a $25 fee to book travel within the U.S. by phone but waived this fee for tickets that couldn't be booked on AA.com. The fee jumped to $35 for international travel, but this is gone also. However, this fee remains in place for cash fares booked over the phone.

The cost to add a lap infant to an AAdvantage award depends on where you're flying:

• International awards: American charges 10% of the cash price of an adult ticket to add a lap infant to your reservation. If you’re flying on a business- or first-class award, 10% of the retail ticket cost can be a lot of money.
• Domestic awards:  Within the U.S. or to Canada, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands, there is no additional cost.
• You can add your child to your ticket by calling AA reservations at 800-433-7300. If travel is within the U.S. (including Puerto Rico), you also can add a lap infant online when booking a trip or modifying an existing reservation.

But a caveat: AA will charge the full mileage price if you add an infant at the time of booking. A best practice is to book tickets without the infant on the reservation, and call AA after booking to add the infant. This way, you don't have to redeem more AAdvantage miles than is necessary.

Here’s American Airlines' resource on traveling with children and infants.

Related: These are the best award programs for traveling with a lap infant

American Airlines Award Travel Change and Cancellation Rules

The AAdvantage program really shines with its rules for travel changes and cancellation policy. The airline eliminated change and cancel fees in November 2020 and (re)added the ability to change certain awards in July 2023 .

American Airlines no longer charges a fee to change or cancel an award ticket. Before November 11, 2020, American Airlines charged up to $150 per passenger to change or cancel an award ticket — unless you had Executive Platinum elite status.

Now, you can cancel award tickets and have your miles reinstated free of charge up to one year after the ticket was issued. The latest you can cancel an award ticket is before the first flight in your itinerary departs.

The U.S. Department of Transportation requires airlines serving the U.S. to allow travelers to put itineraries on hold or to change or cancel a ticket for 24 hours after booking without a penalty. American meets the requirement with the (up to) five-day award hold, so it isn't legally required to allow cancellations in the 24-hour grace period.

With that said, American has historically honored requests for free cancellation within 24 hours of booking an award. Please let us know in the comments if your experience is different.

Related: 24-Hour Cancellation Policies for Major U.S. Airlines

AwardWallet tracks all your travel plans automatically (and alerts you to any changes) by importing reservations from your email or connected accounts. The best method for getting all your travel plans into AwardWallet is to link the email you use for reservations.

American Airlines Award Travel Itinerary Rules

American Airlines does not allow free stopovers on award travel. Any connection of 24 hours or more on an international award will result in paying for more than one award ticket.

American Airlines and Alaska Airlines have a lot of redemption partners in common. Alaska MileagePlan allows free stopovers as long as you follow a few rules. That combines with the fact there are some awards we recommend booking with Alaska miles instead of American miles .

Yes, you can book one-way awards with American Airlines AAdvantage miles. American typically charges half the price of a round-trip award for one-way itineraries. However, some round-trip Web Special awards will price out cheaper than two one-way awards. And some AA routes will offer a cheaper per-price flight on round-trip bookings than the cost of two one-way awards.

Pro tip: For international tickets, be aware that many countries require proof of onward travel. Thanks to American's generous five-day hold policy, you can create a record locator for a return trip without actually confirming the ticket. If you prefer to have a confirmed reservation, consider booking a fully refundable ticket or using a ticket-rental service like OneWayFly .

American allows open-jaw tickets at both the origin and destination. An open jaw ticket that includes more than one region will be priced as two one-way awards.

If you don't know what we're talking about, check out our beginner’s guide to stopovers and open jaws .

Yes, American allows you to combine partners on an award ticket. Award prices are the same for all partner airlines, so there shouldn't be any extra cost if your flights are operated by more than one carrier.

However, any itineraries including partner-operated flights are ineligible for Web Special pricing. It might be cheaper to book an itinerary that only has AA-operated flights, depending on the route.

American prices its awards according to the highest class of service you book on your itinerary. This differs from some programs like Avianca LifeMiles , which charge a prorated number of miles based on the percentage of your trip in each class. With American, you won't save any miles by booking one flight in economy and other flights in business class.

However, American does not have any rules that prohibit you from booking a ticket with different classes of service (you may see this referred to as a “mixed-cabin award”). This can be a good thing. In some situations, you might not be able to find business- or first-class awards for the entire trip.

For example, if you're flying from Amsterdam (AMS) to Boston (BOS) via New York (JFK), you might find a business-class ticket across the Atlantic, but the short flight from New York to Boston might only be available in economy. You can lock in that award, and if the short flight becomes available in business class, you might be able to upgrade without paying any extra miles.

Most domestic “first-class” awards are treated as business class when you pair them with an international flight. In other words, you won't be charged the first-class price on an international business-class award when you add a domestic flight in AA's domestic first class.

Pro tip: American's mixed-cabin award rules generally work in your favor. But be aware that American will happily charge you the business-class price for itineraries with a 10-hour flight in economy and a 45-minute flight in business class.

Some frequent flyer programs — like All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles — offer a 'round-the-world (RTW) ticket at a discount compared to booking each award flight separately. Trips with stops in more than one award region (as defined here ) are not a strength of the AAdvantage program.

American uses a zone-based award chart, which means that the price of travel between two regions (like Europe and the Continental U.S.) should be consistent, regardless of the specific origin and destination airports. Prague to Los Angeles should cost the same number of miles as Dublin to Boston — even though the former is twice the distance!

However, when your itinerary connects at an airport that is not in the same region as your origin or destination , American Airlines may charge you for each trip separately. For example, if you book a flight directly from Paris to New York, you’ll pay the Europe-to-U.S. price on the award chart. But if you fly from Paris to Doha (in the Middle East region) and then to New York, you’ve transited a “third region”.

As a general rule on award travel booked with American Airlines, you’ll pay more when you transit through a third region. But American has a list of exceptions that don’t require separate awards.

Unless otherwise noted, North America includes the regions of the contiguous U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean.

You can find an in-depth discussion of the third region exceptions for AA award travel in this FlyerTalk forum . However, note that some of the content is outdated.

Itinerary Rules for Complex Award Bookings

The remaining routing rules aren't likely to be a factor for most award bookings. However, if you find yourself unable to book the flights you want online, one of these could be the problem. It's worth noting that American's reservations system is known to make mistakes. If you see a price in miles that is higher than what you expect based on the award chart, check these rules first.

It's also worth noting that few American reservations agents understand these rules (or even know they exist). If the computer says 110,000 miles, that's what the agent will try to charge you. Fortunately, the AAdvantage program does have a process for manually ticketing reservations when the system makes a mistake. If you've checked these advanced rules and the price doesn't look right, ask your agent to check with the rates desk or a supervisor.

American Airlines' general award travel rule is that awards must be booked on a published route. More specifically, the airline that flies you across the ocean (the overwater carrier) needs to sell a ticket between your origin and destination.

Let's take a trip to the Maldives for example. There's no better way to go than in Etihad's Apartments. However, in order to book an AAdvantage award, Etihad has to sell a ticket between your origin and Male (MLE). To confirm this, you'll want to check ExpertFlyer's Fare Information search . If you're unfamiliar with the tool, check out our guide to ExpertFlyer before proceeding further.

While it's not as exact, you also can search the route on Google Flights and see if there's an option to book on Etihad.

If you're departing from a major hub, such as New York City or Los Angeles, you aren't going to have any issues finding a ticket sold by Etihad:

However, there are no published fares on Etihad between Billings, Montana (BIL) and Male:

Thus, you wouldn't be able to book an AAdvantage award on Etihad flights on this route. If you run into this dilemma, it may still be possible to book the ticket depending on the agent who's ticketing the award. Otherwise, you might need to buy a separate “positioning” flight from the smaller airport to a major hub with a published fare to your final destination.

Related: Free Holds, Maximizing Award Regions, Other Tricks for Booking Awards Using AAdvantage Miles

“Maximum Permitted Mileage” is a lovely piece of jargon that means exactly what it says. For each origin and destination, there is a maximum number of miles you can travel. This American Airlines award travel rule relies primarily on the “published route” requirement explained above. However, in cases where your desired award ticket isn't a published route, you may still be able to book it if the itinerary is less than 125% of the MPM.

Unfortunately, the MPM isn't published online. ExpertFlyer members can check the MPM under the “Travel Information” section:

American allows up to two connections (three flight segments) on one-way domestic awards. You can add one more connection (four segments) on one-way international awards.

For round-trip travel, you must follow these same limits in each direction of travel. Your destination is the first stop that lasts more than 24 hours (international) or 4 hours (domestic). If your trip requires more than this limit, American Airlines will charge you for more than one award.

In the past, American Airlines released award availability flight by flight. Say you wanted to fly from Los Angeles (LAX) to Frankfurt (FRA). If you found award availability on a flight from Los Angeles to Dallas–Fort Worth and on a flight from Dallas–Fort Worth to Frankfurt, you could book the award. Likewise, someone just flying from Dallas to Frankfurt also could book an award on just that nonstop flight.

That all changed in late 2017. Instead of releasing award availability by flight, American Airlines now releases award availability by trip . Under these rules, you might only be allowed to book the Dallas to Frankfurt flight if you start in Los Angeles or some other city — but not in Dallas. If you want to start in Dallas, you might need book a connecting flight through Charlotte or Miami on the way to Frankfurt to book the cheapest award. Married segment logic might prohibit booking a nonstop flight from A to B on certain routes.

This irritating way of releasing award availability is referred to as “married segment logic.” That's because the award availability for each individual flight is “married” to the entire itinerary. Put simply, American uses these rules to make the cheapest awards less convenient with the hope of getting you to pay more miles for a nonstop award.

American Airlines AAdvantage miles can be extremely valuable if you know how and when to use them and are aware of the basic rules for award travel. While there is certainly a learning curve for more complex itineraries, there are plenty of awards you can book at a great price with limited experience.

American's policy for putting award tickets on hold is among the most generous of any frequent flyer program. When planning travel that will require more than one type of miles, it's a huge asset to be able to lock in your AAdvantage award for up to five days while you figure out the other parts of your trip.

The rules for changing tickets are another standout feature of this program. American Airlines eliminated award mileage redeposit fees, so you no longer have to pay a fee to cancel an award.

The AAdvantage booking rules are more complex than revenue-based programs like Southwest Rapid Rewards and JetBlue TrueBlue . However, a little extra effort to learn how this program works can pay huge dividends.

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If I use AA miles to book a flight on JAL, is there a fee if I cancel and are the miles redeposited to AA?

Hi Toan, the miles will be redeposited to AA, yes. AA doesn’t charge award cancelation fees on most awards. You can find details on change/cancel fees here: https://awardwallet.com/blog/airline-award-ticket-change-and-cancellation-policies/

If I book an award ticket with miles, use the outbound ticket and then cancel the rest will the return miles be put back into my advantage account?

That’s a good question. I generally book one-way awards (unless the round-trip is cheaper, which it can sometimes be) to avoid this issue. I’d reach out to AA with that question if you’re facing that situation on an already-booked award.

Hello! Please, do you know if Mxp/Mia no stop flight will resume this year? I have advantage miles and I’d like to use them.

Thanks for this very comprehensive breakdown of the AAdvantage program rules, a lot of which I didn’t know. The 5 day hold is very important, as is the ability to cancel more than 60 days out without penalty — might help in making longer term plans, which is what we are all doing now! Thanks again for this post!

HI! How can I use American Airlines miles when booking in Iberia for example?

AA.com does show some results for Iberia, and you should be able to ticket those awards on AA.com. I don’t think AA.com is very reliable for showing you all the Iberia options. You can use a site like ExpertFlyer (paid) for Iberia biz class, or you can use British Airways to find options that AA.com doesn’t show. Once you’ve found what you’re looking for, just call AA to use your miles.

Thanks, however I would like to do the opposite. Use the miles I have in AA to but a ticket in Iberia, is it possible?

Yes, that is how I understood your question. You can book a flight on Iberia with AA miles. You need to call AA and they will book you on an Iberia flight if it is available.

Thank you Erik! I’ll try that!

Really very usefull information. Up to some years ago, American Airlines allowed makes a reservation using miles with a free stop. But now, it is not possible to make a reservation with a free stop in the route. Very clear all information. Thanks!!!!

This is a great and complete guide to the Aadvtange rules. Do you have any information on Aadvtange miles redeemed for Latam airlines flights are still honoured? American lost a good partner in South America to earn and redeem miles on short flights in the region. Any thoughts would be welcome!

I can’t find an option in the mileage program that takes into consideration unaccompanied minors.

Thank you Mr. Paquet for a very informative article. As a senior citizen I have had to put my travel plans on hold to vist my grandchildren due to the virus. AwardWallet had notified me that my American award miles would be expiring soon and in browsing through the many blog articles I found yours which was clear and easily understood.

Another reason to like award travel: Canceling award travel is better than canceling a paid ticket in some obvious ways, and one less-obvious way. Canceled award travel tix go back into your mileage account. Canceled regular tickets just sort of disappear, and if you lose the email with the e-ticket, you could easily forget you even are owed a flight.

Thank you Erik for this great article, very useful, great tips! I always have many doubts and feel frustrated when trying to use my miles on the AAdvantage website. This 2020 there were so many changes that it turns even more confusing. Your guide encourages me to redeem my miles once and for all. Well done!

This is VERY helpful, thank you so much for putting all this in one place it’s all I needed. What about LATAM miles now? are they still going to be able to continue adding to the other oneworld companies?

Yes, LATAM is still partnering with most other Oneworld airlines for earning and redeeming flights. It seems LATAM probably didn’t want to leave Oneworld, but needed to because of the joint venture with Delta.

By far one of the most complete and thorough guides to using my awards miles I’ve seen. I’m new to this blog but this sold me on it. Well done!

Thanks for all the information. This article has clarified many doubts I had about the AAdvantage program.

Impressive guide! The free 5-day hold on awards is magical, I used it once to coordinate awards from two different programs and get tickets on the same flight.

So useful as I have miles that will expire in a few weeks and now I can extend them for 18 month.s Thanks!!

I find the married segment logic to be the most frustrating thing about the AAdvantage program. While trying to piece together an itinerary to Spain and Portugal last year, I was blocked at every turn by married segments. Granted, I was trying to book with Iberia Avios, but AA’s married segments were the problem. In the end, the only way I could make it work was to book separate itineraries with STL-ORD through AA and ORD-BCN through IB.

Any news regarding the aliance between AA & Santander rio bank? the expiration miles will be the same?

Hey Nicolas, I’m not very knowledgeable about Santander specifically, but the general rule for any transfer partner is that the miles become subject to the AA rules as soon as they arrive in you account. So if your question is about transferring points to AA, yes they will have the normal AA expiration rules.

I have always found it frustrating that at least half of the agents want to charge you the phone fee when you call in an award that can’t be booked online. Usually it gets cleared up quickly, but once I had an agent that insisted the Terms & Conditions were “wrong” and said it had to be charged.

While I know the industry is moving to dynamic pricing, I find the above AA program to be much easier to wrap your head around. I also use Delta, and it takes me a lot of checking flight after flight to find wide variances. It can be good if you get lucky, or ridiculously high. With the current AA program, you know what you are getting.

Everything is very well explained in order to take “advantage” of my AAdvantage miles. Thank you for this very useful guide!

Guia muy completa sobre premios en AA, excelentemente explicada y muy útil. Muchas gracias.

Defenitely I will use this guide the next time that I book an Aadavantage award

Very interesting guide. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to find a space for awards in AA flights. I wish there was more flexibility in AA rules, but it is better and simpler than other airlines anyway. As a tip, it is always possible to book one way tickets separately, so you can actually buy the inbound flight and redeem miles for the outbound flight.

Thank you for this really useful guide, I did not know how many airlines were in one world

Very useful guide about how to use American Advantage miles. Thank you!

This was a very helpful article. I didn’t know that there are so many airlines in the alliance. We need to keep that in mind next time we are booking flights.

Not previusly aware of three flight limit on domestic award travel. Very limiting for me – going from HVN to BUR, my frequent request, is a minimum of 3 segments. HVN-PHL-PHX-BUR. If I cannot get on the PHL-PHX segment, I can’t travel.

Great info! Nice to have them all compiled on one post. Thanks!

This is a great breakdown of their rules. Thank you.

So sad that there’s no more stopovers on AA awards!

AA removed stopovers back in 2014. Thankfully there are still plenty of programs that offer stopovers! We list them all here: https://awardwallet.com/blog/beginners-guide-stopover-open-jaw/

They removed them in 2014 🙁

Thanks so much for putting all this in one place!

Thanks you for this full report on booking AA using miles. This is very useful!

Great tips!!! They once tried to charge me the fee for booking by phone when it was a promo that couldnt be booked by the web AA.com. Next time i will insist with different agents.

Possibly the most comprehensive post ever on AA Awards. Excellent & very informative. I did not now there was a service for obtaining a PRN for ongoing one way tickets.

I have AAdvantage, and thanks to him I was able to travel to the Perito Moreno Glacier with all my family. It is a very advantageous program. It is always good to review the rules, because I learn something new. Thank you

Thank you for this great reference article. I find that AA miles are very important to my award travel. So this information is very important to me.

Thank you. I found this a great guide to using AA rewards. The pro tips are really helpful – particularly the 5 day hold to help waiving fees

Great guide, bookmarked! thanks!

The one thing that really upsets me is the lack of flexibility between Advantage and AVIOS when these airlines are supposed to operate under One World

No living in Spain, I continued to log all my Iberia flights onto AA to find that I lost a huge benefit

I asked AA to reverse the awards so I could post to Iberia (who were open to this) – no chance.

I have been Exec Platinum and member since 1990 – customer service on this was poor

I am so glad they got rid of the close on fee that never made sense. Good in depth review of all the rules.

Many airlines have been removing a lot of fees and surcharges lately. That’s wonderful.

I just found out that they are not charging the $75 for close in according to this article. Finally they are starting to get rid of fees instead of charging for every little thing. Maybe they will get rid of baggage fees to attract more people to fly with them.

Definitely some positives recently! Another fee AA is getting rid of: starting July 1, you can change/cancel an award ticket 60+ days to departure with no fees.

It is fantastic that most partner awards can be booked online now. Let’s hope that the pandemic will be over soon.

I wonder if they’ll make any third region exceptions now that Royal Air Maroc has joined OW. I’m thinking of N America to the Middle East via Africa. That might come in handy for some if any of the Middle Eastern partners doesn’t have space available or if the flight schedules are better using RAM.

They got around having to add more third-region exceptions like that by moving Morocco to Europe! https://awardwallet.com/blog/aa-aadvantage-moves-morocco-europe/

If AA has the power to to move Morocco to Europe, can we put in a request to move the Himalayas to somewhere in the American Midwest? Would like them to be a nice day trip.

Wouldn’t that be nice?! I’d love to fly Qatar biz to the Himalayas for the cost of a domestic flight!

so useful! I’d refer to this if I need to book AA awards

American AAdvantage is one of my favorite frequent flyer programs. Thank you very much for the information. Unfortunately, as of August, it will not add miles with Santander Argentina. We will have to find new ways to continue accumulating miles, especially in this time when you cannot travel.

Really nice bookmarkable post. Thanks.

Good and informative post! I have about 80k miles i need to use but this article has helped me with some tips on how to book! American Airlines has been bad in the past so hope with these changes they have recently made, they stick to it

Good post to know all the options in the Program AA Awards, and how to maximize the use of miles Thank you Team AW

Another super helpful, easy to follow guide. Thanks, AW team!

Good guide! to understand the AA Awards travel rules!! Thank you

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• AAdvantage ® program

Award travel

Travel to over 1,000 destinations

Awards on american, flight awards.

Choose flight awards for any seat on an American Airlines flight for as low as 7,500 miles each way plus any applicable taxes and carrier-imposed fees.

• Flight award chart

Awards on other airlines

One world® and partner awards.

Use your miles to travel the world. Combine awards for one-way, round-trip or travel to multiple cities with our one world ® and partner airlines.

one world ® and other airline partner award chart

Tips on booking award travel

Book award travel in the app.

We’ve made it even easier to redeem your miles for award travel on American and many partner airlines when booking through our app.

How to book:

• Download our free app
• Log in to your AAdvantage ® account
• Choose your flights
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Use the award map

Use the award map and find where you can go with the miles you have.

Explore the award map

Elevate your experience

• Upgrade with miles

Redeem your miles to move into the next cabin on American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia flights.

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Reserve the best seats in the Main Cabin using your miles.

• Reserve seats with miles

Find your trip

Manage your award travel

Booking flight awards.

You can book award travel to over 1,000 destinations on aa.com and the American app. Partner airline flights are included in award travel search results, and you can filter results for your preferred airlines on the 'Choose flights' screen.

Book flights

Reservations can also help you book award travel on American and partner airlines.

Contact Reservations

Requesting a mileage upgrade award

Contact Reservations or visit an American Airlines Travel Center to request a mileage upgrade award.

You may request an upgrade when you book your trip or at any time before check-in. If you have already booked a trip and would like to request a mileage upgrade award, please have your reservation details available when you call.

Upgrades are available in limited numbers on most flights. If an upgrade isn’t available when you call, we’ll add your request to the waitlist. Waitlisted upgrade requests will be confirmed in this order:

• AAdvantage ® status level
• Upgrade type
• 12-month Rolling Loyalty Points

If the upgrade type and 12-month Rolling Loyalty Point value are the same, we’ll look at the booking code then date and time of the request to determine prioritization.

If your upgrade hasn’t been confirmed by the time you check-in, we’ll automatically add you to the airport upgrade standby list if you have the required number of miles in your account 48 hours before departure.

Once your upgrade is confirmed, we’ll automatically update your mobile boarding pass in our app.

Changing flight awards

You can change an eligible trip online in just a few steps. While you may have to pay the difference, there are no change fees for award tickets.

Step 1: Find your trip

You’ll need your 6-character confirmation (also called a ‘Record locator’).

If you don’t know your Record locator, you can find it in the confirmation email you received when you booked your trip.

Step 2: Make a change

Choose ‘Change trip’ in the toolbar and follow the prompts.

• When changing your trip, we’ll reinstate the miles from your original trip.
• We deduct the miles from the original AAdvantage® account used (even if the amount is the same).
• You may still need to pay the difference for taxes. Any amount you're owed will be refunded to the credit card from your original booking.

Step 3: Check your email

When you’re done, we’ll send you an email with the information you need, including your new ticket number.

Changing mileage upgrade awards

If your travel plans change, you can contact Reservations to change a mileage upgrade award. There is no fee to change your mileage upgrade award. Keep in mind, you still need to redeem miles for any award price difference and pay any co-payment difference when making a change.

Tickets upgraded with mileage upgrade awards retain all the original fare rules and restrictions of the original purchased fare.

Canceling flight awards and reinstating miles

If your plans change and you no longer wish to travel, you can cancel your trip anytime on aa.com. We’ll reinstate your miles and refund eligible taxes and fees up to 1 year after the ticket issue date, but you have to cancel your trip before the first flight departs. If you cancel your trip on aa.com, your miles will be reinstated and your refund will be requested automatically in most cases. There is no fee to reinstate your miles.

Contact Reservations for help reinstating miles on a trip that:

• Has already started
• Involves travel on partner airlines
• Was booked outside the U.S. or on an international version of aa.com
• Has been changed due to an uncontrollable event since the ticket was originally issued

Refunds of taxes and fees will be issued in full amounts, less:

• Sale-imposed nonrefundable taxes
• Taxes we must pay whether or not you travel

Some countries have different rules about refunds, and if so, we will follow those rules.

Canceling upgrade awards and reinstating miles

If your plans change and you no longer wish to travel or upgrade your ticket, you can contact Reservations to cancel your mileage upgrade award and request reinstatement of your miles. If you cancel your trip on aa.com, you must contact Reservations to request the reinstatement of your miles.

We’ll reinstate your miles at no charge up to 1 year after the ticket issue date, but you have to cancel your ticket before the first flight departs.

Keep in mind, co-payments for mileage upgrade awards are non-refundable and tickets upgraded with mileage upgrade awards retain all the original fare rules and restrictions of the original purchased fare.

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The Complete Guide to American’s Reduced Mileage Awards

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American Airlines has discontinued reduced mileage awards for new trips booked on or after October 1, 2021.

American Airlines has a region-based award chart, offering several sweet spot opportunities for flights to Europe and South America. However, if you also hold one of the airline’s co-branded credit cards, you used to be able to take advantage of reduced mileage awards, which allow you to save up to 7,500 miles when booking round-trip award tickets within the U.S. and Canada.

It is important to note that this reduced mileage award program ended Oct. 1, 2021.

What are AA reduced mileage awards?

American Airlines reduced mileage awards offer a discount of up to 7,500 miles on the cost of a round-trip award ticket or 3,750 miles for a one-way flight, depending on which American Airlines credit card you hold.

One-way flights that are less than or equal to 500 flown miles get a smaller discount — either 500 or 1,000 miles depending on which card you have. Reduced mileage awards are available in the main cabin, business and first class. Award ticket taxes and fees are $5.60 per one-way trip.

Which American Airlines credit cards offer reduced mileage awards?

You must hold one of the co-branded American Airlines credit cards to be eligible for Reduced Mileage Awards. The following credit cards offer the full discount, which is 7,500 miles for round-trip flights longer than 500 miles or 2,000 miles for shorter flights:

Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® .

Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® .

CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Select MasterCard®.

CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard® .

AAdvantage® Aviator® World Elite Silver Mastercard® .

AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard® .

AAdvantage® Aviator® World Elite Business Mastercard® .

This next set of credit cards offers a 5,000-mile discount on round-trip flights longer than 500 miles or a 1,000-mile discount for shorter flights.

Citi® / AAdvantage® Gold World Elite™ Mastercard® .

AAdvantage® Aviator® Blue Mastercard® .

Also, keep in mind that although the official American Airlines site consistently markets these discounts as round-trip amounts, you can book one-way award flights for half of the discount (so a 3,750-mile discount on an award flight longer than 500 miles with one of the credit cards in the first group).

» Learn more: Which American Airlines credit card should you choose?

Where can you fly with reduced mileage awards?

Through September, American’s reduced mileage awards are offered to 184 airports within the U.S . and Canada.

July, August and September 2021 reduced mileage award options

How to book American reduced mileage awards

Reduced mileage awards cannot be booked online — you have to call 800-882-8880 and provide a code to the phone agent. Most phone agents are aware of the program, so even if you don’t have the code, you may still be able to book the award, but it never hurts to be prepared.

Here is a list of the codes:

For flights of over 500 flown miles:

7,500-mile discount award codes.

First class (2-cabin aircraft) – UD21X2A / AVM86.

Business class (3-cabin aircraft) – UD28X7A / AVA31.

Main cabin – TD8X7A / AVM85.

5,000-mile discount award codes

First class (2-cabin aircraft) – UD22X5A / AVM83.

Business class (3-cabin aircraft) – UD30A / AVA25.

Main cabin – TD10A / AVM82.

For shorter flights (less than 500 flown miles)

2,000-mile discount award codes.

First class (2-cabin aircraft) – UD14A / AVA36.

Main cabin – TD6X5A / AVA35.

1,000-mile discount award codes

First class (2-cabin aircraft) – UD14X5A / AVA30.

Main cabin – TD7A / AVA29.

Since these awards cannot be booked online, the standard phone booking charge is waived, but you may still be charged a $35 fee if you book through the American Airlines travel center.

How to get the most from reduced mileage awards

If you already have American Airlines AAdvantage miles and you’ve got summer travels coming up, scan through the list of airports on the reduced mileage award list to see if any of the destinations align with your plans. If so, consider applying for a qualifying American Airlines credit card if you don’t already have one so you can take advantage of the discounted pricing.

Since the awards aren't available online, you’ll need to call American Airlines to book, which provides a good opportunity to verify if award availability exists before applying for an eligible credit card.

The information related to CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard® has been collected by NerdWallet and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer or provider of this product or service.

How to maximize your rewards

You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are our picks for the best travel credit cards of 2024 , including those best for:

Flexibility, point transfers and a large bonus: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

No annual fee: Bank of America® Travel Rewards credit card

Flat-rate travel rewards: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

Bonus travel rewards and high-end perks: Chase Sapphire Reserve®

Luxury perks: The Platinum Card® from American Express

Business travelers: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card

on Capital One's website

2x-5x Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, every day. Earn 5X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, where you'll get Capital One's best prices on thousands of trip options.

75,000 Enjoy a one-time bonus of 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel.

on Citibank's application

1x Earn 1 Loyalty Point for every 1 eligible AAdvantage® mile earned from purchases.

70,000 Earn 70,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after spending $7,000 within the first 3 months of account opening.

on Chase's website

1x-5x 5x on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, 3x on dining, select streaming services and online groceries, 2x on all other travel purchases, 1x on all other purchases.

60,000 Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $750 when you redeem through Chase Travel℠.

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Airline Peak and Off-Peak Award Charts: The Ultimate Guide [2024]

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Why Is Understanding Peak/Off-Peak Seasonality Important?

All nippon airways, american airlines, asiana airlines, british airways, virgin atlantic, final thoughts.

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Commercial aviation is one of the most seasonal industries in the world. Typically, the busiest time of the year for airlines is from May to October.

Of course, this varies depending on the exact destinations, countries, or even cities that you visit. That being said, customer demand plummets in the winter months from November to March, especially when visiting Europe.

Airline revenue ticket prices fluctuate wildly thanks to revenue management departments, crazy algorithms, and seats sold. The same is generally true for airline award tickets. As a result, many major airlines have chosen to adopt a binary award pricing scheme, whereby there is an off-peak set of dates priced cheaper than the remaining peak dates.

In this guide, we’ll be taking an in-depth look into every major airline’s seasonality charts and discussing the nuances of each program, with the ultimate goal of minimizing the number of points you’ll use for award flights.

Travelers with flexible plans ought to book flights during off-peak when possible in order to spend fewer miles.

You’ve already worked so hard to earn your points and miles, so why spend any more than absolutely necessary?

By planning trips around off-peak award dates, you’ll extract the maximum value from your points and miles. There’s a minimal amount of work in understanding what constitutes peak and off-peak dates for each airline you want to fly on, but it’s all worth it in the end!

This guide is not about variable award pricing, which itemizes mileage and award prices based on distinct levels. Instead, we’re going to be talking about the major airlines that have specific peak and off-peak travel dates.

Airlines That Have Peak/Off-Peak Award Charts

Before talking about each individual airline, keep in mind that some airlines adopt different seasonality policies depending on what route you fly on, while others have a simple binary system.

Let’s look into the airlines and dissect their peak and off-peak award charts.

Aer Lingus is Ireland’s flag carrier. Aer Lingus is owned by the same company that owns British Airways, IAG, and its frequent flyer currency is known as Avios.

Each calendar year, Aer Lingus publishes its off-peak and peak periods. The off-peak periods constitute two-thirds of the year, whereby you can book award flights for fewer Avios.

Additionally, Aer Lingus has a distance-based award chart along with peak/off-peak pricing. You can redeem Aer Lingus Avios for great value, especially if booking during off-peak dates.

Aer Lingus’s off-peak dates for 2024  are as follows:

• January 8, 2024, to March 21, 2024
• April 8, 2024, to June 6, 2024
• September 2, 2024, to December 12, 2024

Now that we’ve pieced together the seasonality, let’s talk briefly about how many Avios you’d save by booking off-peak. Here’s Aer Lingus’s award chart for one-way flights:

Suppose you wanted to fly from Miami (MIA) to Dublin (DUB) in Aer Lingus business class on September 18, 2024. Assuming you find availability on this date, you’ll be traveling on off-peak dates, meaning you’ll pay 62,500 Avios one-way as opposed to 75,000 Avios (the peak season price).

Let’s also suppose that the departing segment of your trip falls on peak dates while the returning flight falls on off-peak dates. In this case, you’d simply pay the peak price one-way and the off-peak price the other way.

Aer Lingus’ system is pretty straightforward, but you can save up to 12,500 Avios each way by planning your off-peak travel accordingly.

All Nippon Airways’ Mileage Club loyalty program is a fantastic overall program. Although its online user interface is somewhat dated, ANA has so many fantastic redemptions that you can’t miss out on.

ANA Mileage Club takes some time to learn about, but once that time is invested, you’ll find yourself digging up value redemption after value redemption.

Hot Tip: You can start racking up ANA miles pretty easily by following our guide on how to earn lots of ANA Mileage Club miles !

You can only book round-trip award bookings with ANA, so keep that in mind, too.

However, you can book one-way award bookings on ANA using Virgin Points via Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club .

Most airlines split up their peak/off-peak dates into a simple binary system, whereby a date is either a peak or off-peak date. ANA has 3 seasonality periods — low season, regular season, and high season.

ANA uses seasonality  only for ANA flights . Seasonality does not apply to partners like United Airlines. The following is a chart that depicts the most updated seasonality dates for flights between Japan and Europe/North America until early 2025:

Keep in mind that there are different seasonality periods depending on what regions you’re flying to/from , and even for domestic flights. For example, Hawaii has a slightly different set of dates to the above as it is in Zone 5, while the rest of North America is in Zone 6.

For flights between North America and Japan , here’s the round-trip award chart:

So, if you choose to fly on ANA business class round-trip from New York City (JFK) to Tokyo (NRT), departing on January 10, 2024, and returning on January 31, 2024, you’ll pay the low season price — an incredibly low 75,000 ANA miles.

On the other hand, flying during high season on the same route will cost a decent 90,000 miles. This represents a 20% hike in prices just for flying during different times.

Bottom Line: In order to figure out the price you’ll pay for a specific ANA flight during a specific date range, you’ll need to figure out the seasonality of the route first. Then, you can figure out the award price by matching the award chart pricing with the correct seasonality and route. Keep in mind that this only applies if you intend to use ANA miles on ANA flights. 

American Airlines  does offer off-peak awards, and these off-peak awards are often fantastic deals. However, American Airlines only does this for economy flights . Additionally, qualifying tickets include partner airlines and aren’t limited to flights operated by American Airlines.

That being said, American Airlines has off-peak economy tickets for just 2 regions — Contiguous 48 U.S. states and Canada and Europe — and these tickets are called Main Cabin Off-Peak .

The Main Cabin off-peak dates for 2024 are January 10 to March 14 and November 1 to December 14 . Tickets are 22,500 AAdvantage miles one-way.

Hot Tip: In order to minimize your out-of-pocket costs at the hands of fuel surcharges , try to plan your travel solely on American Airlines flights. 

Asiana Airlines has deservedly garnered a great reputation with its loyalty program Asiana Club . In addition, Asiana Airlines continues to be a top airline of choice to earn miles on, thanks to its attractive (and niche!) ways to redeem for maximum value .

Asiana Airlines has off-peak and peak pricing  only for its own flights . It also has different peak season dates departing on your exact route. Lastly, you can avoid peak season surcharges if you’re an Asiana Club Diamond Plus or Platinum member for both award bookings  and upgrades.

Asiana Airlines charges 50% additional miles for flights during high season, so you’ll absolutely want to avoid flying during popular times. Here is the peak season chart for 2024:

Off-peak dates are every other date not listed.

The award chart for Asiana Airlines flights is as follows for round-trip flights:

For example, let’s say you want to fly from Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD) via Seoul (ICN) on Asiana Airlines, using Asiana Club miles, departing on July 3, 2024, and returning on August 20, 2024. The first segment is during the peak season, while the returning segment is during the off-peak season.

Furthermore, these flights have Business Smartium Class installed, which is Asiana’s best long-haul business class seat. This means that you’ll pay 150,000 miles plus 100,000 miles for the returning flight during off-peak season. You’ll definitely want to be careful to avoid peak season if you can since a 50% price hike is huge.

Bottom Line: Asiana Airlines raises prices for peak season award tickets by 50% across the board. Therefore, if flying on Asiana Airlines while redeeming Asiana Airlines miles, you should book off-peak tickets when you can. 

British Airways has previously employed a distance-based award chart with multiple zone brackets. In addition, there’s off-peak and peak pricing. British Airways also has had multiple award charts, but British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus were the only airlines eligible for off-peak pricing.

While award rate charts for 2024 have not been made publicly available , according to Head for Points , British Airways’ peak and off-peak dates for 2024 are as follows:

Off-Peak Dates:

• January 8 – February 8, 2024
• February 13-14, 2024
• February 20 – March 14, 2024
• March 16-28, 2024
• April 2-3, 2024
• April 9, 2024
• April 15 – May 3, 2024
• May 7-24, 2024
• May 28, 2024
• June 3-7, 2024
• June 10-14, 2024
• June 17-21, 2024
• June 24-28, 2024
• July 1-5, 2024
• July 8-9, 2024
• July 16, 2024
• July 23. 2024
• July 30, 2024
• August 6, 2024
• August 13, 2024
• August 20, 2024
• August 27, 2024
• September 9-13, 2024
• September 16-20, 2024
• September 23-27, 2024
• September 30 – October 25, 2024
• October 29, 2024
• November 4 – December 6, 2024
• December 9-13, 2024
• December 26, 2024

If your travel dates fall outside of these dates, your award ticket will be priced as a peak flight.

British Airways’ peak and off-peak calendars have consisted of wide bands, but they also contained multiple single-date occurrences for off-peak dates. Once you’ve identified the seasonality of your travel dates, you’ll want to figure out how much your flight will cost, which has historically been distance-based. Great Circle Mapper is a valid resource to gauge your flight distance.

Hot Tip: See our guides on the top ways to earn lots of British Airways Avios , and then make sure you’re redeeming them for the best value possible !

Iberia is Spain’s flag carrier. The airline happens to be owned by the same company that owns British Airways and Aer Lingus (discussed in earlier sections of this guide), but interestingly, the peak and off-peak calendars haven’t matched those when using Avios from different frequent flyer programs.

Additionally, Iberia has used peak and off-peak dates for flights on Iberia, Iberia Express, and Iberia Regional/Air Nostrum. For all other airlines, a different award chart will apply and seasonality is not used.

Award rates and eligible peak/off-peak dates for 2024 have not been made publicly available yet.

Just like its main competitor airline Asiana Airlines, Korean Air uses peak and off-peak pricing. Korean Air SKYPASS is a fantastic program to redeem miles on , with plenty of options ranging from Korean Air first class to Etihad first class .

Although there aren’t very many ways to accrue Korean Air miles from transferable points, there are still great ways to earn lots of Korean Air SKYPASS miles .

Korean Air employs a region-based award chart. Also, one-way flight redemptions are only allowed on Korean Air. For all partners, you must book round-trip if you want to use miles.

Hot Tip: Korean Air is one of the few airlines that still operate the A380. Check out our review of Korean Air’s A380 first class .

To determine whether or not your flights fall into peak season, you’ll need to know the route and the travel dates. Peak dates for Korean Air are:

Korean Air’s round-trip award chart is as follows (one-way awards are half the price):

*Direct flights only

If flying from New York (JFK) to Seoul (ICN) on Korean Air first class on December 17, 2024, your flight will fall into peak season. For this, you’ll pay 120,000 Korean Air miles one-way compared to 80,000 Korean Air miles for off-peak travel.

Virgin Atlantic employs standard and peak seasons for Virgin Atlantic flights only, so they are not applicable to airlines like All Nippon Airways. Furthermore, Virgin Atlantic splits up seasonality calendars between Caribbean routes and all others.

For Caribbean routes, the standard (off-peak) season consists of the following date ranges:

• March 4-21, 2024
• April 16 – May 26, 2024
• June 3 – July 19, 2024
• September 3 – October 24, 2024
• November 6 – December 6, 2024

On the other hand, Caribbean peak dates are on all other dates.

The rest of Virgin Atlantic flights follow these standard dates:

• January 4 – March 21, 2024
• April 16 – June 15, 2024

All other dates are peak dates for non-Caribbean flights.

Flights on Virgin Atlantic can be significantly cheaper if planned during standard dates. Here’s the Virgin Atlantic award chart for round-trip, standard season bookings:

And here’s the Virgin Atlantic award chart for round-trip peak season bookings:

Let’s take an example flight from London (LHR) to Las Vegas (LAS), which is on the U.S. West Coast. If you book a flight during peak season in Upper Class , you’ll pay 77,500 miles, as opposed to the standard price of 67,500 miles.

Overall, there are a lot of airlines that have unique peak and off-peak season policies. For the most part, airlines tend to limit the price variation from seasonality to their own airlines. For example, Asiana Airlines levies peak surcharges only on flights operated by Asiana and not on any other carriers.

An exception to this would be American Airlines AAdvantage , which makes off-peak pricing in economy available on partner airlines such as British Airways.

Keeping track of peak dates and booking travel flexibly to avoid peak season is a recipe for conserving your hard-earned points and miles. As a result, you’ll want to confirm that you’re getting the best value redemption prior to committing to a flight.

Now, you have a one-stop shop for a guide on the airlines that carry peak and off-peak policies for award bookings. Happy booking!

Frequently Asked Questions

What time is off-peak for flights.

Off-peak travel times vary by airline, route, and dates. Each airline has defined separate date ranges for off-peak seasons where a flight will cost fewer miles.

What is off-peak travel?

Off-peak travel is defined as traveling at a time where there is less than maximum demand. Some off-peak travel ideas would be to fly to Europe during the winter months of January through March.

What is peak travel?

Peak travel is defined as the period of travel in which there is maximum demand. You’ll often see large crowds, expensive hotel prices, and more expensive airplane tickets.

Is off-peak cheaper than peak?

Off-peak is almost always cheaper than peak travel. Because airlines don’t expect to sell out their seats, they release “cheaper” seats that you can use miles for. Also, the mileage price is cheaper during off-peak compared to peak. The exact discount varies from airline to airline, so you’ll need to reference one of the airlines above to figure out how much cheaper it is to travel during peak dates with points.

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Stephen is an established voice in the credit card space, with over 70 to his name. His work has been in publications like The Washington Post, and his Au Points and Awards Consulting Services is used by hundreds of clients.

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Demystifying Award Charts: All You Need To Know (2024)

For frequent travelers, airline loyalty programs offer a myriad of benefits that not only enhance the travel experience but make it more cost-effective. Since American Airlines introduced the very first frequent flyer program in the 80s, it became clear that staying loyal to one airline could reward customers a long way.

The core of these programs is the award charts, as it is how travelers can use their hard-earned miles for free travel, hotel nights, products, or experiences.

However, understanding these award charts took a lot of work due to their complexity and variation across different airlines, and it is becoming increasingly more difficult.

In this comprehensive guide, we aim to unravel the mysteries of the different types of award charts in frequent flyer programs and what you can do today to leverage your miles to the maximum.

In this post

What are award charts, different types of award charts, understanding your program’s award chart, why are airlines shifting to dynamic pricing award charts, awardfares: the secret tool to beat any award chart, want more award travel intel.

Award charts are basically tables that outline how many miles or points you’ll need to redeem for a free flight (an award flight) in a frequent flyer program. They form the basis of any airline loyalty program, detailing the cost in miles from one region to another, often further divided by cabin class (economy, business, or first).

Award charts can be of different types, depending on what criteria they use to determine the price (in miles or points) of the award tickets. Here are the most common ones.

Zone-Based Award Charts

Zone-based award charts are The most common type you’ll encounter. These charts categorize countries into different zones or regions, with a fixed amount of miles needed to travel from one zone to another. For instance, before 2022, American Airlines AAdvantage used a zone-based award chart where North America to Europe in business class is a fixed 57,500 miles one-way, regardless of whether you’re flying from New York to London or Los Angeles to Istanbul.

The key advantage of zone-based charts is maximizing value by traveling as far as possible within a single zone for a set number of miles. However, the downside is that shorter flights can often be poor value due to the broad zoning.

Distance-Based Award Charts

As the name suggests, distance-based award charts calculate the miles needed based on the actual flight distance. Airlines such as British Airways and Cathay Pacific use distance-based charts. Short-haul flights can offer exceptional value, as the miles required can be significantly less than in zone-based systems.

The flip side is that for long-haul flights, especially ones involving multiple segments, the mileage cost can quickly exceed those of zone-based awards. The trick in these scenarios is to understand the distance between different destinations, which is crucial to harnessing the potential of distance-based award charts effectively.

Revenue-Based Award Charts

In revenue-based award charts, the miles needed for an award flight are directly tied to the ticket cost. Airlines such as Southwest Airlines and JetBlue follow this model. The higher the ticket price, the more miles you’ll need to redeem an award flight.

This type of award chart offers simplicity and transparency since you know precisely how your miles equate to dollar value. However, they generally provide less opportunity for “sweet spots” or outsized value than zone- and distance-based charts.

Region-Based Award Charts

Similar to zone-based charts, region-based award charts group countries into regions but with one significant difference — they also take into account the region you’re flying from. This means the mileage cost varies not just based on your destination but also your departure point.

For instance, Lufthansa’s Miles & More and SAS EuroBonus programs use this kind of award chart. The benefit of region-based charts is that they can offer more accurate pricing reflective of the flight’s length. However, they can be more complex due to the many variables involved.

Hybrid Award Charts

Hybrid award charts combine elements from multiple types of award charts. For instance, Delta Air Lines has an undisclosed award chart that appears to mix zone, distance, and revenue elements. Although this lack of transparency can be frustrating, savvy travelers who spend time understanding the program’s nuances can still find good redemption opportunities.

Dynamic Pricing

Dynamic pricing strays away from the concept of a fixed chart, instead adjusting the mileage cost based on demand and other factors. It’s a model that more airlines are moving towards, such as American Airlines AAdvantage and United MileagePlus . The main advantage is the greater availability of award seats since no fixed award inventory limits exist. However, the unpredictability of costs and the potential for very high mileage prices, especially during peak periods, is a significant drawback.

Summary of Award Chart Types

Regardless of the type of award chart your frequent flyer program uses, understanding it is crucial to maximize your miles’ value. Research the sweet spots, keep up to date with changes (airlines often devalue their charts), and use tools like AwardFares to help plan redemptions.

What is a good redemption ?

How do you know if a redemption of an award flight is good? Ultimately, this is very subjective, as the benchmark is relative. But there are a few ways to be objective and concrete when determining if redemptions are good, or you are getting poor value from your miles.

A good redemption in a frequent flyer program is one that gives you the most value for your miles. This means finding a flight that you would have paid a lot of money for in cash, but can instead redeem for a relatively low number of miles.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when looking for a good redemption:

• The cost of the flight in cash. The lower the cash price of the flight, the better the redemption value.
• The number of miles required to redeem the flight. The fewer miles required, the better the redemption value.
• The availability of award seats. Some flights are more difficult to find award seats for than others.
• Your loyalty status. If you have status with a frequent flyer program, you may be able to get access to award seats that are not available to the general public.

Some examples of classic good redemptions are :

• Redeeming miles for a business class flight on a long-haul route. Business class flights can be costly in cash, so redeeming miles for them can save you a lot of money.
• Redeeming miles for a flight during the peak season. Flights during the peak season are often very expensive, so redeeming miles for them can save you a lot of money.
• Redeeming miles for a flight to a popular destination. Popular destinations tend to be the most expensive, so redeeming miles for them can save you a lot of money.

Stay tuned to our posts , we regularly publish guides and articles on how to find and book the best sweet spots on each program.

Initially, frequent flyer programs started as a way for airlines to give away empty seats while encouraging customers to stay loyal. With time, and as award charts evolved, many travelers managed to exploit loopholes to get very expensive seats for a few miles. Particularly when you consider high sign-up bonuses from credit cards and multipliers of revenue-based programs.

Now, as the industry changes, airlines also have more resources to detect sweet spots and maximize their yield, and that’s why most of them are changing the rules in their award charts. While traditional award charts offered a fixed, predictable structure for redeeming miles, more and more airlines are moving towards dynamic pricing models.

Here are some of the factors that explain why airlines are doing this.

1. Technology and Data Analysis

The development and availability of advanced technology and data analysis tools have enabled airlines to implement more sophisticated pricing models. With dynamic pricing, airlines can vary award prices based on numerous factors, including flight demand, seasonality, route popularity, and competitive pressures.

These systems can analyze a vast amount of data in real-time, allowing airlines to adjust award pricing on the fly to maximize their yield.

2. Revenue Management

Dynamic pricing ties in more closely with airlines’ revenue management strategies. Traditional fixed award charts don’t consider the monetary value of a seat. As a result, a business class seat on a peak flight could theoretically be redeemed for the same number of miles as on an off-peak flight, even though the former is far more valuable to the airline.

Dynamic pricing allows airlines to align award costs more closely with the seat’s actual value, ensuring they aren’t ‘losing’ potential revenue by offering high-value seats for a relatively low number of miles.

3. Customer Behavior

Dynamic pricing also gives airlines more flexibility in managing customer behavior. By lowering award costs during off-peak periods or on less popular routes, they can stimulate demand, leading to better capacity utilization. By raising costs on popular flights, they can preserve revenue seats for paying customers while still offering award seats to those willing to spend more miles.

4. Eliminating Sweet Spots

Traditional award charts often have ‘sweet spots’ where savvy customers can get outsized value for their miles. For example, using a fixed number of miles to fly in first class to a distant destination within the same award zone.

Dynamic pricing, especially when combined with the elimination of award charts, makes it much harder for customers to find such sweet spots, thereby reducing the potential for ‘losses’ from the airline’s perspective.

5. Increasing Transparency and Simplicity

On the surface, dynamic pricing appears simpler and more intuitive to customers. The cost of an award flight directly correlates with the ticket price, mirroring the purchase experience with cash. In reality, however, the lack of a fixed award chart can make it harder for customers to predict how many miles they’ll need for a given flight.

While the shift towards dynamic pricing may have benefits from an airline’s perspective, it’s often met with frustration from frequent flyers like us, especially those who have learned to maximize their miles’ value under the old systems.

It is a trend that’s likely to continue as airlines seek to maximize revenue, manage demand, and leverage advances in technology and data analysis. Therefore, it’s more important than ever for frequent flyers to understand these changes and adapt their mile-earning and redemption strategies accordingly.

But don’t worry, we are here to help :)

AwardFares offers a variety of features that enable users to uncover sweet spots across different types of award charts.

First, its ultra-fast search capability allows users to explore availability across different frequent flyer programs, airlines and alliances. It enables a broad view of potential routes and redemption options.

Its real-time tracking system notifies users of award space the moment it becomes available, providing opportunities to snag high-value redemptions.

AwardFares also provides detailed information of each flight, including cabin classes and seat availability (with seatmaps!). This can really help identify high-value redemptions.

AwardFares’ interface is modern, user-friendly and meant for mobile, which allows easy comparison between different flights and airlines.

Lastly, by keeping track of historical data, AwardFares can give users insights into trends and patterns, further aiding in the identification of award chart sweet spots.

How to beat your award chart with AwardFares

• Use the filters to narrow down your search. AwardFares allows you to filter your search by airline, destination, travel class, and other factors. This can help you quickly find flights that meet your criteria.
• Use the award chart comparison tool. AwardFares allows you to compare different award charts side-by-side. This can help you find the best possible redemption rate for your miles.
• Set up alerts. AwardFares allows you to set up alerts for specific flights or routes. This way, you will be notified if the price of a flight changes, so you can book it at the best possible time.
• Use the award search tool. AwardFares’ award search tool allows you to search for flights using miles from different frequent flyer programs. This can help you find the best possible deal on your next trip.

Here are some additional tips for finding sweet spots in award charts using AwardFares.

• Be flexible with your travel dates . Oftentimes, you can find better redemption rates if you are willing to travel during the off-season or on weekdays.
• Consider flying economy class. In some cases, you can find better redemption rates for economy class flights than for business or first class flights.
• Use your loyalty status. If you have status with a frequent flyer program, you may be able to get access to award seats that are not available to the general public.

You can try AwardFares for free . We are rolling out new features and improvements regularly, so sign up for our monthly newsletter to stay on top of the latest news, announcements, and pro tips.

With our Gold and Diamond tiers , you can access premium features such as unlimited daily searches, alerts, seat maps, flight schedules, and more!

Our guides have all the information you need to be a pro travel hacker and explore the world on points. Here are some related posts you might enjoy:

• 10 Tips For Booking An Award Trip
• AwardFares vs. ExpertFlyer
• AwardFares vs. Cowtool

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Why you need to know about ANA Mileage Club as a US-based traveler

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All Nippon Airways’ Mileage Club has long been regarded as one of the top options for maximizing American Express Membership Rewards points . It offers redemption rates that are often significantly lower than other Amex partners, like Avianca LifeMiles and Air Canada Aeroplan , with the peace of mind of published award charts .

Although the program has quirks and an interface that may not be the most user-friendly, the potential savings make it worthwhile. In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about ANA Mileage Club, including earning and redeeming miles.

How to earn ANA Mileage Club miles

There are several ways to earn ANA miles. Here’s a look at some of the most popular options:

Transfer Amex points to ANA

You can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to ANA Mileage Club at a 1:1 ratio. Generally, point transfers from Amex to ANA take around 48 hours . Unfortunately, ANA doesn’t allow for award ticket holds , meaning that award availability could change by the time your Amex points arrive in your ANA Mileage Club account.

If you don’t already have Amex points, you can earn a welcome bonus on an American Express card and potentially have enough points for an ANA Mileage Club redemption. Here’s a look at some of the most popular American Express cards:

• American Express® Gold Card: Earn 60,000 points after you spend $4,000 on purchases on your new card in your first six months of card membership.
• The Platinum Card® from American Express: Earn 80,000 points after you spend $6,000 on purchases on your new card in your first six months of card membership.
• The Business Platinum Card® from American Express : Earn 120,000 points after you spend $15,000 on qualifying purchases on the card within your first three months of card membership.
• American Express® Green Card: Earn 60,000 points after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first six months of card membership, and 20% back on eligible travel and transit purchases in your first six months of card membership, up to $200 back in the form of a statement credit.

Transfer hotel points to ANA

Additionally, you can transfer hotel points to ANA. Here’s a look at this option:

Earn ANA miles on ANA flights

For ANA-marketed and -operated flights, multiply the distance flown (basic sector mileage) by the accrual rate for the booking class to calculate mileage accruals. The accrual rates typically range from 30% to 150%, though some fare classes are ineligible for mileage accruals.

If you fly from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport (HND) in D-fare business class , you’ll earn 8,465 Mileage Club miles on your booking since the fare class earns 125% miles flown. The math looks like this: 6,772 * 1.25 = 8,465.

Earn ANA miles on partner flights

For eligible partner flights you credit to ANA, you’ll earn ANA miles as you would on ANA metal. The difference, however, is that accrual rates vary by the partner airline you’re flying on.

ANA is a member of Star Alliance , so you can earn ANA miles on eligible Star Alliance flights in addition to flights on its non-alliance partner airlines. Here’s a look at ANA’s non-alliance partner carriers:

• Air Dolomiti
• Etihad Airways
• Garuda Indonesia
• Jet Airways
• Olympic Air
• Philippine Airlines
• Vietnam Airlines
• Virgin Atlantic
• Virgin Australia

Other ways to earn ANA miles

You can also earn ANA miles through ANA World Hotels and ANA World Car Rentals , powered by Agoda. Earning rates for hotel bookings vary, while you’ll earn 1 mile for every 100 Japanese yen (around $0.72) spent on car rentals.

Related: Feels like first class: Flying ANA The Room business class from LA-Tokyo

How to redeem ANA Mileage Club miles

As mentioned, ANA still uses award charts, so as long as there’s award space, you can book award flights at the published rates. Some partner flights won’t appear on ANA’s website, so you can use another top Star Alliance site or ExpertFlyer (owned by TPG’s parent company, Red Ventures) to search for availability on most of ANA’s partner airlines. Once you find award space, call ANA Mileage Club to confirm availability.

There are two significant limitations to ANA Mileage Club redemptions, however. First, you can only book round-trip awards, though the program allows for creative stopovers and open jaws on most award tickets. Second, you can only use your miles to book tickets for you and your family. If you plan to travel with a friend, they’ll need their own ANA miles.

ANA has three types of awards: ANA domestic flight awards, ANA international flight awards and partner flight awards.

ANA domestic flight awards

The ANA domestic flight award chart lists round-trip flights within Japan from 5,000 miles.

The price of your flight will depend on the season (low, regular or high) and the distance of the flight. For example, a round-trip short-haul flight from Tokyo’s Narita International Airport (NRT) or Haneda Airport (HND) to Osaka’s Kansai International Airport (KIX) costs 5,000 miles during the low season, 6,000 miles during the regular season and 7,500 miles during the high season.

Longer domestic flights cost more miles. A round-trip flight from Okinawa’s Naha Airport (OKA) to Sapporo’s New Chitose Airport (CTS) costs 8,500 miles during the low season, 10,000 miles during the regular season and 11,500 miles during the high season.

ANA international flight awards

The ANA international flight award chart shows award prices in the various zones, cabins and seasonalities, with award rates starting at 12,000 miles for round-trip flights between Japan (Zone 1) and South Korea (Zone 2). You can book and combine Air Japan and ANA flights at these award rates.

ANA is known for having extremely limited premium-cabin award space. Still, if you find award space, you can book a round-trip flight between the U.S. and Japan for 75,000-90,000 miles in business class or 150,000-165,000 miles in first class, depending on seasonality.

Economy-class rates are between 40,000 and 55,000 miles.

At the time of writing, ANA flies from Tokyo to these American destinations:

• Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
• Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH)
• Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
• New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
• San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
• Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA)
• Washington’s Dulles International Airport (IAD)

Unfortunately, ANA charges fuel surcharges on its own award tickets, which currently sit at nearly $500 on round-trip flights between the U.S. and Japan. You can see the current fuel surcharges by clicking “International Surcharge Info” on the ANA fare rules webpage . Note that these surcharges apply in each direction on any class of travel, and the date ranges apply to your ticketing date. As you can see, the surcharges on a flight to Japan from the U.S. will drop from $216 each way to $173 each way as of Aug. 1.

You might be able to reduce your fuel surcharges by not starting or ending your trip in Japan, though the savings may be offset by additional costs to position to those spots.

You might also consider checking Virgin Atlantic Flying Club’s award rates for ANA flights to Japan — especially since Flying Club is a transfer partner of all major credit card currencies.

Partner flight awards

The  ANA partner flight award chart shows award rates on Star Alliance and non-alliance partners. While the partner award chart is zone-based like the ANA international award chart, it doesn’t fluctuate on seasonality.

ANA passes fuel surcharges on to some partner airlines, including those part of the Lufthansa Group (Air Dolomiti, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Lufthansa and Swiss). These carriers have some of the highest fuel surcharges, with long-haul business-class taxes and fees routinely passing $1,500 per person. You can avoid fuel surcharges by sticking to partners like Air Canada, Air New Zealand, Avianca, Copa Airlines, SAS, Singapore Airlines, TAP Air Portugal and United Airlines (except on some United Asia flights).

The ANA partner chart has some bargain sweet spots. For example, you can travel round-trip in business class on Philippine Airlines from JFK to Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL) for just 95,000 miles plus roughly $500 per person in taxes and fees. TPG’s Nick Ewen recently booked this exact award for three passengers in early 2024.

If Europe is on your mind, you can book round-trip flights in business class for just 88,000 miles (and minimal taxes and fees for carriers like TAP Air Portugal and United).

Another sweet spot is round-trip business class from the U.S. to South Africa for 104,000 miles. You can add a stopover in Europe on the way or in Ethiopia if you choose to fly on Ethiopian Airlines .

However, there are limitations on redeeming rewards based on the airline partner. For example, when using ANA miles, you may only have the option to book economy seats on Singapore Airlines for most flights, as Singapore Airlines typically reserves long-haul business- and first-class seats exclusively for its KrisFlyer mileage program .

Round-the-world tickets

ANA offers a surprisingly reasonable around-the-world award chart for multistop itineraries, which are priced based on the total distance you travel. There are certain restrictions to remember, but you can book up to 12 flight segments and four ground transfer segments on the same ticket, with the option for multiple stopovers. Mixed-cabin bookings are allowed, but the cost will be based on the highest booking class. Additionally, your itinerary must touch all three of ANA’s around-the-world regions and return to the same zone where you departed.

While there are rules to follow, ANA’s around-the-world awards are relatively easy to calculate using route mapping tools. These award tickets cannot be booked online and you must contact ANA Mileage Club to make the reservation. Fuel surcharges may also apply for certain partner flights. So it’s advisable to choose carriers that don’t add these surcharges if you want to save money.

You can learn more about ANA round-the-world tickets here .

Related: Your ultimate guide to searching award availability for the major airlines

Bottom line

ANA is one of the most lucrative airline loyalty programs out there. It has an excellent award chart and offers a great deal on true around-the-world itineraries, so be sure to consider it the next time you need to book a Star Alliance award ticket.

Additional reporting by Andrew Kunesh.

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And when you do spend on dining, you should use a credit card that will maximize your rewards and potentially even score special discounts. Thanks to temporary card bonuses and changes due to coronavirus, you may even be able to score a meal at your favorite restaurant for free. 

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Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

Quick Points: Book partner awards at fixed rates using AAdvantage miles

Dynamic pricing has taken some of the luster out of redeeming points and miles for great-value flights, but here's a tip for your next American Airlines AAdvantage redemption.

In April, American Airlines became the final major U.S. carrier to drop its saver award charts — a move it first announced was coming late last year .

AAdvantage redemptions for travel on American are now exclusively priced dynamically , allowing the airline to adjust the award rate for any flight. If you're traveling during off-peak periods when cash prices are low, you can expect pricing similar to when AAdvantage used award charts for travel on American.

However, if you are looking to fly during busy periods to popular destinations, like Europe during the summer, prepare for a pricing shock, with one-way, premium-cabin flights priced at several hundred thousand AAdvantage miles per person.

And yes, that is (in fact) just for a one-way ticket.

American Airlines partner award rates

The good news is American Airlines has retained, for now, an award chart for flights operated by partner airlines, and there are great deals to be found there. Here's a list of all of American's current partners:

Oneworld airline partners:

• Alaska Airlines.
• American Airlines.
• British Airways.
• Cathay Pacific.
• Japan Airlines.
• Malaysia Airlines.
• Qatar Airways.
• Royal Air Maroc.
• Royal Jordanian Airlines.
• SriLankan Airlines.
• Fiji Airways ( Oneworld Connect ).
• Oman Air ( future member ).

Non-alliance airline partners:

• Air Tahiti Nui.
• China Southern Airlines.
• Etihad Airways.
• Gol Airlines.
• Hawaiian Airlines.
• Silver Airways.

You can book most of these partners online — only three (China Southern Airlines, IndiGo and JetSmart) require you to call AAdvantage. That said, even though American's website indicates Etihad awards are available online, you generally need to call to book.

Here is the partner award chart for travel from the United States and Canada.

Provided there is availability, this means you will not pay more than 110,000 miles, even in first class, for a one-way award from the continental U.S. to anywhere on the planet. It's much easier to plan how to earn the miles required to book flights to the destinations you want to travel when you can follow an award chart rather than be at the mercy of dynamic pricing that changes daily.

Related: Dynamic pricing vs. fuel surcharges — which is the lesser of 2 evils for your next redemption?

Some favorite AAdvantage partner sweet spots

Some of our favorite uses of AAdvantage miles include:

• Book Japan Airlines first class from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Tokyo's Haneda Airport (HND) for only 80,000 miles each way.
• Qatar's fantastic Qsuite product — arguably the best way to reach the Middle East on points and miles — is only 70,000 miles each way between anywhere in the U.S. and the Middle East or the Indian subcontinent. Alternatively, just 75,000 miles each way from the U.S. will get you to destinations in Africa like the Seychelles and South Africa.
• For just 57,500 American miles one-way, you can book business-class seats to Europe from anywhere in the U.S., regardless of the distance or if you need to make a connection.

Related: From zero to Executive Platinum: Why and how I qualified for American's top-tier status without plans to fly the airline

Bottom line

American has some excellent partner airlines, so while the award chart remains in place for these airlines, consider booking a partner (rather than AA) for your next AAdvantage redemption. Of course, this is subject to availability, but if you're planning in advance and have some flexibility in your dates, there are some fantastic awards to book.