Hidden Gem Airline Redemptions

As you guys know, there are a lot of relatively unknown transfer partenrs with Amex and mostly with SPG. And there’s a lot to consider. I’ll break down each airline like this:

• Award Chart – just give you the facts
• Stopovers – you know I care about the stopover rules
• YQ? – If they pass on fuel surcharges
• Partners – What alliance they are in can make a big difference not just in redemptions but even in routing rules.

Why Care?

Same reason you should care about stopovers. The goal is to see more with less. Why wouldn’t you care? Okay, I’ll give a real answer.

1. Stopover rules are sometimes more generous. Heck, sometimes the routing rules are more generous on these airlines as they haven’t pinned things down yet. I won’t go into detail about that though. :-p
2. Prices are better. It’s pretty simple, the more award charts you have access to, the more likely you are to get a deal. If I’m flying to Europe, I have tons of options. Short BA flights, AA off peak, Lufthansa Mileage Bargains… We know of these. But there are other deals! Like Air Berlin.
3. Availability is better when you have more alliances to search.
4. Availability is better, period. That’s reason enough. Listen, airlines open up less seats for their partners than their own memebers. Pretty simple. Want to fly to South America but don’t see availability, try LAN or another Latin American airline.

Another thing you may know, is that in the newsletters, I don’t hold back. Even if it’s not flattering of me, I’m going to tell you how I get my miles.

But, there is still a lot info I don’t share… or at least haven’t yet. For example, my last post on the greatest list of hotel Best Rate Guarantees, it was unpublished for a while.

But that’s nothing. I’ve had this list for a long while. Similarly it started with curiousity in these programs- thus, I made a list. Perhaps the reason I haven’t published it is… well, it’s a bit of an uncomplete mess.

I’ve already done a little writing on some of these. For example:

• SPG Transfer to Air Berlin, A Hidden Gem
• Alitalia’s Awards, A Hidden Gem
• ANA – 4 stopovers with ANA = dream trip

If people are curious I can give more thoughts on unknown redemptions. The ANA post went over well. So let me know.

Yes, I published this with missing info. Whatever. It should be obvious which ones I’ve seriously looked into and which ones I haven’t. But, give me some info & details if you have any experiences. Would love to fill in those gaps. Thanks!

 

Air Berlin

• Award Chart above – in oneways
• Stopovers – These are still with oneways(?). So two stopovers on a two region and 4 on a three-region award:
  

  For award flights between two zones

  • one transfer flight within the origin zone and one within the destination zone is permitted.
  • one stopover within the origin zone and one stopover within the destination zone is permitted

  For award flights between two zones that are routed via a third zone

  • one transfer flight within the origin zone and one within the transfer zone is permitted

  • one stopover within the origin zone and one within the transfer zone is permitted

• YQ? – Yes
• Partners – OneWorld, Etihad

AirChina

http://www.airchina.com/mm/en/phoenixmiles/mileage_redemption/mileage_redemption3.shtml

• Award Chart – The link above. But it’s a mess.
• Stopovers -?
• YQ -?
• Partners –

Air New Zealand

Transfers from SPG 65:1

North America and:
Central America	650	–	1,610	1,960
South America	840	–	2,010	2,550
Pacific Islands	950	–	1,450	1,840
Europe	750	1,379	2,250	2,860
Honolulu/Tahiti	990	–	1,460	1,880
Middle East	1,190	–	2,200	3,540
Africa	1,400	–	3,440	4,480

Which would look like this x65

North America and:
Central America	42,250	–	104,650	127,400
South America	54,600	–	130,650	165,750
Pacific Islands	62,400	–	94,250	119,600
Europe	48,750	89,635	146,250	185,900
Honolulu/Tahiti	64,350	–	94,900	122,200
Middle East	77,350	–	143,000	230,100
Africa	91,000	–	223,650	291,100

• Award Chart above – ONEWAYS! Yikes, a little steep.
• Stopovers -?
• YQ -?
• Partners

Alitalia

 

• Award Chart above – Roundtrips only
• Stopovers –– 1 stopover
  • The Multicarrier Award Ticket can be made up of a maximum of 6 flight legs.• Only one voluntary stop-over is allowed, but it must not last more than length of stay in the final destination of the travel itinerary.
• YQ? – Yes
• Partners
  • SkyTeam
  • Etihad Airways
  • Jet Airways
  • Malaysia Airlines
  • Qantas
  • AirOne
• Gems: North America to Europe/North Africa for 50k/80k roundtrip

Dr. Google gave me an interesting read though – http://upgrd.com/matthew/alitalia-millemiglia-partner-redemptions-a-cautionary-tale.html

 

Asia Miles

• Award Chart above
• Stopovers –
  1. You can make a maximum of five stopovers, two transfers and two open-jaws at either origin, en-route or turnaround point, subject to airline partners’ terms and conditions.
• YQ?
• Partners: OneWorld
• Gems: 25,000 for a oneway from East Coast US to Western Europe. MIA – TXL

Asiana Airlines

• Award Chart above – Roundtrips only
• Stopovers –
  

  Up to 5 stopovers including all destinations per award
  itinerary is allowed and only 2 stopover staying more than 24 hours is allowed per country. In the event that the itinerary is made up of domestic routes only, 2 stopovers per country is also allowed.

  One open jaw segment is allowed per award itinerary. 1
  open jaw segment is regarded as 1 stopover. An open
  jaw segment is defined as entry via one city with a
  following departure from another city.

• YQ?
• Partners – Star Alliance
• Gems: Average distance award chart with good stopover rules. 75k-80k for a roundtrip business class ticket from East coast to west coast Europe is good.

China Eastern Airlines

• Award Chart – Roundtrip only, oneway priced the same
• Stopovers – 1 on skyteam chart
• YQ?
• Partners – SkyTeam

Emirates

http://www.emirates.com/english/Skywards/about/partners/our-partners.aspx?#airlines

• Award Chart above
• Stopovers
• YQ?
• Partners – Air Malta, Air Mauritius, Japan Airlines, Jet Airways, JetBlue, Airways Korean, Air Oman, Air Philippine, Airlines Qantas, South African Airways, TAP Portugal, Thai Airways International

Etihad

I don’t exactly know what’s going on here but this looks a lot like AA’s award chart. Assume this is for AA redemptions.
http://www.etihadairways.com/sites/Etihad/global/en/guestrecognition/visitor/Pages/American-Airlines-redemption.aspx#domestic

I assume this is for Etihad redemptions.
https://www.etihadairways.com/sites/Etihad/global/en/guestrecognition/visitor/Pages/GuestSeatrewardtable.aspx
Partners – http://www.etihadairways.com/sites/etihad/global/en/guestrecognition/visitor/etihadguest/PartnerDetails/Pages/Partner-Airlines.aspx

JAL

• Award Chart above – oneway only
• Stopovers –
  • For each award, a maximum of 8 flight sectors excluding surface sector will be permitted in the whole itinerary.
    2 Japan domestic flight sectors can be included in the whole itinerary.
  • For each award, a maximum of 7 stopovers (a stay more than 24 hours or surface sector) are permitted in the whole itinerary.
    Stopovers within Europe are limited to 3 times.
  • For itineraries originating in Japan, stopover within Japan is not permitted.
  • “One city” can be included twice at the maximum for the whole itinerary, however stopover at “one city” is permitted once in the whole itinerary.
  • One surface sector is permitted in the whole itinerary.
  • A surface sector is counted to be “one stopover” regardless of the sojourn time.
  • The distance of the surface sector is included in the total distance of award itinerary.
• YQ?
• Partners – OneWorld
• Gems: East Coast to Europe for 40k-50k econ, 65k-80k in business. This is IF it prices the same for roundtrips

LAN

Now transfer 1:1.5 – which is still good.

Also look at their award chart for LAN Airlines itself. 70,000 (which is 47,000) for a roundtrip to northern South America. 100,000 (which is 67,000) for the southern part of South America.

http://www.lan.com/en_us/sitio_personas/lanpass/how-many-kms-for-your-trip/lan-flights-international/index.html

• Award Chart above
• Stopovers – 11.2 The Awards allow one (1) Stopover (voluntary stop of the passenger on one of the Stops included in the outbound section or return of the trip) or one (1) OpenJaw (destination city other than the origin of the return flight,) on both domestic and international routes. Some oneworld Airlines or Associated Airlines do not allow Stopovers and OpenJaw flights.
• YQ?
• Partners – OneWorld
• Gems – Everything was a great price at 1:2 transfer. Now things are decent. The great part is the possibility of better availability.

Qatar

• Award Chart above
• Stopovers
• YQ?
• Partners – Will be joining OneWorld soon

Saudi Arabian Airlines Alfursan

• Award Chart above- has seperate business class award chart.
• Stopovers
• YQ?
• Partners – SkyTeam

Thai Airways

• Award Chart – Awards are for round-trip travel on the most direct route possible, and must return to the country of origin.
• Stopovers –
  • One enroute stopover in each direction is permitted per Award journey. One open jaw at point of turnaround or origin is also permitted per Award journey.
  • No stopover is permitted in the country of origin.
  • No stopover is permitted on pure domestic travel.
• YQ?
• Partners – Star Alliance

GOL Smiles

• Award Chart above – It’s oneway but remember everything is x2! (cuz the 2:1 transfer)
• Stopovers – One stopover will be allowed within the destination region, as long as it is not a purely domestic flight within any country or when the trip involves only countries in Europe. Stopover: an intermediary stop between origin and destination.
• YQ?
• Partners – Aerolineas Argentinas, Aeroméxico, Air France, Alitalia, Austral Líneas Aéreas, Copa Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Iberia, Insel Air KLM, Passaredo Linhas Aéreas, Qatar Airways

 

AeroMexico

• Award Chart – http://eu.aeromexico.com/ClubPremier/Rewards/Redemption/SkyTeamAwards.html
• Stopovers
• YQ?
• Partners – SkyTeam

EL AL Israel Airlines

Amex MR – 20:1

A mystery to me