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Update: This chart has been updated with new rates after the Finnair devaluation.
- Related posts:
Originally posted on 8/14:
The OneWorld alliance, which includes Alaska and American Airlines, is blessed with many distance-based mileage programs.
Traditionally, mileage programs were region based, which meant that short-haul flights within the US could be a poor value.
British Airways was an innovator in 2011 when they launched Avios. With just 4,500 Avios and $2.50, you could fly on short-haul flights on AA within the US. Combined with a credit card offer that broke the 100K barrier, it propelled many Americans into the mileage hobby.
Alas, inflation has hit hard and the cheapest BA Avios award is now 12,000 Avios+$5.60. But there are plenty of other OneWorld programs to focus on.
The point of a mileage ticket is to try to get outsized value compared to paid rates. You’ll always want to compare the paid rates versus the mileage rates to determine if you’re getting a good value for your miles.
Before you book an award ticket, you should always compare the rates that partner airlines charge. Each program charges a different amount of miles, based on their award charts.
Below is a guide for how many miles One World carriers charge to fly on partner American or Alaska flights. American has variable pricing, so they’re not included in this chart.
- A few notes and tips on the chart below:
- Pricing is one-way, however note that you must book round-trip to get the rates below when using JAL miles. All other airlines allow one-way travel for the same price as round-trip travel.
- Pricing in this chart is only valid within the US and Canada.
- Pricing is distance based for all programs except for Finnair. You can search distances between any airports on GCmap.com. For example, a flight between Los Angeles and Miami is 2,342 miles, so use the 2,101-2,400 mileage band to find what each airline would charge for that flight.
- Pricing is based on partner award space being released by the airline. Alaska has a mileage award calendar that can be helpful in finding dates with award space. You can also use the American calendar and dates that cost fewer miles are more likely to have award space that can be booked by partner airlines. The BA site is also a good place to search for award space.
- If you have AA miles, be sure to check what they charge as well, as that number will be variable.
- You can now transfer points from AMEX to Hawaiian and from Hawaiian to Alaska instantly.
- You can combine Avios via this link via the BA site between BA, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Finnair, and Qatar.
- Qatar’s site can be tricky to use for partner awards. See this post for instructions.
- Etihad rates are rounded down, as they charge a few extra miles to their rates and reduce the taxes owed.
- Qatar’s site doesn’t show space on American Eagle regional flights. You can search for that space on the BA site and then call Qatar to book it. If the phone agents won’t book it after a couple of tries, you can book a mainline flight online and call to change it to a regional flight for a $25 (optional) fee.
- You will have to contact Finnair to book awards on American. Readers report better success chatting on the Finnair site rather than calling them.
- Awards on American and Alaska always book into standard economy, there are no basic economy awards.
- Changes and cancellations must be done more than 24 hours before flight time for many partner airlines. Fees listed have been converted into USD at current exchange rates.
- Always check for transfer bonuses, which can change the math for which partner to use.
- Iberia charges the same rates as British Airways, but they don’t allow changes or cancellations on partner travel, so there’s no reason to ever use that program for partner awards and they have been excluded from the chart below.
- BA and Qatar charge a separate mileage fee for each flight segment, while others allow connecting flights at no additional charge. If you are taking a connection, that will change the math between flight options significantly.
How do you book or get these miles? What will it cost to change a ticket? Find that info below:
Want to earn miles? Pick up a credit card or 3 to get on your way!
If you, a member in your household, or an authorized user has one of the following Chase cards, you can transfer points into miles:
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card has a 100K signup bonus for spending $5K in 3 months, earns 2.1 points per dollar on travel after the card's 10% anniversary bonus, 3.1 points per dollar on dining, streaming, and online groceries after the card's 10% anniversary bonus, has a $50 hotel credit, can transfer all Chase points into miles, and points are worth at least 1.25 cents each for paid travel ($95 annual fee). Read more here.
- Chase Sapphire Reserve® has a 60K signup bonus for spending $5K in 3 months, earns 3 points per dollar on dining/travel, has a $300 travel credit, can transfer all Chase points into miles, and points are worth at least 1.5 cents each for paid travel ($550 annual fee with $300 travel credit). Read more here.
- Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card has a 90K signup bonus for spending $8K in 3 months, and earns 3 points per dollar on up to $150K of annual spending on shipping, advertising, and travel, can transfer all Chase points into miles, and points are worth at least 1.25 cents each for paid travel ($95 annual fee). Read more here.
- Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card has a $750 signup bonus in the form of 75K points for spending $6K in 3 months, and earns 1.5 points per dollar on business purchases ($0 annual fee). Read more here.
- Ink Business Cash® Credit Card has a $350 signup bonus in the form of 35K points for spending $3K in 3 months and another $400 signup bonus in the form of 40K bonus points for spending another $3K in 6 months for a total of 75,000 Chase Ultimate points. This card earns 5 points per dollar on the first $25,000 in combined purchases on cable, TV, telecom, cellular, and office supply stores, plus 2 points per dollar on dining and gas on up to $25,000 in purchases ($0 annual fee). Read more here.
- Chase Freedom Flex has a 20K signup bonus for spending $500 in 3 months, plus 5 points on rotating categories, 5 points per dollar on travel purchased through Chase Travel, and 3 points per dollar on dining and drugstores ($0 annual fee). Read more here. All information about the Chase Freedom Flex Card has been collected independently by DansDeals.
- Chase Freedom Unlimited® has a 25K signup bonus for spending $500 in 3 months, 1.5 points per dollar everywhere, 5 points per dollar (marketed as 5% cash back) on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, and 3 points per dollar on dining and drugstores ($0 annual fee). Read more here.
- The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express is offering a rare bonus to earn 15,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $3,000 in eligible purchases on the Card within your first 3 months of Card Membership and offers 2 points per dollar spent on up to $50K spending annually 1 point per dollar thereafter, plus transfer points to airlines and hotels and keep AMEX points alive. Terms apply. Read more here.
- The Business Platinum Card® from American Express is offering a 150K bonus for spending $20,000 in the first 3 months and offers monthly credits, lounge access, and much more. Terms apply. Read more here.
- American Express® Business Gold Card is offering a 100K bonus for spending $15,000 in 3 months, monthly business credits, Walmart+ membership, up to 4 points per dollar spent with a $150K annual spend cap, and more benefits. Terms apply. Read more here.
- Business Green Rewards Card from American Express is offering a 15K bonus for spending $3,000 in 3 months. Terms apply.
- The Platinum Card® from American Express is offering an 80K bonus for spending $8,000 in the first 6 months and offers monthly credits, lounge access, and much more. Terms apply. Read more here.
- American Express® Gold Card is offering a 60K bonus for spending $6,000 in the first 6 months, monthly credits for Uber and Grubhub, and more. Terms apply. Read more here.
- AMEX Green Consumer Card is offering a 40K bonus for spending $3,000 in the first 6 months and offers up to $199 in annual CLEAR Plus® credits, $100 LoungeBuddy credit, plus transfer points to airlines and hotels and keep AMEX points alive. All information about the AMEX Green Card has been collected independently by DansDeals.
- Limited time offer: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is offering 75,000 bonus miles for spending $4K in 3 months and a $250 travel credit, plus 2 miles per dollar spent on every purchase, transfer points to airlines and hotels, 5K MLB redemptions, and more. No foreign transaction fees. $95 annual fee. Read more here.
- Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is offering 75,000 bonus miles for spending $4K in 3 months, plus earn 2 miles per dollar spent on every purchase, $300 annual travel credit for bookings through Capital One Travel, 10K anniversary bonus miles, Global Entry/Pre-Check, Capital One lounge access, Priority Pass Lounge membership, Hertz President's Circle status, free lounge access and status for free additional cardholders, transfer miles to airlines and hotels, 5K MLB redemptions, and more. No foreign transaction fees. $395 annual fee. Read more here.
- Capital One Venture X Business is offering 150,000 bonus miles for spending $30K in 3 months, plus earn 2 miles per dollar spent on every purchase, $300 annual travel credit for bookings through Capital One Travel, 10K anniversary bonus miles, Global Entry/Pre-Check, Capital One lounge access, Enhanced Priority Pass Lounge membership, transfer miles to airlines and hotels, 5K MLB redemptions, and more. $395 annual fee. No foreign transaction fees. Read more here.
- Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card is offering 20,000 bonus miles for spending $500 in 3 months, transfer miles to airlines and hotels, 5K MLB redemptions, and more. No foreign transaction fees. No annual fee.
- Capital One Spark Miles for Business is offering 50,000 bonus miles for spending $4,500 in 3 months, 2 miles per dollar spent on every purchase, Global Entry/PreCheck, transfer miles to airlines and hotels, 5K MLB redemptions, and more. No foreign transaction fees. $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95.
- Capital One Spark Cash is offering $750 cash back (convertible to 75,000 miles) for spending $7,500 in 3 months, 2% back everywhere, $40 MLB redemptions, and more. No foreign transaction fees. $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95.
- New offer: Capital One Spark Cash Plus is offering $2,000 cash back (convertible to 200,000 miles) for spending $30,000 in 3 months, plus get another $2,000 cash back for every $500K spent in your first year, 2% back everywhere, $40 MLB redemptions, annual fee refund when you spend $150K/year, and more. No foreign transaction fees. $150 annual fee. Read more here.
- Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card is offering 95,000 Marriott Bonvoy points after spending $6,000 in the first 6 months. Read more here.
- Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card is offering 85,000 point welcome offer for spending $5,000 in the first 6 months. Read more here.
- Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card is offering a 3 free 50K night welcome offer after you spend $6,000 in the first 6 months.
How do you book AA or Alaska award travel?
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84 Comments On "Master Chart: Here Are The Best Ways To Book Every American Or Alaska Award Flight Within The US And Canada!"
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This is incredibly helpful, thank you!
Pleasure, enjoy!
Dan what city is comparable for Detroit
Etihad officially charges that amount, but it’s always shown a weird amount when it comes time to actually book. I think they force you to use some miles to cover the taxes and fees.
Indeed i just had that with a flight from PHL-YYZ. Showing 6,000 miles to book and $19 tax.
So i transferred 6k C1 and tried booking that flight. kept erroring out. but for a millisecond i saw something about needing 6043 miles to book that flight and $18.xx in taxes. so the actual amount varies when it comes time to book. Ended up calling in and having them book it for me. As well I ended up transferring that extra 1k to my Etihad account to be able to make that booking. So for the future, seems you need to make a mock booking to see exactly how many miles is needed.
Asked the agent why it’s not 6K as per the award chart?
For some odd reason, The tax amount was lowered and the mileage needed was higher.
Though when making the booking, it said not enough points.You can pay partial cash partial miles. But of course, it would just crash as soon as I got to that part when I didn’t have enough miles.
Can you book Finnair jfk to tlv on aa. What are rates on main and business and surcharges
AA isn’t going to TLV anytime soon.
Thanks Dan, great job! I was totally unaware of Finnair’s sweet spots. I can not see American availability on their website, can I rely on the fact that I see availability on BA, and transfer points, and call to book. or I should first make sure with them they also see availability ?
Thanks.
Call or chat before transferring.
Looks like Alaska is by far the best in most cases and overall. Too bad it’s harder to get their mile but c’est la vie…
Not sure of that when considering fees. FinnAir is a strong contender.
What’s the best/quickest way to get Chase UR transferred over to Alaska miles. If I’m not mistaken they don’t transfer directly? Is there a way? Thanks for another very helpful post!
The only half decent method ends tonight:
https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/milespoints/transfer-chase-ultimate-rewards-points-marriott-points-get-70-bonus-transfer-chase-points-alaska/
What about using Krisflyer miles to book onto Alaska? Any chance that works for American flights with Alaska codeshares? Could be a great deal for those SEA-LAX flights.
No
Looks like Amex to finnair is getting shut down in October. I’m already having issues transferring now
You can transfer to BA with a 30% bonus and from there to Finnair.
Would love the same chart for star alliance and sky miles
100%
Early August, I booked ORD to BWI (622 miles per gcmap) for only 6K on Qatar.
https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/milespoints/brutal-end-avios-bargains-qatar-devalues-aa-alaska-award-chart-much-64/
Amazing resource – thanks!
Thanks!
This is awesome, I needed this! I didnt know that Eithad was so cheap for short haul (ersp if theres a connection), why havent I been hearing about them?:) Any caveats to booking with them?
Also if theres a very out of the way connection but the origin and destination are within the short haul amount, does that get charged higher (assuming not per segment airline, lets say CLE-NYC connecting in MIA booked via Eithad)?
Thanks for this, Dan! I had just booked a cross country flight on AA using Alaska miles like three days ago. I was able to chat with finnair and get the same flight for 5k less miles plus it was really just ~23k Amex points which I’d much rather spend than 35k Alaska miles even if they’re not as valuable as they used to be.
Indeed. I enjoy skimming through such posts. Informative. And to the point. Great guide.
And optional to pay fees. (-;
MSP-YYZ is 678 miles which should be bookable for 4500 miles on Alaska, however there is no non-stop flights with oneworld carriers , and with a connection in ORD it becomes 736 miles where it should be 7500 Alaska miles.. however Alaska only shows business class availability on AA even though you can book individual segments separately in economy for 4500 miles each with a total of 9K miles but then has to be on 2 separate tickets
Thanks Dan.. what day did you search..
Just wondering if this is an issue using their app vs website
I see the issue now.. their app doesn’t show these flight at all.. their mobile site shows all these flights.. fun part is I called their customer service and they could not even see this space in economy as well and were quoting me the same business class price of 20K showing on the app.. this helps a lot .. Thanks Dan
Excellent. But unfortunately no way on the app to bookmark this. A bookmark option would be great.
Excellent work. Thank you.
Whats the best way to add a lap infant?
Lap infants are free for US/Canada flights. Can try adding over the phone or add at the airport.
What’s the cost to add an infant to a American or JetBlue award ticket
Domestic? Free.
Thank you for putting in all the hard work so we can breeze through
Are the Finnair change and cancellation fees correct?? I see a different price on the Finnair website
Like BA/IB, it’s the lesser of taxes or the change/cancellation fee.
I needed help so badly with this, thank you! Someone finally broke the code among all airlines & is willing to disseminate!
Enjoy!
Trying to book lax-sea via alaska airline, AA shows tons of flight options operated by AS with different pricing as expected. Hope onto BA and it displays zero results. Then tried Qantas and nada as well. Any other advices? Thanks!
Nope, AA has access to non saver awards for Alaska flights.
Ah, I wasn’t aware AA had non saver access. Maybe I will just pay cash rate then. Thank you!
1. The chart doesn’t include fees for booking international flights with American Airlines. Is there something I might be missing?
2. If there are fees, are they refundable if you cancel your flight?
3. How much does it cost for a lap child on an American Airlines mileage flight to Canada?
As the post says, this is for domestic flights.
Depends which miles you use.
Free
Thanks,
“Depends which miles you use.” – sorry I didn’t clarify AA flight, AA Miles
“Free” – is that across all airlines between US and Canada?
Fully refunded.
Yes.
Thanks for the updates!
One interesting thing happened to me. I purchased coach seats (only thing available) on Korean Air, using Alaska points. I went to the Korean Air website and called Korean Air…they will NOT allow you to upgrade or purchase extra legroom seats unless you purchased your ticket directly with them!!
Amazing chart! How do I book on jal. I want to go from nyc to Pittsburgh. Pitt doesn’t populate on jal site?!
Be sure to select partner airline award.
I tried transferring chase points to Finnair, but there’s no option in chase to do that
Please advise
See note 6 in this post.
EWR-ORD is 4500 on Alaska like PHL not 7500 like the other NYC airports
On the Alaska signature card, can you use the 50k bonus miles to book a flight and then get one free? Also, how many times can you buy one get one free?
Does Finnair allow stopovers on one way awards?
Thanks for putting this together. this is a great resource.
If I book an American flight with Alaska miles, will my American Aviator credit card free checked bag benefit apply for that flight? Would an Alaska credit card checked bag benefit apply for the flight (on American metal)? I think I remember seeing somewhere a while ago that there was an issue with entering an AAdvantage number on a flight booked through Alaska. Thanks!
You can call Alaska to switch the mileage number to American and you’ll get the benefits.
Thanks, Dan!
On the Alaska signature card, can you use the 50k bonus miles to book a flight and then get one free? And how many times can you buy one get one free?
Alaska increased the domestic redemption on AA from 11/30. To 16.500/40k
Do you mean Finnair?
This is truly incredible. That said, I think the Qantas data may be wrong. I see SFO-BUR as 10,000 miles, which doesn’t map out to anything on the chart.
Finnair has devalued significantly, please update this chart
Done.
Point of interest – CHI to EWR is actually the low mileage still – less than LGA or JFK. 4500/9K. Incredible option, I use it all the time.
———-
Re: Chicago-NYC Alaska 7500/15K
Thanks to everyone who puts so much effort into giving us so much helpful info!
Lots of phantom availability on Alaska’s site when booking AA lately. All you can do is call to see what the agents see and book that.
I haven’t encountered that, but I would just check to see if the AA space is also on BA.com.
BA shows options, and when I recreate the itineraries on AS, they still fail to book. The only way I can do it successfully is to call, request a call back 1-2 hours later, and have the agent manually check the AA inventory until they find seats. They feel really bad about the delay and bad IT, but it’s due to a lack of real-time updates between their booking systems.
Dan, great job! What about Cathay Pacific/Asia Miles?
I’m not aware of a published partner award chart.
https://www.asiamiles.com/en/redeem-awards/flight-awards/flight-award-chart.htmlJapanisyourbestbetiftravelingfromaJALgatewaycity,althoughIdon'tknowwhatJALchargesforfuelsurcharges.Youalsoneedtooffermorethanwhatyousaid-wedon'tknowwhereyouareflyingoutof(#Airlinepartnersawardschart
I only see a Cathay chart and a OneWorld multi-carrier chart.
It seems that the price for AA awards in Alaska miles is variable as well. The chart is only “starting at” price.
It is not variable, despite what the chart says.
I just had paid 20K on domestic first for a distance of 1150 miles. There is no 20K on the chart so it can only be variable.
I just read the terms and it seems there is an upcharge for connections.
“Miles shown reflect starting at prices for nonstop awards within a region and distance band. The number of miles required for itineraries with multiple segments may be higher”
Dan. I love when you do this. Can you make it into a pdf so I can print it up?
You left off your caveat about Qatar funding terrorism. I’d prefer not to do any business at all with Qatar, no matter how good the deal might look. You did a long post on it, though I can’t find it now.
For some reason BA’s site doesn’t work.. wanted to know if I see availability on AA’s site to book Alaska flight, does that mean it’s available to book with Finnair as well? Thanks
Hi,
I’m trying to book a flight from SFO to NYC on an Alaska via Chase-BA-Finnair. Before I transfer my points and book it, what’s the best way to confirm award seat availability? BA? Alaska?
Thanks!