2.15.23
I have posted before on earning various points and the best ways to redeem those points. Point currencies come in two basic forms, loyalty program specific and flexible. If you earn points from stays or flights with a specific brand or via a co-branded credit card, those points will reside in those specific programs- think United or Marriott. But if you earn flexible points through banks such as Chase or American Express, those points can be transferred to a myriad of travel partners for use in a variety of ways. This flexibility increases your odds and options to redeem those points for a great value. To take it a step further, as it pertains to airlines, having points in one or several airline loyalty programs does not marry you to flying flights with only that airline. Here's where alliances come in. In this post I will dive into airline alliances and how you can look outside the box to redeem your points and miles for flights you normally wouldn't consider.
What are airline alliances?
There are 3 main airline alliances, Star Alliance, Oneworld, and SkyTeam. Many worldwide airlines belong to one of these alliances. The benefits of these partnerships allow you to earn and use points with one loyalty program to fly the metal (actually airplane being flown) of an alliance partner. This gives you access to all corners of the global through connections, as no one airline services the whole world.
Star Alliance
The World's largest alliance, Star Alliance's 26 members (including United) serve over 50 hubs and 1,200 airports worldwide.
One World
One World serves 900 airports in 170 countries and includes US carrier American Airlines.
SkyTeam
Sky Team serves 1,062 airports in 170 countries and includes Delta Airlines.
There are varying levels of difficulty in understanding these alliances, and I will dive into some simple and more complex examples below, but first it's best to have handy this transfer partner matrix (courtesy of Award Travel 101). It breaks down most of the members of the 3 main alliances (and some airlines that are not in an alliance) as well as which flexible points transfer to which airlines.
As you can see, if you have Amex Membership Rewards points for example, you have access to at least one airline in all the alliances, making it possible to fly almost any airline worldwide using those points.
How can you leverage alliances to book flights?
There are two main ways I will look at as to how you can leverage alliances to book flights. The first is to fly airlines you normally wouldn't have access to using points.
For example, Lufthansa is a German airline that does not transfer points from any flexible currencies. So unless you earned points in the Lufthansa Miles and More program by flying Lufthansa or on a co-branded credit card, you would never have access to Lufthansa's flights on their own. But because they are a member or Star Alliance, you can book their flights using points from United, Air Canada, and others (see matrix above). What does that look like practically? Say I look at flightconnections.com and see there is a nonstop flight from Orlando (MCO) to Frankfurt (FRA) on Lufthansa. I can then search on United.com and look for the Lufthansa flight, and if I find it (more on that in a moment), I can book the flight with United miles or transfer points from Chase to United to book it. In this case, it will cost me 33K United miles for this flight.
In the SkyTeam alliance, perhaps you want to fly Delta but do not have Delta SkyMiles or a viable way to transfer to them (only AMEX transfers to Delta). Alliance time. Flying Blue, the loyalty program of Air France/KLM can be of use here. This programs allows transfers of ALL the main flexible currencies. So now I can fly this Minneapolis (MSP)- Tokyo (HND) flight on Delta using 41,500 Flying Blue miles by transferring points to that program.
Let's look at another, more complex and aspirational example. Qatar Airlines has one of the best business class products, "QSuites", which they fly on certain airplanes from worldwide airports to their hub in Doha, Qatar (DOH). According to the matrix, the only flexible currency that transfers to Qatar's Privilege Club loyalty programs is Citi Thank You points (although now that Qatar, British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus all use the Avios currency you can transfer between those programs- let's save that for another day). Because Qatar is part of One World alliance, you can book QSuites through various programs. Say you have a stash of American Airlines miles and want to visit the Maldives, well you could then search and book this Qatar flight (New York-Doha-Male) using only 70K AA miles for a business class seat, again leveraging the alliance to fly somewhere you may not be able to otherwise.
The second way you can leverage alliances is by taking advantage of "sweet spots." Because airlines price out their award flights differently- some using distance based charts or airline specific charts- it may be advantageous to book with one program over another to save yourself some points or fees. Let's dive in.
In this "sweet spot" example, All Nippon Airlines (ANA), the Japanese airline that is part of Star Alliance, has a cheap award chart for booking alliance partner flights from the US to Europe. Here is an example of a round trip flight from Washington to Geneva in United Polaris business class.
As you can seem this would cost 120K United Miles round trip. But if we checked ANA for the same itinerary, it is only 88K points.
ANA only allows round trip award bookings, so in this instance in order to compare apples to apples, you need to find a roundtrip itinerary on United at the Saver level (I code,60K points each way) in order to also find it at the cheaper rate on ANA. As you can see from the transfer matrix, this is a case study on why point diversification is key, because the United flight above can be booked using United or Chase points while the ANA flight only with AMEX points. Affording yourself options can save you points.
One more advanced example involves comparing airlines that have a non-alliance partnership, of which there are several. If you notice in the transfer matrix, there is an "also bookable" column. In the case of Air Canada, they have a partnership with Emirates (EK) even though they are not in the same alliance.
So looking at this economy Emirates flight from New York to Dubai, it can be booked for 62.5K points +$205 if booked through Emirates (transfers from all flexible currencies).
But if you look at Air Canada, the same flight can be booked for 46.5K miles + $75 Canadian ($56 US). You can transfer points to Air Canada from all currencies EXCEPT Citi. Booking the same flight though Air Canada saves you both points and money.
Conclusion
These examples just scratch the surface of using the power of airline alliances to find award flights to locations domestically and around the world. Here are a few closing remarks and takeaways:
Diversifying your points earnings is key. If you only earn Delta Skymiles, you are limiting the airlines you can use the points on, while having flexible points (Chase, Amex, etc) can open up multiple possibilities for redeeming those miles.
Award space is a limited commodity. I mentioned above you need to confirm an alliance partner has award availability first, because that is not often the case. Just because Lufthansa operates a flight daily from Orlando to Frankfurt does NOT mean they are going to release seats on that flight every day to United in order to book that way. That can be frustrating but just means flexibility and compromise are your friends.
The key actions steps you can take are:
Familiarizing yourself with the transfer matrix and alliance partners.
Opening up loyalty accounts with all the airlines you may potentially transfer points to (some airlines require an account to do award searches).
Practicing doing some even rudimentary award searches on those airlines.
Equipped with this knowledge will help you search and locate award flights where you may not have looked before, and likely save you points in the process.
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