How to Save Up to 36% in Business and First Class to Asia on Oneworld Partner Airlines

It’s the last option most people think of. Why it should be your first.

American charges 160,000 miles to fly First Class Los Angeles-Tokyo. But use its partner’s miles, say with Japan Airlines, and the story changes radically because it takes only 115,000 JAL miles to book the same seat, 5,000 fewer miles than AA charges for Business. You’re getting a free upgrade, in effect.

The Background

People love choice but hate making decisions, especially when it comes to transferring points to a mileage program: so many options (40+ with Starwood) and so hard to decide which mileage program to use when.

• Do you go with the lowest mileage rate?
• The best award availability?
• The lowest tax rate?

And what are the odds of one airline having the lowest mileage cost, lowest taxes, and best availability?

Often better than you think.

Survey Methodology

This report will look at mileage rates—for the award chart of both the operating airline and partner airlines on one major route. It also compares mileage award availability between the operating and partner airlines, and will look at which program has the lowest out-of-pocket cash cost (mileage award taxes).

Mileage award availability: FCF could not check every route on the three airlines and their partners over the next year. Award availability for partner space is based on two representative routes, from a major East- and West-Coast city, in a given month (varies by airline and route).

Oneworld Airlines

American: AA uses a zone chart. The best mileage rate for travel on AA is on partner Japan Airlines (it uses a flight-distance chart, so mileage rates vary). Taxes are a bit more than AA’s, but well worth the cost, given the 22,500-mile savings in First Class and 20,000-mile savings in Business Class each way on the sample route below. Second best rate is with non-alliance partner Alaska, which at times can be even better than JAL because it uses a zone chart, so the cost does not vary for U.S. departure cities or destinations in Asia. Partner award space was identical to American’s own space in our research. AA credit card transfer partner: Starwood. (See chart for partner airline transfer partners.)

Cathay Pacific: Uses a flight-distance chart, so award cost varies. New York-Hong Kong one-way in First Class is 130,000 miles (220,000 round-trip) and Business Class is 85,000 (145,000 round-trip), plus about $20 in taxes. The best rate, though, for travel on Cathay Pacific is booking through Alaska Airlines, which charges 140,000 round-trip in First Class and 100,000 round-trip in Business Class for all U.S. gateway cities. The downside: Alaska’s award inventory for Cathay is less than Cathay offers using Cathay miles. Second-best rate on Cathay flights is with Japan Airlines miles, but again, you might have to be more flexible because partner award space through JAL, for travel on Cathay, is much less. Or, if you must travel on certain dates, book with Cathay miles, despite the higher cost. Cathay credit-card transfer partners: Amex Rewards, Citi ThankYou, and Starwood. (See chart for airline transfer partners.)

Japan Airlines: JAL uses a zone chart. To Japan, it offers one of the best programs when it comes to mileage and award tax costs. Using AA miles costs more than booking via JAL’s own program, even though mileage inventory is identical. JAL offers even lower rates during certain days of the week under a program called “Limited Days of the Week”. First Class is only 110,000 and Business Class 80,000 miles to Tokyo—20,000 to 30,000 fewer miles than JAL’s normal rate. Transfer partner is Starwood. (See chart for partner airline transfer partners.)

How to Think about Booking Partner Awards

Step #1: Check award space and mileage-award cost on the operating airline.

Step #2: If promising, check availability and mileage-rate on partner airline.

Step #3: If award space through the partner mileage program is good and rates are lower, transfer points to partner program from your Multi-Currency Credit Card. But know that transfer times, like award-space availability, can change by the minute. I feel most comfortable when there are multiple dates available that I’d be happy with when I go to make a transfer. Or, if I know I’ll be needing miles from a specific airline program eventually—to take the transfer time off the table—or, if you have enough miles to be really diversified—transfer miles ahead of time, especially when there is a transfer bonus. (I have enough miles for a First Class ticket anywhere in the world with at least seven different programs at any given time.)

Step #4: Book it!

Things to Know

Mileage amounts: Award charts come in two flavors: zone and flight-distance. The former divides the world into regions (the 48 contiguous states and often Canada, for example), with every destination within the zone costing the same number of miles. The latter charges the distance flown. Many of the Asian carriers use a flight-distance chart, so the mileage cost depends on the flight miles.

Combining Mileage Awards: We show most mileage-award amounts one-way because the best—available—deal often involves using different programs each way.