When to Use Which Star Alliance Partners for Award Travel

Are all Star Alliance mileage programs man’s best friend? Well, it depends…

We know you want a great deal on mileage award tickets, but which program gets the doggy treat for behaving the best? Sometimes you want the best partner award availability and sometimes you want the best points transfer time.

FCF will walk you through the options that may or may not be most important to you. In the same way you’d compare a Pekingese with a Pug, the results vary depending on your priorities. The key is to be clear about what matters most to you as you won’t find a single program that is best across the board. Use miles/points and partners for strategic strikes based on what’s most important to you.

While we aren’t necessarily super quick to recommend traveling right now, the opportunities available now for travel later this year and into 2021 will likely not be available many months from now. So FCF does recommend booking now.

So let’s find out who’s Best in Show across a number of different categories, and how they affect you. This special report will help you understand it all.

Best in Show for Availability: Business Class

Some airlines release similar availability to their partners as they do for their own members, and some release less. If you are not very flexible, it’s important to know which airlines will have the best availability using partner miles.

Best Mileage Program for Flying Air Canada

For the much-anticipated tactic of flying Air Canada with partner miles, the winner is: a tie. Yes, all of them win again. If you want to use partner miles such as All Nippon (Amex partner), LifeMiles (Amex), or United (Chase) they all have similar availability as using Air Canada miles.

Best Mileage Program for Flying All Nippon

Using partner miles for All Nippon’s flights, all partners show less availability than when you use All Nippon miles. So sadly, there’s no winner for using partner miles to fly All Nippon. But you can get access to All Nippon miles via Amex transfer. (For First Class, see below.)

Best Mileage Program for Flying Lufthansa or SWISS

In the category of booking Lufthansa- or SWISS-operated flights to Europe using partner miles, all partners show much less availability than Lufthansa or SWISS. So no winners here either. (For First Class, see below.)

Best Mileage Program for Flying Singapore

For booking Singapore flights to Asia and Europe using partner miles, all partners show a lot less availability than Singapore. So no best in show for partner space. (More about First Class below.) But you can get access to Singapore miles via Amex or Chase points transfers so it doesn’t matter much. (Transfer time can be up to two days for Amex and between one and seven days for Chase.)

Best Mileage Program for Flying United

And so, in the category of best program for flying United to Asia, Europe, and South America using partner miles, the winner is… (drumroll of wagging tails): all of them. Our research shows that if you want to use partner miles, such as Air Canada, All Nippon, or LifeMiles, they have very similar availability as using United miles. That’s great because United is not an Amex transfer partner, but Air Canada, All Nippon, and LifeMiles are. It means you can get flights on United with Amex points even if you don’t have any Chase points or United miles. Most people don’t realize this.

Best in Show for Lowest Mileage Award Rates in Business Class

FCF members ask this a lot: Who has the lowest mileage rates?

And the winner for round-trip awards is All Nippon with prices starting at 88,000 miles to Europe and South America in Business Class. For First Class on its own flights, it costs 150,000 miles to Asia and 75,000 in Business Class, and 120,000 miles to the South Pacific on partner flights with Air Canada in Business Class. The good news here is that All Nippon is an Amex points partner. Good dog!

The winner for one-way awards is Air Canada (just a bit lower than LifeMiles) with prices to Europe starting at 55,000 miles, South America also at 55,000 miles, and Asia at 75,000 miles.

The worst in show for mileage award rates (and sorry, but this does need pointing out) is United. The reason is its “dynamic” award pricing for its own and partner flights. You may find a great price one day and four times the price on the next, given that United can charge what it wants with no maximum set. Bad dog.

Best in Show for Credit Card Transfer Time

The transfer time from credit card points to miles is important for redeeming them because many mileage programs do not hold free award space long enough to give you time to post your points. So if a transfer is not immediate, it could mean you miss out on the award space you you are looking at.

For the category of Best Instant Transfer of Points from Amex Rewards, the winner is a tie between Air Canada and LifeMiles (Avianca). Good doggies!

In the doghouse: All Nippon can take two to three days to transfer.

For Chase Ultimate Rewards, one program transfers points instantly and that is United Airlines.

Best in Show for Low Award Taxes

Don’t you hate it when you go to use your hard-earned miles or points for a trip using a “free” award, and–ouch!–you get bitten by award taxes, also known as “fuel surcharges.”

And it may not be a small nip either. For example, you might have to pay as much as $1,400 or more in taxes for a Business Class flight to Europe. That’s nasty. However, some airlines don’t hit you with high taxes.

For the category of low mileage award taxes for their own and partner flights, the winners are: United and LifeMiles.

Air Canada didn’t snag a win as some partner award taxes can be high and its own flights to Australia and South America can be a bit high at $600 to $800.

All Nippon didn’t get a win either because their partner award taxes can be high. For its own flights to Asia taxes are low, for example to Tokyo from San Francisco in Business or First Class is only $58.

Best in Show for Availability: First Class

Asia: When it comes to flying First Class to Asia on Star Alliance airlines, you’re looking at All Nippon or Singapore. However, the winner is All Nippon because it often has up to two-seat award availability from six U.S. gateways to Tokyo: Los Angeles/San Francisco, Washington, DC/New York, and Chicago/Houston at a cost of only 150,000 miles round-trip. Our research also shows that booking the space with partner miles such as United can be done, but there’s less availability than with All Nippon.

With Singapore Airlines there are fewer routes with availability, plus the mileage cost is more (West Coast to Tokyo is 214,000 miles), and you can forget about using partner miles to get that seat.

Europe: For First Class to Europe on Lufthansa or SWISS. Both can no longer be booked by transfer points to miles, as the Miles&More mileage program is no longer a point transfer partner. For Singapore, on the New York-Frankfurt route we also show very limited availability in First Class. For all airlines to Europe, you can forget about using partner miles to get that seat, unless you get lucky with a last-minute booking.

So, we sadly say: no winners for Europe.

South America and South Pacific: There are certainly no winners here as no First Class product is offered non-stop.

Best in Show Woof Award
FCF’s Favorite Mileage Award Redemption

We call this the “The Ultimate Award Ticket.” It’s a life-changing round-the-world trip in Business Class starting at a spectacularly low 105,000 miles on All Nippon. And just 160,000 miles for First Class.

Let’s think about that value for a second. Delta charges 160,000 miles (52% more) for a simple Business Class round-trip ticket between the U.S. and Europe, and 170,000 miles (62% more) from the U.S. to Asia. All Nippon deserves a bone.

And if you don’t have any miles or points, but do have an Amex card, you can book the round-the-world ticket for just $2,625 (normal retail price is $9,000+).

The Best Program Overall? It’s a Dog’s Breakfast

If transfer time is an issue for you and you have Amex points, then you should focus more on using Air Canada and LifeMiles.

Do you want a confirmed First Class seat in advance to Asia? Then you should use All Nippon.

Is getting the lowest round-trip mileage rate to Europe your bag? Then you should use All Nippon.

As you can see, no one program is the perfect mileage program. You have to match it to your particular needs to find the just right “breed” for you.