business class Flight award seats are often the sweet spot when it comes to points-and-miles travel, as travelers can exchange awards for the kind of lie-flat seat that typically sells for thousands of dollars. The trick here is that the best deals often don’t mean that an airline is offering some special massive flash deal, but rather that you can get the most out of the limited number of miles that you can choose from. The best miles to use are those that are easily transferable between different program partners, are easily earned from the US-based credit card ecosystem, and offer multiple ways to search and book when award space is scarce.
Another annoyance also exists in the system, because business-class can mean very different things. On many domestic US routes, this is just a large recliner, and on premium intercontinental flights and most international travel, passengers will be provided access to a flat bed. So, the smartest approach travelers can take is to create a miles toolkit that works for both. As a result, travelers can identify programs with strong partner pricing to build positioning. We’ll take a look at some of the different mileage systems (or mileage currencies, as industry analysts often call them) that give travelers in the United States the best chance at booking business class seats for fewer points, with fewer headaches, and with realistic ways to earn miles in the first place. We note that in this analysis, we focus mostly on premium travel and reserved economy class mileage redemption analysis for a separate breakdown.
Transfer pricing and overall flexibility will provide the best value
If you’re booking business class seats from the United States, the best airline miles are often the ones one doesn’t earn by flying. Transferable bank points will allow you to wait until you find award space and then transfer the points to a program that offers that exact seat price as cheaply as possible. According to Thrifty Traveler, this allows travelers to pivot when the program is devalued, especially when a website won’t show partner spaces, or when taxes and fees suddenly make bargaining quite painful.
This flexibility matters because premium inventory is ultimately volatile, as the best seats will appear in waves, and different partners will price the same seat very differently. In practice, travelers will prefer programs that sit at the center of the transfer web, including integrated programs such as Air Canada’s Aeroplan, Air France-KLM’s Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic’s rewards system, and the Avios family, which are used in the United States. International Airlines Group (IAG) carrier. The following table contains more information on the major legacy carriers and their loyalty programs:
carrier | loyalty program |
|---|---|
air Canada | airplane |
Air France-KLM | flying blue |
British Airways | Executive Club (Avios) |
iberia | Iberia Plus (Avios) |
Qatar Airways | Privilege Club (Avios) |
lufthansa group | miles and more |
Virgin Atlantic | flying club |
Transfer bonuses are also a known accelerator, as a 25-30% bonus can turn a 40,500-Avios Iberia business-class award into about 32,000 bank points, and smaller bonuses still swing the math on otherwise borderline deals. A rule of thumb is that transfers are generally one-way, so it’s essential to confirm award location, fees and cancellation rules before transferring points. When done correctly, travelers can use comparison-shopping rewards like actual airfare.
Air Canada’s AeroPlan offers versatile transfer capabilities
Air Canada’s Aeroplan partner earns the carrier its reputation by providing business class options that are searchable and at affordable prices. For US-based travelers, the sweet spot ranges from domestic to really long distance. Aeroplan can price United Polaris flights from coast to coast at around 25,000 points one-way, and business-class awards from the East Coast of the United States to Europe on carriers such as United, Swiss International Air Lines, etc. can start at as low as 60,000 points. lufthansaAnd Austrian. This offers travelers countless choices and impressive versatility when it comes to choosing what type of business class award they want to receive.
The Pacific market is where Aeroplan shows its true colors and what makes it so valuable. Travelers can book ANA business class from Seattle to Tokyo for as little as 55,000 points each way, and tickets to Southeast Asia can cost as little as 87,500 points. The real kicker here ultimately becomes the overall itinerary design. Aeroplan lets travelers add stopovers on international flights for a minimum of 5,000 points. This can effectively allow passengers to fly business class to two different destinations without doubling the mileage.
Aeroplan thus has a reliable program with few partners and fairly modest taxes and additional fees for travelers departing from the United States. As a result, it’s a program that travelers can rely on again and again. While Aeroplan isn’t perfect, it generally offers great value to customers, especially when it comes to premium trips from the United States to both Europe and Asia, especially for one-way awards.
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Flying Blue: A great way to get affordable business class tickets with miles
Air France-KLM’s Flying Blue loyalty program is a practical option for travelers to the United States who want a higher chance of actually getting seats. The program’s pricing is incredibly dynamic, but it regularly brings up attractive transatlantic business-class rates for one-way nonstop flights from Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) or Amsterdam (AMS) with a range of around 50,000 miles, with low-demand fares sometimes being reduced even further.
The trade-off here is cash, Flying Blue adds a few hundred dollars in extra surcharges, especially when flying back to the United States, so that cheap miles can still be an omnipresent deal. Flying Blue shines when it comes to consistency of rewards availability. Websites can be temperamental, but calendar-style searching ultimately makes it easier to search by month. Promo award discounts may also drop dramatically on select routes for a limited time. The program also added stopovers to award tickets, allowing travelers to build multi-day layovers into their travel plans.
The key takeaway here is that if Aeroplan is the Swiss Army knife of the loyalty scenario, then Flying Blue is a reliable hammer that will deliver the same consistent output. It offers constant availability that anyone can book. This is especially true for extreme summer trips.
A look at the Avios landscape
Avios is not just one program, but a diverse family of loyalty programs, including carriers like British Airways, Iberia, Qatar, Aer Lingus, and Finnair. Between these carriers, points can be easily shared. What makes this a powerful move for US-based travelers is that each member has different prices, so the same number of Avios may have different value to the traveler depending on where they want to go.
British Airways offers the most flexibility, as it is easiest to transfer Avios and use these points for simple and straightforward redemption. The most famous US-friendly dessert to Madrid is Iberia Business Class, with an off-peak award price of around 40,500 Avios each way, and a consistent 25%-30% transfer bonus that can reduce the effective cost even further. For the price that many programs extract for the economy, this is a flat-flat transatlantic seat.
Travelers should avoid using British Airways Avios for long-haul flights operated by British Airways; while surcharges may reduce benefit benefits, Iberia is usually a little kinder. Avios also performs well in domestic markets. Because Avios award charts are mostly distance-based, using them to redeem flight awards on short hops on US airline partners can cost significantly fewer points than the larger US-based carriers, providing the perfect location for international gateways without any cash burn.
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Virgin Atlantic and ANA also offer exceptionally valuable redemptions
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is a unique powerhouse in the world of airline loyalty programs. It offers extraordinary discounts on routes that have nothing to do with Virgin flying. The program’s partner pricing is known to unlock lie-flat seating at mileage levels that are extremely attractive. You can book ITA Airways Business Class to Europe from as low as 75,000 points each way, and ANA Business Class from as low as 52,500 points.
These types of deals depend heavily on partner award location, and some bookings require a phone call to actually reserve the seat. ANA’s own Mileage Club is another program that offers exceptional value as it can provide round-trip business-class seats in Japan for up to a total of 100,000 miles, but it comes with strict rules, including no one-way awards, and travelers can generally book for themselves or other family members.
This makes the program less flexible than Virgin Atlantic originally intended, while still attractive to travelers with predictable plans. For those who are US travelers and earn mostly transferable points, the flexibility of the program remains attractive and can still meet the purposes of most travelers.
What’s our bottom line?
We note that the nature of loyalty programs is inconsistent. As a result, priorities will naturally differ passengersThis will naturally help travelers find the program that best suits their needs,
Many long-haul intercontinental carriers have diverse loyalty programs, and you can certainly use their miles to book premium cabin travel. However, you can also use transfer partners, who often unlock better prices.
At the end of the day, finding a good rewards deal is not the easiest task and often requires impressive planning. Without carefully searching for a good deal, it is often extremely complicated to book business class at an exceptional price.
