Saving Points by Booking Domestic Awards With Partners

Just because you’re a family of four or more, doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from points and miles redemptions. With the right strategy, large families can earn hundreds of thousands of points every year to reduce their out-of-pocket cost come vacation time.

However, being a large family tends to mean two things: more domestic travel and more travel during school holidays—a notoriously expensive time to hit the skies.

While budget-friendly airlines such as Southwest and JetBlue can offer affordable fares, their award prices are tied to the cash cost of the ticket, meaning they’ll soar in price during peak travel seasons. That’s where booking award fares through partner airlines can provide you the greatest savings, particularly on flights with American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.

Let’s look at how partner award bookings work and how you can use them to save thousands of points on your next domestic family vacation.

How To Book Award Flights With Partner Miles

With a few exceptions, most airlines partner with other airlines.

The most common partnerships are through the three major airline alliances: Oneworld, Star Alliance and SkyTeam. However, certain airlines also have non-alliance partnerships with other airlines.

Airline partnerships come with a variety of implications and strings attached, but the most significant aspect for us is the ability to book award fares with one airline using the frequent flyer currency of another (partner) airline. For example, as both British Airways and American Airlines belong to Oneworld, you can use AAdvantage miles to book award fares with British Airways and Avios to book award fares with American Airlines.

In practice, you’ll need to differentiate between two different airlines when you’re booking. First, you need to know what airline you plan to fly with. Second, you need to know what airline’s miles you plan to pay with. Sometimes those two are the same, but sometimes they’re different—and that’s where you can find a lot of value.

Check out our article on the basics of booking with partner programs for a full breakdown.

Three Reasons You Should Book Using Partner Miles

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should, but there are a lot of great reasons to book using partner airline miles.

Here are three reasons you should use partner airline miles to book award fares.

Avoid Dynamic Award Rates

One of the trends among United States-based airlines has been a move to dynamic award pricing, meaning airlines can increase or decrease award rates on a whim. Typically, dynamically priced award fares are priced like revenue tickets, soaring with increased demand during peak travel seasons and decreasing in off-peak travel seasons.

This shift to dynamic pricing has made it difficult to figure out what the saver level (lowest rate) is when booking award flights using an airline’s own miles. It also means you can’t get as much value for your miles, as the award fare price fluctuates with the cash price of the fare.

However, many airlines still continue to use award charts—instead of dynamic pricing—for their partner-operated award flights. These award charts are typically distance- or zone-based, meaning the number of miles required for an award fare is based on the distance flown and/or which zones you’re flying between (or within), rather than being based on current cash rates and demand.

Therefore, by booking an award fare with an airline using the distance-based award chart of one of its partners, you can save a significant amount of miles, particularly if you book during peak travel seasons.

Award Chart Sweet Spots Give Great Value

The second way partner award bookings can save you miles stems from the fact that award charts often have their own “sweet spots”—award prices for certain routes that are cheaper than every other airline’s award prices. Each airline’s award program has its own sweet spots, but the airline you want to fly might not have a sweet spot for the route you want to take.

Knowing which partner can book the same flight for fewer miles due to that partner offering a sweet spot can save you a lot of miles.

For example, you can use Turkish Miles&Smiles to book domestic United award flights for 10,000 miles each way—offering significant savings on coast-to-coast flights as well as flights to Hawaii.

By taking advantage of these sweet spots, you can squeeze even more savings out of your points redemptions.

You Can Use Transferable Bank Points

The third way partner airline award bookings provide value is often a function of the miles and points you have in your personal accounts. Say you want to fly on United, a Star Alliance partner. Well, what happens when you don’t have enough Chase Ultimate Rewards points to transfer to United?

If you have Citi ThankYou Points, Bilt Points or Capital One miles, you could transfer those to the aforementioned Turkish Miles&Smiles program to book those same United award flights.

Alternatively, if you only have American Express Membership Rewards points, you could transfer them to Air Canada’s Aeroplan program, Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer program or Avianca’s Lifemiles program to book the same flights.

Knowing how to use partner airlines provides you with maximum flexibility when you’re making an award booking. It also enables you to compare the redemption rates across multiple airline rewards programs, enabling you to find the lowest award fares.

Best Partner Award Bookings for Domestic Travel

Let’s take a look at some of the best ways you can book partner award fares for domestic travel with United, Delta and American Airlines.

Book United Flights Through Air Canada Aeroplan

One of the top ways you can book United flights is through Air Canada Aeroplan.

Both Air Canada and United Airlines are part of the Star Alliance, making it possible to book award fares through one of them using the rewards currency of the other.

Aeroplan uses the following distance-based award chart for its partner-operated flights. As United prices its award fares dynamically, you’ll often get the cheapest fares by booking United award fares through Aeroplan.

For example, an award flight from Chicago-O’Hare (ORD) to Nashville (BNA) booked directly with United could cost you around 15,000 miles + $5.60 in taxes and fees in economy and 30,000 miles plus $5.60 in taxes and fees in first class.

If you booked that same flight through Aeroplan, you’d pay just 6,000 Aeroplan miles for an economy fare and 15,000 miles for a first-class fare. That’s a savings difference of 9,000 miles for economy and 15,000 miles for first class, simply by booking the same United award flight through its partner.

When booking through Aeroplan, there are a multitude of cities you can fly between for 6,000 miles each way with United. For instance, from Newark, you could fly to Toronto, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Bangor, Maine and Raleigh-Durham. From Chicago, you could fly to Nashville, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Knoxville or Memphis. And from Houston, you could fly to Fayetteville, Tulsa, Memphis, New Orleans, Oklahoma City and Lubbock.

You can also leverage Aeroplan’s partner award chart to book cheap flights to Hawaii. Unlike other airline rewards programs, Aeroplan includes Hawaii in its North America region. A flight from the West Coast to Honolulu falls into the 1,501-2,750 mile range, meaning you could fly there for just 12,500 points in economy or 25,000 points in business each way.

If you were to book these award flights to Honolulu directly through United, you’d be hit with significantly higher prices.

You might find an economy Saver Award fare from San Francisco (SFO) for around 18,200 miles one-way, while first-class fares range between 63,600 miles and 118,400 miles. That means you could save close to 50,000 miles on an economy fare and almost 100,000 miles on a business-class fare by booking the same United flights through Aeroplan—unparalleled savings!

You can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points, Chase Ultimate Rewards points, Bilt Points and Capital One miles to Aeroplan at a 1:1 transfer ratio, making it an easy program through which to book domestic award flights.

Book Delta Flights Through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Another solid way to save thousands of miles on domestic flights is to book Delta award fares through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

You can book Delta flights through Virgin Atlantic thanks to their joint membership in the SkyTeam alliance.

Virgin uses the following distance-based award chart for its partner-operated flights, enabling you to avoid the dynamically-priced award fares of Delta:

For example, an award flight from Detroit (DTW) to Baltimore (BWI) operated by and booked directly with Delta could cost between 14,500 and 20,000 miles one-way (plus $6 in taxes and fees).

However, this route is under 500 miles, meaning the same Delta flight booked through Virgin Atlantic would cost you just 7,500 miles. That’s savings of 7,000 to 12,500 miles per way.

Likewise, an award flight from Atlanta (ATL) to Salt Lake City (SLC) booked directly with Delta would cost around 41,000 miles in economy and 82,500 miles in first class.

That same Delta flight booked through Virgin Atlantic would cost just 18,500 miles in economy or 66,500 miles in first. That’s savings of more than 50% on economy tickets simply by booking through Virgin.

You can easily transfer your American Express Membership Rewards points, Bilt points, Capital One miles, Citi ThankYou points and Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Virgin at a ratio of 1:1. This makes booking Delta flights through Virgin a breeze.

Book American Airlines Flights Through Alaska Mileage Plan

Although American Airlines has its own award chart, the values given are starting points only, meaning the actual cost of your award fare could be far higher. For flights within the U.S., American Airlines prices its award fares starting at 7,500 miles for economy tickets and 15,000 miles for business tickets.

That’s where Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan comes in handy.

Due to their membership in the Oneworld alliance, you can book American Airlines award fares through Alaska Mileage Plan. And you certainly should, as you can leverage Alaska’s distance-based partner award chart to score far lower fares with American Airlines.

Here’s an overview of starting rates for Alaska Mileage Plan’s award chart for partner-operated flights:

As an example, an award flight from Philadelphia (PHL) to New York-La Guardia (LGA) would cost you 7,500 miles when booked directly with American Airlines.

That same fare booked through Alaska Mileage Plan would cost you just 4,500 miles. That’s a savings of 3,000 miles.

For American Airlines flights under 700 miles in distance, you’ll often save by booking through Alaska Mileage Plan, as these flights price at 4,500 miles for economy and 9,000 for business compared to a minimum of 7,500 miles and 15,000 miles, respectively, when booking through American Airlines. However, for flights greater than 700 miles, it’s good to compare the prices between booking directly with American Airlines vs. booking via Alaska Mileage Plan.

For instance, an award flight with American Airlines from Miami (MIA) to New York-Kennedy (JFK) prices at 7,500 miles in economy or 15,000 miles in business one-way when booked through Alaska Mileage Plan. The amount you’ll pay for that flight when booking directly with American Airlines varies widely, as can be seen below.

Depending on when you fly, you could pay as little as 5,000 miles and as high as 28,500 miles for an economy fare through American Airlines. That’s why it pays to compare your options.

Unfortunately, only two rewards currencies can transfer to Alaska Mileage Plan: Bilt Rewards points and Marriott Bonvoy points. Otherwise, if you fly often enough with Alaska, it might be worthwhile to open the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® Credit Card.

Final Thoughts

While airlines have tried hard in recent years to remove sweet spots from their award redemptions, there are still a number of ways to get extra value for your points while avoiding the high rates of dynamic pricing.

So the next time you’re flying domestically—whether it’s with the whole family, your significant other or solo—leverage partner award charts to save yourself thousands of miles. That way, you’ll have even more miles left over for your next points-funded vacation.