Best Frequent Flyer Award Redemptions for Domestic Flights (2019)

  Award Ticket Strategies

Usually, when there is regular ("saver") award space available on a flight, you can book your ticket using many different types of frequent flyer points. For example, if you want to book a frequent flyer ticket on American airlines, you use any of two dozen different Oneworld frequent flyer programs.

Each frequent flyer program has a it's own award chart, and may require a different number of miles to book the exact same trip. They also have different rules about stopovers, fees, and fuel surcharges. That means that, for any given trip, some programs are less expensive than others.

If you have Ultimate Rewards, ThankYou Points, Membership Rewards, Marriott Points, or Diners Club points you can transfer them to many different frequent flyer programs. As a result, you can take advantage of each program's sweet spots, and book your trip for less than the normal number of points. 2. Choose the Least Expensive Frequent Flyer Program for Your Ticket

Periodically, Membership Rewards, ThankYou Rewards, Venture Points and Marriott Rewards offer transfer bonuses that give you extra miles when you transfer your points to a specific frequent flyer program. This temporarily reduces the number of points you need to make a redemption, potentially changing which program is your best option for booking an award. See Take Advantage of Transfer Bonuses to Get More Value from Your Reward Points for more information or visit Frequent Miler’s Current Transfer Bonuses page for a list of current promotions. TravelStrategies:*Best Domestic Frequent Flyer Award Options/Box

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• Typical domestic award costs
• Flying United for half the miles with Turkish Miles & Smiles
• Saving miles with Virgin Atlantic / Delta
• Traveling in business class for fewer miles
• Domestic short distance awards
• Additional options for short-distance flights on American and Alaska

Typical domestic award costs

Normally, award tickets for domestic flights require 12,500 miles each way in coach. Sitting upfront on a typical domestic flight is considered business class, and usually requires 25,000 miles each way. If the plane has separate business and first class cabins, true first class tickets typically require 35,000 miles each way. There is a remarkable level of consistency in the required number of miles between dozens of different frequent flyer programs.

However, even for domestic travel, there are programs that have sweet spots, and require fewer than the normal number of miles.

Avoiding Close-in Booking Fees

Almost every frequent flyer program requires the same number of miles for domestic flights. But, some programs charge a fee for award reservations made within a few weeks of departure, and others do not.

The best opportunities for using frequent flyer miles on domestic flights are frequently when you need to fly at the last minute. If your departure date is less than a few weeks away, try to use a frequent flyer program that doesn't have a "close-in" booking fee.

Singapore Airlines

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can be a good option for United; Air France / KLM (Flying Blue)

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can be a good option for Delta; and American Airlines'

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own program as well as British Airways

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or Cathay Pacific

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can be a good option for American. Alaska doesn't charge close-in fees for its own flights. Delta and United don't charge close-in booking fees, but they also doesn't have a fixed award chart, and often increases the mileage requirement as it gets close to the departure date.

Flying United for less miles with Turkish Miles & Smiles

With Turkish Airline’s frequent flyer program, award tickets for direct North American flights (on United Airlines or Air Canada) only cost 10,000 miles each way in coach, and 15,000 miles in business.

That is fewer miles than would be needed with any other frequent flyer program.

It is however, a bit of an obstacle to book your tickets. After you you've booked the reservation through their call center (800-847-8875), you'll need to send over an email with various forms and copies of your IDs, credit card, and Miles & Smiles cards to finalize the transaction. Until fairly recently, you actually had to go into one of their physical ticketing offices, so this is a major improvement.

If you need Turkish Airline miles, you can transfer Citibank ThankYou points or Marriott points. You may also choose to use Turkish Airlines to earn miles for all your Star Alliance / United flights.

Saving miles with Virgin Atlantic / Delta

Delta really varies the number of miles needed for an award. Sometimes their award prices are much lower than the normal 12,500 miles. Other times, their prices are higher, but they are still available to partner airlines. If you see Delta award prices that are higher than normal, but not sky high, it is worth checking Virgin Atlantic. You may be able to book the same flights for the normal amount of miles.

Traveling in business class for fewer miles

Other than Turkish Airlines, a few other frequent flyer programs require less than the normal number of miles (50,000 miles round trip), for business class awards.

Program	Transfer From	Round trip	Fly On
Avianca	MR UR TY C1 Mar	30+	United
30,000 mile rate is only available for flights that stick within a single zone (Eastern US, Central US, Western US), or that travel between the Eastern and Central US. Other flights require 50,000 miles.
Lufthansa	MR UR TY C1 Mar	35	United
If you have Marriott points, this is a well-priced option for domestic business class on United, but Turkish Airways are cheaper.
Singapore	MR UR TY C1 Mar	40	United
If you can't get Turkish points or take advantage of a lower-priced Avianca award, this is usually the next best option for United.
Korean	MR UR TY C1 Mar	45	Delta Alaska
The best option for domestic business class on Delta and Alaska. Only available as a round trip, but you can make a free stopover. In addition, if you are flying shorter distances on American Airlines, you can frequently use fewer miles with distance-based programs, such as JAL, Cathay Pacific, and British Airways. Fly Short Distances Using Fewer Miles by Taking Advantage of Distance-Based Frequent Flyer Programs. Domestic short distance awards Most of the major US frequent flyer programs now require fewer miles for shorter flights. These special "short-distance" awards only apply to domestic, economy-class flights taken on their own airplanes. Alaska 5,000 points for flights of less than 700 miles, 7,500 points for flights between 701 and 1,400 miles, and 10,000 points for flights between 1,401 and 2,100 miles. Amazingly, you can still add a free stopover to these flights. For example, you could fly from Salt Lake City to LAX, and then fly a few days later from LAX to San Diego, for a total of only 5,000 points. American 7,500 points for flights of less than 500 miles. Delta As little as 5,000 points for short flights, but there is no fixed set of reward costs and distances. United 10,000 points for flights of less than 700 miles. Avianca 7,500 points for (United) flights within a single part of the country. Asiana divides the US into three regions, roughly East, West, and Central regions. Flights that stay within these regions only require 7,500 points each way in coach, and 15,000 points each way in Business. Flights between the East Region and the Central Region are 10,000 points each way, still cheaper than a typical domestic award ticket. You can typically purchase Avianca miles for as little as 1.4 cents each, so purchasing enough points for a qualifying flight would cost $210. Singapore Singapore Airlines offers 7,500 mile awards for Alaska economy tickets within Zone 1 (California, Oregon, and Washington), within Zone 2 (other Western states and Canada), or between these zones. These awards are often cheaper than Alaska and you can easily get Singapore miles from most transferable reward points. Singapore's rates are slightly lower than Alaska's for economy tickets on almost all flights. For Alaska first, Singapore airlines only requires 35,000 miles round trip for flights within Zone 1 or within Zone 2. Additional options for short-distance flights on American and Alaska If you are flying on American or Alaska Airlines, you have several additional options for lower priced short-distance awards. You can take advantage of one of the distance-based frequent flyer programs., that calculates your award cost by distance, rather than charging the same price for all flights in a region. You can use any of the Oneworld distance-based programs to book awards on American, and the better of these programs (British Airways, Cathay Pacific, LATAM, Qantas, and JAL) to book awards on Alaska. Fly Short Distances Using Fewer Miles by Taking Advantage of Distance-Based Frequent Flyer Programs Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz. For example, you can use fly up to 1,150 miles for 9,000 British Airways points in economy, and 17,000 points in business, and up to 2,000 miles for 11,000 / 22,000 points. But, you’ll pay more if you need to make a connection. For round-trip flights of less than 500 miles each way, you can fly even cheaper with Iberia. Flights of up to 300 miles cost 5,500 Iberia points in economy, and 11,000 points in business; and flights of 300-500 miles cost 6,000 / 12,000 points. In addition, Iberia is usually a better option than British Airways, if you need to make a connection. If you have Marriott points, you have some additional options. You can book very inexpensive multi-city trips with JAL miles.  Or you can use LATAM to frequently travel for fewer miles than either British Airways or Iberia. Award Tickets 101: The Basics 2. Choose the Least Expensive Frequent Flyer Program for Your Ticket Stretch Your Frequent Flyer Miles by Taking Advantage of Great Award Redemption Options TravelStrategies:*Best Domestic Frequent Flyer Award Options/Page