Are there sweet spots in airline award charts worth knowing?
50% FrequentMiler
20% Point Me to the Plane
30% Other
There are several award‑chart “sweet spots” that let you travel for far fewer miles than you’d expect, and they span a range of airlines, alliances, and routes.
Distance‑based Avios sweet spot (British Airways / OneWorld)
- One‑way flights between 2,001 and 3,000 miles cost only 12,500 Avios, making West‑coast U.S. trips to Hawaii a great value (e.g., LAX → Kauai) Point Me to the Plane Point Me to the Plane .
Domestic U.S. flat‑rate sweet spot (Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles)
- For 10 K Avios one‑way in economy (or 15 K in business) you can fly between any two U.S. points, so a Newark → Honolulu segment costs the same as a short‑haul flight Live and Let’s Fly .
Around‑the‑world business‑class sweet spot (ANA)
- ANA’s Star Alliance award chart lets you circle the globe in business class for roughly 115 K – 145 K miles, with stopovers and low fuel surcharges FrequentMiler FrequentMiler .
Emirates partner sweet spots
- JAL business‑class round‑trip from North America to Australia for 145 K miles (with a free stopover) FrequentMiler .
- Korean Air business‑class round‑trip North America → South Korea for 105 K miles, and intra‑Korea business for 12 K miles FrequentMiler .
AAdvantage business and first‑class sweet spots
- Long‑haul business‑class awards on carriers such as Qatar, Etihad, JAL, and Cathay Pacific remain valuable despite recent devaluations Traveling for Miles .
- First‑class sweet spots also exist on premium partners, offering high‑quality cabins for relatively modest mileage costs Traveling for Miles .
General characteristics of sweet spots (definition & criteria)
- A sweet spot is a route where the mileage cost is dramatically lower than the typical requirement for a similar‑distance flight, often crossing an ocean or continent and staying under 50 K miles for a one‑way segment Miles to Memories .
These examples illustrate that by targeting the right distance bands, alliances, and partner airlines, you can secure outsized value on award tickets across economy, business, and first class.
One of the Best Award Chart Sweet Spots, Renewed
With epic weather, amazing scenery, great beaches, and endless outdoor activities, Hawaii has something for everyone. But getting there on points and miles is rarely easy. Even if you can find saver availability to get there on miles, the US-based airlines charge a steep premium, with United and American both charging 45,000 miles round-trip for a saver coach fare from the mainland to Hawaii. This is almost double the 25,000 mile round-trip rate for a normal domestic ticket. This is an ideal time to take advantage of one of the best award chart sweet spots, British Airways’ distance-based award
The 10 Best Airline Award Ticket Sweet Spots [2024]
Earlier I wrote about how some of the most lucrative award travel redemptions are often the most boring. Here, I want to point out my current list of the 10 best airline award ticket sweet spots. There’s a dividing line between aspirational and practical and my list below takes both into account. Generally speaking, I prefer to pay more to redeem via a program that I trust and find easy to work with. For example, I’ll spend 100K Air Canada Aeroplan miles for Lufthansa First Class versus 50K Asiana Club miles because Aeroplan makes it simple and easy to
One of the Best Award Chart Sweet Spots You Should Be Taking Advantage Of
With epic weather, amazing scenery, great beaches, and endless outdoor activities, Hawaii has something for everyone. But getting there on points and miles is rarely easy. Even if you can find saver availability to get there on miles, the US-based airlines charge a steep premium, with United and American both charging 45,000 miles round-trip for a saver coach fare from the mainland to Hawaii. This is almost double the 25,000 mile round-trip rate for a normal domestic ticket. This is an ideal time to take advantage of one of the best award chart sweet spots, British Airways’ distance-based award
Around the world in business class for 115K [Sweet spot spotlight]
Flights crossing either the Atlantic or Pacific ocean usually cost in the neighborhood of 60K miles one-way in business class with most award programs. What if you could cross both oceans — and connect the dots to also fly around the rest of the world for 115K total miles? If that piques your interest, you need to check out the ANA around the world award chart. We had a reader who recently reached out in the midst of his ANA around the world trip and he gave us a few good tips we’ll include in this sweet spot spotlight (see
Chasing great hotels, common transfer partners, and multiple seats up front [Week in Review]
Some are in it for the thrill of the hunt and this week we give you some tools to hunt down great hotel awards between a list of the best Category 4 Hyatts and a Coffee Break dedicated to the best points-bookable hotels in the world. Continue around this week in review to learn about the transfer partners common to all of the major currencies, strategies for finding premium cabin awards for a family, and a lot more. Are you eyeing up that new offer for 5 free night certificates and wondering how to best put them to use?
The Best First Class & Business Class Sweet Spots For Each Program
If you’re looking to fly in style, these are the best first class & business class sweet spots for each award program. We’ll look at each of the major award programs and find their best sweet spot for first and business class bookings. For those wanting to fly in style without spending a ton of miles, this is for you. I’ll admit this word probably gets overused in this hobby. For me, a “sweet spot” is a route in the airline’s award chart where you get outsized value. If an 8-hour flight normally needs X amount of miles, but
Practical Sweet Spot Awards
The show must go on. After almost 3 years of Frequent Miler on the Air without missing an episode, I was determined to make it work this week despite some challenges on my end. Listen to this week’s “Giant Mailbag” stand-in for more on that and accept my apologies for unideal sound quality this week as we discuss our favorite practical sweet spots — those you can actually find available and that we have booked. Elsewhere on the blog this week, we’ve updated some excellent resources including our Marriott Bonvoy Complete Guide and some sweet spot best uses
Searching for business class sweet-spots in Iberia’s OneWorld award chart
Yesterday Nick posted in detail about a sweet-spot on Iberia’s American Airlines award chart: From 11K RT on American: A sweet spot for North American flight redemptions. His post showed that Iberia Avios may be the best currency for flying American Airlines on short round-trip itineraries. That got me thinking about flying domestic 1st class or international business class. Does Iberia have similar sweet-spots for flying American Airlines up-front? Here is Iberia’s American Airlines award chart (their OneWorld chart is very similar if not identical): AA usually charges 50,000 miles for round-trip 2-cabin 1st class (this is
Searching for Emirates sweet spots with partner airline awards [JAL, Copa, and Qantas awards devalued]
Emirates’ loyalty program, Skywards, has quietly become one of the promiscuous around now that they partner with Amex, Chase, Citi, Capital One, Amex, and Marriott (see our Transfer Partner Master List). This makes their miles easy to get since you can transfer to them from almost anywhere. In addition to the many ways one can get miles, there are many ways to spend Emirates Skywards miles. You can, of course, spend miles to fly Emirates and, at times, you can get great value for your miles in that way. Another decent use of Emirates’ miles is to use
American Airlines is now a Citi ThankYou Rewards transfer partner (oh no!)
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