AwardOptimizer
Maximize your points & miles
From picking a program to clicking confirm — the complete process explained.
Booking an award flight is not complicated, but it has a specific order of operations that beginners frequently get wrong. The most common mistake is transferring points before confirming award availability. Because points transfers are one-way and instant, moving 70,000 Chase UR points to Aeroplan and then discovering that the business class seat you wanted is not available is a painful and irreversible error.
The process described here is the one that works: confirm availability, then pick the program, then transfer. Following these steps in the right order transforms what seems like a complex, risky process into a routine that becomes second nature after your first booking.
Start with the trip, not the points. Choose your destination and the cabin class you want to fly. This matters because the right program for economy can be completely different from the right program for business class. Alaska Mileage Plan might be ideal for JAL business to Tokyo but irrelevant for a domestic economy redemption. The cabin choice shapes every downstream decision.
Be specific: origin airport, destination airport, and rough travel window. If you have flexibility on dates, note it here, because award availability can vary dramatically between days of the week and seasons. Midweek departures and returns tend to have better business class availability than Friday outbound or Sunday return.
Tip: For long-haul premium cabin travel, a 3 to 4 month window gives you the best shot at finding availability without competing with last-minute cash purchasers who fill the cabin close to departure.
Before searching for award availability, look up the cash price for your route. Use Google Flights or ITA Matrix to see what the ticket would cost if you paid for it outright. This number is your benchmark. It tells you what your points are worth if the award redemption succeeds.
If economy from New York to Paris costs $700 round-trip and a program charges 60,000 miles for that redemption, your CPP is just over 1.1 cents. That is below the 1.5-cent threshold where most transferable currencies start delivering real value. You might be better off paying cash and saving your miles for a business class redemption worth $3,000 or more.
Conversely, if business class from Los Angeles to Tokyo lists at $5,500 and you can book it for 70,000 Alaska miles one-way, that is nearly 8 cents per point. That is an extraordinary use of miles and no cash price comes close to competing.
Not every program prices every route the same way. Award charts vary by alliance coverage, zone definitions, and whether the program uses distance-based or zone-based pricing. The right tool here is a side-by-side comparison of programs that serve your route.
General guidelines: for Star Alliance flights (Lufthansa, United, Singapore, ANA, Turkish), check Aeroplan and Avianca LifeMiles. For Oneworld flights (American, JAL, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qatar), check Alaska Mileage Plan and American AAdvantage. For Delta flights, check Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. For SkyTeam flights (Air France/KLM), check Flying Blue.
Use AwardOptimizer to compare programs side by side for your specific route. The tool shows award rates across 18 programs in one place, so you can see which program offers the best value without visiting each airline's website separately.
This is the step where most beginners get confused. Award space comes in two types: "own metal" space and "partner" space. Own metal means the airline is selling a seat on a flight it operates. Partner space means the airline is allowing partner program members to book a seat on a codeshare or alliance partner flight.
The key rule: search for award availability using the airline whose program you are considering booking through, not the airline you are flying on. If you want to book a Lufthansa flight using Aeroplan miles, search for availability on Aeroplan's website (or call Aeroplan). Lufthansa's own website will only show you Lufthansa Miles and More availability.
Be patient. Premium cabin award space on popular routes is genuinely limited, especially at peak travel times. Check multiple dates and routing options. Connecting through a less-trafficked hub can unlock availability that direct routes do not have.
This is the most important rule in award travel, repeated one final time for emphasis: do not transfer points until you have confirmed that award space exists for your specific flight, date, and cabin. Award space can disappear at any time. It is not held for you just because you found it.
Once you have confirmed availability is showing and you are ready to book immediately, initiate the transfer from your bank program (Chase, Amex, Capital One, Citi, or Bilt) to the destination airline program. Most transfers complete within minutes to a few hours. ANA Mileage Club and a few others can take up to 5 business days, which means you need to either call the airline to hold the space or accept that availability might close before your miles arrive.
Critical: Points transfers to airline programs are irreversible. Once Chase UR points move to Aeroplan, they cannot be returned to Chase. If the flight is no longer available when you try to book, those miles are stuck in Aeroplan. Always book immediately after transfer, and always confirm availability is still showing right before you transfer.
Most award bookings can be completed entirely online. But there are specific situations where calling the airline's phone line produces better results than the website.
Call when: you are booking a partner award that the website is not processing correctly; you have a complex multi-city itinerary that the online tool does not support; you need to combine space on two different carriers in one booking; or the website shows an error when trying to apply miles to a confirmed available seat. Many experienced award travelers call for any premium partner award just to confirm the booking went through correctly.
Book online when: the award is on the airline's own flights, the itinerary is straightforward point-to-point, and the website is working without errors. Online bookings have paper trails and are generally easier to document if something needs to be resolved later.
Phone hold times can be long. Aeroplan, Alaska, and American all have call centers with variable wait times. Calling at off-peak hours (early morning on weekdays) typically reduces hold time. Have your membership number, flight details, and passenger information ready before you call.
After the award is booked, take 15 minutes to handle the details that make or break the actual travel experience.
Fuel surcharges are the hidden tax on award travel that can turn a "free" flight into an expensive one. Some airlines charge surcharges on their own flights and pass those fees to any award program booking that seat. The result is that an "award" can still require $300 to $600 in cash fees, depending on the carrier and route.
The worst offenders are Lufthansa Group carriers (Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian) and British Airways. A business class award on Lufthansa booked through Lufthansa's own program (Miles and More) can carry $700 or more in surcharges round-trip. Even through Aeroplan, Lufthansa awards carry some surcharges, though Aeroplan does not add its own fees on top.
| Program | Passes Through Fuel Surcharges? | Notable Exceptions |
|---|---|---|
| Alaska Mileage Plan | No (on most partners) | No surcharges on JAL, Cathay, Finnair |
| American AAdvantage | Partial | Surcharges on BA awards; not on JAL, Qatar |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | Partial | Lufthansa carries surcharges; partners that don't charge them pass through none |
| United MileagePlus | No (on most partners) | United adds no surcharges beyond carrier-imposed fees |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | No (on Delta) | Delta One bookings have no surcharges |
The practical solution is to route around high-surcharge carriers when possible. Booking JAL business class instead of Lufthansa business class costs similar miles through most programs but avoids hundreds of dollars in surcharges. When Lufthansa is truly the best option for your route, factor the surcharges into your CPP calculation before deciding whether the award beats a cash ticket.
Search 18 award programs at once to find the best miles-per-ticket rate for where you want to fly.
Find Award RatesSponsored
Compare prices across top booking sites