Redeeming Miles and Points

This is a very brief overview of how we redeem miles and points for max value. For more details, please read our Comprehensive Guide to Award Travel For Beginners.

When redeeming miles and points, it is very important to have a basic understanding about different programs and partnerships. It is important to familiarize yourself with airline alliances and partnerships.  For quick reference, here is a list:

Transfer Partners and Alliances 

Even if you only have one airline’s miles, you’re not necessarily limited to redeeming on just that airline

In general, you cannot transfer one airline’s miles to another airline. But you can use the airline program with which you have miles to book partner flights. For example, if you have American Airlines AAdvantagemiles, you cannot transfer them to another airline, but you can use those miles to book flights operated by British Airways, Iberia, LATAM, and any other OneWorld Alliance partner.

With that said, it is still a good idea for beginners to collect miles that are transferrable to multiple airlines and hotels.

Our two favorite programs that earn points that are transferable to both airlines and hotels:

See also: 25 reasons to open a Chase Sapphire Preferred card

I prefer points that can be transferred to multiple airlines because you will have even more options!  For example, Chase Ultimate Rewards has 10 airline partners. There is at least one partner in each of the 3 major airline alliances in the world. This means that you can use Chase Ultimate Rewards points to book flights on over 50 airlines!

You may be able to share miles and points without paying fees if you have points in the programs mentioned above.

It is also important to learn how to calculate the value of a point or mile when redeeming.

Here are some other posts that may help:

Hawaii:

Napa:

Europe:

Mexico:

Whistler:

Costa Rica:

Japan:

Want to save money on travel?

Subscribe now to receive the latest tips and tricks straight to your inbox (for free!)

Success

Scroll to Top
%d bloggers like this: