Airlines in star alliance program

One wild card is that United has something called the Excursionist Perk , which allows you to add a one-way flight to a round-trip award ticket without any additional miles. Pros: Powerful online award search engine; good transfer options from Chase; no carrier surcharges. Cons: Constant award chart devaluations mean partner pricing can be prohibitively high.

Air Canada just re-acquired and totally revamped its Aeroplan mileage program. While many tickets now price out higher than before , there are still some great sweet spots.

The program has several other partners whose points you can convert into Aeroplan miles, often with big bonuses. Booking awards: As part of the recent changes, Aeroplan completely overhauled its award charts , so there are now 10, yes 10, of them, including those for Air Canada flights as well as partners. The program divvies the world into four regions and then also determines pricing based on flight distance. Sound complicated? It is. While many premium-cabin flights on partners like SWISS and ANA are now pricing out higher because of the new distance-based formula, some routes are actually cheaper.

One advantage is that you can now add a single stopover to a one-way ticket and two stopovers to a round-trip ticket, with each costing just 5, points. So you can really string out an award and see several destinations on a single redemption. Pros: Good award search engine and availability display; a wide variety of transfer partners including Amex and Capital One. Cons: Hard-to-predict mileage pricing; and higher redemption costs with some premium and long-haul flights than before.

Related: Pros and cons of the new Air Canada Aeroplan loyalty program. On the positive side, the airline discontinued fuel surcharges on its own flights, and the Singapore Airlines site is a bit easier to search for Star Alliance awards these days. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. Finally, the airline rarely makes business-class awards on its own flights available to partner programs, and never for its incredible first-class suites.

Cons: Recent devaluations; time-consuming to search availability over long periods of time. Related: Ultimate guide to Singapore KrisFlyer. A favorite with points and miles fans thanks to both some great redemption values and its transfer partners, ANA Mileage Club continues to be one of the best frequent-flyer programs around.

Just beware that both Amex and Marriott transfers can take several days to go through. Booking awards: First, the positive. We are working together with our member airlines to make earning and spending miles or points more exciting. Whether using them for a seat upgrade, or having your miles or points updated the moment you step off the plane, you will feel the benefit. Select a frequent flyer programme. We use cookies to optimize your experience on our website.

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By codesharing on flights, passengers can accumulate frequent flyer miles even though they are flying on a different airline to the one they are affiliated with. By joining an alliance, airlines can offer passengers flights to destinations that they do not fly to and at the same time make revenue.

For the customer, it also allows them to book a single ticket on multiple flights and have their luggage transferred to their final destination. The Star Alliance was created in and is now the largest airline alliance globally, with 26 member airlines operating around 5, aircraft. Star Alliance members fly to 1, airports in countries, allowing customers to fly nearly anywhere on earth. It charges 20, miles each way in first class on transcontinental flights, where Avianca and the other two programs as well would charge 25, miles.

That being said, on shorter flights Avianca still has an edge. While there are definitely options for saving money on a trip to Paris CDG , free flights are the easiest way to pad your budget and leave more room for food and wine. While KrisFlyer is the cheapest option in economy from a pure mileage perspective, both KrisFlyer and Aeroplan pass on carrier surcharges for most Star Alliance airlines.

Business class is a similar story, even though the mileage costs vary a bit more. But how good of a deal? TPG values Membership Rewards points at 1.

Avianca also deserves a mention here. United began retiring their outdated Global First cabin when they introduced Polaris, leaving Lufthansa as the only Star Alliance carrier operating a first class cabin to Europe. Lufthansa is also one of the most egregious airline when it comes to passing on fuel surcharges, which generally rules out Aeroplan and Singapore KrisFlyer as viable booking options.

While United charges a similarly low amount of taxes, booking your award through MileagePlus will cost you an extra 23, miles , vs. United, Aeroplan and Avianca awards to Bangkok cost the same no matter where in the US you originate. Either way, Avianca takes the lead again as just about the cheapest option for economy flights, and any carrier surcharges you pay will be the same or less than on Aeroplan or KrisFlyer.

Economy Winner: Singapore or Avianca are the cheapest in terms of miles, just be careful to avoid taxes. Premium cabin travelers have an easy choice here, as Avianca is almost 10, miles cheaper than all of its competitors in both business and first class except for Aeroplan for business class awards.

In the most extreme case — transferring , Ultimate Rewards to United vs. And with no fuel surcharges to worry about, Avianca is the clear winner again.