About Award Ticket Holds

When booking award tickets, timing is critical. Popular routes and premium cabins are often booked out quickly, making it hard for travelers to redeem miles for their preferred flights. That’s when the award-ticket hold feature becomes useful. Many airlines allow you to hold award tickets for 24 hours or longer so you can finalize your trip plans and top up your rewards balance.

For example, AMEX Membership Rewards points can be transferred to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, but transfers can take 1 to 7 days. The flight you finally find may be taken before the points arrive. In that case, Cathay Pacific’s award-ticket hold service is important—you can call, hold that award ticket first, then transfer points, and call again to issue the ticket after the points post.

Unfortunately, not all airlines offer this benefit, and hold durations vary by carrier. This article covers each airline’s policy and how to use it effectively.

Award-Hold Policies by Airline

All three major airline alliances have multiple carriers that allow award holds. Hold times differ by airline, and some carriers only allow holds on their own flights, not partner airline awards. Some holds are free, but you may still need to call to ticket, which can trigger a phone booking fee. Here are the details.

Air France-KLM Flying Blue

  • Hold duration: up to 72 hours.
  • How to hold: Call customer service at 1-800-375-8723.
  • Fee: Free.
  • Partner hold: Yes.
  • Phone booking fee: $25

For details on their mileage program, see

American Airlines AAdvantage

AA is the easiest—you can hold online, and it has now been shortened to 1 day. Because it can be done online, there is no need to call to issue the ticket.

  • Hold duration: 24 hours
  • How to hold: Visit aa.com or call customer support at 1-800-882-8880.
  • Fee: Free.
  • Partner hold: Yes.
  • Phone booking fee: $35

For details on their mileage program, see

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

  • Hold duration: up to 72 hours.
  • How to hold: Call customer service at 1-833-933-2244.
  • Fee: Cathay Pacific flights $0; partner award tickets $39.
  • Partner hold: Yes.

Emirates Skywards

  • Hold duration: up to 24 hours.
  • How to hold: Call Skywards customer support at 1-800-777-3999.
  • Fee: Free.
  • Partner hold: No.

Lufthansa Miles & More

  • Hold duration: up to 5 days.
  • How to hold: Call customer service at 1-800-581-6400.
  • Fee: $20 phone booking fee.
  • Partner hold: Yes, limited to certain partners.

Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines is a bit unique: some agents do not know how to process holds and may tell you that holds are unavailable. So it helps to call a few times. The exact hold length is also determined by the agent.

  • Hold duration: determined by customer service.
  • How to hold: Call customer service at 1-833-727-0118.
  • Fee: $25 or 2,500 miles phone booking fee.
  • Partner hold: No.

For details on their mileage program, see

Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles

  • Hold duration: up to 48 hours.
  • How to hold: Call customer service at 1-800-874-8875.
  • Fee: phone booking fee of 12-500 Turkish lira.
  • Partner hold: Yes.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

  • Hold duration: up to 48 hours.
  • How to hold: Call customer service at 1-800-862-8621.
  • Fee: Free.
  • Partner hold: Yes.

For details on their mileage program, see

Other airlines

  • All Nippon Airways (ANA): can hold for up to two days; must be handled by phone with customer service.
  • EVA Air: can hold for up to one day; can be done by phone with customer service or via the website.
  • Delta: co-branded cardholders can hold this ticket, then have six months to make up the shortfall in miles (Details). In addition, Delta also allows a 4-hour hold by adding the award to the cart and leaving checkout incomplete (Step-by-step).

Practical Uses

Hold first, then transfer

Most people generally hold MRURTYP points that are transferable, so they usually find a ticket on the partner program first, then transfer points and ticket. For some airlines where transfers take time, you can call and hold the ticket first, then transfer points. This prevents the situation where points have transferred but the ticket is gone. Even if transfer is instant, for safety you can still hold first by phone. Sometimes a seat disappears in an instant, and then your points arrive to no use. A hold locks the ticket to you, and then transferring later reduces risk. These hold fees are generally low enough to absorb.

Some airlines also have "ghost awards": they show as available online, but cannot actually be issued. So if you call and can get the ticket on hold, it is usually a genuinely issuable award.

Hold first, then buy miles

If your mileage balance is short, you can hold first, then buy enough points through the airline’s buy-points link and then ticket. Holding first also reduces the risk of buying unnecessary points.

Holding a partner's award

From the airlines above that allow holds, we know not every carrier supports the hold feature. But for shared mileage pools, we can use another carrier in the same alliance to hold a different airline’s award ticket. For example, if you want to book an Alaska Airlines flight with Alaska miles but Alaska’s program does not allow holds, you can hold online using American Airlines AAdvantage miles. Once Alaska is ready on your end, cancel the hold to release the ticket, then quickly book it with Alaska.

Consecutive holds

Some carriers allow only a 1-day hold. If your points cannot arrive all at once, you can, in theory, hold first, wait until the ticket is released, and then hold again. Of course, there is still a chance the ticket gets taken during the gap. You might try manually canceling near the end of the hold and having another agent continue the hold at the same time. For example, cancel manually from one AA account, then continue the hold with another AA account. I have not tried this personally, but it may work.