When you get deeper into credit cards, a lot of people get stuck at airline miles. Even though they may already have 100,000 or 200,000 Chase UR or AMEX MR, the moment they’re ready to book a flight, a whole new set of names suddenly shows up: United, AA, Aeroplan, ANA, Flying Blue, Avios, LifeMiles, Asia Miles... and then you also run into Star Alliance, oneworld, SkyTeam, partner awards, award inventory, and a bunch of other concepts all at once.

The good news is that airline miles are not nearly as complicated as they first look, and beginners definitely do not need to learn a dozen programs all at once. If you still haven’t sorted out the difference between bank points, airline miles, and hotel points, start with our Credit Card Points, Airline Miles, and Hotel Points 101. If you already know what UR and MR are and you’re ready to start figuring out how to redeem them for flights, then keep reading.

When I first got into credit cards, I didn’t start by learning all of this either. At first, I just opened a few credit cards, earned the sign-up bonuses, and redeemed a few flights. Later, as I booked more and more trips for my parents and family, I slowly figured out airline alliances, partner awards, and the different mileage programs. Looking back now, if I had to boil the whole article down to just a few principles, I’d say this: miles from one airline do not necessarily have to be used on that airline; the same flight can sometimes be booked with several different mileage programs; before you have a specific redemption in mind, try not to transfer bank points; once you actually find a seat, then compare your options, transfer points, and book the ticket.

Airline miles are also something you learn in stages. You do not need to master the final step on day one. Here is a rough way to think about where you are now:

Stage What you mainly do
Step 1: Learn the basics of points Understand the difference between bank points like Chase UR and AMEX MR, and airline miles
Step 2: Learn alliances Understand airline alliances and partner awards, and know that United miles are not only for United flights
Step 3: Get familiar with common miles Start by learning two or three mileage programs you’re most likely to use, instead of trying to learn everything at once
Step 4: Start searching for your own awards Learn Flexible Date searches, nearby airports, partner awards, and how to split itineraries
Step 5: Compare redemption options In addition to mileage cost, compare taxes and fees, transfer bonuses, cancellation and change rules, and how convenient the overall itinerary is
Step 6: Mix and match based on your trip Stop obsessing over which miles are “best” and figure out how to book each trip in the most efficient way

In the beginning, getting to Step 2 or Step 3 is already enough. Everything after that comes gradually, after you have actually booked a few award tickets. So let’s walk through the most important ideas in that order.

What exactly are airline miles?

Airline miles are essentially an airline’s own points. You can earn miles by flying, using an airline co-branded credit card, joining promotions, or transferring bank points over, and the main purpose is to book flights. Unlike bank points like Chase UR or AMEX MR, airline miles are more like a closed-purpose currency: once UR has been converted into United miles, you can’t just turn it back into Chase UR; once MR has been transferred to ANA, you also can’t decide that AA has a better seat and then turn ANA miles into AA miles. That’s why I’ve always preferred to keep points in my bank accounts when I don’t have a specific trip in mind. One of the biggest values of bank points is really optionality.

The fun part about airline miles is not just having a big number sitting in your account; it’s turning those numbers into an actual trip. When we first started getting serious about miles years ago, I booked two round-trip business-class tickets between the U.S. and China for my family. At the time, I did have UA, AA, and BA points, and I could also transfer AMEX MR to different programs like ANA and Aeroplan. In the end, based on the points we had, my parents’ schedule, and the award space available at the time, I chose ANA, and we used a total of 190,000 ANA miles + about $400 in taxes and fees to book two round-trip business-class tickets between the U.S. and China.

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That was a redemption from many years ago, and ANA’s rules and pricing have changed since then, so do not treat that number as a current benchmark. What I really want to show here is that if we had tried to buy those two business-class tickets with cash, we probably would not have been willing to do it. But once you have credit card points, you can really make a long-haul trip more comfortable for your parents. That’s one reason I’ve always thought airline miles are worth learning: not because you want to calculate the theoretical value of every point in your account every day, but because trips you might not otherwise want to pay cash for can actually happen with points. You can read the full historical booking process in A Real-World U.S.-China Business-Class Award Redemption: ANA Round-Trip. The redemption numbers in that post are outdated, but the basic idea of finding the space first and transferring points later still applies today.

But there is an even more important concept here than “how many miles do I need?”: having United miles does not mean you can only fly United; having AA miles does not mean you can only fly American Airlines. Once you understand that, you’ve really started to get into airline miles.

What are airline alliances and partner awards?

Airlines around the world do not all operate independently. Many airlines belong to alliances, and many others are not in the same alliance but still have partnerships with one another. The three main alliances are Star Alliance, oneworld, and SkyTeam. Beginners do not need to memorize every member. It’s enough to know which major U.S. airlines belong to which alliance, and which familiar Asian airlines are in each one.

Alliance Common U.S. airlines Members many Chinese readers are familiar with Common miles you can use
Star Alliance United ANA, EVA Air, Singapore Airlines, Air China, and others United, Aeroplan, ANA, LifeMiles, and others
oneworld American Airlines, Alaska, Hawaiian JAL, Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways, and others AA, Atmos Rewards, Avios, Asia Miles, JAL, and others
SkyTeam Delta Korean Air, China Airlines, China Eastern, Virgin Atlantic, and others Flying Blue, Delta, Virgin Atlantic, and others

Where alliances really matter for redemptions is partner awards. For example, if you want to fly ANA from the U.S. to Japan, the most direct option is to use ANA’s own miles. But since ANA is in Star Alliance, the same ANA flight can sometimes also be booked with partner miles like United, Aeroplan, or LifeMiles. If you want to fly JAL, you do not necessarily have to save up JAL miles either; you can also check programs like AA, Atmos Rewards, and Avios. The same award flight booked through different programs can require very different numbers of miles, taxes and fees, and cancellation/change rules, and the award space each partner sees may not be exactly the same.This is something I felt very deeply when I flew my baby back to China myself. At the time, for the same U.S.-to-China trip, I basically went through every option I could think of: AA, BA, Delta, Alaska, Korean Air, United, and Aeroplan. Only after I actually ticketed the trip with a child did I realize that you cannot just compare which program uses the fewest miles. You also need to look at how infant tickets are priced, whether the whole family can be on the same flight, how to connect the mainland China segment, how checked bags are handled, how many stops are involved, and whether the whole itinerary is a hassle. Some options looked cheaper on paper because they used tens of thousands fewer miles, but once the infant ticket was priced in, they were immediately no longer worth it. On that trip, I even ended up using more than one mileage program rather than one single currency from start to finish, with different programs covering different segments. You can see the full process in Award ticket + infant ticket: a practical U.S.-China booking case study.

So I increasingly dislike simple answers to the question, "Which airline miles are the most valuable?" Theoretical value at the top of a chart does not mean it is the best fit for you. The miles that are truly useful are the ones that can get you and your family where you want to go on the dates you need, with routes, taxes, and connections that you can actually accept. Airline elite status is a separate system. It mainly covers travel perks like free bags, priority boarding, and upgrades, so when you are just starting out with credit card points, there is no need to rush into it. It is more important to understand miles, alliances, and partner awards first.

Which airline miles should beginners focus on?

Once you understand partner awards, the next question is usually: which program should I actually learn? My answer is still that you do not need to learn them all. There are dozens of airline mileage programs, and when you are booking your first award ticket, it is enough to get comfortable with two or three. Later, when you are planning a trip to Japan, Europe, China, or somewhere else, you can research new programs based on the specific route. When choosing which miles to learn, do not look only at the redemption price. You also need to consider where you live, where you fly most often, what points you already have, and how flexible your travel dates are.

For example, if you live near a United hub and fly United often, United MileagePlus is naturally worth learning first. If your main goal is international business class, then it makes sense to spend more time on Aeroplan, AA, Flying Blue, Avios, and similar partner programs. Here are the mileage programs I think U.S. credit card users should get to know first:

Mileage program Why it is worth knowing Who it is best for
United MileagePlus The website is relatively easy to search, Star Alliance coverage is broad, and it works for both U.S. domestic and international flights Great first program for beginners
Air Canada Aeroplan Many airline partners, plenty of bank transfer partners, and very useful for international tickets From beginner to advanced
American Airlines AAdvantage In addition to AA flights, you can also redeem for JAL, Qatar, Cathay, and other oneworld partners U.S. domestic, Asia, and Middle East routes
Atmos Rewards Alaska and Hawaiian now use the same Atmos Rewards program, with plenty of possibilities across oneworld and other partners U.S. West Coast, Hawaii, and Asia routes
Air France / KLM Flying Blue Many transfer partners, and you can also redeem a lot of SkyTeam partner award tickets U.S.-Europe and international travel
Avios British Airways, Qatar, Iberia, Finnair, and several other programs all use Avios, and some nonstop and partner awards are very useful Short-haul, nonstop, oneworld
Asia Miles , JAL , ANA , LifeMiles Each has its own strengths, but the rules and best use cases are more complex, so it is fine to study them later once you have a specific route in mind Advanced users or people with a clear booking target

If you're just starting out, I would even suggest getting United, Aeroplan, AA, and one or two of Flying Blue or Avios figured out first. Those few programs alone can already solve a huge number of travel needs. When you are actually ready to book ANA business class, JAL business class, Cathay, or another special route, you can then dig deeper into the corresponding program. Also, Delta SkyMiles , Southwest Rapid Rewards , and JetBlue TrueBlue are certainly not unimportant. If you fly those airlines a lot and mostly travel within the U.S., their own miles may be more useful than some international programs that sound fancier.

So do not start hoarding just because someone online says a certain mileage currency is worth "2 cents." I have also run into a very typical case when booking flights for my family: when my parents' round-trip dates were fixed, ANA's rules worked very well; on another trip, only the outbound date was fixed and we did not yet know when the return would be, so it was better to use a program that allows separate one-way awards. The person was the same, and the route was more or less the same, but the travel need changed, so the best mileage program could be completely different. That is the real value of knowing multiple mileage programs. It is not about memorizing every award chart, but about having more ways to solve the problem when you need one.

How do you earn airline miles?

Airline miles mainly come from a few sources: flying, airline co-branded credit cards, bank point transfers, and occasionally buying miles or taking part in airline promotions. If you only earn them slowly from flying, the pace is still pretty slow for most people who do not fly dozens of times a year. For most readers here, large balances of miles still mainly come from credit card welcome bonuses and bank point transfers.

Airline co-branded credit cards

If you fly one airline regularly, it can make sense to keep a matching co-branded airline credit card long term. One thing people often misunderstand about these cards is that the real reason to keep them is often not the small extra amount of miles you earn from everyday spending, but free checked bags, priority boarding, companion benefits, anniversary points, or companion tickets. This is especially true when a family travels together, because bag fees alone can add up fast. So an airline card whose everyday earning rate is not especially high can still have strong long-term value.

Credit card Who it is for Main long-term value
Chase United Explorer Frequent United flyers Free checked bags, priority boarding, United Club Pass, and more
AMEX Delta Gold Frequent Delta flyers Free checked bags, priority boarding, cardholder benefits on Delta award tickets, and more
Citi AAdvantage Platinum Frequent American Airlines flyers Free checked bags, priority boarding, and more
BofA Atmos Rewards Ascent Frequent Alaska / Hawaiian flyers Free checked bags, priority boarding, Companion Fare, and more
Chase Southwest Plus Frequent Southwest flyers Checked bags, anniversary points, and other Southwest-specific benefits
Barclays JetBlue Plus Frequent JetBlue flyers Free checked bags, anniversary points, mileage rebate on redemptions, and more
Here, don’t think that because you see six cards, you should apply for all six. If you live in a city with lots of United routes and often fly United with your family, a United co-branded card may genuinely be useful. But if you fly United only once a year, there’s no need to pay an annual fee year after year just because the words “airline card” sound appealing. If you want a direct comparison of different airline co-branded cards, keep reading Introduction to and Comparison of Airline Co-Branded Credit Cards.

Turning bank points into airline miles

If you still don’t know where your next trip will be, I’d actually rather start with bank points. Chase UR, AMEX MR, Citi TYP, Capital One Miles, Bilt, Wells Fargo, and others all have their own airline transfer partners. One set of bank points can usually map to several airlines, and you can decide which one to use only when it’s time to ticket, which is much more flexible than converting everything into one specific airline currency in advance. For which points transfer to whom and at what ratio, check our Master List of Credit Card Transfer Partners.

Sometimes a Transfer Bonus can even change which ticketing option is the best value. On this site, we once booked an actual trip from Japan back to the U.S. and found 3 HND-SEA Delta One Suite seats in one search. Ticketing through Flying Blue would have cost 94,500 miles per seat, but because there happened to be a Chase UR transfer promotion, we ended up using only about 75,667 UR per seat. You can read the full ticketing and travel experience here: HND-SEA Delta One Suite business-class lie-flat experience and rebooking story.

What’s worth remembering from this example is not the historical figure of 75,667 UR, but the fact that if the UR had already been transferred to another airline long before, that opportunity might have had nothing to do with us. So when you see Transfer Bonuses of 20% or 30%, don’t automatically move hundreds of thousands of points just because of the bonus. Unless you already have a clear ticketing plan, turning flexible bank points into miles that can only be used within one airline ecosystem just for a bonus is not necessarily a good deal.

How do you use airline miles to book a ticket?

Once you understand all of the concepts above, the actual booking process can be simpler. We already broke down the search process in detail in our Award Ticket Search Guide, so there’s no need to repeat every trick here. Just remember this sequence first:

Once you understand all of the concepts above, the actual booking process can be simpler. We already broke down the search process in detail in our Award Ticket Search Guide, so there’s no need to repeat every trick here. Just remember this sequence first:

  • Define the need: how many people, where to go, roughly what dates, economy or business class, and which conditions can be relaxed.
  • Start with the hardest long-haul segment: for example, U.S.–Japan, U.S.–China, or U.S.–Europe. Don’t get stuck on the small hop closest to home first.
  • Expand the search range: Flexible Date, nearby airports, split segments, and alliance partners.
  • Compare ticketing options: compare the miles required, taxes and fees, transfer bonuses, and change/cancellation rules for different programs.
  • Confirm availability: make sure you can actually book it. Don’t move hundreds of thousands of points just because you saw one search result.
  • Transfer and ticket: only move the bank points at the very end, and issue the ticket as soon as the miles land in the airline account.

What’s easiest to underestimate in practice is the number of travelers. Searching for one business-class seat for one person and trying to find three or four business-class seats for the same flight on the same day is a completely different level of difficulty. We have a classic JAL real-world example on the site: a family of three was planning to fly JAL round-trip between Seattle and Tokyo, and at first we could only find 2 business-class seats + 1 premium economy seat. If we had insisted on waiting until three business-class seats appeared at the same time, we might have ended up with no third seat at all. So we first locked in the seats we could book, and later, as departure approached, JAL released business-class space again, allowing us to move the third traveler up from premium economy. In the end, the whole family flew business class together. Read the full trip report here: JL67/JL68 Seattle-Tokyo round-trip JAL business-class award ticket experience.

So when I’m planning a trip for multiple people, I usually don’t set the conditions too rigidly. If three business-class seats don’t appear together, I’ll consider locking in two first; if nothing is available on the day, I’ll search a few days before and after; if there’s nothing from LAX, I’ll check SFO or SEA; if the full itinerary isn’t available, I’ll split it up and look for the hardest transoceanic segment first. More than ten years ago, when we were searching for award tickets from China to the U.S. for family members, we were already doing this. The only difference is that back then we basically had to search each airline’s website by hand; now there are tools like Seats.aero that help expand the search range, and the efficiency is much higher. For specific methods like Flexible Date, nearby airports, partner awards, multi-passenger bookings, and splitting itineraries, keep reading Award Ticket Search Guide: The Complete Process from Searching to Transfer to Ticketing.

Also, don’t think of airline miles as something you can only use for international business class flights lasting more than a dozen hours. When you need to buy a last-minute U.S. domestic ticket, when a cash fare for a nonstop is extremely expensive, or when your original flight is canceled and you need to reroute immediately, miles can be very useful too. We’ve written about this before in Award Ticket Experiences on U.S. Domestic Flights. Many of the exact redemption prices have changed, but the habit of checking award tickets whenever last-minute cash fares are expensive is still very practical. After you’ve done this for a long time, I think the biggest value of airline miles is not necessarily chasing a theoretical redemption value of 5 or 10 cents per mile, but having a lot of options beyond cash tickets.

If you want to see the flights we’ve actually booked and flown over the years, you can browse 美卡 101 Airline Reviews and Award Ticket Case Studies. Many of the mileage figures in older posts are outdated today, but the reasons for choosing a given program, how to find seats, and how to handle problems are still very useful. If you already have hundreds of thousands or even millions of credit-card points, and you need to book multiple business-class seats, first class, or a more complicated international route, but don’t want to research a dozen programs yourself, you can also look at 美卡 101 × ISAAC Award Ticket Consulting and Ticketing Service and find an executable plan based on your route and the points you already have.

Conclusion: You don’t need to learn airline miles all at once

If I were starting from scratch learning airline miles again, I wouldn’t begin by memorizing the redemption charts for a dozen programs like ANA, Aeroplan, AA, and Flying Blue. I’d first understand why bank points should stay flexible, then figure out airline alliances and partner awards, and finally start using two or three mileage currencies that are most relevant to my own travel patterns. When it’s time to actually travel, I’d then research the specific program based on the destination and available award space. That way you learn faster and don’t get dizzy from a pile of numbers.

Credit-card points are the same. First accumulate flexible points; then, when you actually find a ticket you want to book, decide where to transfer them. Once you have a clear need, then research transfer bonuses, partner awards, and all the special tricks. Compared with hoarding a pile of airline miles that you don’t even know when you’ll use, I think this approach is simpler and better suited to most people who are just getting started with points.

If you still don’t know what to read next, choose based on your situation:

You don’t need to read everything at once. First figure out where you are now, then read one or two of the posts below.