ANA Mileage Program Guide: Refund Fee Can Now Be Paid With ¥3,000

【2026.2 Update】Recently, ANA added another way to pay the ticket cancellation fee. Previously, you had to pay 3,000 ANA miles per person, but now there is also an option to pay 3,000 yen. 3,000 yen is roughly around $20, which is obviously a much better deal than 3,000 ANA miles (worth about $45).

This article is compiled from the ancient veteran one more day's ANA series, with updated mileage changes added. I still really miss the days when we wrote articles and chatted on the forum together~ Another toast to our mutual friend, Brother Jiu

About ANA

All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd. (ANA for short) was founded on December 27, 1952, and is headquartered in Shiodome, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan. As one of Japan's two aviation giants, why should our friends in the U.S. care? Because ANA awards are extremely good value. For flights between China and the U.S., ANA requires fewer miles than any major program. ANA is also one of the best products for round trips between China and the U.S. I remember the first flight I took when I came to the U.S. was ANA, and even the economy-class meals were very good (in my opinion, better than some airlines' first class). ANA miles are also easy for U.S. travelers to earn through AMEX points cards, since you can transfer Membership Rewards points directly!

ANA is a Star Alliance member, and ANA miles can also be used to book partner airline tickets. ANA allows itineraries that mix flights from 2 or more partners, so booking is relatively easy. It's easy to book itineraries from a secondary U.S. city to a second- or third-tier city in China, and award tickets are priced by region, so connections do not add extra mileage! The biggest downside is that ANA can only issue round-trip or open-jaw tickets, which is pretty painful for anyone who needs one-way awards.

ANA also has a group of non-alliance partners, but for awards you can only ticket on a single partner airline from the list below.

How to Earn Miles

For U.S. users, ANA miles can be accumulated quickly through flying and credit card transfers. That said, for flight earnings, we usually still recommend beginners credit everything to UA, because UA has fewer ticketing restrictions and UA miles never expire, so you can slowly accumulate them and always find a way to use them.

Point Transfers

ANA miles are mainly earned through credit card and hotel transfers. Note that ANA transfers are not instant. If you transfer Membership Rewards points, it takes about 1 business day to post (plan for extra time). Transfers from Marriott Bonvoy points are even slower. Also, ANA miles expire after 3 years. This period is fixed and is calculated based on when the miles post, so you cannot extend older miles by continuing to earn more. For example, if you earned 10,000 ANA miles three years ago, those 10,000 miles will expire 3 years later. No matter how many more miles you earn during that time, those older miles will still expire. Of course, when ANA miles are used, the older miles are redeemed first.

Family Account

ANA members outside Japan can join a Family Account. Up to 8 people can join, and family members can combine miles for free. However, joining costs 1,000 miles per person.

Important! If you just want to book an award ticket for a relative, you do not need to add this Family Account. Just put the other person's name on the booking. Back then I thought I had to add a family account, but when I transferred points I didn't transfer an extra 1,000. After I added the account, the award ticket was short 1,000 miles again, and I had to transfer another 1,000 miles. So annoying.

The requirement for joining a family account is a second-degree family relationship. When I added members, they did not ask for proof of relationship or anything like that.

Award Rules

ANA mileage redemptions are relatively complex, so we'll break them down into a few key points. To use ANA miles, you should roughly understand the following:

Award chart: ANA uses region-based mileage pricing. The economy, business, and first class charts are fixed. They depend only on the flight region, not on the current cash fare
Fuel surcharges and taxes: When redeeming ANA miles, ANA-operated flights and some partner flights come with relatively high surcharges, usually above $100, depending on the cabin. You can choose some partner airlines that do not charge fuel surcharges and usually pay less than $50.
Open jaw and stopovers: ANA supports free stopovers and open jaws, which is friendly for people who want to add side trips along the way
Round-the-world tickets: ANA can issue round-the-world awards, and you can use the round-the-world rules to make travel even more cost-effective

Regions and Mileage

ANA defines 10 regions.

The countries and areas in each region are as follows:

The mileage required between each zone can be found on the official site below:

Official guide

What we pay the most attention to are routes departing from North America. The North America to China and the Philippines round trips we care about most are 60k/130k/204k for economy/business/first class. The 60,000-mile economy round trip is not too far off from the lowest 70,000-90,000 round trips on UA, Delta, AA, and AC, but business class is much better value. Even after devaluation, it is still only 130,000 miles round trip. By comparison, UA charges 110,000 miles one-way for business class.

The charts for North America to Europe, Central/South America, and the Middle East are below:

One-way Awards

ANA has already enabled one-way awards. On the award reservation page, just choose one way and you can search and ticket normally. You can also join the waiting list. If one-way awards are available, ANA is much more convenient.You can see that ANA-operated flights require slightly fewer miles than alliance flightsIf you search round trip, it's exactly doubleANA is going to open one-way award redemptions! Starting June 24, 2025! It looks like the miles required for a one-way ticket will be half of round trip.

ANA award chart

Also, the mileage required for some routes has also increased, especially in business and first class. Effective April 18

Fuel Surcharges and Taxes

One of the biggest characteristics of ANA mileage tickets is that they often come with high fuel surcharges and taxes, especially on departures from Japan. The fuel surcharge is also adjusted for different periods throughout the year. When booking with ANA, try to choose airlines that do not charge fuel surcharges, including Air New Zealand, Air Canada, Etihad Airways, LOT Polish Airlines, and UA United.

Official explanation of fuel surcharges

The fuel surcharge is the mileage below + the amount after that. ANA's taxes and fees below are extremely high, over $500.

Stopovers and Open Jaws

When redeeming ANA round-trip tickets, you can add stopovers and open jaws. A stopover means adding a C point in the middle of an A-B route, turning it into A-C-B, and staying in C for a few days. An open jaw means flying from A to B outbound, but returning from C back to A; in that case, the route is open at the destination. ANA's rules for stopovers and open jaws are as follows:

ANA-operated international flights: If departing from Japan, stopovers cannot be added en route, but if departing from another country, you can book award itineraries with stopovers and open jaws.
ANA partner airline award tickets: When booking flights departing from any country, one stopover and one open jaw are allowed.
ANA Round-the-World award tickets: Up to eight stopovers (up to three in Europe + up to four in Japan)

In addition, when booking an open-jaw itinerary returning to a different city from the departure city, the two cities must be in the same country. There are two exceptions to this rule: the United States and Canada are treated as one country, and almost all European countries are also treated as one country.

For example, the ticket below is a typical stopover award.

Round-the-World Ticket

ANA also offers another way to redeem mileage tickets: the Round-the-World ticket. The basic rules are as follows:

The required mileage is calculated based on the total base flight distance of the entire itinerary.
You must cross both the Atlantic and the Pacific once each.
The itinerary must travel either east to west or west to east.
Backtracking is not allowed.
Up to eight stopovers are allowed between the departure point and the final return point (up to three stopovers in Europe, up to four stopovers in Japan).
The departure date of the final international flight returning to the country of origin must be at least 10 days after the departure date of the first international flight.
A ticket may include up to 12 flight segments and 4 ground transfer segments. Transfers between airports in the same city also count as ground transfer segments.
Bookings cannot be made through the ANA website; you must call the reservation center.

The table and required mileage are below.

To plan your own round-the-world trip, you can use GCMap.com. Enter the airport codes in travel order, then calculate the total segment distance according to the redemption chart to determine the total mileage required.

This example is taken from the ANA website, with a total distance of 20,327 miles. You can book this round-the-world award ticket for just 85,000 miles + taxes in economy class, or 125,000 miles in business class. That is really a great value. In the best redemptions section below, we will continue discussing some good Round-the-World ticket ideas.

Other

There are a few more rules worth noting:

ANA-operated flights can be placed on a waiting list. If new seats are released, you can get in line with priority. Seats booked with other mileage programs cannot be waitlisted.
ANA miles can be used to book tickets up to 355 days in advance, so you can lock them in early.
ANA-operated flights are divided into three types: standard, peak, and off-peak rewards, with certain mileage differences.

Best ANA Mileage Redemptions

Here we will briefly cover a few of ANA's better redemptions. However, because ANA releases award seats relatively early, many people may try to grab them as soon as they are released, so be sure to book as early as possible. If that doesn't work, try the waitlist; there is a chance that 1-2 seats will open up shortly before departure.

North America to Asia Zone 1 Business Class

If you want to fly from North America to Asia Zone 1 (Guam, mainland China, Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau in China, and the Philippines), you may want to consider ANA flights. We will use Seattle (SEA) to Hong Kong (HKG) as an example. Depending on whether it is off-peak, regular, or peak season, you can book this ticket for 105,000, 112,000, or 115,000 miles, plus taxes and fees. ANA's taxes are still high: economy class is about $100, and business class is about $500. But even after adding taxes and fees, this 110,000-mile round-trip business class award still beats other mileage programs! The downside is that ANA-operated awards are still fairly hard to book, and you may need the waitlist.

Of course, if you do not insist on ANA-operated flights, booking on UA and similar airlines is much easier. The 130,000-mile business class option is not much more, and the 60,000-mile round-trip economy class option is also very affordable!

Business Class from the U.S. to Japan

ANA is also very good for flights from North America to Japan. In addition, ANA treats all of North America as one country for award purposes, so this pricing also applies to ANA flights to Canada. A business class ticket to Japan costs 105,000 miles plus about $368 in taxes and fees, which is pretty good. Off-peak and peak awards cost 100,000 and 110,000 miles, respectively. Meanwhile, round-trip economy award tickets are only 40,000/50,000/55,000 miles in off-peak, which is still excellent!

Round Trip from the U.S. to Asia Zone 2

If you fly ANA-operated flights, 132,000 miles can get you a round-trip business class award (standard rewards). Asia Zone 2 includes places such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Nepal, Laos, the Maldives, and Vietnam, as well as less well-known destinations such as Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and the Kingdom of Bhutan. Depending on the three seasons, business class costs 125,000, 132,000, and 135,000 miles. For economy class, off-peak costs 55,000 miles, regular season costs 65,000 miles, and peak season costs 70,000 miles.

The cost of partner round-trip economy or business class awards is 80,000 or 136,000 miles, and it stays the same every year.

Star Alliance Business Class from the U.S. to Europe

UA does not impose fuel surcharges on award tickets, so a business-class trip on UA to Europe costs just 100,000 ANA miles plus a minimum of $100 in taxes. Economy costs 55,000 miles. These prices also apply to other Star Alliance partners, though fuel surcharges may vary. Below is a sample round-trip itinerary from Chicago to London. Taxes vary depending on the destination in Europe, and London taxes are on the high side.

ANA also counts Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, the Azores, Madeira, and the Canary Islands as Europe awards. Likewise, most of Russia is also counted as Europe, with no regional split.

Star Alliance business class from the U.S. to Africa and the Middle East

Africa and the Middle East are treated as one region, and they include the entire African continent except Morocco. A round-trip award to this region costs just 70,000 miles in economy and 130,000 miles in business class. If you can fly on an ANA partner that does not impose surcharges (such as UA), this is one of the best ways to use points to fly to Africa and the Middle East. Below is a business-class award example from New York to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, costing 130,000 ANA miles plus just under $134 in taxes.

From the U.S. to Oceania

ANA miles are a great way to fly from the U.S. to Oceania. The program places Australia, New Zealand, and most of the Pacific region (except Hawaii) in the same zone, so you can use the program's stopover and open-jaw rules to build a very nice itinerary, such as a trip from the U.S. to Australia with a stopover in Japan. On partner airlines, round-trip awards from North America to Oceania cost 75,000 miles in economy and 145,000 miles in business class. If you fly ANA, business class costs 130,000, 137,000, and 140,000 miles in the low, regular, and high seasons, respectively. Economy costs 60,000, 70,000, and 75,000 miles, respectively.

This example starts in the U.S., spends some time in Japan, then goes to Australia, and returns to the U.S. In the end, it only costs 75,000 miles and $382 in taxes, which is still a very good deal.

The magic of round-the-world tickets

We mentioned earlier that if you want to ticket on the website, a U.S.-China roundtrip cannot go through Europe. If you want to visit Europe or somewhere else on the way back to China, then you can only use a round-the-world award redemption. For example, you could fly like this:

The total distance is 16,937 miles, which falls in the 14,001-18,000 band, so the mileage required is 65,000 miles in economy and 105,000 miles in business class. In other words, you only need to pay an extra 5,000 miles in economy or 10,000 miles in business class to add several stopovers (in the example above, we stopped in Paris, Munich, Vienna, Istanbul, and Seoul).

If you want to visit even more places, which of these bands offers the best value? For round-the-world travel, let's look at business-class redemptions, since flying around the world in economy is exhausting, and being able to lie flat can save your energy for sightseeing. The way we compare value is by using business-class miles required / maximum flight distance (miles/distance). Here are the results we came up with:

ANA

Flight Distance	Maximum Flight Distance	Business Class Miles Required	M/D
11,001 - 14,000	14,000	90,000	6.43
14,001 - 18,000	18,000	105,000	5.83
18,001 - 20,000	20,000	115,000	5.75
20,001 - 22,000	22,000	125,000	5.68
22,001 - 25,000	25,000	145,000	5.80
25,001 - 29,000	29,000	170,000	5.86
29,001 - 34,000	34,000	200,000	5.88
34,001 - 39,000	39,000	220,000	5.64
39,001 - 44,000	44,000	270,000	6.14
44,001 - 50,000	50,000	300,000	6.00

As you can see, the value sweet spot falls in the 20,001 - 22,000 and 34,001 - 39,000 bands. For example, we can issue this mini round-the-world ticket:

Bangalore (BLR) is only a connection. The places where you can stop over and visit include Vancouver, Tokyo, Taipei, Bangkok, the Maldives, Istanbul, Athens, and Warsaw. The total distance is 21,583 miles, which falls in the 20,001 - 22,000 band, so a business-class itinerary throughout only costs 125,000 ANA miles. For the transoceanic segments, I chose Air Canada (no fuel surcharges) and LOT Polish Airlines (low surcharges), so the total fuel surcharge will not exceed $1,000. This kind of round-the-world ticket has to be issued by phone with ANA; it cannot be booked on the website. The total distance is already very close to the 22,000-mile cap, so it is still a pretty good deal.

We can compare it with Delta miles and Air Canada miles. As MR transfer partners, 125,000 Delta miles or Air Canada miles are both not enough to redeem a business-class ticket for a U.S.-China roundtrip, let alone this mini round-the-world itinerary that crosses three continents.

If you want to add Oceania, Africa, and South America to make it a true round-the-world trip, then try routes with a total distance of 34,001 - 39,000 miles. Keep experimenting, and I'm sure you'll be able to plan an even better trip!

Award ticket search

First, go to ANA, register an account, and after logging in you'll reach the homepage. Click Award booking to enter the booking interface. Or use the link below. Be sure to register an account, otherwise you won't be able to see it.

ANA award search page

As shown here:

After you enter the site, the system defaults to "economy round-trip." You can choose "other class" and fill it in yourself. When I searched before, selecting "round-trip" directly missed a lot of results, so it is better to fill it in manually.

Then enter the information. For example, if you want to fly from Los Angeles to Shanghai first and then return from Beijing to Los Angeles, you can enter that information and click "Search." The outbound flights will then appear for you to choose from: here I chose United's nonstop flight, and then clicked "Next" below, which brings up the available return flights:

I chose Air China's nonstop, and after clicking "Next," you can see the final miles and taxes required:

If you want to book a round-trip, just change the destination for the second segment to LOS.

The result is shown below. You can see that the flight is operated by UA, and the taxes are very low.

To search for stopover or open-jaw itineraries, just enter each segment, and ANA will automatically return the results and the miles required.

Summary

ANA miles are among the best-value options for award tickets between China and the U.S. across all Star Alliance programs, but the rules are also a bit more complicated, so you also need to be careful not to end up with high fuel surcharges. ANA miles can be transferred from MR points at a 1:1 ratio, so there are still plenty of ways to earn them. I recommend that everyone take a look, search for some award space on their own, and book a few tickets—it’s easy to get the hang of it quickly.

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