When Should You Use Miles for Flights?

After earning miles from credit cards and regular flying, most of us probably have a decent balance on hand. Besides redeeming them for international flights between the U.S. and China, miles can also be a very good option for domestic U.S. flights. In general, the following situations are good times to consider redeeming miles for flights within the United States:

  • Last-minute tickets: Cash prices for flights departing within a few days are often very expensive. One major advantage of award tickets is that the award chart is usually relatively fixed, so the mileage cost often does not depend much on how close you are to departure. Good examples include Air Canada and British Airways miles.
  • When you need a nonstop flight: For some routes from smaller cities to major cities, nonstop tickets can be very expensive, while connecting flights are much cheaper. Most award tickets price only based on your origin and destination, so you can often just choose the nonstop award flight directly. For anyone trying to save time or traveling with family, nonstop is usually the best choice. Good examples include American Airlines and United miles.
  • One-way tickets: Cash one-way tickets are often much more than half the price of a round-trip ticket. But for most award bookings, a one-way ticket costs exactly half of a round trip in miles. Good examples include American Airlines and United miles.
  • Stopovers and open jaws: If you need to visit several places on one trip, cash tickets for this kind of itinerary are often very expensive, sometimes close to the total of several separate one-way tickets. But if you build the award ticket correctly, the miles required may be much lower, which greatly increases the value of your redemption. Alaska miles are a good example.
  • Business and First Class: For long domestic U.S. flights, booking Business or First can be a great option, but the cash price may be several times the cost of economy. By contrast, award tickets for premium cabins are often roughly double the mileage required for economy. Good examples include American Airlines and United miles.
  • Cancellation fees: When you buy a cash ticket, cancellation fees are often very high unless you paid for a very expensive refundable fare. Some mileage programs, however, charge very low redeposit fees, making them better for uncertain travel plans. British Airways miles are a good example.

If your trip fits one or more of the situations above, then it makes sense to compare the cash price and the award price to see which is the better deal. Of course, if you have a large mileage balance or your cost of acquiring miles is very low, I’d suggest giving award tickets priority. After all, cash is king!

Booking Steps

If you already have a trip in mind, you can think through it using the following steps:

  • Search flights on Google Flights
  • Identify the operating airline
  • Search for award availability and confirm whether seats exist
  • Choose which mileage program to use for the booking
  • Confirm the ticket, seat selection, and checked baggage

Below, I’ll go through the main operating airlines and talk about the process in more detail.

Domestic Flights on American Airlines (AA)

If you know you want to book an award ticket on a flight operated by AA, you can follow the steps below.

Detailed Steps

Check award availability: For domestic U.S. flights operated by AA, award space can be found on the AA website. So just go to AA.com and search for award tickets. Note that only AA Saver award space can be booked with partner miles. AA standard awards cannot.

Decide which miles to use: In addition to AA miles, you can also use BA (British Airways) and CX (Asia Miles) to book flights operated by AA. Here is a simple way to choose:

  • Use BA miles: Costs 7,500/10,000/12,000 miles one way, depending on distance. Best for nonstop flights; itineraries that may need cancellation or changes (BA cancellations only cost the taxes, $5.6); last-minute bookings (BA has no close-in booking fee); or if you have a large amount of MR or UR points to use.
  • Use AA miles: Costs 12,500 miles one way. Better for itineraries with connections; Standard Awards; or routes and dates that qualify for AA reduced mile awards.

Once you decide, just book directly with the corresponding mileage program. Personally, if you have BA miles, I would generally use BA first, since BA is usually not a great deal for international flights or premium cabins, while AA miles are often more useful there.

Select seats: If you book with AA miles, you can select seats directly if free seats are available. If not, you may need to wait until closer to departure or handle it at the airport counter. If you book through BA, the process is similar: use the confirmation number from the BA booking to look up the reservation on the AA website. It will show the AA confirmation number, and then you can select your seat.

Baggage: If you have an AA co-branded credit card, using that card to pay for the ticket can waive checked baggage fees. If you booked through BA and want the baggage fee waiver from your credit card, you may need to call AA and change the frequent flyer number on the reservation to your AA frequent flyer number.

Example

  • Itinerary: A one-way OKC-LAX ticket on a nonstop flight operated by AA
  • Timing: Travel is needed 10 days later
  • Cabin: Both Business and Economy are available. A cash one-way Economy fare was about $350, while Business was around $800.
  • Use BA miles: Since this is a one-way, relatively last-minute booking and the travel time may change, using miles makes sense. Because it is nonstop and to avoid AA’s close-in booking fee, BA miles are the best choice here. At 10,000 miles in Economy or 20,000 miles in Business, both are much cheaper than paying cash.
  • Baggage: Since this was a paid AA-operated Business Class booking, it comes with two free checked bags.

Domestic Flights on United Airlines (UA)

If you know you want to book an award ticket on a flight operated by UA, you can follow the steps below.

Detailed Steps

Check award availability: For domestic U.S. flights operated by UA, award space can be found on the UA website. So just go to United.com and search for award tickets. Note that only Saver award space that is not in XN fare class can be booked with partner miles; standard award space cannot.

Decide which miles to use: In addition to UA miles, AC (Air Canada) can also be used to book flights operated by UA. Here is a simple way to choose:

  • Use AC miles: Costs 12,500 miles one way. Best for last-minute bookings (AC has no close-in booking fee), or if you have a large amount of MR points to use.
  • Use UA miles: Costs 12,500 miles one way. Better for Standard Awards, XN award space available to cardholders or elite members, or if you have a large amount of UR points to use.

Once you decide, just book with the corresponding mileage program.

Select seats: If you book with UA miles, you can choose seats directly if free seats are available. If not, you may need to wait until closer to departure or until the airport counter. If you book through AC, it works similarly: AC will also provide the UA confirmation number after ticketing, and you can use that confirmation number on the UA website to select seats.

Baggage: If you have a UA co-branded credit card, using that card to purchase the ticket can waive checked baggage fees. If you booked through AC and want to use your credit card benefit for free checked baggage, you may need to call UA and change the frequent flyer number on the reservation to your UA frequent flyer number. I also recommend using your UA credit card to pay the taxes and fees on the award ticket.

Example

  • Itinerary: A one-way LAX-OKC ticket on a nonstop flight operated by UA
  • Timing: Travel is needed within 10 days
  • Cabin: Economy. The cash one-way fare found online was $380.
  • Book with AC miles: To avoid UA’s close booking fee, using AC miles is the better choice. Just transfer MR to AC at 1:1, then issue the ticket right away.
  • Baggage: On the UA website, I changed the frequent flyer number on the ticket to UA, and then the baggage fee was automatically waived (I hold a UA co-branded credit card).

Summary

Compared with more complicated international itineraries, domestic U.S. award tickets usually do not require complex route planning. In most cases, you can simply search and book directly. The examples in this post are just from my own recent bookings, and I’ll keep adding more good examples in the future.

PS: If you think I should add more images to make the post easier to read, feel free to leave a comment and let me know!