Why ANA is a great AmEx transfer partner

ANA has a beneficiant associate award chart with candy spots that you should utilize to fly a few of its Star Alliance associate airways. We’re speaking round-trip enterprise class award tickets (with a free stopover in case you’re feeling adventurous) between the U.S. and Europe for under 88,000 miles.
Regardless of these benefits, ANA doesn’t get sufficient consideration. Right here’s why it is best to contemplate transferring your AmEx Membership Rewards to ANA the following time you e book a flight.
Causes to switch to ANA
ANA has insanely worthwhile miles
After a deep dive valuations evaluation, BaghdadTime decided that the everyday worth of ANA miles for economic system awards is 2 cents every, however jumps to as excessive as 7.4 cents per mile when redeemed for enterprise class. Each of those valuations have been the very best in contrast with the opposite airways in our evaluation.
This mile worth performs out in among the candy spots we discovered, the place it could price 1000’s of extra miles in case you booked the identical flight with one other airline loyalty program.
Additionally, in case you have been to make use of your AmEx Membership Rewards to e book journey by the AmEx portal, you’ll get solely about 0.7 cent to 1 cent of worth. Which means you can get, on common, 7x extra worth in case you switch these factors to ANA after which use them to e book enterprise class award tickets.
ANA has beneficiant round-trip, stopover and open jaw guidelines
You would possibly have the ability to add further locations to your journey by leveraging ANA’s open jaw and stopover guidelines. These guidelines will let you add an additional flight between two cities or just depart from a special metropolis than the one you flew to initially.
One of the best half is that it gained’t price you any extra miles than a mere round-trip ticket — as long as you stay within the ANA’s designated zone. This is the way it works.
The ANA Star Alliance and associate award zones
Beneath are ANA’s designated zones, which it’s essential seek advice from when wanting up award costs for one of many Star Alliance member airways or ANA’s different associate airways. The variety of miles required is determined by which zone you’re flying from and flying to.

Reserving a round-trip ANA associate award
Let’s contemplate the instance of a round-trip flight from New York (Zone 6) to Amsterdam (Zone 7) in enterprise class for 88,000 miles.

You would flip this identical itinerary into an open jaw flight or add a stopover, and the variety of miles wanted would stay the identical. Right here’s how.
Reserving an open jaw associate award through ANA
Keep in mind: The one caveat to e book an open jaw associate award is that the departure airport of the return flight should be inside the identical zone that you just arrived in.

You should use those self same 88,000 miles to fly from New York (Zone 6) to Amsterdam (Zone 7) after which return again from Lisbon (Zone 7) to Washington, D.C. (Zone 6).

Since there are many low price carriers in Europe you’ll be able to fly to get from Amsterdam to Lisbon, this beneficiant routing rule means that you can go to two nice cities.
Reserving an open jaw plus stopover ANA associate award
To maximise this 88,000 miles enterprise class award even additional, you’ll be able to add in a stopover to make it much more thrilling. A stopover on ANA means you’ll be able to spend greater than 24 hours in a connecting metropolis. So, how are you going to use this card to your benefit?
Fly from New York Metropolis (Zone 6) to Amsterdam (Zone 7) and have a stopover for per week. You then can get a free flight from Amsterdam to Zurich as a result of they’re each inside the identical zone. In your return, you’ll be able to fly from Rome (Zone 7) again to New York Metropolis (Zone 6) or another vacation spot inside Zone 6, together with Mexico or Canada.

You’d successfully have the chance to go to the Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy (and probably finish your journey in one other metropolis apart from New York Metropolis, maybe even in Mexico or Canada) for 88,000 miles in enterprise class — the identical value as a round-trip award.

Although the mileage requirement stays unchanged at 88,000 miles, the taxes of $224 are fairly excessive, as ANA expenses shoppers the taxes which can be charged by different airways. To keep away from taxes, goal to fly United each time attainable as this airline usually does not go on important taxes to flyers.
Nerdy tip: When you make your reserving, altering airports (however not journey dates) will incur a payment. When you’re reserving an advanced itinerary, contemplate the price profit evaluation of paying for a change. You may change the dates without spending a dime, providing some flexibility.
Favorable award charges in contrast with different airways
Now, let’s evaluate the prior award of 88,000 miles + $224 in taxes to United, which additionally affords a free stopover (often called the Excursionist Perk). When you have been to e book this award ticket with United, it could price you 120,000 miles + $130 in taxes.

Although the flight from Amsterdam to Zurich can be free, United expenses not less than 60,000 miles every manner from the continental U.S. to Europe. By utilizing ANA for this award, you’d save 32,000 miles.
As you’ll be able to see from these examples, ANA has beneficiant routing guidelines and favorable award costs, so do not ignore this airline. You may apply these identical stopover guidelines if you’re reserving award tickets to fly on ANA to Japan.
Drawbacks of transferring to ANA
Nobody-way award flights
ANA does not enable reserving a method awards, which may flip many individuals off, particularly since many different airways (e.g., United, American Airways, Delta) provide this versatile choice. Nevertheless, ANA’s aforementioned 88,000 round-trip enterprise class award ticket is without doubt one of the most cost-effective redemptions obtainable for this route, so for that reason alone, the airline deserves a point out.
Unpredictable switch occasions from AmEx to ANA
American Specific Membership Rewards is the one transferrable level program that gives transfers to ANA. AmEx doesn’t disclose switch occasions to its airways, so the vast majority of the knowledge is crowdsourced or from private expertise.
With that stated, level transfers from American Specific to most of its associate airways are normally instantaneous. Nevertheless, transfers to ANA can take anyplace from two to 4 days. Once I transferred factors from American Specific to ANA it took about two days.
Ready days on your AmEx factors to switch exposes you to the chance that the award you need to e book will likely be gone. That is fairly aggravating, particularly since one-way awards cannot be booked, so if you’re doing a switch, the variety of miles is normally substantial.
One of the best factor to do in these situations is to be versatile together with your journey dates in case your most well-liked award ticket is gone earlier than the ANA factors switch in to your account.
Nerdy tip: One approach to mitigate availability threat is to test enterprise class award house throughout the week you need to fly on United, which may present some oblique steerage on award chance forward of your factors switch. Or, merely e book journey manner prematurely, when availability is extra more likely to provide the means to be versatile.
Gasoline surcharges on award tickets on some associate airways
While you e book a associate award together with your ANA miles, ANA will go on any gasoline expenses which can be charged by the associate airline. United and TAP Portugal don’t assess gasoline surcharges, so if you use ANA miles to e book awards on these airways, your money outlay will likely be extra cheap than flying on different carriers.
Lufthansa, Swiss Airways, Austrian Airways and Brussels Airways go on gasoline surcharges, which could be a huge deterrent in utilizing your miles. Do your finest to make use of ANA miles with airline companions that don’t have any or low surcharges.
When you’re contemplating transferring AmEx factors to ANA …
ANA affords beneficiant routing guidelines, offering ample alternatives for round-trip, open jaw, and open jaw plus stopover award tickets. As well as, the airline affords varied candy spots if you use its miles on associate awards.
Word that some carriers go on gasoline surcharges and that the switch time from AmEx to ANA will not be instantaneous. When you’re versatile and may use carriers that don’t go on surcharges, you’ll be able to extract above common worth from ANA miles.
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