I received a 10K ANA credit card bonus offer via email today, which is pathetic by U.S. credit card bonus standards. Here are the details, and then we'll move on to other points transfer options to get ANA miles and the types of awards where ANA Mileage Club miles could make sense.
The 10K ANA Card Offer
- Earn 5000 ANA Mileage Plan miles after first purchase
- Earn another 5000 ANA miles if you spend at least $3000 by November 30, 2016
- Allow 6-8 weeks after first purchase to receive 5000 bonus miles
- Annual fee waived the first year; $70 per year thereafter
Better Ways to Earn ANA Miles: Transfer AMEX Membership Rewards or SPG Points
Given that even no annual fee cards such as the Chase Freedom come with a $150 or 15,000 points bonus for $500 spend (if you already have the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Ink Plus, you can transfer those 15,000 points out to Ultimate Rewards partners such as Singapore KrisFlyer, Korean Air SkyPass, United MileagePlus, Air France / KLM Flying Blue, Hyatt Gold Passport, etc.) 10,000 bonus points for $3000 spend is pretty terrible.
Fortunately, you can transfer AMEX Membership Rewards points 1:1 to ANA Mileage Club; it typically takes 2-4 business days for the transfer to go through.
You can also transfer SPG Starpoints 1:1 to ANA Mileage Club; expect the transfer to take 4-10 days.
ANA Star Alliance Partners and Other Airline Partners
ANA is a Star Alliance member, so in addition to redeeming for travel on ANA, you can redeem for travel on all Star Alliance airlines, and awards can include travel on different Star Alliance member airlines:
- ANA
- Adria Airways
- Aegean Airlines
- Air Canada
- Air India
- Air New Zealand
- Asiana Airlines
- Austrian Airlines
- Avianca
- Brussels Airlines
- Copa Airlines
- Croatia Airlines
- Etihiopian Airlines
- EVA Air
- LOT Polish Airlines
- Lufthansa
- Shenzhen Airlines
- Singapore Airlines
- South African Airways
- Swiss
- Thai Airways
- Turkish Airlines
- United Airlines
- Air Dolomiti
- Air Macau
- Etihad Airways
- Eurowings
- Garuda Indonesia
- Germanwings
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Jet Airways
- Philippine Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic Airways
The Bad News: No One Way Awards
Before going any further, I should note the following cons to ANA miles:
- No one way awards (so all amounts quoted below are for roundtrip travel)
- Partner awards are available only for the registered member. So if you need to book family or friends, make sure you create an account for each of them and have them transfer in the necessary points from AMEX or SPG.
- Hawaiian Airlines awards are for interisland awards only
The Good News: ANA Award Chart Sweet Spots
Now for the interesting bit; these are what I consider some of the best ANA awards for premium class travel (business class or first class). There are of course some great economy class values as well, but that's not interesting to my clients or most readers.
1. Etihad Business Class to Africa for 104K Miles Roundtrip
Given the time required to get to Africa, this is an amazing deal for business class. Consider that United MileagePlus charges 160K miles roundtrip to Africa. Meanwhile, AAdvantage requires 150K AA miles roundtrip for Qatar Business Class to Africa, and you'd have to use two awards to get there on Etihad due to AA's region restrictions.
2. Etihad First Class to the Middle East for 195K Miles Roundtrip
While Etihad A380 First Apartment awards are scarcer than they used to be, even Etihad First Class on the 787-9 is a very nice way to get to the Middle East. With the 2016 AAdvantage Award Chart devaluation, this award increased to 230K miles roundtrip, so it's less expensive with ANA miles.
As always, make sure you call ANA to be sure the award availability is there before transferring miles (and you'll still be taking a risk given the Membership Rewards transfer time, since it's not possible to hold ANA partner awards the way you can hold AAdvantage partner awards) because ANA agents can't always see the same award space that you can on Etihad's site.
You could also go to Africa for this amount, although note that Etihad flies Business Class to Africa from Abu Dhabi, so only the flight between the U.S. and Abu Dhabi would be in first class.
3. Business Class to Europe, Morocco and Tunisia for 88K Miles Roundtrip
This is actually a great deal for business class to Europe, given that AAdvantage now charges 57,500 miles each way, so 115K miles roundtrip for partner flights to Europe, United charges 70,000 miles each way, so 140K miles roundtrip, and Delta often charges well over 100K miles each way, so over 200K miles roundtrip for business class. A good bet for partner travel is Air Canada, with no fuel surcharges, and often better service than United, which also doesn't charge fuel surcharges.
Another great deal here is ANA's expanded definition of Europe, which includes Morocco and Tunisia in Northern Africa. Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa and Swiss all fly to Marrakech, and Lufthansa flies to Tunis.
4. ANA Business Class Flights to Japan for 75K-90K Miles Roundtrip
Award flights on ANA are a bit more complicated because you have to look at the ANA award chart page with its dates divided into low (L), regular (R) and high (H) categories. So depending on when you fly, you'll need to redeem 75K-90K miles for roundtrip in ANA Business Class. Even at the highest level of 90,000 miles, that's a good deal compared to the 120K miles that AAdvantage requires for JAL Business Class roundtrip to Japan, let alone the 160K miles United charges for roundtrip ANA business class to Japan.
What are your favorite uses of ANA miles?
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