This is an issue that everyone is more concerned about, that is, the issue of redeeming miles for air tickets. What I want to talk about here are international flights. If you often need to fly or use some credit cards, then you must pay attention to the following ways to save money when buying air tickets. How to use miles to redeem global business class air tickets
Global air tickets often have 7, 8 or even more than a dozen segments throughout the journey. Of course, they cannot be operated by just one airline, so the unavoidable concept is airline alliances. First, let’s popularize the basic knowledge - the biggest use of the alliance is not only to use the miles of one airline to buy air tickets with other airlines, and fly with each airline to accumulate miles to the airline you usually use. More importantly, it also allows passengers to fly with the airline they usually use. One ticket includes multiple airlines, allowing for freedom of flight routes. Mileage ticketing, especially global mileage tickets, can make full use of this rule to include as many airlines in the alliance as possible (such as 8) and fly to more destinations (such as 12). There are currently three major airline alliances in the world, in order from largest to smallest (number of airlines and airports covered):
Star Alliance: Adria Airways, Aegean Airlines, Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Embraer, Avianca, TransAmerica, Brussels Airlines, Copa Airlines, Croatia Airlines, EgyptAir, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, Poland Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Swiss International Air Lines, TAP Air Portugal, Thai Airways International, Turkish Airlines, United Airlines.
SkyTeam Alliance: Aeroflot, AeroMexico, Air Europa, Air France, Alitalia, China Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Czech Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Garuda Indonesia , Kenya Airways, KLM, Korean Air, Romanian Airlines, Vietnam Airlines, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Middle East Airlines, Aerolineas Argentinas, Xiamen Airlines
Oneworld: Air Berlin, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airlines, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Chilean Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 Siberian Airlines, Sri Lankan Airlines
Although there are so many airlines participating in the alliance , but not everyone can use it to exchange for round-the-world tickets. Many mainstream airlines in the United States once had this feature, but in recent years they have all been cancelled. But now, looking around, there are only a few redeemable round-the-world tickets in the aviation industry. Star Alliance
Star Alliance (Star
SA for short), as the first alliance to absorb Chinese mainland airlines, should be the most familiar in China. Of course, as the world's largest airline alliance, SA covers the most cities and routes, from modern cities to various wilderness places, so for tourists who want to travel around the world, Star Alliance's network is also the most powerful. Among the current 27 members of Star Alliance, the most popular round-the-world mileage ticket is All Nippon Airways ANA (NH).
1. ANA
Its redemption chart is particularly kind in today’s world where mileage is generally depreciating. It is also the plan that requires the least mileage for a two-class round trip between China and the United States. . Although there is a disadvantage of high fuel tax on some airlines, with so many Star Alliance airlines, you can always choose some with low fuel tax.
As for the round-the-world ticket, you can fly an astonishing 12 segments with 8 stops in total, with a maximum of 4 openings. You can travel on the ground for multiple segments without turning back. And the mileage required on flight routes of the same length is almost always the lowest, making it a conscientious choice in the mileage industry.
Nearly all airlines’ round-the-world mileage tickets calculate the mileage required based on the total flight length, and most carefully planned round-the-world travel routes are between 17,000 and 30,000 miles. Let’s take a look at ANA’s exchange table first.
ANA Global Ticket Redemption Table:
ANA, which makes global flights closer to ordinary people, is so kind!
SA’s coverage is undoubtedly the best. Compared with the other two major alliances, the regions where it has an absolute advantage include the entire Europe, Africa, India, East Asia, Canada, the Pacific Islands, etc. The disadvantages are Australia, Russia and South America, with obviously more wins than losses. So as long as you have plenty of ANA miles, planning a round-the-world travel route is so
easy!
However, there are advantages and disadvantages here. If you don’t have enough ANA miles, it’s too difficult to get one! ANA is known within the Star Alliance for its low accumulation ratio of partner airlines. Of course, if you fly ANA’s own home, you don’t have to worry about these, but friends who fly China-Japan routes all day are probably very rare, right? As for points transfer, ANA used to have a co-branded credit card with China Merchants Bank, and they also saved through that card 30,000 miles, but unfortunately it was discontinued two years ago. So now, for domestic friends, the only way to quickly accumulate ANA miles is to transfer hotel points. Among all hotel groups, the most valuable one for transferring airline miles is of course SPG. If you transfer 20,000 points at a time, you will get an additional 5,000 points. So as long as you have 85,000 SPG points and transfer them to ANA and the miles will become 105,000, you can immediately change to another one. Fly around the world business class tickets to 12 countries!
ANA Example 1
9 segments, 8 destinations, 0 openings, the total flight distance is 17,526 miles, and the redemption only costs 105,000 Miles.
Start from Beijing and head west to experience the purest European essence in Stockholm, Prague and Frankfurt, then go to Chicago to see the hometown of skyscrapers, drive around the Rockies and Yellowstone Park in Denver, and then visit Seattle Visiting the Starbucks flagship store, the journey ended with exquisite Japan, shopping and eating in Tokyo, and walking around Nara Himeji in Kyoto, Kansai, to explore ancient times. The whole process only requires three visas for the United States, Japan, and Schengen, and the duration ranges from 15 to 40 days, depending on the time.
ANA Example 2
11 segments, 8 destinations, 4 openings, total flight distance 21,701 miles, redemption only requires 125,000 miles.
First go to Chiang Mai to experience the warmth and magnificence of the Loy Krathong Festival, then travel all the way south in Thailand to visit the Buddhist monuments, attend the full moon party in Koh Samui and then fly to Bangkok for two days to enjoy the Tom Yum Goong. After Tang, I flew to Istanbul to experience the exotic feeling of being instantly switched to Turkey. Then I flew to Casablanca to experience the Sahara style described in San Mao's pen. After traveling around Morocco, I didn't look back. I flew from Marrakech to Lisbon, Portugal, and spent time in the Iberian Peninsula. Experience the most passionate Europe, then continue to fly directly to Caracas, the capital of South America and Venezuela, to see the world's highest Angel Falls, then transfer in Panama City to visit the busiest canal in the Western Hemisphere in one day, and then fly to Cancun for endless experience The Caribbean style shown by the endless sandy beaches, travel westward from Cancun to Mexico, watch whales in Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific coast, and then fly to Vancouver, Canada, to experience the most livable city in the world. The strongest snow resort on the earth, Whistler Blackcomb Mountain, unleashes the passion. Finally, we fly back to Qingdao via the imperial capital, ending the trip with a starting point/end point. It lasts about three months, perfectly covering the five continents of Asia, Europe, Africa, and South America.
Once you have accumulated enough ANA miles, issuing tickets is very easy. Although you still have to call to issue the ticket after checking it, its Chinese customer service phone number is professional and friendly, as considerate as the in-flight service. In addition, since Universal Tickets cannot be issued online, the ticket issuance fee over the phone is waived.
Overall, ANA is the most recommended round-the-world ticket plan and is suitable for all friends who can save enough miles for it. (Of course, they are basically frequent travelers on China-Japan flights or business travelers who stay in hotels for more than 50 nights a year)
Oneworld
After talking about the large and comprehensive Star Alliance, it’s time to talk about The small but beautiful Oneworld (One
World is referred to as OW). Unlike Star Alliance, which has 27 airlines, Oneworld only has 14, which is almost half of the former, and the number of airports it covers is also 1/3 less than the former.
However, in the eyes of many frequent travelers who value quality (≈zuo), OW is the best alliance in the world.
Two major features: first, the Anglo-Saxon alliance - British Airways, American Airlines, Qantas, and (who often think of themselves as Asian Britons) Japan Airlines and Hong Kong Cathay Pacific; There are many established airlines and many flag carriers.
The above two characteristics make the Star Alliance formed by the rising stars of Oneworld and the Germanic Alliance (United Airlines, ANA, Asiana, and Evergreen are not flag carriers), and the ragtag Sky Alliance ( Compared with the wu) alliance, it looks very noble, the quality of the airline is more stable, and the two-class service is even slightly better.
2. Asia Miles
Asia Miles, the points program operated by Cathay Pacific, not only covers all OW partners, but also the leaders of other alliances in the Asia-Pacific region (such as Air China) or non- Alliance brothers, I believe you have heard these basic common senses for a long time. However, although the rules of Yawan are complicated, the parts that can issue global tickets are limited to OW alliance partners, so it goes without saying the advanced skills of non-alliance ticket exchange, just compare the global tickets with ANA.
A*** on Yawan’s official website, there are three redemption methods. Although the Global Ticket is not listed separately, in fact, the last one, the “Oneworld Award Conversion Chart”, is highly tolerant due to the route design. It actually includes the round-the-world ticket gameplay.
"On the same journey, you can have up to five stopovers, two transfers, or two terminations at the starting point, transfer point or return point." Translated into standard terms, it means that it can fly a total of 8 segments, including 5 stops, 2 openings, and the mileage required on a flight route of the same length is almost 20 more than ANA, only for ultra-long itineraries of more than 30,000 miles (Southern China) Flying back and forth in the Northern Hemisphere) will appear slightly cheaper. Moreover, the entire ticket must include at least one flight operated by Cathay Pacific or Dragonair, so the entire itinerary must not avoid Hong Kong.
Asia Oneworld flight ticket redemption table:
Advantages First of all, the OW system is basically all airlines above the standard, which means that it is easy to put together a high-quality product throughout the journey. Airlines, and the probability of encountering a bad airline is extremely low; secondly, these boutique airlines are not only reflected in their high level of service and safety, but also in their kindness in opening up the number of free tickets. There are friends around who have redeemed tickets for the same flight. 3 business class tickets, while most flights in other alliances generally only release 2 free business class tickets for redemption, which means that using Yawan to make the dream of a family of three traveling in business class around the world is possible; finally, because Yawan does not limit the requirements "Global" rules.
Yawan Example 1
8 segments, 5 destinations, 2 openings, the total flight distance is 19,671 miles, and the redemption requirement is 140,000 miles.
Start from Beijing and head west, take Finnair's latest Airbus A350 to Helsinki, and then visit Copenhagen, Dusseldorf, Barcelona and Madrid in sequence, with an opening between Dusseldorf and Barcelona, ??which you can drive through We traveled through France, then flew directly from Madrid to Miami, took a cruise to the Caribbean, then drove all the way north to New York on our own, flew back to Vancouver for a few days, and finally flew to Hong Kong to do some shopping and then go home. The entire process requires three visas for the United States, Canada, and Schengen, and the duration ranges from 20 to 60 days.
Yawan Example 2
8 segments, 5 destinations, 2 openings, the total flight distance is 17,526 miles, and the redemption requirement is 135,000 miles.
For a non-global route, make full use of Yawan’s stop and go rules and go on a two-month cruise to the Indian Ocean coast and the Arab world. Departing from Beijing, we first transferred in Hong Kong to Thailand, then drove between Chiang Mai and Bangkok. From Bangkok, we flew to Amman, the capital of Jordan, to explore the lost ancient city of Petra. Then we went to Tunisia, which has just exempted Chinese citizens from visas, and discovered ancient Carthage. and the cultural relics of the Roman Empire, then flew to the glamorous Doha for two days to rest, and then went to the most beautiful island in the Indian Ocean, the Seychelles, for a vacation. At the end of the trip, we picked tea, worshiped Buddha, and watched whales in Sri Lanka, and finally flew directly from Colombo. Return to Beijing.
Although this route does not go around the world, it has one of the biggest highlights - there is no need to apply for a visa in advance, you can go as soon as you want, and you can visit 7 countries in one go!
The biggest highlight
It is the easiest Earn it! Although you may rarely take OW flights, you can also put your miles on Air China. And the most important thing is that you can use credit card points to exchange for miles, including: CITIC, Guangfa, Bank of Communications, Standard Chartered, HSBC, Citigroup, China Merchants Bank (classic white only), including almost all mainstream banks except the four major state-owned banks and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank. Bank. Moreover, many of them offer the same points-to-Avantage ratio as the three major Southeast Asian airlines in China. Don’t forget that Asia-Pacific is a mile, which is 1.6 times as long as a kilometer, so this route is even more valuable. Of course, like all other major international airlines, points from almost all hotel chain groups can be exchanged for miles. In addition, you can also accumulate NT$10,000 by spending at many Hong Kong merchants and some domestic merchants. Please check the official website for details. It's not difficult to issue a ticket. Yawan's customer service is all in Chinese. You can call and get it done quickly.
If the biggest advantage of ANA is to save money (mileage saving), then Yawan’s advantage is to open up more money. Using AsiaTen Thousand to exchange for Global Business Class is suitable for all friends who have not saved enough miles for other airlines in this article, especially for credit card players and friends from Base Pearl River Delta (flying directly from Hong Kong).
3. Japan Airlines
Japan Airlines’ ticket exchange policy has the characteristics of both ANA and Avanda: First of all, like Avanda, it does not have a dedicated global mileage ticket strategy. , but you can fly around the world by redeeming oneworld award tickets; and in terms of the maximum number of stops and the kindness of the redemption table, it strives to be on par with ANA, or in other words, only slightly inferior. JL supports 8 segments and 7 stops, plus 4 openings, but the ground movement distance of the opening is included in the total flight distance, so the opening is not cost-effective.
JAL Oneworld ticket redemption table:
In the 18,000 to 25,000 mile range where round-the-world tickets are most common, JL only spends 5,000 more than ANA in most cases, which is considered So kind.
JL and CX both belong to OW, and the exchange rules are so similar, so I won’t go into details about the similar alliance advantages and disadvantages.
In terms of mileage earning, although JL is not as simple as Yawan, it is much easier than NH. First of all, it also has a co-branded credit card in China - Pudong Development JAL Card. Moreover, this card has a pretty good mileage accumulation rate and has many activities. It has long been the go-to card for domestic airline alliance credit cards. In terms of flying, although like CX, it suffers from the shortcomings of OW and no mainland Chinese airlines, JL has also signed a separate contract with China Eastern Airlines, a good domestic friend. Now you are not worried about not enough JAL miles, right? Seriously, JAL Among all the airlines recommended today, it should be the second most difficult to earn miles after AirAsia.
Although JAL also has a Chinese customer service hotline to support redemption of mileage tickets, it is not familiar with such complicated rules. A friend tested it himself two years ago and even started to teach customer service on the phone. Then he waited for the customer service to study and understand it for a few days before calling back before he could change it. It is said that Japanese customer service is more proficient.
In general, JL has an above-average performance in global business class mileage tickets, and it is worth using it as a daily main accumulation account in order to realize the dream of flying around the world as soon as possible. It is especially suitable for friends with Shanghai Pudong Development JAL credit card, as well as friends from East China in the Yangtze River Delta who have to fly China Eastern Airlines but can’t bear to save their miles on the Eastern Miles, which is the most difficult to redeem.
SkyTeam
Most Chinese people are most familiar with the rabble-rousing alliance. They usually call themselves SkyTeam (ST for short) during in-flight broadcasts, but almost all of the world's most unsafe airlines are here. (Korea, Garuda Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and China Airlines, which has the highest death rate), airline gold card members cannot use friendly airline lounges when flying domestic flights, often cannot accumulate miles when flying, and even if they accumulate, they cannot save enough to exchange for air tickets. (The mileage required to exchange for the same international route is almost twice that of the other two alliances, such as Delta and China Eastern Airlines). If you save enough, you may not be able to exchange tickets (many airlines do not fly with each other or have very few Open mileage redemption class)!
4. Korean Air
Its policy is very strange. As long as it is a round-the-world ticket, regardless of the distance, it requires 14W for economy class and 22W for business class. There are a maximum of 9 flight segments, a maximum of 6 stops, and no clear opening policy. The above is an introduction. The actual operating rules are more complicated. If you are interested, you can read this gray part (you will not lose anything if you skip it directly):
Regional division: Korean Air divides round-the-world travel tickets into 3 regions
Area1: North/SouthAmerica
Area2: Europe/Africa/MiddleEast Europe/Africa/Middle East
Area3: Asia/ Oceania Asia/Oceania
Specific requirements for transfers, stops, etc.:
The entire round-the-world ticket allows 3 transfers and each area passes (since it can only fly in one direction, each area has a maximum It can only pass through once; but it is allowed to fly in countries within the area) and can get 2 additional transfers, that is, a maximum of 9 transfers.
The entire round-the-world ticket allows 3 stays (A-gt; B-gt; C's itinerary, staying in B for several days) and you can get 1 additional stay in each area, that is, a maximum of 6 stays.
Note: A stop is also a transfer (a transfer within 24 hours is not a stop), so if you choose to make full use of the number of stops, you can complete 2 stops in each area, but only one transfer is left.
In addition, the departure city cannot be used as a stopover city (if Shanghai is the starting point, then Shanghai cannot be used as a stopover city during the entire trip).
ST's coverage, in addition to the unrivaled high density in Greater China, is relatively non-mainstream internationally: Japan, Oceania, Indian Ocean Islands, and Canada, which are loved by Chinese people, are almost blank, while in many countries In developing countries, monkeys dominate, such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Russia, Africa, Mexico, etc.
Flight accrual, although ST has countless members in China, due to strict accrual standards among airlines, many cabins of China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines are discounted or not counted in KE, so few people will put their flight miles in KE K.E. From this point of view, it is difficult to obtain KE miles. For domestic players, there is almost no other way except to transfer points to SPG. The reservation system is also inconvenient. You can only make reservations by phone, and most of the customer service staff can tell that they are confused over the phone.
In general, using ST’s global tickets from Korea is definitely a good idea. Not the best choice. The target audience is probably non-mainstream players who want to go to Indonesia, Vietnam, and Mexico, or experienced players who are tired of playing SA and OW and want to experience ST. The biggest advantages of ST are that one is that the Eastern flight attendants are dressed in Korean and the most beautiful Western flight attendants are in Air France, and the other is the outstanding business class experience on some routes of Korean, Delta and Air France. But but but but, Delta and Korean are rivals and offer very few tickets, and Air France’s business class is almost completely closed to alliance partners, so it’s still impossible to exchange! Apart from Korean itself, the only ones that are really easy to exchange are China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines. Just take it if you are tired of it, or China Airlines, Aeroflot, Kenya Airways, as long as you dare to take it. Non-alliance airlines
5. Alaska Airlines
Its mileage redemption policy does not include round-the-world tickets, but it can rely on its extensive redemption strategy to DIY round-the-world tickets. .
It is very simple and clear. As long as you select the departure area and arrival area, you can see all the available airlines and the mileage required for each different class of flights between the two points. In fact, you just need to keep the highlights in mind: 1. All redemption displays are based on one-way. If you need a round trip, choose two one-way separately. There is no correlation between the two one-way, but each one-way can have 1 stop;) 2. Each one-way A ticket can only be redeemed by one partner airline or one partner airline AS, and does not support mixed tickets from multiple partner airlines.
In this case, you only need to make three one-way trips: Asia to the United States (or Canada/Caribbean/Latin America), the United States to Europe (or Africa/Middle East), and Europe to Asia, and you can travel around the world. , and each of the above one-way business class flights only costs about 40,000 to 60,000 miles, so it only costs about 150,000 for one trip. In addition to the departure point, there can be 5 stops, and 2 of the stops and the departure/end point can be turned into openings. The opening distance is arbitrary, and there is no problem with intercontinental openings.
What is particularly noteworthy is that AS supports Asia - the North American itinerary is via Dubai and tickets are issued with Emirates! This method costs 105,000 for business class and 180,000 for first class, although it is more expensive than flying directly to North America. Double the price, but after all, you can experience the two-class Tuhao Airlines that many people have longed for and dream of, and you can also stay in Dubai as you like. In other words, in fact, you only need to buy two tickets from Asia to North America, one to fly across the Pacific normally, and the other to fly to the United Arab Emirates and across the Atlantic, and you can complete the feat of traveling around the world, and this way only costs 155,000 business class miles. , the price/performance ratio is OK.
On the Asia-North America itinerary, available airlines include Hainan Airlines, Japan Airlines, American Airlines and Cathay Pacific. (Of course, there are also Korean and Delta, but you won’t choose them after seeing the exchange table. Delta’s business class of 140,000 is even 40 more expensive than the Emirates detour to Dubai! No matter where you are, you can’t afford Adou.) For Friends outside the Pearl River Delta do not recommend Cathay Pacific, because the evil CX has transferred all its routes to the mainland to its second-class brother, Dragonair, and Dragonair's routes cannot be redeemed through Alaska, which means that if you use AS If you switch to CX, you will have to spend your own money to buy tickets for the flight from Hong Kong to the mainland. The main available airlines on the US-Europe itinerary are British Airways, Air France, American Airlines, Icelandair (the highlight~) and Emirates. As for Europe and Asia, I'm sorry, only Cathay Pacific has no semicolon, so you can't avoid paying for the air ticket home.
：P
In addition, because partner airlines include Qantas, Fiji Airways and Hawaiian Airlines, AS’s exchange network in the Pacific is exceptionally good, even exceeding any single one of the three major alliances. Let’s go island hopping in the Pacific!
Alaska Airlines Example 1
6 segments, 4 destinations, 2 openings, the total flight distance is 18,234 miles, and the redemption requirement is 147,500 miles.
Depart from Beijing and fly to Seattle with Hainan Airlines. After a few days, I transfer to AS and go to Orlando. I visit 7 Disney parks in a week, then drive all the way north on the east coast of the United States. I visit Harvard University in Boston and then fly. Kjavik, drive around Iceland to experience the real Song of Ice and Fire, then fly to Paris to experience the most beautiful city in the world, then go to Hong Kong to eat at Lei Garden and Tim Wan, and finally end up spending the whole night at Shilin Night Market in Taipei. Eating Haisai is the end of this trip.
Alaska Airlines Example 2
4 segments, 3 destinations, total flight distance 18,715 miles, 155,000 miles required for redemption.
The round-the-world route with the fewest stops and the shortest total time. Or start from Beijing, fly American Airlines to Dallas to experience the Texas cowboy style, then go to New York to experience the capital of the world, and then the focus of this trip - take Emirates Airline, one of the world's top ten longest routes, from New York to Dubai. After shopping around the world, we finally flew straight back to Beijing. The entire trip can take as little as 10 days, and only requires a visa for one place in the United States. If you are a big miler, you can add 75,000 miles to upgrade these two Emirates flights to first class and experience the world's most luxurious air travel, rolling around in a wide bed and taking a shower at an altitude of 10,000 meters