Europe
For Discount Business Class Travel Upgrades, Check Award Charts For Discrepancies
The differences between one airline's mileage award and another can yield little-known and lucrative values.
The "formula" used to determine the number of miles it costs for a given award, such as discount Business Class travel for the price of coach, varies widely from one carrier's program to another.
Sometimes, all it takes to acquire discount Business Class travel is the willingness to do a little geeky scrutiny.
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Different Business and First Class Award Charts
Essentially there are two types of airlines award charts. The most commonly used chart by US carriers is based on "departure region to destination region." In this system, whether you fly from New York to London (3,500 miles) or from Los Angeles to Athens (6,900 miles), you’ll pay the same number of miles -- about 90,000 in Business Class and 125,000 in First Class.
The second way award charts are built -- and at some level this way makes more sense -- is by the flight distance, the actual number of miles flown from the departure to the destination. This system is often used by flag or foreign carriers.
The key to this strategy is using one system against the other. Specifically, using an Asian carrier’s flight distance award charts (with miles you may now be earning via common US credit cards) to score a deal for travel on your choice of several carriers to Europe.
Example: Business Class for the Price of Coach
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Transfer 90,000 Amex Membership Rewards points into Delta miles and you can redeem them for what amounts to discount Business Class travel to Europe from North America (excluding Hawaii).
Transfer 65,000 Amex Membership Rewards points, however, to the card's Asian program partner, All Nippon Airways, and you'll have enough miles to net discount Business Class travel to Europe -- via that carrier's very different award chart based on flight distance. With these miles, you can net Business Class to Europe on Lufthansa, United, and US Airways from US gateways less than 4,000 miles each way from your destination.
That’s about 20 percent fewer miles!
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