ANA Mileage Club is one of my favorite Amex MR points transfer partners and I am always exploring the program for the lowest business class overseas redemptions and free one-way stopovers (review) .
ANA Mileage Club Award Booking Rules
- Amex MR points may take 2-3 days to transfer to ANA (1st transfer takes the longest time and subsequent transfers are quicker).
- One-way award bookings are allowed and free one-way stopovers may be available on certain routes.
- ANA taxes/fees are similar between economy and business class bookings.
- Taxes/fuel charges are low (<$150) ONLY on ANA, United (except to Japan), SAS, Air Canada, Air China, Avianca, Copa, Ethiopian, TAP Air Portugal, LOT Polish, Eva Air, Air New Zealand, and Singapore Air.
- Taxes/fuel charges are moderate ($200-300) on Asiana, Egypt Air, South African, Thai, and Turkish airlines.
- Taxes/fuel charges are extremely high (>$1000) on Lufthansa, Swiss, Brussels and Austrian airlines.
- Award ticket date changes are permitted without a fee up to 24 hours before departure (must maintain the same routing and type of award).
- Award booking Cancellation/Redeposit Fee is 3,000 ANA miles per person.
- ANA miles expire after 36 months irrespective of activity.
Turkish Airlines Business Class Award Booking Options
Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles program
Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles program charges 65K points (taxes $217 USD) for a one-way business class booking between the US and Istanbul (IST).
Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles program releases a lot more award space to its members (see image below).
Aeroplan
Aeroplan has limited access to business class award space on Turkish Airlines (see image below) and can charge between 70-90K points depending on the route (see DFW to IST below).
LifeMiles
LifeMiles is notoriously unreliable at matching Star Alliance award space with Aeroplan. I could not find the same flight from DFW-IST on their webpage (see image below).
ANA Mileage Club
ANA Mileage Club charges just 50K miles to book business class between the US and Istanbul with a similar amount of taxes as Turkish Airlines (see image below). If you see any available Turkish Airlines award space on Aeroplan, you will most likely find it on the ANA Mileage Club search engine.
Conclusion
Readers interested in traveling to Istanbul in business class must remember to check ANA Mileage Club availability before booking with Aeroplan.