ANA Partner Award Sweet Spots

The ANA mileage club has some of the best MR point redemptions for Star Alliance partner airline premium cabin bookings. ANA points are best used for partner redemptions over their own flights (e.g., flying to Japan from the US on ANA) due to massive fuel surcharge hike in recent months. I will describe some of the ANA award booking rules followed by the booking examples that are associated with reasonable taxes/fuel fees.

ANA Award Booking Rules

• Round-trip bookings are required for ANA award bookings.
• The ANA mileage club generously allows one stopover (>24hrs stay) and one open jaw (leave and return from different cities within the same region) on roundtrip award bookings.
• MR points may take 2-3 days to transfer to ANA.
• ANA taxes/fees are similar between economy and business class bookings.
• Taxes/fuel charges are low (<$300) 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 ($300-600) on Asiana, Egypt Air, South African, Thai, and Turkish air (premium cabin roundtrip bookings can be useful for these prices).
• Taxes/fuel charges are extremely high (>$1000) on Lufthansa, Swiss, Brussels, and Austrian airways (avoid looking at these flights for ANA redemptions).
• 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.
• The ANA miles expire after 36 months irrespective of activity.

Find the ANA International Award Booking Page

After a recent update, the ANA mileage club international redemption page is hidden in the sub-menu. I recommend that readers follow the order of links I posted below.

Sign-up for the ANA Mileage Program (https://www.ana.co.jp/en/us/amc/join-amc/) and then link the account number with the Amex MR points (do not transfer points unless you see good availability as transfers take ~2 days).

Go to the ANA International Award Redemptions page (https://www.ana.co.jp/en/jp/international/) & log into your account if needed.

After logging in, you should click on “flight awards” and then a new sub-menu opens below. Then click on “flight award reservations” to open the award search page in a new tab (see the picture below).

ANA Award Stopover Booking

For stopover bookings, click on the “Multiple Cities/Mixed Classes” tab next to the “Round trip” booking.

ANA Open Jaw Award Booking

For open-jaw bookings, click on the “open jaw” tab below the “Round trip” booking.

ANA Roundtrip Examples with low Taxes (<$300)

• North America to South America (Avianca/Copa/United) R/T for 55/88K (eco/bus).

• North America to Copenhagen or Oslo (SAS) for 55/88K (eco/bus).

• Houston to Sydney (United) for 75/120K (eco/bus).

• North America to Taiwan (Eva Air) 60/95K miles and $265 taxes.

• LOT airlines from Chicago to Krakow business class R/T for 88K miles.

• Air Canada from Canada (e.g., YYZ) to Asia (Tokyo, Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul), South America and Europe with low taxes.

• North America to China (United) for 60/95K (eco/bus).

• North America to New Zealand business class 120K miles (award availability is rare). The same flight for either a one-way or roundtrip can be booked for 62.5/125K Virgin Atlantic miles.

• North America to Europe TAP Portugal. 

• Garuda Indonesia business class examples

• Ethiopian Air from US to Africa

ANA roundtrip redemptions with moderate taxes ($300-600)

I will list some of the ANA redemptions with moderately high taxes below since some travelers are willing to pay higher taxes for business class roundtrip award booking.

• South African Airways JFK-JNB nonstop return trip for 65k/104k (eco/bus).

• Turkish Airlines business class.

• Thai Air from LHR to BKK

If you find an ANA flight award space your best option currently is to use Aeroplan (75K miles) to avoid high taxes.

LifeMiles recently increased their US to Asia mile requirements.

Summary

The ANA mileage club offers the best value for MR points with unmatched business class roundtrip redemptions compared to any other program. To effectively use them, one must be flexible to find roundtrip flights and be aware of MR point transfer times and 36-month mileage expirations. The ANA mileage club may not have the same matching award space as United or Aeroplan and one must confirm their availability before transferring MR points.