Copa Airlines is the national airline of Panama (part of Star Alliance) which has its own relatively unknown award program called ConnectMiles. I was looking into ConnectMiles after PointsYeah recently added it to their supported list of airline programs. Copa Airlines has a few non-alliance partners like Emirates, KLM and Aeromexico.
ConnectMiles Award Booking Basics
- International award booking with ConnectMiles incurs a fee ($30).
- Award change and cancellation fees vary between $75-150 (based on under or over 21 days before the travel date).
- A close-in-booking fee ($75) will be charged for award tickets booked within 21 days of departure.
- 1 stopover and 2 open jaws are allowed on round-trip awards.
- Children under age 2 are not charged any additional miles for award tickets.
- ConnectMiles charges no fuel surcharges on United, Turkish and Emirates.
Aeroplan charges 105,000 points for the same redemption.
ConnectMiles Economy Class Award Chart
ConnectMiles Business Class Award Chart
My Particular Award Redemption
I was looking for the cheapest way to go to Tokyo over Christmas (last minute request from a family member) and PointsYeah search showed this great United redemption via ConnectMiles.
Turkish Miles & Smiles is the next best Star Alliance redemption I could find for this particular search. As I mentioned earlier in another post (https://awardcracker.com/interesting-quirks-with-turkish-miles-smiles-program/), I cannot use Miles & Smiles for Star Alliance Partner redemptions when booking for someone other than myself.
I have created a ConnectMiles account and verified the award availability on their search page.
How to get ConnectMiles
Marriott Bonvoy points are the only transferable currency (3:1 ratio) at this time to ConnectMiles. Even with a bonus of 5000 miles when you transfer 60,000 Bonvoy points, you will only end up with 25000 ConnectMiles.
ConnectMiles runs promotions to purchase miles with up to 60% bonus periodically, but buying miles is not very lucrative with this program.
Summary
ConnectMiles program is a great way to book partner Star Alliance flights and Emirates business class for low miles and taxes. I only wish they collaborated with one of the US credit card mileage 1:1 transfer programs.