ANA Mileage Club is the loyalty program for Japan’s All Nippon Airways and is a member of the Star Alliance. ANA is the most lucrative program for premium cabin roundtrip redemptions, multi-city open jaw bookings and round-the-world RTW award bookings. I have described several ANA partner award Sweetspots in my earlier article (https://awardcracker.com/ana-mileage-club-sweet-spots/) and wanted to add Air India to that list.
Air India has had a bad reputation for premium cabin quality and service in the past, but they have completely redesigned the business and first class cabins over the last year and seem to offer very good service as well.
Revamped Air India Business Class
Revamped Air India First Class
ANA Award Booking Rules Recap
- 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 days to transfer to ANA.
- ANA taxes/fees are similar between economy and business/first 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, Air India, 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 Air, Air Brussels, and Austrian Airways (only for outbound travel from the US).
- Taxes/fuel charges are moderate ($300-600) on Lufthansa, Swiss Air, Air Brussels, and Austrian Airways (for outbound travel from Europe to Asia).
- 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.
Air India Business Class Roundtrip Booking with ANA Miles
Air India business class roundtrip booking with ANA miles is a wonderful redemption and can be used to connect to other cities in India for the same amount of miles (taxes/fees are $400).
Air India First Class Booking with ANA Miles
Booking first class Air India flights with ANA miles does not offer any mileage savings compared to booking with LifeMiles (see images below). LifeMiles offers greater flexibility for two one-way bookings and also charges significantly lower taxes.
Conclusion
ANA miles can be used to book Air India business class flights for a reasonable amount of taxes and can come in handy when planning a round the world (RTW) award. I am looking forward to trying the revamped Air India premium cabins next year.