The most effective characteristic of the three main airline alliances — Star Alliance, SkyTeam and Oneworld — is you could earn factors or miles on any service inside a given alliance by flying on every other. Likewise, you should use factors or miles from any service in that alliance for award journey on a flight operated by one other. These reciprocal preparations are straightforward to grasp, even when they do not all the time work out so properly in observe.
Along with the key alliances, airways even have nonalliance companions that passengers can use in a similar way. Nevertheless, lots of the nonalliance companions prohibit which flights you’ll be able to earn or redeem miles on, so it is vital to evaluation the necessities on the airline’s web site earlier than you e-book any flights. Under, we’ll undergo a few of the lesser-known airline partnerships and spotlight a couple of candy spots to make the most of them.
Air Canada
Air Canada is a part of the Star Alliance. Its Aeroplan program is a switch associate of American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.
Nonalliance companions for incomes and redeeming embrace:
- Air Creebec
- Air Dolomiti
- Air Mauritius
- Air Serbia
- Azul Brazilian Airways
- Bamboo Airways
- Calm Air
- Canadian North
- Cathay Pacific
- Uncover Airways
- Edelweiss Air
- Emirates
- Etihad Airways
- Eurowings
- Flydubai
- Gol Airways
- Gulf Air
- Juneyao Airways
- Lufthansa
- Olympic Air
- Oman Air
- PAL Airways
- SunExpress
- Virgin Australia
Nonalliance companions for incomes solely embrace:
- Aer Lingus
- Central Mountain Air
- Center East Airways
- SriLankan Airways
Associated: You can now use Aeroplan points for Emirates first class, but it isn’t cheap
Air France and KLM
Air France and KLM are each a part of the SkyTeam alliance. The miles you earn from flights on Air France and KLM — together with nonalliance associate Transavia — go to Flying Blue, the loyalty program shared amongst these three airways.
Every day Publication
Reward your inbox with the TPG Every day e-newsletter
Be part of over 700,000 readers for breaking information, in-depth guides and unique offers from TPG’s specialists
Flying Blue is a switch associate of American Categorical Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One miles, Chase Final Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, Wells Fargo Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.
Nonalliance companions for incomes and redeeming embrace:
- Air Corsica
- Air Mauritius
- AirBaltic
- Aircalin
- Chalair Aviation
- China Southern Airways
- Copa Airways
- El Al
- Etihad Airways
- Gol Airways
- Japan Airways
- Malaysia Airways
- Oman Air
- Qantas
- Transavia
- WestJet
- Winair
Flying Blue additionally has a partnership with Bangkok Airways, however solely redemptions are allowed. You can’t earn miles from paid Bangkok Airways flights.
Alaska Airways
Alaska Airways is a part of the Oneworld alliance. Its Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program is a switch associate of Bilt Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.
Nonalliance companions for incomes and redeeming embrace:
- Aer Lingus
- Air Tahiti Nui
- Cape Air
- Condor
- Hainan Airways
- Icelandair
- Korean Air
- LATAM
- Oman Air
- Porter Airways
- Singapore Airways
- Starlux Airways
Nonalliance companions for incomes solely embrace:
- Aleutian Airways
- Bahamasair
- Cape Air
- Contour Airways
- Kenmore Air
- Mokulele Airways
- Southern Airways Categorical
Associated: On board Condor’s inaugural Airbus A330neo to NYC — in a swanky new business-class product
All Nippon Airways
ANA is a Japanese-based airline and a member of Star Alliance. Its ANA Mileage Club program is a switch associate of American Categorical Membership Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.
Nonalliance companions for incomes and redeeming embrace:
- Air Dolomiti
- Air Macau
- Etihad Airways
- Eurowings
- Garuda Indonesia
- Olympic Air
- Philippine Airways
- Virgin Atlantic
- Vietnam Airways
- Virgin Australia
American Airways
American Airways is a part of the Oneworld alliance. Its American Airlines AAdvantage program is just not a part of any bank card switch packages, however it’s a switch associate of Marriott Bonvoy.
Nonalliance companions for incomes and redeeming embrace:
Nonalliance companions for incomes solely embrace:
- Aer Lingus
- IndiGo
- JetSmart — at present incomes solely however with redemptions coming quickly
British Airways and Iberia
British Airways and Iberia are each Oneworld member airways. They’re two of the six airways that use Avios as rewards foreign money; the opposite airways are Oneworld members Finnair and Qatar Airways and nonalliance members Aer Lingus and Vueling. Although every airline has a person program, you’ll be able to freely transfer your Avios at a 1:1 ratio between all six airways.
British Airways and Iberia are each switch companions of American Categorical Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Chase Final Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, Wells Fargo Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy. The previous can be a switch associate of Capital One miles. As a result of you’ll be able to transfer your Avios between the six collaborating airways, any Avios you’ve in these packages can be utilized to e-book a number of nonalliance companions.
British Airways’ nonalliance companions for incomes and redeeming embrace:
The service additionally has a partnership with China Southern Airways, however you’ll be able to solely earn Avios for paid flights. You can’t redeem Avios for China Southern flights.
Iberia’s nonalliance companions for incomes and redeeming embrace:
- Avianca
- Binter Canarias
- LATAM
- Degree
- Vueling
Cathay Pacific
Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific is a part of the Oneworld alliance. Its Asia Miles program is a switch associate of American Categorical Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One miles, Citi ThankYou Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.
Nonalliance companions for incomes and redeeming embrace:
- Air Canada
- Air China
- Air New Zealand
- Austrian Airways
- Bangkok Airways
- Fiji Airways
- Gulf Air
- HK Categorical
- LATAM
- Lufthansa
- Shenzhen Airways
- Swiss
Delta Air Traces
Delta is a member of the SkyTeam alliance. Its Delta SkyMiles program is a switch associate of American Categorical Membership Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.
Nonalliance companions for incomes and redeeming embrace:
- AirBaltic
- Cape Air
- China Southern
- El Al
- Hawaiian Airways
- LATAM
- WestJet
Redemptions on AirBaltic are restricted to connections from a transatlantic award flight on Delta, Air France or KLM. Incomes and redeeming on Hawaiian Airways is proscribed to flights solely inside Hawaii.
Nonalliance companions for redeeming solely embrace:
- Air Tahiti Nui
- Mandarin Airways
- Shanghai Airways
Associated: 5 things you need to know about the Delta-LATAM joint venture
United Airways
United is a Star Alliance service. Its United MileagePlus program is a switch associate of Bilt Rewards, Chase Final Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.
Nonalliance companions for incomes and redeeming embrace:
- Aer Lingus
- Air Dolomiti
- AirLink
- Azul Brazilian Airways
- Cape Air
- Uncover Airways
- Edelweiss Air
- Emirates
- Eurowings
- Flydubai
- Hawaiian Airways — flights solely inside Hawaii
- JSX
- Juneyao Airways
- Lufthansa
- Olympic Air
- Silver Airways
- Virgin Australia
For Emirates and Flydubai, you’ll be able to solely redeem miles on choose routes between Dubai and Africa, the Center East and the South Asian subcontinent as a part of an award reservation that features a United flight between Newark and Dubai, all on the identical ticket. Incomes and redeeming on Hawaiian Airways is proscribed to flights solely inside Hawaii.
Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic is a part of the SkyTeam alliance. Its Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program and the Virgin Purple rewards program — which you’ll be able to hyperlink to Flying Membership — are switch companions of American Categorical Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One miles, Chase Final Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.
Nonalliance companions for incomes and redeeming embrace:
- Air New Zealand
- All Nippon Airways
- El Al
- Hawaiian Airways
- LATAM
- Singapore Airways
- South African Airways
Virgin Atlantic additionally has a partnership with IndiGo, however you’ll be able to solely earn factors for paid flights. You can’t redeem Virgin factors for IndiGo flights.
Candy spots among the many nonalliance companions
Many airways have moved to fluctuating award charges, often called dynamic pricing, for redemptions on their very own airline. Nevertheless, most packages nonetheless have an award chart for associate redemptions at mounted charges.
Some packages provide zone-based redemptions, the place the award price is decided by what areas you are touring between. Different packages have distance-based redemptions, the place the award price relies on the variety of miles between the airports you are touring.
Reviewing an airline’s associate award charts may help you goal redemptions that could be significantly helpful or noteworthy. Listed below are a couple of candy spots of the nonalliance companions.
Alaska redemptions for Starlux enterprise class
Alaska is the one airline associate of Taiwan-based Starlux Airlines. Starlux has a powerful business-class product between the U.S. and Taiwan, and award charges begin as little as 75,000 Alaska miles every approach.
Associated: A review of Starlux business class on the Airbus A350-900 from Los Angeles to Taipei: Out of this world
Virgin Atlantic redemptions for ANA enterprise or top quality
This redemption is just not as candy because it was once after several devaluations over the previous few years. Nevertheless, it is nonetheless among the finest makes use of of Virgin factors for premium cabin journey — significantly when you can e-book The Room enterprise class or The Suite top quality versus the airline’s older merchandise. One-way enterprise class between the U.S. and Japan is on the market for as few as 52,500 Virgin factors; top quality is on the market for as few as 72,500 factors.
Utilizing Virgin factors presents extra flexibility than ANA’s personal miles; it is because Virgin permits for one-way redemptions whereas ANA solely permits round-trip redemptions. Virgin additionally has many extra choices for transfers from bank card factors and miles packages.
Backside line
Airline companions make award journey a lot simpler since they increase the community of carriers and routings obtainable when redeeming your factors and miles. It is not simply the companions throughout the airline’s alliance which will provide good worth for incomes or redeeming your miles. Be mindful the nonalliance companions as properly.
Associated studying: