THIS IS GOLD!
Yes, gold. That sounds dramatic….but in the world of travel hacking THIS is where you leverage FREE travel to the extreme! See, having points and miles is great, but knowing how to use those points and miles to YOUR advantage is even better!
Essentially, by knowing airline partnerships (alliances) you can maneuver the most fiscally advantageous award travel from your points and miles.
Before you read on, click here to see how I maneuvered an alliance between Delta Airlines and Korean Airlines that saved me $2980.40. Then head back to this page to continue reading; it will make more sense after you’ve read my example.
Alliances and partnerships were originally formed to create the most efficient flight experiences for customers. The extended networks made booking and moving between connections easier, and reduced flight times and cost. For people like me (and now YOU) that use points and miles for flights that also means you can accrue and USE miles and points across the partnerships strategically.
The strategy is in knowing how many miles or points each airline charges for award seats; not all partners will require the same amount of miles or points to book the same ticket. This is where the GOLD comes in! Use the airline with the cheapest award seats to book for a flight on a PARTNER airline!
Here’s the confusing part (and where most goof up!): You cannot combine miles or points from different airline programs towards a single award ticket, let me repeat, you cannot combine miles or points from different airline programs towards a single award ticket, which is why it is so important that you know WHAT TYPE of credit card to use to earn your points and miles. Credit cards with FLEXIBLE award programs (meaning you can transfer your earned miles or points to DIFFERENT airlines) is the ONLY way to go!
Star Alliance:
- Adria Airways, Slovenia
Fly FREE by getting to know airline partnerships and alliances - Aegean Airlines, Greece
- Air Canada
- Air China
- Air India
- Air New Zealand
- All Nippon Airways, Japan
- Asiana Airlines, South Korea
- Austrian Airlines
- Avianca, Colombia
- Brussels Airlines, Belgium
- Copa Airlines, Panama
- Croatia Airlines
- EgyptAir
- Ethiopian Airlines
- EVA Air, Taiwan
- LOT Polish Airlines
- Lufthansa, Germany
- Scandinavian Airlines
- Shenzhen Airlines, China
- Singapore Airlines
- South African Airways
- Swiss International Airlines
- TAP Portugal
- Thai Airways
- Turkish Airlines
- United Airlines, United States
SkyTeam: (tends to be my favorite)
- Aeroflot, Russia
- Aerolineas Argentinas
- Aeromexico
- Air Europa, Spain
- Air France
- Alitalia, Italy
- China Airlines, Taiwan
- China Eastern Airlines, China
- China Southern Airlines, China
- Czech Airlines
- Delta Airlines, United States
- Garuda Indonesia
- Kenya Airways
- KLM, Netherlands
- Korean Air, South Korea
- Middle East Airlines, Lebanon
- Saudia, Saudi Arabia
- TAROM, Romania
- Vietnam Airlines
- Xiamen Airlines, China
Oneworld:
- Air Berlin, Germany
- American Airlines
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong
- Finnair, Finland
- Iberia, Spain
- Japan Airlines
- LAN Airlines, Chile
- Malaysia Airlines
- Qantas, Australia
- Qatar Airways
- Royal Jordanian
- S7 Airlines, Russia
- SriLankan Airlines
- TAM Airlines, Brazil
There are also eight airlines that are not in an alliance (but have some “private” partnerships, for example, Alaska Airlines has a partnership with British Airlines):
- AirTran Airways
- Alaska Airlines
- Frontier Airlines
- Hawaiian Airlines
- JetBlue
- Southwest Airlines
- Spirit Airlines
- Virgin America
Like always, I’d love to hear from you! Do you have a favorite airline or alliance? Have you had success using partner airilnes to book your tickets?
Happy Hacking!
START PINNING WITH ME ON PINTEREST!
JOIN MY BLOGGER FACEBOOK GROUP!
Leave a Reply