American Express Membership Rewards - MR-ANA Transfer Time

Hey,

I've transfered MR points to my Delta and Continental accounts and the miles usually show up almost instantly. I am thinking about transferring some points to ANA to redeem a Star Alliance flight and was wondering how quick I could expect those to transfer. I don't want to make a reservation and then not get the miles in time, thus stranding miles in that program. Does anyone have any experience with this transfer or redeeming with ANA in general? I've used the online tool and its great.

T

I think it took me about ~48 hours. But, YMMV.

Mine was also about 2 days, though they warn you that it could take longer.

Ok thanks, thats good news. How was your experience with ANA otherwise? I'm just a little hesitant to redeem with a non-US carrier or a carrier that I don't have any elite status on and am not too familiar with the rules.

Ok thanks, thats good news. How was your experience with ANA otherwise? I'm just a little hesitant to redeem with a non-US carrier or a carrier that I don't have any elite status on and am not too familiar with the rules.

ANA is a 1st class carrier and surpassed my expectations. What route are you flying? Their new J and F classes are very nice, and connections and wait times in NRT definietly go bye much quicker with their extremely nice lounges.

The flight staff were amazing and all ground handling was superb. The ANA office in LAX was very, very helpful in organizing and booking my ticket. ANA is also the best place to park AMEX MR miles for their extremly easy to use online award tool and great *A availability.

Our routing was SFO-NRT-HKG//PVG-NRT-LAX, all for 90k in J. I thought it was a steal.

I'm just a little hesitant to redeem with a non-US carrier

You will soon never, ever want to fly a US based carrier when you see the service and performance of ANA!

I dont know if this was limited to Amex Cent or not but I called Amex Cent Travel Service and they helped me move ANA miles instantly once when I needed it. All other times it when done via the website it took about 48 hours.

All other times it when done via the website it took about 48 hours.

I think if you call it might actually be quicker.

ANA is a 1st class carrier and surpassed my expectations. What route are you flying? Their new J and F classes are very nice, and connections and wait times in NRT definietly go bye much quicker with their extremely nice lounges.

The flight staff were amazing and all ground handling was superb. The ANA office in LAX was very, very helpful in organizing and booking my ticket. ANA is also the best place to park AMEX MR miles for their extremly easy to use online award tool and great *A availability.

Our routing was SFO-NRT-HKG//PVG-NRT-LAX, all for 90k in J. I thought it was a steal.



You will soon never, ever want to fly a US based carrier when you see the service and performance of ANA!

Thanks everyone for your help. I am not planning on flying ANA, just transferring the points there and redeeming for a *A or Partner reward (probably Lufthansa and/or Air Canada) - I'm trying to get from NYC-CDG in the summer. Their online tool is great and I've found some good options, however in some instances they have disappeared quickly and that was why I was concerned. I'll give AMEX a call to see if they can help facilitate the transfer, thanks for the tips.

I did a transfer in January and I think it took 3 days. Once the miles were into the account, the booking process was completely painless. I used the ANA star alliance award booking system, that everyone praises, to find my flights. I called ANA before booking to assure that what I wanted to do was bookable online -- it was. I made the booking. I called ANA to confirm that everything was set -- it was. Later that day, I called the other carriers (I wasn't flying ANA) and picked my seats. Now all I have to do is wait for my trip. In any event, the ANA process deserves a big ^ .

Thanks everyone for your help. I am not planning on flying ANA, just transferring the points there and redeeming for a *A or Partner reward (probably Lufthansa and/or Air Canada) - I'm trying to get from NYC-CDG in the summer. Their online tool is great and I've found some good options, however in some instances they have disappeared quickly and that was why I was concerned. I'll give AMEX a call to see if they can help facilitate the transfer, thanks for the tips.

That should be very simple using ANA's online booking travel (JFK-CDG-JFK), unless you have stopovers (JFK-FRA-CDG-LHR-JFK) which it is then better to call ANA and let them handle it.

I'm trying to get from NYC-CDG in the summer.

Have you considered transferring your MR points to Air France/Flying Blue, Delta or Continental instead? If you can find availability, those options will allow you to fly nonstop, which isn't possible on any *A carrier.

Have you considered transferring your MR points to Air France/Flying Blue, Delta or Continental instead? If you can find availability, those options will allow you to fly nonstop, which isn't possible on any *A carrier.

Yup, tried that via Continental directly as well as searching using the NW Asia online tool, but no business class availability on my dates. It's actually what I would prefer to do since I am traveling with people on the CO flight. However, for 50,000 CO miles in coach (direct on the outbound, connecting on the return) vs. 80,000 MR points in business (connecting both ways), I think the extra 30,000 is worth it. If anything, I figure it's a way to try out some new carriers, hopefully Singapore and Lufthansa.

Have you considered transferring your MR points to Air France/Flying Blue, Delta or Continental instead? If you can find availability

I think the key terms from this is "IF you can find availability" considering DL & CO have some of the worst award availabilty out there! IMHO the OP is better off with the ANA option or even AC for a *A award than transferring to DL and CO's NONEPASS program.

Thanks for pointing out the ANA booking engine. Its amazing and very helpful.

I would have another question: Does ANA have a different inventory for LH flights than LH (booked through Miles & More)?

Thanks for pointing out the ANA booking engine. Its amazing and very helpful.

I would have another question: Does ANA have a different inventory for LH flights than LH (booked through Miles & More)?

Im not quite sure with LH, but some report that ANA has greater UA availability then UA actually did.

I guess it matters whether your booking through LH and just using ANA's site to check availability or acutally using ANA to book a *A LH award. Remember though, through ANA you can book a *A award or partner award which in many cases is some of the *A members.

It is usually less miles to use a partner award but you can then only use 1 airline. *A awards need 2 airlines unless they are not ANA partners.

If your booking through ANA and flying LH, I would only go by the ANA availability.

I think the key terms from this is "IF you can find availability" considering DL & CO have some of the worst award availabilty out there! IMHO the OP is better off with the ANA option or even AC for a *A award than transferring to DL and CO's NONEPASS program.

@:-) CO/DL availability is nonexistent, while *A through ANA usually has great availability even 3-6 months out as long as it's 1 or 2 passengers.

As an update to my original situation, I ended up transferring to Aeroplan instead. After consulting with various "Partner Liasons," Membership Rewards would not rush the transfer, even though my card is indirectly linked to a Centurion and multiple Platinums. They did say they would rush it in the case of an emergency such as a death in the family (nice to know they can in certain situations).

In any case, I ended up transferring instantly (while on the phone) to Aeroplan, who had the exact same inventory as ANA for the flights I was interested in. Now the question is do I switch my J Lufthansa JFK-FRA flight to a Singapore one with worse connection times? I've heard that SQ is a great flight...

Im not quite sure with LH, but some report that ANA has greater UA availability then UA actually did.

I guess it matters whether your booking through LH and just using ANA's site to check availability or acutally using ANA to book a *A LH award. Remember though, through ANA you can book a *A award or partner award which in many cases is some of the *A members.

It is usually less miles to use a partner award but you can then only use 1 airline. *A awards need 2 airlines unless they are not ANA partners.

If your booking through ANA and flying LH, I would only go by the ANA availability.


Thanks for the help!

The reason I asked: I remember that a Delta rep once told me that they only get one F class seat on Singapore (never more) and that i never had a problem booking two F seats on LH directly. So figured the airline wants to reward its own customers over customers of other Staralliance airlines (which would make sense to me)

Now the question is do I switch my J Lufthansa JFK-FRA flight to a Singapore one with worse connection times? I've heard that SQ is a great flight... I live and work near BWI and thus use either IAD or PHL for direct flights to FRA with LH in J. (I hate connecting!) I really like their new product and pretty much everyone in our company uses them when we need to fly to Germany.

Recently we had someone needing to get to FRA and the fares were much cheaper BWI-JFK-FRA using SQ in J for the JFK-FRA segment. Naturally I told her that I wanted a full trip report on the differences between the two in J. Basically her comments were that SQ's J bed was basically identical to LH and that the service was marginally better but not anything special. I was really disappointed! Guess I was expecting her to rant and rave about SQ based on all the comments I have read on FT and in various travel magazines. Two months ago I probably would have changed to SQ but based on her comments I would probably do LH especially if the connection is better.

Now the question is do I switch my J Lufthansa JFK-FRA flight to a Singapore one with worse connection times? I've heard that SQ is a great flight...

How "bad" is the connection flight? Either way, SQ > LH!

How "bad" is the connection flight? Either way, SQ > LH!

Not bad enough to keep me from changing my itinerary apparently...I just went ahead and rebooked myself from LH to SQ. Couldn't resist the opportunity to fly SQ as I don't make any trips to Asia. I'll leave a little later (9:20pm), get to my final destination later, and had to accept a coach connecting flight to avoid a 3 hour layover, but hopefully it will be worth it. All in all, my first transfer to Aeroplan and *A reward booking went pretty well.