American Express Membership Rewards - MR to Star Alliance (ANA). Any experience?

I just transferred a large number of Starwood points to US Air to take advantage of the 50% conversion bonus. We are planning on booking award seats on Lufthansa for next summer through US Air.

I have transferred many points over the years to Cathay Pacific, taking advantage of their lower redemption schedule to get Business and First Class tickets on British Air. In learning the *Alliance ropes, I was introduced to the ANA search engine for alliance reward seats and, lo and behold, just like Cathay, their redemption schedule is lower - in some cases, MUCH lower.

Of course, I write this here because from what I see online, I can transfer MR points to ANA. So I'm curious if FTers have had any experience doing this. A 63,000 mile Business Class trip from NY to Europe sounds too good to be true.

Thanks for the feedback.

Steve

I transfer points from my Japanese Amex MR account to ANA. It works. What are you worried about?

When I first learned about the Cathay Pacific transfer, I was concerned as I had never tried to get a ticket thru an alliance partner before. Cathay was great since they would give the reservation and hold it for 30 days pending points transfer from Starwood (and it often took that long). But it was a great deal - my first trip was 90,000 Cathay points for FC on BA when BA wanted 150,000 for the same seat. But getting thru to Cathay can be a pain and there is a language barrier that can make it difficult.

ANA seems to make it easier by being able to book the alliance flights online. Just want to be certain that it as straightforward as it seems. I have used the tool a lot to plan our upcoming trip next summer to Greece (points at US Air as stated above) and I just want to be certain that if the points were there, it would be as easy as it seems with no surprises. Just rookie nervousness perhaps but that's why I posted.

I've used it a few times this past year after learning about the lower redemption levels. There are a few things that I learned along the way:
* ANA will not hold award tickets while you wait for the transfer to go through.
* AmEx MR --> ANA transfers can take a week or so.
* ANA only allows awards to be redeemed for flights that are at least 1 week away.

* ANA only allows awards to be redeemed for flights that are at least 1 week away.

Which is problematic because most of the carriers dump unsold C/F to I/O from 2 to 4 days before departure time. I typically book my *A redemptions just couple of days before departure date and the inventory is often wide open at that time.

i don't get the concern for the "1 week out" issue. i've booked all my trips MONTHS in advance.

ANA has great redemption. i hear that people like Aeroplan (air canada) better but i never see the avilability i want on that one. ANA is easy to use. My suggestion is dump the miles into there ASAP. then when they show up in a week you are good to go. Also, if you want to book for your wife or loved one with the points you have to register those family people as soon as you can.

Also, i noticed that if you book and then see something else open up you call their 800 number. i think it goes to japan. they will switch the itinerary to the one you want for about a hundred bucks.

I had a great experience with them booking my air newzeland trip in business premiere from lax to lhr. also booked a thailand trip with ANA.

enjoy!

One thing to bear in mind is that (for Japan based ANA accounts at least) there are limitations on who you can request an award ticket for.

http://www.ana.co.jp/eng/amc/reference/tukau/tokuten.html

ANA will hit you with fuel surcharges, which will usually be more than US Airways' annoying redemption fees.

ANA's distance-based chart is great for some itineraries, not so good for others.

Aeroplan is especially attractive for some awards, both because of their award pricing and also because of liberal routing rules and stopover rules. They hit you with fuel surcharges only when actually redeeming with Air Canada.

Aeroplan gives you access to the same awards as ANA. 'Not seeing the availability' is a function of a limited website functionality, use the ANA website to find your flights and thn call the Aeroplan Service Center to issue the award.

Aeroplan's change fee just increased to CDN$90, which is still quite reasonable IMHO.

I am trying to compare the ANA *A for earning miles. The way I read their webpage, I could actually have my children and siblings all accruing *A miles to one master ANA account. Since we generally use our mileage awards for family vacations this is attractive.

So, if I understand correctly, we could all use ANA for mileage accrual instead of say, SAS Eurobonus or another *A carrier.

Yes you could probably do that, but note that only you will get status. Also remember that most NH Y fares' accural rates are at 70%.

ANA will hit you with fuel surcharges, which will usually be more than US Airways' annoying redemption fees.

ANA's distance-based chart is great for some itineraries, not so good for others.

Aeroplan is especially attractive for some awards, both because of their award pricing and also because of liberal routing rules and stopover rules. They hit you with fuel surcharges only when actually redeeming with Air Canada.

Aeroplan gives you access to the same awards as ANA. 'Not seeing the availability' is a function of a limited website functionality, use the ANA website to find your flights and thn call the Aeroplan Service Center to issue the award.

Aeroplan's change fee just increased to CDN$90, which is still quite reasonable IMHO.

ANA has abolished the fuel surcharge since Jul 1 2009. It will last for at least 3 months. One of my friend has experience that when the fuel surcharge is high, you book with United Mile and when the fuel surchrge is low, you book with ANA mile.

For China-Japan award( not long-haul, in fact), ANA provides a really low rate: from 12K ANA mile to 17K ANA mile. In such case, United would charge 25K. You now know how low it is!

Besides, it is free to change the award ticket( date change).

Have had no problem with MR->ANA, which I have used on intra-Asia flights via Japan. Heck of a deal for those, I got tickets valued at maybe 10cents per mile, one of the best exchange rates I've ever gotten.

ANA has abolished the fuel surcharge since Jul 1 2009. It will last for at least 3 months. One of my friend has experience that when the fuel surcharge is high, you book with United Mile and when the fuel surchrge is low, you book with ANA mile.

For China-Japan award( not long-haul, in fact), ANA provides a really low rate: from 12K ANA mile to 17K ANA mile. In such case, United would charge 25K. You now know how low it is!

Besides, it is free to change the award ticket( date change).

ANA has abolished its own fuel surcharge. It still charges you for partner carrier's fuel surcharges, AFAIK.

Does anyone have 17,000 points in their ANA account? Trying to find out what the cost of an award will be, but they don't show surcharges until the points are in your account (learned that the hard way last time). Want to decide whether it makes more sense to redeem 17,000 through ANA or 25,000 through AC.

If someone doesnt mind the award is
Economy
PHL-YUL 9/26/09
YHZ-PHL (thru BOS) 10/3

Does anyone have 17,000 points in their ANA account? Trying to find out what the cost of an award will be, but they don't show surcharges until the points are in your account (learned that the hard way last time). Want to decide whether it makes more sense to redeem 17,000 through ANA or 25,000 through AC.

If someone doesnt mind the award is
Economy
PHL-YUL 9/26/09
YHZ-PHL (thru BOS) 10/3

Airlines matter. So... presumably YHZ-BOS is AC, and BOS-PHL is US, but is PHL-YUL US or AC?

Also, FYI, this award is only 15k through Aeroplan, much more flexible, and the fees will be the same.

Tax: US Transportation Tax $11.78
Tax: US Transportation Tax $25.74
Tax: US Transportation Tax $9.70
Tax: USDA APHIS Fee $5.00
Tax: US Immigration Fee $7.00
Tax: Halifax Airport Improvement Fee C$15.00
Tax: Canadian Harmonized Sales Tax C$1.95
Tax: Canadian Air Travelers Security Charge C$8.34
Tax: US September 11th Security Fee $5.00
Tax: US Passenger Facility Charge $9.00
Tax: US Flight Segment Tax $10.80

There doesn't appear to be a YQ. Which is weird. But nice.

Only way to get AC 15,000 reward is to fly AC metal thru YYZ, which quadruples the travel time. When any leg is US or *A partner, it bumps to 25,000 mile minimum. I think on this award I'm going to go the ANA route since fees are the same and I will save 16,000 Amex points (since I am redeeming for 2 people). The flight costs ~$455 so even with the ~$100 in fees I am still getting about 2 cents/pp.

Hey guys, a question if you don't mind sharing your experience. It's somewhat of a complicated one, but I hope one good answer at least gets me on the right track. Thanks in advance!

I have AMEX MR points of ~55,000, with the option to borrow some more. Replacing them will be easy.

I am based out of SFO and need to fly out in 2-3 weeks to BKK then to SIN and back.

So with my many redemption options...seems like transfers are best through AC or NH(ANA), I would like business, but whatever class will do. Does anyone have any idea which one would be best? I guess CX and BA are also options?

I also have a Marriott Rewards balance of ~50k and a UA balance of 35k.

Thanks!

Take the 55k, borrow 45k, deposit into Aeroplan, and roll in Biz.

ANA has SFO-NRT-BKK (UA) then BKK-SIN (THAI) then SIN-NRT-SFO (SQ) for 105k. :)