Originally Posted by
NYFlier1001
Hi - new to Flyertalk and looking for some help with a miles redemption.
I am going from NYC to Tokyo next September / October for 2 weeks and would love to fly business.
I have c. 110k Amex points, 120k Chase Rewards, 150k Delta and 220k British Airways points but have never used any of them to book flights.
There seems to be a lot of options (ANA, JAL, United) for airlines but I am not sure on where to prioritize sending my miles to book? I would like to avoid getting stuck on the dreaded waitlist!
Can anyone help? Thanks!
Welcome to FT!
Your first task is to see which carriers actually have low-tier award space on your desired dates. If more than one carrier has the availability you need, the next step is to determine the cost of the redemption -- in both miles and cash "surcharges" -- among the different redemption programs. Some frequent-flyer programs collect surcharges for redemptions on their own airline, and on some partners. Some programs -- like United's -- do not collect surcharges on any redemptions, but UA charges more miles for premium-cabin redemptions on partner carriers than on UA metal.
Also, note that many (though not all) FFPs offer one-way awards for half the cost of a roundtrip. So you might conceivably book the outbound on one airline through a particular FFP, while booking the return portion on another airline through a different FFP.
Report back here after you have determined what's available. Note that different FFPs can charge vastly different amounts of miles and/or cash for a frequent-flyer award on the exact same flights.
Good luck!