Most travelers are now aware that United no longer offers a First Class cabin. In fact, many airlines are moving away from First Class cabins these days, but not all.
All Nippon Airways, Japan’s largest airline, offers a First Class suite from hubs throughout the United States, including Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.
The reason I mention it is because you can get way more Business and First Class mileage award seats when booking directly through All Nippon, using All Nippon miles (via Amex easy), than you can booking with United miles. This is especially the case if you’re traveling with another person and want to book two mileage award seats.
Our research found that for two people traveling together, United offered less than half as many First Class Suites for award redemption than All Nippon does.
Furthermore, did you know your chances of scoring a First Class seat on All Nippon are greater than scoring a Business Class seat? Yes, you read correctly, there are TWO times more days in the month that First Class mileage seats are made available as there are Business Class seats available. This is highly unusual as the opposite is true with most other airlines.
Sure, you can use your United MileagePlan miles to book travel on All Nippon, but when you do that, you’ll find a pretty big price difference between the two—in addition to United’s availability problems—as United mileage partner rates are much higher than All Nippon rates.
Let’s take a look at this discrepancy for flights to Asia on All Nippon
Basically, you can fly First Class for the price of Business Class. Here’s what the pricing looks like for round-trip flights to Asia:
If you book First Class seats on All Nippon, through United you’d pay 220,000 miles OR Business Class seats on All Nippon through United, you’d pay 160,000 miles.
Now, if you book First Class seats on All Nippon, through All Nippon (an Amex points partner) you’d pay only 150,000.
Meanwhile, United charges 160,000 miles for Business Class on United—so that’s essentially a free upgrade. In peak season, All Nippon’s price goes up to 165,000 miles per ticket, but you’re still getting an awesome upgrade for just 5,000 more miles.
So, it doesn’t always pay to collect your miles through United Airlines—especially if you’re flying to Asia. Chances are that All Nippon will offer you a much better deal.
How to Get All Nippon Miles
Transfer Points: All Nippon is a point transfer partner with Amex Rewards and Marriott.
Buy Points: Another option is to buy points directly from Amex Rewards for 2.5 cents each.
To learn more about buying Amex Points and transferring them over to All Nippon, check out this special report: How to Buy American Express Membership Rewards Points.
Sample savings from the U.S. to Asia in First Class: The published First Class fare on All Nippon’s Los Angeles to Tokyo route is $19,146 round-trip. Through the Amex purchase strategy, you can pay $3,750 round-trip (includes taxes and about $100 in award tax).
That’s a total savings of a whopping $15,296 (80%).
FCF Treasure Map: All Nippon First Class to Tokyo
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