Upgrade to Europe for Free — Just Spot Award Chart Loopholes

When the airlines began forming fraternities (Oneworld, SkyTeam, and Star Alliance), members never bothered much to align their award charts. That spells opportunity—especially for free upgrades to Europe.

The key is knowing how to leverage the discrepancies in the airlines’ mileage-award charts that lay out the costs for given departure cities and destinations.

To make this loophole work, start by understanding the two different types of award charts.

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All Nippon miles to book an award flight in Business Class on Virgin Atlantic from New York to London. All Nippon charges 63,000 miles for the seat, whereas Virgin wants 90,000—or 60,000 to fly in economy. Many other routings are available for 5,000 more miles, all in Business Class. Among them:

• Boston to Munich on Lufthansa
• Chicago to Frankfurt on Lufthansa
• New York to Frankfurt on Singapore Airlines
• New York to Vienna on Austrian Airlines
• Philadelphia to Rome on US Airways
• Toronto to Paris on Air Canada
• Washington, DC to Paris on United
• Washington, DC to Zurich on United

How Anyone Can Play

All Nippon partners with both Amex Membership Rewards and Starwood’s Starpoints, so getting—and using—miles is easy. You can buy them from Amex Rewards for 2.5¢ each. And remember, transferring Starpoints to miles nets a 5,000-mile bonus for every 20,000 miles transferred. Details: http://www.ana.co.jp/wws/us/e/amc/guide/tokuten/teikeiair_1.html

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Regional Award Charts, commonly used by U.S. carriers, categorize trips based on “departure region to destination region,” (such as “U.S. to Europe” or “U.S. to Asia”) instead of the actual miles flown. In other words, whether you fly to London from New York (3,458 miles) or from Los Angeles (5,449 miles), it’s considered a “U.S. to Europe” trip and you pay the same number of miles.

Flight-Distance Award Charts, on the other hand, categorize awards by the number of miles flown from the departure to the destination. The farther you fly, the more miles it costs. This chart is commonly used by Asian carriers.

Finding the Discrepancies

Price your forthcoming itineraries using the award charts of your airline’s alliance partners (easily found online). You’re likely to find one that saves thousands of miles. Also, consider creative routings that don’t include low-value connecting flights in coach. You’ll often pay an inordinate premium for that leg that lands at your local airport. That’s when you’re better off using your miles for the main flight and paying cash for a relatively cheap ticket home.

Putting it into Practice

The savvy move is using an Asian carrier’s flight-distance award chart to score a deal on an airline that uses a regional award chart. For instance, use