Some of the lesser-known airline partners and how to use them to your advantage

The best feature of the three major airline alliances — Star Alliance, SkyTeam and Oneworld — is that you can earn points or miles on any carrier within a given alliance by flying on any other. Likewise, you can use points or miles from any carrier in that alliance for award travel on a flight operated by another. These reciprocal arrangements are easy to understand, even if they don't always work out so well in practice.

In addition to the major alliances, airlines also have nonalliance partners that passengers can use in a similar fashion. However, many of the nonalliance partners restrict which flights you can earn or redeem miles on, so it's important to review the requirements on the airline's website before you book any flights. Below, we'll go through some of the lesser-known airline partnerships and highlight a few sweet spots to take advantage of them.

Air Canada

Air Canada is part of the Star Alliance. Its Aeroplan program is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.

Nonalliance partners for earning and redeeming include:

• Air Creebec
• Air Dolomiti
• Air Mauritius
• Air Serbia
• Azul Brazilian Airlines
• Bamboo Airways
• Calm Air
• Canadian North
• Cathay Pacific
• Discover Airlines
• Edelweiss Air
• Emirates
• Etihad Airways
• Eurowings
• Flydubai
• Gol Airlines
• Gulf Air
• Juneyao Airlines
• Lufthansa
• Olympic Air
• Oman Air
• PAL Airlines
• SunExpress
• Virgin Australia

Nonalliance partners for earning only include:

• Aer Lingus
• Central Mountain Air
• Middle East Airlines
• SriLankan Airlines

Related: You can now use Aeroplan points for Emirates first class, but it isn't cheap

Air France and KLM

Air France and KLM are both part of the SkyTeam alliance. The miles you earn from flights on Air France and KLM — along with nonalliance partner Transavia — go to Flying Blue, the loyalty program shared among these three airlines.

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Flying Blue is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, Wells Fargo Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.

Nonalliance partners for earning and redeeming include:

• Air Corsica
• Air Mauritius
• AirBaltic
• Aircalin
• Chalair Aviation
• China Southern Airlines
• Copa Airlines
• El Al
• Etihad Airways
• Gol Airlines
• Japan Airlines
• Malaysia Airlines
• Oman Air
• Qantas
• Transavia
• WestJet
• Winair

Flying Blue also has a partnership with Bangkok Airways, but only redemptions are allowed. You cannot earn miles from paid Bangkok Airways flights.

Alaska Airlines

Alaska Airlines is part of the Oneworld alliance. Its Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program is a transfer partner of Bilt Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.

Nonalliance partners for earning and redeeming include:

• Aer Lingus
• Air Tahiti Nui
• Cape Air
• Condor
• Hainan Airlines
• Icelandair
• Korean Air
• LATAM
• Oman Air
• Porter Airlines
• Singapore Airlines
• Starlux Airlines

Nonalliance partners for earning only include:

• Aleutian Airways
• Bahamasair
• Cape Air
• Contour Airlines
• Kenmore Air
• Mokulele Airlines
• Southern Airways Express

Related: On board Condor's inaugural Airbus A330neo to NYC — in a swanky new business-class product

All Nippon Airlines

ANA is a Japanese-based airline and a member of Star Alliance. Its ANA Mileage Club program is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.

Nonalliance partners for earning and redeeming include:

• Air Dolomiti
• Air Macau
• Etihad Airways
• Eurowings
• Garuda Indonesia
• Olympic Air
• Philippine Airlines
• Virgin Atlantic
• Vietnam Airlines
• Virgin Australia

American Airlines

American Airlines is part of the Oneworld alliance. Its American Airlines AAdvantage program is not part of any credit card transfer programs, but it is a transfer partner of Marriott Bonvoy.

Nonalliance partners for earning and redeeming include:

• Air Tahiti Nui
• Cape Air
• China Southern Airlines
• Etihad Airways
• Fiji Airways — joining Oneworld in 2025
• Gol Airlines
• Hawaiian Airlines — in the process of merging with Alaska Airlines

Nonalliance partners for earning only include:

• Aer Lingus
• IndiGo
• JetSmart — currently earning only but with redemptions coming soon

British Airways and Iberia

British Airways and Iberia are both Oneworld member airlines. They are two of the six airlines that use Avios as rewards currency; the other airlines are Oneworld members Finnair and Qatar Airways and nonalliance members Aer Lingus and Vueling. Though each airline has an individual program, you can freely move your Avios at a 1:1 ratio between all six airlines.

British Airways and Iberia are both transfer partners of American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, Wells Fargo Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy. The former is also a transfer partner of Capital One miles. Because you can move your Avios between the six participating airlines, any Avios you have in these programs can be used to book multiple nonalliance partners.

British Airways' nonalliance partners for earning and redeeming include:

• Aer Lingus
• LATAM
• Sun-Air

The carrier also has a partnership with China Southern Airlines, but you can only earn Avios for paid flights. You cannot redeem Avios for China Southern flights.

Iberia's nonalliance partners for earning and redeeming include:

• Avianca
• Binter Canarias
• LATAM
• Level
• Vueling

Cathay Pacific

Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific is part of the Oneworld alliance. Its Asia Miles program is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One miles, Citi ThankYou Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.

Nonalliance partners for earning and redeeming include:

• Air Canada
• Air China
• Air New Zealand
• Austrian Airlines
• Bangkok Airways
• Fiji Airways
• Gulf Air
• HK Express
• LATAM
• Lufthansa
• Shenzhen Airlines
• Swiss

Delta Air Lines

Delta is a member of the SkyTeam alliance. Its Delta SkyMiles program is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.

Nonalliance partners for earning and redeeming include:

• AirBaltic
• Cape Air
• China Southern
• El Al
• Hawaiian Airlines
• LATAM
• WestJet

Redemptions on AirBaltic are limited to connections from a transatlantic award flight on Delta, Air France or KLM. Earning and redeeming on Hawaiian Airlines is limited to flights only within Hawaii.

Nonalliance partners for redeeming only include:

• Air Tahiti Nui
• Mandarin Airlines
• Shanghai Airlines

Related: 5 things you need to know about the Delta-LATAM joint venture

United Airlines

United is a Star Alliance carrier. Its United MileagePlus program is a transfer partner of Bilt Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.

Nonalliance partners for earning and redeeming include:

• Aer Lingus
• Air Dolomiti
• AirLink
• Azul Brazilian Airlines
• Cape Air
• Discover Airlines
• Edelweiss Air
• Emirates
• Eurowings
• Flydubai
• Hawaiian Airlines — flights only within Hawaii
• JSX
• Juneyao Airlines
• Lufthansa
• Olympic Air
• Silver Airways
• Virgin Australia

For Emirates and Flydubai, you can only redeem miles on select routes between Dubai and Africa, the Middle East and the South Asian subcontinent as part of an award reservation that includes a United flight between Newark and Dubai, all on the same ticket. Earning and redeeming on Hawaiian Airlines is limited to flights only within Hawaii.

Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic is part of the SkyTeam alliance. Its Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program and the Virgin Red rewards program — which you can link to Flying Club — are transfer partners of American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.

Nonalliance partners for earning and redeeming include:

• Air New Zealand
• All Nippon Airways
• El Al
• Hawaiian Airlines
• LATAM
• Singapore Airlines
• South African Airways

Virgin Atlantic also has a partnership with IndiGo, but you can only earn points for paid flights. You cannot redeem Virgin points for IndiGo flights.

Sweet spots among the nonalliance partners

Many airlines have moved to fluctuating award rates, known as dynamic pricing, for redemptions on their own airline. However, most programs still have an award chart for partner redemptions at fixed rates.

Some programs offer zone-based redemptions, where the award rate is determined by what regions you're traveling between. Other programs have distance-based redemptions, where the award rate is based on the number of miles between the airports you're traveling.

Reviewing an airline's partner award charts can help you target redemptions that may be particularly useful or noteworthy. Here are a few sweet spots of the nonalliance partners.

Alaska redemptions for Starlux business class

Alaska is the only airline partner of Taiwan-based Starlux Airlines. Starlux has an impressive business-class product between the U.S. and Taiwan, and award rates start as low as 75,000 Alaska miles each way.

Related: A review of Starlux business class on the Airbus A350-900 from Los Angeles to Taipei: Out of this world

Virgin Atlantic redemptions for ANA business or first class

This redemption is not as sweet as it used to be after several devaluations over the past few years. However, it's still one of the best uses of Virgin points for premium cabin travel — particularly if you can book The Room business class or The Suite first class as opposed to the airline's older products. One-way business class between the U.S. and Japan is available for as few as 52,500 Virgin points; first class is available for as few as 72,500 points.

Using Virgin points offers more flexibility than ANA's own miles; this is because Virgin allows for one-way redemptions while ANA only allows round-trip redemptions. Virgin also has many more options for transfers from credit card points and miles programs.

Bottom line

Airline partners make award travel much easier since they expand the network of carriers and routings available when redeeming your points and miles. It's not just the partners within the airline's alliance that may offer good value for earning or redeeming your miles. Keep in mind the nonalliance partners as well.

Related reading:

• Credit card transfer partners: Guide to transferring points and miles to airlines and hotels
• How to credit miles to a partner airline program
• Practical Pointers: Avoid this mileage mishap when flying with partner airlines
• Maximize your points and miles earning: How to choose where to credit your next flight
• 6 mistakes to avoid when booking with partners