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How to book a round-trip business-class award to Europe for just 88,000 miles
Summer Hull has been covering (and using) travel tips, rewards credit cards and loyalty programs for over a decade. She has flown close to a million miles, often on points and miles and with her family in tow.
January 7, 2021 • 10 min read
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Quick summary
Booking business-class award flights to Europe for a family can be challenging due to limited seat availability and high mileage requirements.
Using a Japanese airline's frequent flyer program, travelers can access Star Alliance partner flights between North America and Europe for a notably low mileage amount round-trip in business class.
This program allows for valuable itinerary flexibility, including stopovers and open-jaw options at no additional mileage cost.
Taxes and fees vary by departure city and carrier, with some routes incurring significantly higher charges than others.
What to consider
Award bookings through this program must be made at least 96 hours before departure and require round-trip itineraries.
Miles expire 36 months after accrual or transfer, so planning is essential before moving points into the program.
You can only use miles for certain registered individuals on your account, and some carriers may pass along substantial fuel surcharges.
What you'll miss from the article
A step-by-step guide to maximizing award value and minimizing fees when booking family business-class trips to Europe using Star Alliance partners.
Generated by AI with support from our editorial team.
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
It's safe to say that, for most people, the holiday season didn't exactly go as planned.
Coming from Texas, that's going to be a long journey without a magical sleigh to whisk us away. So, we turned to the next-best trick in my bag: airline miles. They aren't flying reindeer, but points and miles can snag us lie-flat seats for our journey across the ocean so we arrived as rested as possible for the real-life reindeer awaiting us.
(Image by Roberto Moiola / Sysaworld / Getty Images)
Here's how we booked business-class awards from the U.S. to Europe and back for just 88,000 total miles, plus the cost of taxes and fees.
Leveraging a Star Alliance partner award chart
Maybe you've never heard of All Nippon Airways (ANA), but it's a fantastic Japanese airline that is in the Star Alliance (along with United, Air Canada, Lufthansa and others).
ANA is also a 1 to 1 transfer partner of the Amex Membership Rewards program, meaning it's entirely possible to earn and redeem points in the ANA frequent flyer program without ever flying an ANA-operated flight.
Photo by Chris Dong / The Points Guy
On the ANA award chart, you can fly from North America (Zone 6) to Europe and what they call "Russia 2" and back again for 88,000 miles in business class. If you want, you can even have a stopover (extra time in a city along the way) or an open-jaw (fly into one European city and depart from another) built into that same award price.
Considering that United MileagePlus wants at least 154,000 United miles for a round-trip partner award in business class from the U.S. to Europe and back, or at least 120,000 United miles for that same round trip award on a United-operated flight, paying just 88,000 miles by booking through ANA is a real bargain for a Star Alliance-operated award.
Still confused? That's OK. It will hopefully all click in a minute.
And since it would cost significantly fewer miles to book those award seats on United via ANA, rather than directly through United MileagePlus, that was the obvious plan. All we had to do was transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to my ANA account as soon as we found the availability we wanted. (Though keep in mind that these transfers from Amex Membership Rewards to ANA are not instant, and will take at least a day or two.)
ANA's website is relatively easy to maneuver and you can book partner awards online. You don't need any miles in your account to conduct searches, though you do need to be logged in, so you'll need to set up an account first.
As I mentioned, when booking an award, such as mine from the U.S. to Europe, ANA will allow both a stopover in Europe, as well as an open-jaw on the trip for the same 88,000-mile total.
This means I could have flown Houston to London (with a stopover for a few days) on to Frankfurt (and book transportation to the next city as an open-jaw) then from Amsterdam back to Houston for the same number of miles as just a simple round-trip between Houston and London.
Screenshot courtesy of ANA
That wasn't what I needed for this trip, but keep those tips in mind for a larger itinerary through a region if you want to see more than one city.
Avoiding fees when awards booking with ANA
While we're talking about Europe, keep in mind that the taxes and fees added to the award will vary dramatically based on the countries you visit and where you depart.
For example, the U.K. charges hundreds of dollars in departure fees (but not arrival fees) in a premium cabin. A round-trip award flight from the U.S. to London and back in a premium cabin will cost almost $300 more per person in mandatory U.K. Air Passenger Duty fees than when flying out of many other countries.
Screenshot courtesy of ANA
If you're instead able to travel home from a location with lower taxes and fees, such as nearby Amsterdam, you can save hundreds of dollars per person.
When booking partner awards with ANA, you'll also likely want to avoid booking with carriers that pass along fuel surcharges. United does not have fuel surcharges, so it's a good carrier to fly when booking ANA awards. SAS and Air Canada are other carriers with lower fees to consider when flying on ANA miles to Europe.
But as you can see below, a Lufthansa-operated award from the U.S. to Europe and back in business class comes with a staggering $1,624 in taxes and fees.
The easiest way to earn miles for ANA awards is by transferring points from American Express Membership Rewards at a 1 to 1 ratio. Here are some of the top cards for earning Amex Membership Rewards points:
The Platinum Card® from American Express: Earn 80,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $6,000 on purchases within the first six months of account opening. Earn 5x points per dollar spent on flights booked directly or on Amex.com (earn 5x points on up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year); 5x points on prepaid hotel bookings with American Express Travel; 1x point per dollar elsewhere. ($695 annual fee; see rates and fees)
The Business Platinum Card® from American Express: Earn 120,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $15,000 on eligible purchases with the Business Platinum Card within the first three months of card membership. $695 annual fee (see rates and fees)
American Express® Gold Card: Earn 60,000 Membership Rewards Points after you use your new card to make $4,000 in purchases in your first six months of account opening. Earn 4x points per dollar at restaurants, 4x points (up to $25,000 per calendar year; then 1x) at U.S. supermarkets, 3x points on flights booked directly with the airline or on AmexTravel.com and 1x point per dollar elsewhere. ($250 annual fee; see rates and fees)
American Express® Business Gold Card: Earn 70,000 bonus points after you spend $10,000 on eligible purchases in the first three months of card membership. Earn 4x points on the first $150,000 per calendar year in combined eligible purchases from two categories of your choice such as airfare directly from airlines, at U.S. gas stations, at U.S. restaurants and more (then 1x). ($295 annual fee; see rates and fees).
American Express® Green Card: Earn 45,000 Membership Rewards Points after you spend $2,000 in purchases in your first six months of card membership. Earn 3x points per dollar spent on travel, transit and restaurant purchases and 1x points elsewhere. ($150 annual fee; see rates and fees)
The information for the Amex Green Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Keep in mind that those are the standard welcome offers, but you may be targeted for a better introductory offer or find a better deal by checking CardMatch.
There are a few other quirks to booking partner awards via ANA.
You need to book flights at least 96 hours before departure and must book the flight as a round-trip award. You can also only use your miles for certain registered members added to your account. Additionally, miles are only valid until the 36th month after accrual (or transfer into the program), so don't transfer miles into your account without a plan.
But the modest quirks of booking awards on Star Alliance partners via ANA are not insurmountable by any stretch. If you have Amex Membership Rewards points available or decide to start earning those points now for a future award, the ANA program can be one of the most affordable ways to book many awards.
For us, these awards weren't just a good deal on paper -- they were an investment in hope. Hope that, by the time the holidays roll around once again, the world will be a much better place and we'll again have the luxury of international travel. Hope that, by the end of 2021, it will be safe to seek out once-in-a-lifetime family memories with Santa, reindeers, northern lights, and settle into some very comfy seats while crossing the Atlantic for just 88,000 points.
For rates and fees of the Amex Platinum card, click here. For rates and fees of the Amex Business Platinum card, click here. For rates and fees of the Amex Gold card, click here. For rates and fees of the Amex Business Gold card, click here. For rates and fees of the Amex Green card, click here.
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By commenting, you agree to our Community Guidelines to help create a positive space for conversation. The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser, our partners, or The Points Guy (“TPG”). They have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these parties. All responses are submitted by individual contributors, and neither the bank advertiser, our partners, nor TPG are responsible for ensuring that all posts and/or questions are answered.
