ANAone of the largest airlines in Japan, home to several best airline award rankings sweet spot in existence. Thanks to your Star Alliance membership, you can use miles ANA to order tons of famous airlines, such as United Airlines, Air Canada and others.
Here are a few examples of some extremely hot deals:
It’s an incredible deal, as other airlines often charge between 120,000 and 150,000 miles for the same journey.
However, if you’re new to collecting points and miles (or you’re not in the mood to spend those miles on a single trip), you can use ANA’s “mixed class” award booking tool to reduce price for your trip while still enjoying the new business class seat.
ANA’s Mixed Grants Tool is (usually) a lot
Before we get into this trick, here’s a must-have reminder: When booking travel through ANA’s website, you can only book round-trip tickets or multi-city journeys. There is no option for one-way flights.
By flying one way in business class and one way in economy class, you can save tens of thousands of miles on a single ticket. And because ANA’s rates are already at their lowest, you may find yourself paying for a mixed-cabin return flight at a lower price than other airlines that charge for a one-way business class seat.
Related: 10 ways to redeem ANA Mileage Club miles for maximum value
Here’s an example: Roundtrip Business Class seat on an ANA flight from Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) to Copenhagen Airport (CPH) takes 88,000 miles. But putting a direction in the economy reduces the price by as much as 71,500 miles.
But a one-way business class seat on the same flight costs 74,000 miles via United Airlines. In other words, booking through ANA will get you more one-way economy class flights between the US and Europe than booking through United.
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Similarly, you’ll pay 104,000 ANA miles to fly round-trip to Africa in business class — but you’ll pay only 84,500 miles if you book one way in economy class. That’s 19,500 miles cheaper, and you can still look back on your vacation and remember a flashy business class seat.
How to book a multi-cabin flight with ANA
In case you’re new to ANA’s rewards search engine, here’s an accelerated course.
After you log in to your ANA account (and you will must be logged in to search for award seats), you will need to click on the “Multi-Cities/Mix Tier” tab. You can enter your starting point and destination here, along with your desired departure date.
Related: The best site to look for the availability of Star Alliance awards
On the next screen, you can choose between economy, premium economy, business, and first class seats. If a class is not available, its column will be empty.
It can sometimes be difficult to find business class seats on some airlines. For the purpose of helping you find business class seats, you may use ANA’s “Round-Way” search engine. This allows you to view flights by week, which you cannot do with the “Mixed Layers” tool.
Just enter your origin and destination, date and class of service. Then, make sure to tick the “Compare vacancies +/- 3 days” box.
Easiest way to earn ANA Mileage Club miles
The easiest way to earn ANA miles is to transfer points from American Express Membership Rewards. Points from Amex to ANA on a 1:1 ratio, with a transfer time of approximately 48 hours based on our test. With that in mind, have a backup redemption plan ready if the rewards space you want to reserve has run out by the time the miles accrued to your account.
Here are a few of them best Amex card Earn Membership Rewards points:
You can also transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to the ANA Mileage Club at a ratio of 3:1. Plus, you’ll receive a 5,000-mile bonus for transferring 60,000 points to ANA. This means 60,000 Marriott points are worth 25,000 ANA Mileage Club miles.
Related: How to redeem American Express Membership Rewards for maximum value
bottom line
You can save tens of thousands of ANA miles by canceling business class for your entire trip and booking a hybrid award ticket instead. If you fly economy class in one direction, you can extend your distance considerably.
This is a great strategy if you’re booking a flight for friends or family and don’t have enough rewards for premium cabins during the journey. Depending on your route, you and a traveling companion could save nearly 40,000 miles on a single trip.
