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ANA is devaluing its award charts for bookings made October 15, 2015 or later. This is all the notice they’ve given. (Hat tip @saianel on Twitter.) To beat the devaluation, book by October 14 for travel through mid-September 2016.
This devaluation affects you because you “have” ANA miles in the form of Membership Rewards and SPG Starpoints, both of which can be transferred to ANA miles. I track ANA’s award chart because ANA miles can book any Star Alliance award space that United miles, for instance, can book.
The devaluation affects awards from the United States to Asia 2 and South, Latin America. Here are the old and new roundtrip award charts:
Remember that ANA Star Alliance awards must be booked roundtrip and include fuel surcharges every time an equivalent cash ticket would have fuel surcharges, except that United flights booked with ANA miles have no fuel surcharges.
Asia 2 is Southeast Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, the Maldives, Mongolia, and the ‘stans. South, Latin America is what you’d expect. It does not include Mexico, which is in North America on the ANA award chart.
I included ANA’s award chart in my Comparison of Eight Star Alliance Award Charts, and there are some sweet spots on the award chart, most of which were not touched. For instance, the great deals to Europe, Middle East, Africa, North Asia, and Australia remain untouched.
ANA awards to Central America, the Caribbean, and Northern South America get pricier on October 15, but that doesn’t matter much because they were already terrible deals.
Awards to Southern South America, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Subcontinent go up in price October 15 also. Southeast Asia and Indian Subcontinent aren’t a huge deal because most such itineraries would have fuel surcharges making them a bad deal.
The biggest blow is on those awards to Southern South America, which have no fuel surcharges and were very cheap. They get 10% more expensive. Asiana and Copa awards (on Copa metal) are now cheaper in economy, and Asiana awards remain the cheapest in Business Class.
Here are the affected award charts. Remember that all of these programs allow one way award bookings for the price listed except ANA, which requires a roundtrip award for twice the price listed. Fuel surcharges vary by program, so get more information on those here.
Central America and the Caribbean
Northern South America
Southern South America
Southeast Asia
Indian Subcontinent
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Hi Mike,
Thanks, as always, for your great information! Question: does this devaluation apply to booking ANA flights using United miles on the United website, or is that a completely separate thing and not affected?
thanks again!
This devaluation only affects the use of ANA miles. The use of United miles is unaffected.
Hi Mike,
Thanks, as always, for your great information! Question: does this devaluation apply to booking ANA flights using United miles on the United website, or is that a completely separate thing and not affected?
thanks again!
This devaluation only affects the use of ANA miles. The use of United miles is unaffected.
IMO the RT requirement really kills ANA. Has the “RTW” (distance based) award remained untouched?
Kills ANA for me, but the vast majority of people want to book roundtrips. I can’t even find their distance based RTW chart online right now. The site is just hard to navigate. If anyone finds it, send me the link.
IMO the RT requirement really kills ANA. Has the “RTW” (distance based) award remained untouched?
Kills ANA for me, but the vast majority of people want to book roundtrips. I can’t even find their distance based RTW chart online right now. The site is just hard to navigate. If anyone finds it, send me the link.
will this devaluation affects using ANA miles on ANA metal (off peak, regular, high)?
Didn’t check that chart. I wouldn’t use ANA miles for ANA flights because of fuel surcharges.
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