How to Book Cheap Domestic Awards – Oneworld Alliance

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Editor’s note: In late October 2024, Finnair dramatically increased award prices for flights within the continental U.S. and Canada. Economy award rates increased from 11,000 Avios to 16,500 Avios, and first-class rates increased from 30,000 Avios to 40,000 Avios. This article references the rates in effect when the article was written and published, but current rates are 16,500 Avios for economy and 40,000 Avios for first.

For many of us living in the United States, it’s common to book domestic flights, whether it’s for business travel, a short getaway, a big vacation or to position to a different airport for an international flight.

Our guide for searching Oneworld availability provides details about the Oneworld alliance and best practices for finding awards on flights operated by Oneworld airlines. We recommend reviewing the guide first, since this article builds on the principles discussed there and focuses on redeeming points and miles for flights within the United States.

In the last few years, conventional wisdom about how to book flights on Oneworld airlines for travel within the U.S. has changed dramatically. There are multiple reasons for this, including:

• Alaska Airlines joined American Airlines as U.S.-based airlines in the Oneworld alliance.
• Alaska Airlines modified its award pricing approach, and the Mileage Plan program now has distance-based award charts.
• American Airlines maintained region-based award charts for partner flights, but the AAdvantage program has transitioned to fully dynamic award rates on American Airlines flights.
• Finnair and Qatar Airways have joined Aer Lingus, British Airways and Iberia in using Avios as their loyalty program currency, and loyalty program members can transfer Avios between programs. There also have been changes in award rates with these programs.

Ways to Book Award Flights on Alaska Airlines and American Airlines

The basic ways to book domestic award flights using airline loyalty programs are through the airline’s own program or through a partner airline’s program. One important caveat is that it’s common for an airline to make more award space available for booking through its own program compared with partner programs. This is especially relevant with business- and first-class awards.

The initial consideration for award searches is the type(s) of points and miles you have:

• If you have Alaska Mileage Plan miles, you can book through Alaska Airlines program.
• If you have American AAdvantage miles, you can book through American Airlines program.
• If you have rewards in other Oneworld airlines’ programs or non-alliance programs, you can book through these programs.
• If you have flexible currency—that can be transferred to other airlines’ loyalty programs—you can book through relevant partner programs.

For the last option, let’s look at Oneworld and non-alliance airline loyalty programs that are transfer partners with major flexible currency programs, such as American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One Miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi ThankYou® Rewards.

Airline and program name	Amex	Bilt	Capital One	Chase	Citi
Aer Lingus AerClub*	X	X		X
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan		X
British Airways Executive Club	X	X	X	X
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles	X	X	X		X
Etihad Guest*	X		X		X
Finnair Plus			X
Iberia Plus	X	X		X
Qantas Frequent Flyer	X		X		X
Qatar Airways Privilege Club	X				X

*Note: These airlines aren’t Oneworld alliance members. Aer Lingus AerClub Avios can’t be used directly to book flights on Alaska Airlines or American Airlines, but they can be moved to other Avios programs. Etihad Guest miles can’t be redeemed for Alaska flights.

The ability to transfer Avios among Aer Lingus, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia and Qatar Airways programs makes it easier for people to combine Avios from different flexible currency programs into the loyalty program that is best for a particular redemption.

Although Alaska Airlines and American Airlines have other non-alliance partners, the ability to book awards on Alaska or American flights through non-alliance partner loyalty programs is limited. American Airlines flights can be booked through Etihad Guest.

Fiji Airways—which is affiliated with but is not a full Oneworld member at the time of writing—is expected to begin using American AAdvantage as its loyalty program in 2025.

Award Program Options

Assuming that you have access to different rewards currencies, it makes sense to consider multiple booking options. In comparing programs, it’s useful to think about several factors.

• Award availability: It’s become increasingly common for some partner programs to have more award availability than others.
• Award pricing approach: Loyalty programs may use fixed award rates based on class of service and distance or regions, dynamic (also called variable) award rates where points for a given route fluctuate, or a combination of fixed and dynamic award rates. Many people prefer fixed award rates to limit uncertainty, but there are situations in which dynamic pricing is advantageous.
• Policies and fees: Beyond the number of miles needed for an award, policies and fees vary significantly among airlines and their loyalty programs. This includes things like fuel surcharges, change fees, cancellation fees and other airline-imposed fees. Flights on Alaska Airlines or American Airlines within the U.S. typically have minimal fees, but some programs do charge higher fees than others.
• User-friendliness: Programs vary in terms of ease of use. This includes factors such as whether awards can be booked online, how easy or difficult it is to find and book awards as well as general availability and quality of customer support when needed to book awards or deal with issues. 

Additional details and a comparison of award rates for booking American Airlines flights through several loyalty programs are included in our article about using Citi ThankYou Points to book American Airlines awards. 

Let’s take a look at some programs that can be used for booking domestic flights on Alaska Airlines and American Airlines. It’s worth noting that we won’t be focusing on two Oneworld airline programs that aren’t useful to many people for booking U.S. flights:

• Japan Airlines Mileage Bank: The program’s only U.S. transfer partner is Marriott Bonvoy, and redeeming miles through the program is challenging. Japan Airlines has two distance-based award charts that are relevant for flights on Alaska Airlines and American airlines: the Oneworld Award Tickets Chart and the JMB Partner Award Airlines Award Chart.
• Malaysia Airlines Enrich: The program currently doesn’t have any U.S. transfer partners. It also doesn’t support online award booking for partners, and the program’s distance-based award chart for partners generally has high award rates, particularly for one-way awards.

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan

Alaska Airlines overhauled its award pricing approach in early 2024. Currently, the program uses multiple award charts for partner flights within or between different regions, and the program has a separate chart for flights operated by Alaska Airlines.

Flights operated by Alaska Airlines

For flights solely on Alaska Airlines, award rates are based on a combination of distance and geographic areas. The chart shows “starting at” rates, so award rates can be higher than the minimum number of miles shown.

From Contiguous US including Alaska and Canada to	Economy starting at	First class starting at
Contiguous U.S., Alaska and Canada: less than 700 miles	5,000	15,000
Contiguous U.S., Alaska and Canada: 701 – 1,400 miles	7,500	25,000
Contiguous U.S., Alaska and Canada: 1,401 – 2,100 miles	10,000	25,000
Contiguous U.S., Alaska and Canada: 2,101 miles and longer	12,500	30,000
Hawaii: all distances	15,000	40,000
Mexico, Central America and Caribbean: all distances	10,000	30,000

Alaska Airlines occasionally has sales when award rates are lower than award charts indicate. During an August 2024 “fall sale,” award rates on Alaska-operated flights on selected routes were lower than expected. 

For example, we saw:

• Short flights under 700 miles—which should start at 5,000 Mileage Plan miles based on the award chart—for 4,000 miles.
• Transcontinental flights over 2,101 miles—which should start at 12,500 Mileage Plan miles based on the award chart—for 10,000 miles.

Flights operated by American Airlines

For flights with at least one segment on a partner airline, Mileage Plan uses a series of distance-based award charts. The award chart recreated below for the Americas applies to flights within the U.S. and one-way itineraries with at least one flight on American Airlines. Award rates are based on the total distance of all segments, and itineraries with connections don’t cost more than nonstop flights.

Distance (miles)	Economy starting at	Premium economy starting at	Business starting at	First starting at
Less than 700	4,500	6,000	9,000	13,500
701 – 1,400	7,500	10,000	15,000	25,000
1,401 – 2,100	12,500	17,500	25,000	40,000
2,101 – 4,000	17,500	22,500	35,000	52,500
4,001 – 6,000	25,000	32,500	50,000	75,000
6,001 and above	30,000	40,000	60,000	90,000

Alaska Airlines allows free award cancellations and changes on its own flights, but there’s a $12.50 nonrefundable partner booking fee that’s applied per passenger per direction to award flights operated by partner airlines.

American Airlines AAdvantage

Awards booked through the AAdvantage program for American Airlines flights are dynamically priced.

The AAdvantage program has an award chart for flights operated by partners, including Alaska Airlines. The portion of the “Flight award chart from Contiguous 48 U.S. states and Canada” award chart that includes partner-operated flights wholly within the U.S. is recreated below. The Caribbean region includes the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

Destination	Main cabin off-peak	Main cabin	Premium economy	Business / first	First
Contiguous 48 U.S. states and Canada +	Not available	12,500	22,500	25,000	50,000
Alaska +	Not available	15,000	25,000	30,000	55,000
Hawaii# +	Not available	22,500	50,000	55,000	80,000
Caribbean +	Not available	17,500	Not available	27,500	52,500

Notes:

+If the award includes travel on an aircraft that offers lie-flat seats in the U.S. and Canada, the business / first levels will be 7,500 miles higher than what is shown in the chart above.

#Any flight within Hawaii requires a separate award and is only valid on Hawaiian Airlines.

American Airlines allows free award cancellations and changes on its own flights and partner flights. This policy makes the AAdvantage program a good choice for booking domestic flights you might need to cancel or change.

British Airways Executive Club and Iberia Plus

We’re combining discussion of these two programs because both use Avios as their loyalty program currency, points can be transferred between Avios programs, and both programs often have the same award rates.

Neither airline currently publishes an award chart. Recently observed award rates for Alaska Airlines and American Airlines are based on the following distance bands.

Distance range (in miles)	Avios required per segment
	Economy	Business
Up to 650	12,000	24,000
651 – 1,150	16,000	32,000
1,151 – 2,000	18,000	40,000
2,001 – 3,000	20,000	50,000

For one-way itineraries with connections, British Airways and Iberia award rates are calculated by adding the number of Avios required for each segment based on each flight’s distance. It’s more common for loyalty programs to calculate distance-based award rates using the total distance of all segments. The approach utilized by British Airways and Iberia often results in their awards being more expensive on connecting routes.

In the example below, the award rate through the British Airways Executive Club or the Iberia Plus programs would be 28,000 Avios, based on the first segment at 16,000 Avios and the second segment at 12,000 Avios.

By comparison, booking the same American Airlines routing through Qantas Frequent Flyer—which sums distances of each flight to determine the distance band—would require 18,000 points since total distance is between 1,201 and 2,400 miles.

If choosing between booking through British Airways Executive Club or Iberia Plus, in most cases, you should use British Airways Executive Club because it has friendlier change and cancellation policies if you need to alter your travel plans. 

British Airways’ fees for canceling or changing an award ticket up to 24 hours before travel is the lower of $55 or taxes paid. Taxes often are $5.60 on domestic flights. In contrast, Iberia Plus doesn’t allow changes or refund Avios used or cash paid for award flights on many partners, including Alaska Airlines and American Airlines.

If you’re certain about flight plans and want to book a mixed-class itinerary—with some flights in economy and some in business—Iberia allows this to be booked on a single ticket with rates for each segment based on its class of service. This strategy might be useful if all segments aren’t available in business class, or if you want to save Avios by flying economy for shorter flights. 

In the example below, booking the shorter flight in economy saves 12,000 Avios compared with booking both segments in business class.

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

Cathay Pacific’s award rates are distance-based and are calculated using total distance for the entire route. Cathay Pacific publishes an award chart for its own flights, but it doesn’t publish an award chart for partners. Awards for partner-operated flights typically require more Asia Miles than similar distance Cathay Pacific flights.

At the time of writing, Cathay Pacific seemed to be working toward providing online award search and booking functionality for Alaska Airlines and American Airlines flights, but there were glitches with the functionality in several sample searches conducted in late July 2024. A note on the website identifying airlines for which members need to contact customer care to redeem flight awards no longer includes Alaska Airlines or American Airlines.

Because other programs have better award pricing, functional online search and booking tools, and lower award cancellation and change fees, Cathay Pacific usually isn’t the best option for booking U.S. flights on Oneworld airlines.

Etihad Guest

Since Etihad isn’t a Oneworld member, you can use Etihad Guest miles to book awards only on specific airlines that have partnerships with Etihad. For U.S. domestic flights, Etihad is an American Airlines partner. 

Etihad’s award chart for American Airlines flights is recreated below. Award rates are priced based on the distance of each segment, making Etihad Guest awards more expensive on connecting routes. 

Distance range (in miles)	Economy	Premium economy	Business	First
0 – 500	6,000	7,500	20,000	35,000
501 – 1,000	12,000	13,000	25,000	40,000
1,001 – 1,500	15,000	19,000	30,000	45,000
1,501 – 2,000	23,000	25,000	40,000	54,000
2,000 – 2,500	28,000	31,000	50,000	67,000
2,501 – 3,000	34,000	37,000	60,000	80,000
3,001 – 4,000	45,000	49,000	80,000	107,000
4,001 – 5,000	60,000	62,000	100,000	134,000
5,001 – 6,000	67,000	74,000	120,000	160,000
6,001+	75,000	90,000	140,000	200,000

Etihad Guest awards on American Airlines flights have higher taxes and fees compared with other programs, and they have complicated and often excessive fees when plans change. At the moment, date changes can be made until seven days before departure for 100 United Arab Emirates dirham (about $27). 

Cancellation fees for award flights more than 24 hours after booking are a percentage of the mileage cost and vary based on how long before travel cancellation occurs. 

Fees are:

• 100% of miles within 24 hours of the flight
• 75% of miles between one to seven days of the flight
• 50% of miles between eight and 21 days of the flight
• 25% of miles more than 21 days before the flight

Finnair Plus

Finnair Plus began using Avios as its currency in early 2024, but the program has a different award structure than other Avios programs. Finnair has zone-based award charts for partners, including Alaska Airlines and American Airlines.

Finnair’s award charts for Alaska Airlines and American Airlines aren’t identical with how some regions are defined and in some award rates, but the award rate of 11,000 Avios for economy flights within the continental U.S. and Canada are the same for Alaska Airlines and American Airlines flights.

Here’s the recreated award chart for redeeming Finnair Avios on Alaska Airlines.

Route (one way)	Economy	Business	First
Continental U.S. & Canada	11,000	N/A	40,000
North America – Mexico	12,500	N/A	49,500
North America – Hawaii	13,500	N/A	50,500

And below is the portion of Finnair’s American Airlines chart relevant for domestic flights.

Route (one way)	Economy	Business	First
Flights within North America (continental U.S. and Canada)	11,000	N/A	30,000
North America – Caribbean and Mexico	13,000	25,000	40,000
Flights within South America	13,000	25,000	40,000
North America – Hawaii and Central America	15,000	38,000	47,500

Finnair Plus award prices are competitive and in some cases among the cheapest options for longer distance and connecting domestic economy travel, but it’s challenging to find availability and book these awards. Finnair notes that partner awards for travel on other airlines, including Alaska Airlines and American Airlines, must be booked with a chat or phone agent.

The more significant issue is award availability. For multiple flights we checked during three separate chat sessions, Finnair Plus agents couldn’t find award space on some Alaska Airlines and American Airlines flights where other partner programs showed award availability. This could be due to Finnair Plus not having access to as much award space as other partner programs do, agent training, system limitations or a combination of these factors.

Finnair charges $50 for cancellations and changes.

Qantas Frequent Flyer

Qantas Frequent Flyer publishes a series of distance-based award charts. There are different award rates for using Qantas points on Alaska Airlines or American Airlines flights.

The Partner Classic Flight Reward table recreated below applies to one-way awards on Alaska Airlines and other partners.

Zone	One-way miles	Qantas Points required (excluding taxes, fees and carrier charges)
		Economy	Premium economy	Business	First
1	0 – 600	10,000	15,800	20,000	29,000
2	601 – 1,200	14,000	23,700	30,000	43,500
3	1,201 – 2,400	20,000	34,500	43,800	64,500
4	2,401 – 3,600	24,500	48,500	61,200	89,800
5	3,601 – 4,800	30,200	59,000	75,000	107,700
6	4,801 – 5,800	37,800	70,800	90,000	129,300
7	5,801 – 7,000	45,000	81,800	104,500	149,800
8	7,001 – 8,400	50,300	93,500	119,200	170,800
9	8,401 – 9,600	61,500	109,000	139,200	199,300
10	9,601 – 15,000	66,200	124,800	159,000	227,500

The Qantas Classic Flight Reward table below applies to one-way awards on flights operated by Qantas, American Airlines and other select airlines.

Zone	One-way miles	Qantas Points required (excluding taxes, fees and carrier charges)
		Economy	Premium economy	Business	First
1	0 – 600	8,000	13,800	18,400	27,600
2	601 – 1,200	12,000	20,600	27,600	41,500
3	1,201 – 2,400	18,000	31,000	41,500	62,200
4	2,401 – 3,600	20,300	42,200	57,000	85,500
5	3,601 – 4,800	25,200	51,300	68,400	102,600
6	4,801 – 5,800	31,500	61,500	82,000	123,100
7	5,801 – 7,000	37,600	71,100	94,900	142,300
8	7,001 – 8,400	41,900	81,300	108,400	162,800
9	8,401 – 9,600	51,200	94,900	126,500	189,800
10	9,601 – 15,000	55,200	108,400	144,600	216,900

If you need to cancel or change a Qantas award, fees are charged in miles, not money. The 6,000-mile cancellation fee and 5,000-mile change fee represent a large percentage of the award cost for some U.S. domestic awards, which start at 8,000 miles per direction.

Qatar Airways Privilege Club

Qatar Airways doesn’t publish a partner award chart, and its award calculator tool isn’t working. Until August 2024, Privilege Club award rates were similar to the previously published British Airways award rates that applied before the last few British Airways devaluations. In mid-August 2024, Qatar Airways increased award rates for flights up to 3,000 miles on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines with no advance notice. 

Latest observed and reported Privilege Club award rates are:

	Number of Avios required
Flight distance (in miles)	Economy	Business
1 – 650	9,500	20,000
651 – 1,151	13,000	27,000
1,152 – 2,000	14,500	34,000
2,001 – 3,000	16,000	43,000
3,001 – 4,000	20,750	62,000
4,001 – 5,500	25,750	77,250

Qatar Airways partner bookings are a mixed bag. While some award rates are lower through Privilege Club, Qatar’s online searches don’t consistently produce results for certain U.S. airports and domestic routes. For example, routes operated by American Airlines regional carriers aren’t displayed in search results. Multiple award searches for domestic flights with connections haven’t been successful, either.

Personal experience and online reports suggest that Qatar Airways agents can’t see award availability for flights operated by American Airlines’ regional carriers. Regional carriers are identified by the language “Operated by (regional carrier name) as American Eagle” in American Airlines flight searches. Some regional carriers include Envoy Air, Piedmont Airlines and Republic Airways.

Qatar charges $25 for cancellations and changes made at least 24 hours in advance and $100 for cancellations and changes made between three and 24 hours in advance.

Award Examples and Sweet Spots

Let’s look at a few award examples that illustrate more general trends about finding cheap domestic awards. Sweet spots are awards with better redemption rates than other programs. 

Examples focus on economy-class awards for two reasons:

• Domestic flights often are short enough that many people choose to save points and miles by flying in economy.
• Business- or first-class partner award availability is limited, especially on longer flights where more people are interested in premium cabin travel.

Short Flights

Airline loyalty programs with distance-based award charts have different distance ranges for their bands. The shortest distance band in each program generally includes flight distances up to 500 through 700 miles. If you’re considering redeeming rewards for flights in that distance range, it’s worth paying attention to different programs’ bands. The Great Circle Mapper is a useful tool for estimating flight distances.

We’ll look at two examples for travel in May 2025. Both are nonstop flights under 500 miles. One flight is operated by Alaska Airlines, and the other is operated by American Airlines.

Alaska Airlines flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to San Francisco (SFO)

The estimated distance for this flight is 337 miles. 

The cheapest economy award we found was through Alaska’s Mileage Plan program at 5,000 miles on the 8 a.m. departure. Other awards that day were more expensive.

If you don’t have Alaska Mileage Plan miles, the least expensive options for booking the same flight through partner programs require 10,000 miles either through Cathay Pacific Asia Miles or Qantas Frequent Flyer.

American Airlines flight from Charlotte, North Carolina (CLT), to Orlando, Florida (MCO)

The estimated distance for this flight is 468 miles.

The lowest pricing is 4,500 Alaska Mileage Plan miles. When we conducted the search, there were 10 nonstop flights on this date available at the same award rate.

If you don’t have Alaska miles, programs with the next best partner awards for nonstop flights are Etihad Guest for 6,000 miles, as shown below, or Qantas Frequent Flyer for 8,000 points. 

American Airlines award rates for nonstop service on its own flights on the same date required more miles compared to the cheapest partner awards. The least expensive economy award rates through American AAdvantage were 9,500 miles for nonstop flights or 6,500 miles for connecting flights on May 7. Other dates during the month displayed nonstop flight availability for 6,500 AAdvantage miles.

Connecting and Longer Flights

In contrast to the situation with short flights, the least expensive awards for longer, connecting routes often are available through programs that have dynamic award pricing or favorable regional award pricing.

For American Airlines flights, AAdvantage award rates often are the cheapest for intermediate distance and transcontinental economy flights, including routes with connections and travel to or from smaller airports. I’ve personally booked multiple American Airlines domestic flights for 6,000 to 8,000 AAdvantage miles per direction in the last few years.

Let’s look at American Airlines flights on Nov. 12 between Syracuse, New York, and San Diego. There are multiple one-stop itineraries originating in Syracuse (SYR), with connections in Charlotte (CLT), Chicago (ORD), Dallas (DFW) and Philadelphia (PHL). The shortest itineraries connect in Chicago, with the first flight having an estimated distance of 607 miles and the second flight having an estimated distance of 1,723 miles, for a total distance of 2,330 miles.

American AAdvantage search results for one-way economy awards showed the lowest award rates of 7,500 miles available on multiple flight options. 

Some itineraries with shorter connection times or presumably higher demand are more expensive. The three options with one connection and shortest total travel time are shown below.

If you don’t have AAdvantage miles, flights booked through partner programs on a route like this often are more expensive, with wide variability in both availability and award rates among programs. 

There are several reasons for availability differences:

• Some programs don’t appear to have access to award space on flights operated by American Airlines regional carriers that operate many flights to and from Syracuse.
• Different programs may have different rules, for example, regarding minimum or maximum connection times.
• American Airlines may release more space to some partners than others.

Partner award rates for one-stop American Airlines economy flights on this date ranged from 11,000 Avios through Finnair Plus to over 30,000 miles through British Airways Executive Club and Iberia Plus.

Alaska Airlines had award availability on nine one-stop flights with different connecting cities for 17,500 Mileage Plan miles. Award rates were consistent with the partner award chart for flights with total distances between 2,101 and 4,000 miles.

British Airways, Etihad and Qantas searches showed availability on multiple flights connecting in different cities. The lowest award rate was 18,000 miles through Qantas Frequent Flyer for itineraries connecting in Chicago. The lowest award rate through Etihad Guest was 28,000 miles, and the least expensive award through British Airways Executive Club was 30,000 miles. 

These award rates were consistent with published award charts for Etihad and Qantas, and British Airways rates were consistent with reported award rates following their July 2024 devaluation.

Finnair Plus had the lowest award rates for any partner program, but for the search date and route, Finnair Plus had the least award availability. Although online searches weren’t possible for American Airlines flights through Finnair, a chat agent was able to find award availability on one flight combination at the expected award rate of 11,000 Avios. Both flights were mainline American Airlines service, with a connection in Charlotte.

Checking Qatar Airways availability required a phone call because online searches didn’t show any results, and the chat function wasn’t working. A phone agent was able to find two different award options. Connections were in Charlotte—on the same flights with Finnair Plus availability—or Dallas. These are the connecting airports with mainline American Airlines service from Syracuse. 

The Qatar agent indicated that the award rate for the routing with a connection in Dallas was 13,000 Avios, which was the expected award rate for the distance band of 2,001 to 3,000 miles before the mid-August 2024 devaluation. The post-devaluation award rate would be 16,000 Avios. The quoted award rate was interesting because it indicates that it was calculated based on total distance—approximately 2,500 miles—of the two segments, which is different from the approach that British Airways and Iberia use.

Flights between the continental U.S. and Hawaii

Since Hawaii is a popular vacation destination, let’s look at some of the Oneworld flight options from the continental U.S. to Hawaii.

The principles discussed previously influence pricing for awards between the continental U.S. and Hawaii. In other words, distance per segment, total distance and connecting airports impact pricing with certain programs.

Award rates for travel to and from Hawaii are somewhat different, since some award charts consider Hawaii to be a different region than the continental U.S. 

One-way economy award rates for programs that have different regional pricing between the continental U.S. and Hawaii are:

• Alaska Mileage Plan awards for flights on Alaska Airlines start at 15,000 miles.
• American AAdvantage awards for flights on Alaska Airlines are 22,500 miles.
• Finnair Plus award rates are 13,500 Avios for Alaska Airlines flights and 15,000 Avios for American Airlines flights.

For programs not mentioned above, award rates between the continental U.S. and Hawaii follow each program’s published or observed distance-based award pricing or utilize dynamic pricing.

We searched for award availability from Los Angeles (LAX) to Kahului, Maui (OGG). Alaska Airlines and American Airlines both operate nonstop flights on this route. The estimated flight distance is 2,485 miles. 

For flights on May 10, 2025, we found nonstop award flights on both airlines. Best options—depending on the points and miles available and the airline selected—are discussed below.

If you have Alaska Mileage Plan miles, you can book the Alaska Airlines flight for 15,000 miles or choose an American Airlines flight for 17,500 miles.

If you have American AAdvantage miles, you can book either Alaska Airlines or American Airlines flights for 22,500 miles. While award rates on American Airlines flights are dynamic, we didn’t find any dates showing nonstop award flights for fewer than 22,500 miles during the entire booking window, from late July 2024 to late June 2025.

In our initial search during late July 2024, the least expensive awards available for this route and travel date were through Qatar Airways Privilege Club, but with the program’s August 2024 devaluation, Finnair Plus now has the lowest award prices. The Finnair chat agent couldn’t see award availability on any American Airlines flights that day but confirmed availability on the Alaska Airlines flight for 13,500 Avios + $5.60. 

Nonstop flights on American Airlines and on Alaska Airlines were available through Qatar Airways Privilege Club for 16,000 Avios.

British Airways Executive Club award rates were 20,000 Avios for either Alaska Airlines or American Airlines nonstop flights between Los Angeles and Maui. 

If you’re looking to book longer flights to Hawaii from other U.S. cities, you’ll be looking at different redemption rates with some distance-based programs. 

The benefit of using Qatar Airways instead of British Airways doesn’t exist for flights longer than 3,000 miles. For example, nonstop flights from Dallas (DFW) to Honolulu (HNL) cover an estimated distance of 3,784 miles and require 20,750 Avios when booking through Qatar Airways Privilege Club or British Airways Executive Club.

Finnair’s award chart provides the best pricing for flights to Hawaii longer than 3,000 miles. We confirmed via online chat with Finnair that the same nonstop American Airlines flight discussed above between Dallas and Honolulu was available for 15,000 Avios. Furthermore, award rates for connecting flights from other U.S. airports should be the same price through Finnair Plus.

Final Thoughts

In the last few years, there has been a major shift in which programs provide the best award rates for domestic Oneworld airline flights, and future changes are likely. Some general tips to find the best award rates are:

• Be aware of the award pricing for each program and monitor them for changes.
• Check multiple programs before transferring points (if applicable) and booking award flights.
• If booking awards with dynamic pricing and free award cancellations and changes—such as American Airlines flights through the AAdvantage program or Alaska Airlines flights through the Mileage Plan program—book when you find a reasonable award rate and continue monitoring for lower rates before travel.
• For domestic business- and first-class travel, partner award availability often is sparse, and programs with the best award availability and rates might be different compared to economy awards.

Good options for domestic economy awards on Oneworld airlines include:

• Using Alaska Mileage Plan for flights under 700 miles: Awards on American Airlines flights go for 4,500 miles, and awards on Alaska Airlines flights usually start at 5,000 miles.
• Using American AAdvantage for American Airlines flights when dynamic award rates are low: American often has the best award rates on connecting itineraries and intermediate or longer distance flights. It’s often possible to find awards for 6,000 to 10,000 miles.
• Using Finnair Plus to book awards when available and Finnair’s regional pricing is advantageous: Finnair award rates of 11,000 Avios within the continental U.S. and Canada and 13,500 Avios (on Alaska Airlines) or 15,000 Avios (on American Airlines) between the continental U.S. and Hawaii often are good options for longer flights and itineraries with connections. Among the Avios programs, Finnair has the best economy award rates for flights over 650 miles and for connecting routes.
• Using Qatar Airways Privilege Club to book awards when available and Qatar’s distance-based pricing is advantageous: As a general rule for choosing which Avios program to use for domestic flights, Qatar Airways award rates are better than British Airways or Iberia pricing for flight distances up to 3,000 miles, and Qatar Airways economy award rates are lower than Finnair award rates for flight distances up to 650 miles.
• Considering British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Etihad, Iberia and Qantas programs in some circumstances: Although these programs usually don’t have the best award rates, if you’re unable to book through the programs noted above or have other reasons to prefer using points and miles in these programs, it’s worth checking which option is best for specific travel plans.