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.

If you’ve ever been frustrated trying to figure out the best ways to search for awards on Oneworld airlines, keep reading for some guidance and tips. We’ll address approaches to make searching easier and find good uses for your points and miles.

Oneworld Alliance Overview

The Oneworld Alliance, along with SkyTeam and Star Alliance, make up the world’s three major airline alliances. Travelers have much to gain from understanding how these alliances function since they provide a global network of flights, allow passengers to earn and redeem miles across member airlines and provide elite benefits across the network.

The latest program to announce a complete revamp is American Airlines’ AAdvantage program. We were expecting a devaluation, because when an airline announces “enhancements” they usually aren’t in our favor, but this time AA is only changing elite qualification requirements and a new way to earn elite status through credit card spending. 

There Are No Award Chart Changes at This Time

Since we’ve all been expecting it, let’s get this out of the way. At this time American is not introducing any award chart changes.

Similar to Disney’s “Big Hero 6” film, Turkish Miles&Smiles is easily one of the most underrated loyalty programs out there.

In a little bit of a shocking move, Citi has announced a new limited time ThankYou Points transfer partner - American AAdvantage.

Starting July 18, 2021 and running through November 13, 2021, if you have either the Citi Premier Card (Note from the editor: Citi Premier® Card is no longer available to new applicants) or the Citi Prestige Card, you can transfer ThankYou Points 1:1 to American AAdvantage miles. If you have the Citi Preferred or the Citi Rewards+ cards, you can transfer the points 2:1.

Many travelers have Australia on their bucket list. There really is something for everyone, from the snorkeling and diving at the Great Barrier Reef to wineries, cool cities and spectacular beaches. 

The competition for the very limited number of award seats to get there, however, is fierce. Airlines’ frequent miler programs certainly don’t make it easy and finding award space on the nonstop flights from the U.S. could be quite a challenge.

I’m not gonna lie, when it comes to airline programs, I think that American Airlines AAdvantage program is one of the best out there. There are a lot of great ways to redeem American Airlines AAdvantage miles, from economy to first class.

The biggest drawback to AAdvantage miles is that currently, no credit card flexible rewards currency directly transfers to American Airlines. This can make it appear to be a bit difficult to accumulate AAdvantage miles compared to other mileage programs out there.

Don’t let that stop you from pursuing AAdvantage miles.

Let’s talk about Avios.

Three airlines—Aer Lingus, British Airways and Iberia—use this rewards currency, yet they’re separate award programs. Same, same, but different. And, because the programs are different, they also use their own award charts and follow their own rules.

Although there are three loyalty programs that use Avios, in this article, we’ll focus on two: British Airways Executive Club and Iberia Plus.

Ugh. American Airlines' new tool for searching award space is super annoying. The results are in no way displayed in a way that makes it efficient for us to see what's available.

It gives you no easy option to filter number of stops or cabin. On the week view, it says a filter function is coming soon... but it's said that for a while now. (Edit 7/18: There are some filter options on the mobile version.

Attention AAdvantage cardholders!