ANA, part of Star Alliance, is moving from a distance-based award chart to a zone-based one. For our purposes, this was supposed to be a positive change. Distance-based award charts generally are not particularly great for long-distance itineraries, or ones with multiple connections (see this post on the recent British Airways Devaluation). Zone-based ones allow more flexibility in most cases.
ANA announced the new chart back in November, and people (especially me) got very excited because there were some tremendous values on it:
- Flying from the US to Europe in Business Class was 72K miles round trip.
- Flying from the US to Middle East/AfricaU in Business Class was 90K round trip.
- Flying from the US to Japan in Business Class was 85K round trip.
- Other values all over the chart in ALL classes of travel.
Travel Is Free had a great summary here.
ANA decided to make some changes to that chart before it goes into effect this Sunday, April 12th, 2015. The bad news is that some awards have become more expensive than previously noted. The good news is they’re still fantastic values compared to programs like United, American, and Delta, and there’s even a proper award chart now.
New ANA Award Chart
Note the chart shows round trip prices. Below are some updated values from the new ANA award chart that might be of interest.
Round trip US to:
- Japan remains 85K in Business Class.
- Asia 1 (Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan) is 95K in Business Class.
- Asia 2 (the rest of Asia) is 115K in Business Class.
- Africa/Middle East is 104K in Business Class.
- Oceana is 120K in Business Class.
While these prices have increased over what we were previously told, they still present tremendous value for premium cabin travel. I haven’t listed economy prices because many are now somewhat competitive with the US domestic airline award prices, but in many cases are still cheaper.
Unfortunately, First Class prices have increased rather significantly for all regions to the point where it’s not really worth considering in my opinion. Economy and Business Class are great values.
How to Get ANA Miles
There are two main ways to earn ANA miles: through American Express Membership Rewards and through Starwood Preferred Guest. Amex MR points transfer at a 1:1 ratio, and SPG points will transfer at 1:1 also but provide a 5K bonus for every 20K transferred.
In my mind, this is definitely worth considering a shift of manufactured spending if you’re interested in flying Star Alliance.
150,000 for one way First US to Tokyo?!? And we don’t even get a Rimowa amenity kit anymore? Forget it – I just did on pre-deval MileagePlus for 70K.
I believe that’s round trip.
YQ?
Can you do a post outline the fuel surcharges per carrier….
Yes I’ll work on a post for this.
Yes, that would be much appreciated actually. The info hasn’t been aggregated yet by anyone, it seems like.
Are you no longer able to book US to Europe? I don’t see it on the chart.
You definitely can. Search the reverse, Europe to US. It’s the same price.
Thanks! I see it now, 88k RT in biz.That’s quite the mile hike for Western Europe, although relatively unchanged for Eastern Europe/the Balkans. My award from NYC – DBV used to be 85k RT. I knew 72k was too good to be true.
Can you book one-ways or only round trip?
Glad they brought down Asia 1 from 105 to 95 in J
Massive devaluation USA to central america in coach from 22k to 50k. Are there any other carriers that lump central america in with south america?
Turkish apparently – https://travelcodex.com/the-world-according-to-airlines-award-maps-for-13-frequent-flyer-programs/
I transferred 80K miles from AMEX to ANA about a year ago, and haven’t used the miles yet. Looks like a devaluation for my planned trips – I guess I should’ve used the miles already!