Multi-destination award tickets

  Award Ticket Strategies

A few frequent flyer programs offer fantastic deals for trips that visit multiple destinations. Unlike most other programs, the number of miles they require depends on the total distance that you travel, rather than charging you individually for each leg of your trip. This allows you to visit several different destinations for about the same number of miles as a regular round-trip.

Your best options are Japanese Airlines (JAL) and Cathay Pacific, which are both part of the Oneworld alliance. ANA can also be an attractive option, but for these types of trips, it requires that your flights travel in a single direction, and go all the way around the world.

Jump to

• Some examples
• Best programs for multi-destination trips
• Mileage chart comparison

Some examples

Let’s compare a few trips with JAL miles, versus the same trip using American miles:

• Let’s imagine that you want to fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo, then to Hong Kong, then to Sydney, and then back to Los Angeles. The total trip length is 19,371 miles. If you stuck with just JAL and Qantas flights, JAL would only require 60,000 miles in economy, 100,000 in business, or 155,000 miles in first class. If you had to take advantage of more than one partner, the cost would rise to 90,000 / 120,000 / 170,000 miles. By comparison, a simple round trip to Australia on American would be 80,000 / 160,000 / 220,000 miles; and the full trip would be 125,000 / 210,00 / 280,000 miles—around double the cost.

With JAL's devaluation in November 2018, their prices rose to 70,000 / 130,000 / 190,000, for trips with just JAL and Qantas; prices for multi-partner trips remain the same.


• For a European example, you might want to go from New York to Madrid, then Morocco, then London, Paris, and Rome, and then back home. This total trip distance is 10,857 miles. This trip would require 60,000 miles in economy, and 110,000 miles in business with JAL rather than 97,000 / 207,000 with American. However, depending on the airlines you fly, you may wind up paying substantially more in fuel surcharges with JAL. (Prices won't change with JAL's upcoming devaluation.)





• As an extreme example, imagine a globe-hopping trip from New York to Rome, then London, then Johannesburg, then side flights to Cape Town and Victoria Falls, then nonstop to Sao Paulo Brazil, and finally back to New York. The total distance of this trip would be 22,912 miles and the JAL mileage cost would be 120,000 in coach, 150,000 in business, and 230,000 in first (and will be unchanged with JAL's upcoming devaluation). The same trip with American Airlines miles would be 185,500 / 325,500 miles.

Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz.

Best programs for multi-destination trips

• ANA is the best option for Star Alliance flights, but they require an around-the-world itinerary. ANA’s distance-based chart is only available for trips which travel in a single direction (east or west). If you are travelling to somewhere that is close to half-way around the world anyway—like India, Africa from the West Coast, or East Asia or Australia from the East Coast—this isn’t necessarily a problem. But, it won’t be a good option for many other itineraries.

• There are no good options for SkyTeam flights. None of the SkyTeam frequent flyer programs has a distance-based award chart. The best option for multi-destination around the world trips is theoretically Aeromexico. Tickets require 224,000 points in economy or 352,000 in business, but because Aeromexico works with kilometers rather than miles, you get a bonus when you transfer membership reward points. This drops the cost to 140,000 Membership Reward points in Economy and 220,000 in Business. The problem is that it might be impossible to book a complicated itinerary due to customer service issues.

Korean Airlines and Alitalia both require the same 140,000 / 220,000 points, but support fewer stopovers (6-7).

• There are several options for Oneworld flights. Distance-based awards is something that is essentially unique to Oneworld, except for some around-the-world options with the other alliances.
• In general, JAL requires the least miles, but it can be hard to get the miles you need. Unfortunately, JAL isn’t a partner of Membership Rewards, Ultimate Rewards, or ThankYou Rewards. They have a US branded credit card, but it has a very small signup bonus. You’ll either need Starpoints, or to credit a bunch of flights to JAL.

For this type of trip, you'll probably need to use JAL's multi-carrier Oneworld chart. It will remain almost unchanged with JAL's devaluation in November 2018.



If you can stick with just a single partner and/or JAL flights, you can use their regular award chart. This chart is changing more significantly in November.


• Cathay Pacific is your best alternative option. If you use at least two different airline partners (not counting Cathay Pacific itself), the required mileage will be determined by their “Multi-carrier” award chart, which is based on the total distance flown. Using multiple partners is likely to happen naturally on these types of trips. If not, you can often deliberately add a short flight on an additional airline to make sure you are using the right chart, You can transfer Membership Reward, ThankYou, and Marriott points to Cathay Pacific to book your award.

• If you only have Ultimate Reward points, your best option is usually British Airways. Like Cathay Pacific, when you fly on two or more partner airlines, you use a special chart that is based on the total distance travelled, rather than payingfor each individual flight. Prices aren’t bad in economy, but get very expensive in business and first.

• There is rarely a reason to use the other options. Iberia doesn’t allow stop-overs. And Malaysia and Qantas are usually more expensive than the other options above.

Mileage chart comparison

This chart compares the number of miles needed for JAL, Cathay Pacific, and British Airways, as long as you are using at least two different partner airlines.

	Economy
	JAL	Cathay	BA
1 – 1,000	25	30	30
1,001 – 1,500	25	30	30
1.501 – 2,000	25	35	35
2,001 – 4,000	25	35	35
4,001 – 7,500	40	60	60
7,501 – 8,000	40	65	60
8,001 – 9,000	50	65	60
9,001 – 10,000	50	70	70
10,001 – 12,000	60	90	90
12,001 – 14,000	70	90	90
14,001 – 20,000	90	100	100
20,001 – 25,000	120	115	120
25,001 – 29,000	140	130	140
29,001 – 35,000	150	130	140
35,001 – 50,000	160	150	160

	Business
	JAL	Cathay	BA
1 – 1,000	48	55	60
1,001 – 1,500	48	60	60
1.501 – 2,000	48	65	70
2,001 – 4,000	48	70	70
4,001 – 7,500	80	90	120
7,501 – 8,000	80	100	120
8,001 – 9,000	80*	100	120
9,001 – 10,000	80*	110	140
10,001 – 12,000	110	135	180
12,001 – 14,000	110*	135	180
14,001 – 20,000	120	155	200
20,001 – 25,000	150	185	240
25,001 – 29,000	190	210	280
29,001 – 35,000	200	210	280
35,001 – 50,000	220	240	320

• After November, these awards cost an extra 5,000 points, but are still much less expensive than other programs.

	First
	JAL	Cathay	BA
1 – 1,000	72	70	90
1,001 – 1,500	72	80	90
1.501 – 2,000	72	90	105
2,001 – 4,000	72	95	105
4,001 – 7,500	100	140	180
7,501 – 8,000	100	150	180
8,001 – 9,000	110	150	180
9,001 – 10,000	110	160	210
10,001 – 12,000	160	220	270
12,001 – 14,000	160*	220	270
14,001 – 20,000	170	250	300
20,001 – 25,000	230	280	360
25,001 – 29,000	280	300	420
29,001 – 35,000	300	300	420
35,001 – 50,000	330	345	480

• After November, this award costs an extra 5,000 points, but is still much less expensive than other programs.

If you can limit yourself to Japan Airlines, plus at most one other partner, you can take advantage of even lower mileage requirements (shown in chart form above). This is often possible on multi-destination itineraries through Asia that leave from JAL gateways (Anchorage, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Hawaii, Las Vegas, LA, New Orleans, NYC, San Diego, San Francisco, and Hawaii). 

If you aren’t flying on multiple partners, Cathay Pacific and British Airways switch to different pricing mechanisms that don’t work for this type of trip.  

Award Tickets 101: The Basics

Use Free Stopovers to Visit Two (or More) Places for the Price of One

Fly Short Distances Using Fewer Miles by Taking Advantage of Distance-Based Frequent Flyer Programs

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