Stephen is an established voice in the credit card space, with over 70 to his name. His work has been in publications like The Washington Post, and his Au Points and Awards Consulting Services is used...
Edited by: Keri Stooksbury
With years of experience in corporate marketing and as the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Qatar, Keri is now Editor-in-Chief at UP, overseeing daily content operations and r...
& Kellie Jez
Kellie’s professional experience has led her to a deep passion for compliance, data reporting, and process improvement. Kellie’s learned the ins and outs of the points and miles world and leads UP’s c...
39 comments
Tigris23
April 25, 2018
Thanks for the useful article! Quick question. How does the stopover work (eg. does it have to been in the same zone if going to Japan is one of the destinations? Also, if a RT is booked with ANA metal, is the stopover one in total or one in each direction? Thanks!
Michael McHugh
April 28, 2018
The stopover rules can be found here and the stopover restrictions can be found here.
To answer your first question through an example, if you are flying from Area 1 (U.S.) to Area 3 (Japan), you are not allowed to stopover in Area 2 (Europe).
To answer your second question, if you are flying ANA metal to Japan, you are allowed one stopover on either the outbound or return flight. If you are flying from Japan, a stopover is not allowed.
ed
May 15, 2018
ANA defines a “change” as same routing, different time. Any class of service or different routing is a “cancellation/redeposit/rebooking.”
Moreover, any miles used to book the award that have “expired” are not eligible for redeposit. This differs from even the dreadful AF/KLM FlyingBlue, where those miles appear to be returned until a batch job is run later that clears them out.
In other words, the “only 3,000 miles” to cancel is not definitely true unless you’ve used your miles within 24 months of crediting them.
Donald
January 04, 2019
The thing I hate about the Amex SPG card is it takes 6 weeks!!!! 6 weeks for the points you transfer to show up in TMC. Any other cards with a better point transfer time frame to ANA?
Stephen Au
January 04, 2019
Hey Donald!
American Express Membership Rewards points transfer to ANA faster. Check out this post to learn about AmEx transfer partners!
/credit-cards/amex-membership-rewards-transfer-partners/
Ed Dee
March 03, 2019
How easy is it to find availability for business class from SFO to HKG? Is waitlisting worth a try? I’m looking to go to HKG in May/June. What is the recommended strategy?
Thanks.
Stephen Au
March 19, 2019
Hey Ed,
It depends on the airline you are planning on flying. SFO-HKG is a huge route for United Airlines, and it features their best Polaris class, which makes award redemptions difficult. If you’re flying with ANA and connecting in Tokyo, it may be easier. Waitlisting flights is something I’m not personally comfortable with. It’s too difficult to have uncertain travel plans and book hotels, plan vacations, etc.
It all depends on your level of risk. We always suggest finding a confirmed flight and waitlisting for a better flight. That way, if the waitlisted flight clears, you can simply cancel your confirmed flight. If it doesn’t, you still can get to your destination.
John
May 19, 2019
Can I transfer ultimate rewards points to ANA?
Stephen Au
May 21, 2019
John,
There’s no way to transfer Ultimate Rewards points to ANA. However, you can transfer to United Airlines, which gives you access to Star Alliance award partners. Thanks for reading!
John
May 26, 2019
I just got off the phone with Ultimate Rewards agent and was told you cannot transfer points to any of its travel partners unless you have the Sapphire Preferred or Freedom cards, the regular chase sapphire card won’t allow it. I have never read of any restrictions on using your UR points and now I am limited to using my points to the UR portal only, to say I’m pissed off is an understatement.
Stephen Au
May 27, 2019
John,
The phone agent is correct. In fact, you cannot transfer your points to airlines at all unless you hold the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, or Chase Business Ink Preferred credit cards. We’ve put together many guides on Chase Ultimate Rewards, and you can follow this link to see this language:
“Having the Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card, Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, and Chase Sapphire Reserve® allows you to transfer Ultimate Rewards points to travel partners which are almost always the best ways to use your points.”
/credit-cards/chase-ultimate-rewards-review/#Redeem-Ultimate-Rewards-For-Travel
Sasa pineda
June 18, 2019
I have Star Alliance points earned from a flight via Asiana. Can I use these points to redeem ANA flight within Japan specifically Osaka to Miyazaki? Thanks
Jarrod West
June 18, 2019
Hi Sasa,
What Star Alliance frequent flyer program do you hold those miles with? Asiana? Or are you crediting those miles elsewhere?
Claire
July 27, 2019
I have found LH F availablity to FRA, with biz connection on to HAM. ANA will show the flights when I search segment by segment, but not when I search US-HAM. Is this a known glitch? Will the agent be able to book the flights I want if I call?
Jarrod West
July 31, 2019
Hi Claire,
This is likely just an error in their system. A phone agent should be able to book the itinerary for you when you call in.
Thanks for reading!
Eric
November 24, 2019
Hi,
On a round trip flight with ANA, do you know if you can fly business class one way and economy class on the way back?
Jarrod West
November 25, 2019
Hi Eric,
If you’re planning to pay with cash then yes you can fly in business class one way and economy class on the way back. If you’re hoping to use miles then you’re required to fly in the same fare class for both segments.
Thanks for reading!
Peggy
October 14, 2020
ANA RTW examples never show route that fly to Australia, is it allowed?
Jarrod West
October 14, 2020
Hi Peggy,
Yes, flying to Austrailia is allowed with ANA’s RTW routing rules.
Lisa
October 30, 2020
I was just on the phone with an ANA agent about a RTW flight. She said I am over my 3 stops in Europe. I have SFO-ZHR; ZHR-ZAG; OTP-IST; IST-DXB…..She said DXB is considered Europe on their chart.
Stephen Au
November 02, 2020
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for reading, and great question!
ANA must manually construct and price out these RTW trips, so there’s quite a bit of room for human error.
Your agent is mistaken — you’ll see the below link that shows that the United Arab Emirates falls into the Middle East zone.
https://www.ana.co.jp/en/us/amc/partner-flight-awards/
Thanks for reading!
tony ortega
March 11, 2021
excellent read Stephen! I transferred points from AMEX two years ago for four business class tickets for the Tokyo Olympics. Sadly, that was canceled last year. Now, I have a lot of points I have to use before they expire. I’m getting a message from the website that I can’t book my planned itinerary even for one ticket, even though the search indicated available seats. I am looking at IAH to MNL, then MNL to IST as a stopover, then IST to IAH. Is this itinerary not possible with their stopover ruling? thank you!
Stephen Au
March 31, 2021
Hi Tony,
You’re encountering issues because you are crossing both oceans in a round-trip itinerary. At a minimum, this will be priced as a RTW trip, and you’ll need to call ANA Mileage Club to book the ticket. If you come back the same way you left, you won’t have any problems.
Stephanie
June 14, 2021
Hi is there a time limit on the RTW schedule? If I start travelling October 2021, do I need to complete my route by October 2022? Also is it possible to change the date/route of RTW after the trips are booked via ANA? Thanks !
Jarrod West
June 22, 2021
Hi Stephanie,
Yes, your trip would need to be completed within 1 year. You can certainly change the date or route of your booking after it has been booked provided that there is award availability – you’ll also be responsible for any changes to the taxes and fees.
Danielle
November 29, 2021
This is a great article, except I have searched every itinerary listed (JFK to Rio, for example) in this article and every time I get a message from ANA that says, “There are no results that match your specified search criteria. Please change your criteria, and retry your search again.” Is ANA just not doing any flights right now?
Stephen Au
November 30, 2021
Hi Danielle,
If you’re not able to pull up award availability, you can always use United.com first and then call ANA Mileage Club to book your award reservation.
sg
June 11, 2022
We’re having issues booking ANA using our miles. Called ANA and they said they’re not allowing redemption for 2022.
EL
September 07, 2022
Hi,
I’ve been trying to book ANA business class reward travel, but there is none available for the next 6 months! Is this normal? Thanks!!
Jarrod West
September 07, 2022
Hi El,
Depending on where you are hoping to travel award space can get booked up quickly. It is best to be as flexible as possible, search far in advance, and serach often to track down coveted award space.
David
November 20, 2022
This seems good in theory but I’ve looked at EVERY date in Sept/Oct/Nov 2023 and not one award available on any date to Japan from ANY city in the US… How should one book on ANA when they don’t actually have award tickets?
Jarrod West
November 22, 2022
Hi David,
ANA releases award space 355 days in advance at 9 AM Tokyo time or 8 PM Eastern Time. So if you are trying to land business class award space I would recommend searching as soon as availability comes available.
Corky
November 21, 2022
Good article! How do you find flights? Every search I enter on ana’s website shows an error box.
Jarrod West
November 22, 2022
Hi Corky,
What search are you inputting?
Sauceman
April 21, 2023
It is very difficult to find confirmed routes for Business class. I would say 95% are waitlisted at least for the route I’m looking for (JFK-TOKYO). I search nearly every single day for the entire 355 days. Any tips or tricks to find availability?
Carissa Rawson
April 24, 2023
Yes! Being as flexible as possible for your dates is going to be your best bet. You’ll also want to book as soon as the calendar opens — or wait until last minute as award seats tend to open up in the weeks before departure. Seats.aero is also an excellent website that tracks open award seats. Hope this helps!
Cmbss
April 24, 2023
Any new data point on the transfer time? It’s taken me more than 48 hour so far, though I initiated the transfer on a Saturday, don’t know how that factored into the timeline.
Stephanie
June 14, 2023
Hi, we are trying to use our miles for ANA RTW. My question is in your article it says that Singapore Air doesnt allow redemption from partner airline – does this mean I cant book ANA RTW with Singapore Air as part of the itinerary unless its intra asia? Im seeing lots of sin-fra saver availability for sia and wanted to include that in the ANA RTW.
Joe
August 03, 2023
I despise ANA award redemption. They give you the finger either from “waitlisting” every route for months and months and months or after 10 hours of searching you find something that will cost you $700 in taxes. I unfortunately had found a route to tokyo in 2020 “and” taxes was only $255! We all know what happened next. My points got redeposited since japan closed. Now I’m stucked with them. I have tried all cities in the US that ANA flies out of going to Tokyo, SIN, BKK, Jakarta, HKG, sydney, Europe (anywhere) and all I ever see is “waitlisted”. Its complete bs. The best that I have been able to do was get availability in one direction but not the return. Oh and the tax for us to tokyo can no longer be had for $255. It was as high as $900 towards the end of 2022. Right now its closer to $600. I have until 2025. If I can’t find anything I’ll do the dreaded redeem for amazon gift card for next to nothing. But I absolutely guarantee that I will never attempt another award flight with these knuckleheads again. The amount of time I wasted on their site is ridiculous. I have never had so much trouble finding a flight on any other airline. They’re as ridiculous as japan was ridiculous in not being able to figure out how to actually open the country for travel.
Any thoughts or questions? Comment below!
Email needed if you'd like comment updates. It will NOT be published.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.