Qatar Airways Joining oneworld

American Airlines and British Airways have had a partnership with Qatar Airways for a while but QR is joining the oneworld alliance officially this month. We have already added the new Qatar Airways destinations and routes to all our oneworld calculations. This adds a few new destinations and many new flight routes to the system.

For example, London to Teheran can now be reached through Doha on oneworld flights. We will add the Qatar oneworld rates as soon as they become available as well.

22 October, 2013

United Airlines Rates More Granular

The milez.biz calculator now distinguishes between United Mileage Plus Star Alliance and regular United Mileage Plus rates. Both rate calculations determine the required miles by zone and many rates are the same, but there are a few differences. The regular rates have saver and standard award rates, you can find both of those in the calculation results.

The main distinction between the two programs is that United has a number of airline partners that are not covered by the Star Alliance program. All these partner destinations have been added to the calculator. United's non-Star Alliance partners are:

• Aer Lingus
• Aeromar
• Cape Air
• Great Lakes
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Island Air
• Jet Airways

6 September, 2013

New Star Alliance Program Added

EVA Air recently joined the Star Alliance network and we have now added the redemption rates for its frequent flyer program Infinity Mileage Lands to our calculator. Both the Star Alliance and the standard EVA Air and UNI Air rates can be queried.

We have also updated the Star Alliance redemption rates for the LifeMiles program (Avianca, TACA) that were recently adjusted.

17 July, 2013

New Interface to Availability Engine

To help our users in their searches for award flights, we have added a direct interface to the availability engine at awardtravelr.com. Awardtravelr.com allows users to perform searches for award seats across the three main airline alliances. Click on the grey "availability" button to in the search results to start a query for available seats.

23 April, 2013

American Airlines Partner Destinations

We have added the destinations of the American Airlines partners to the AAdvantage award rate calculations:

• Hawaiian Airlines
• Air Pacific
• Air Tahiti Nui
• Alaska Airlines
  
• El Al
• Etihad
• Gulf Air
• Jet Airways

You can now query AAdvantage rates not only for American Airlines and oneworld destinations but also for all the destinations reached with the partners above.

We have also added the new partnership between Emirates and Qantas. The Emirates destinations have been added to the Qantas Frequent Flyer Classic Awards and Emirates members can query the rates of the Qantas partnership as well. 

10 April, 2013

New SkyTeam Program Added

We have added Xiamen Airlines' Egret Club to the milez.biz calculator. This not only includes the rates for the routes flown by Xiamen Airlines but also the rates for all the SkyTeam destinations. The domestic Xiamen Airlines rates are calculated by distance flown (e.g. Xiamen - Beijing) and the SkyTeam rates are based on zones. The addition of Xiamen Airlines adds a few more routes to the SkyTeam universe.

We have also added the recently announced Singapore Airlines - Virgin America partnership.This partnership allows KrisFlyer members to redeem flights with Virgin America. For example, members can use Virgin America to get from LAX to Cancun.

8 April, 2013

Two New African Programs

We have added two new African programs to our global redemption rates comparison and calculation tool. Air Algérie and Arik Air (Nigeria) have relatively well developed networks in North Africa and West Africa, respectively.

• Air Algérie Plus is the frequent flyer program for the national airline in Algeria. It has a well developed domestic nework and also many connections to France (e.g. Oran - Marseille) and destinations in the Sahel zone (e.g. Algiers - Bamako).
• Arik Wings is the frequent flyer program for Nigeria's Arik Air. Domestic (Abuja - Port Harcourt) and regional (Lagos - Banjul) rates look interesting.
  

21 February, 2013

New oneworld Program Added

Malaysia Airlines recently joined the oneworld alliance. We have added the Malaysia Airlines' frequent flyer program Enrich to our calculator. Like most other oneworld programs, rates are calculated by distance. Enrich has different rates for single carrier itineraries and mutli-oneworld carrier itineraries (single carrier trips require fewer miles).

The addition of Malaysia Airlines to the oneworld universe also adds a number of new destinations to the other oneworld programs. The Malaysia Airlines destinations have been added to the oneworld roster.

Try for example, Penang - London Heathrow.

14 February, 2013

Alaska Partnerships

Alaska Airlines does not participate directly in any of the major frequent flyer alliances but it has many partnerships with airlines around the world. This means that Mileage Plan members have a wide network of destinations to choose from:

• Emirates: The Emirates partnership makes the Middle East reachable for Mileage Plan members with a connection through Seattle. To calculate the rate from Seattle to Dubai with Emirates, click here.
  
• Korean: The Korean partnership makes many East Asian destinations reachable for Mileage Plan members with a connection through San Francisco or Seattle. To calculate the Mileage Plan rate from San Francisco (SFO) to Seoul (ICN) with Korean, click here.
• Cathay Pacific: The Cathay partnership means that many destinations in China and India are added to the Mileage Plan roster. Members can connect in Los Angeles. To calculate the Mileage Plan rate from Los Angeles (LAX) to Mumbai (BOM) using Cathay Pacific, click here.
• Icelandair: Icelandair is a good option for destinations in northern Europe. Alaska Airlines members can connect in Seattle and get to Europe via Reykjavik, e.g. Seattle - Stockholm.
  
• LAN: South America becomes reachable through a connection to LAN in Los Angeles. Mileage Plan rates from LA to BA are here.
  
• Qantas: Qantas adds a long list of Australian destinations to the possibilities for the Mileage Plan members. Qantas can be connected to in Los Angeles. Click here for rates from Los Angeles to Perth.
  
• Delta  Air Lines and American Airlines are 2 American legacy carriers who are partnered with Alaska Airlines. Both of these carriers offer interesting destinations in the Caribbean and Latin America, for example Anchorage - Puerto Rico.
  
• Thanks to the Air France/KLM partnership most of Europe and large parts of Africa are within reach of Mileage Plan miles. Both airlines fly to the west coast of the USA so that Alaska Airlines members could, for instance, use their miles to get from LAX to Nairobi.
  
• British Airways: British Airways flies to several cities in North America, including Seattle (SEA) and San Francisco (SFO). Mileage Plan members can use their miles to fly with BA to Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India., e.g. San Francisco - Maldives.
  
• Air Pacific offers out of the way destinations in the south-pacific through connections in Fiji. Mileage Plan members connect in Honolulu or Los Angeles. Try for example Honolulu - Samoa.
  

5 February, 2013

Emirates Partners

Emirates does not participate in any of the major frequent flyer alliances but it has various partnerships with airlines around the world. This means that Emirates Skywards members have some interesting additional redemption possibilities.

23 January, 2013