A family friend couple of ours is currently
doing long-distance between New York and Chicago. I imagine they are not the
only ones trying to get between these two major cities, and I would also imagine
that not everyone flying this route is using their miles most efficiently.
Below is a primer on who to fly and what miles to fly them with so you can
maximize your investment (or hopefully lack thereof) in flights.
The
airports
Chicago has two major airports and
New York has three:
Chicago – O’Hare (ORD)
Chicago – Midway (MDW)
New York – La Guardia (LGA)
New York – Kennedy (JFK)
New York – Newark (EWR)
The
players
I counted at least five airlines that
fly between these two city pairs:
American (ORD-LGA,JFK,EWR)
Delta (ORD-LGA,JFK)
Jetblue (ORD-JFK)
Southwest (MDW-EWR,LGA)
United (ORD-EWR,LGA)
The
costs in miles
I’m going to leave Delta out of this
calculation because they rarely have any low-level award seats available, but
the other airlines usually have at least reasonable available at the cheap
level:
American: 25,000 miles
Jetblue: Based on fare cost
Southwest: Based on fare cost
United: 25,000 miles
Jetblue and Southwest have miles
programs where the points are tied to the airfare. You will always get pretty
much the exact same value for your points (except some taxes and fees that may
shift them slightly higher or lower). Because these airlines don’t have set
prices for their miles tickets, I’m not going to go much into them. The current
signup bonus for the Chase Southwest card is 50,000 points. I’d definitely recommend
it. It should get you at least two roundtrips. Here’s the
link.
Back to American and United. It turns
out that American and United miles are not the most useful miles for flying
either of these airlines on this route. They both have alliance partners with
better mileage costs and redemption options.
British
Airways
British Airways and American Airlines
are both in Oneworld, one of the major airline alliances. Because of this, you
can use British Airways miles to fly on American Airlines flights. BA is a part
of the Avios miles program. Avios is a distance-based program, meaning the
shorter the flight, the less points you will pay. The distance between New York
and Chicago is ~750 miles, which places the city pair in the 15,000 mile bucket
for Avios. That’s right, instead of paying 25,000 American miles roundtrip, you
could pay 15,000 Avios miles.
But wait, there’s more. Avios don’t
have last-minute booking fees or any cancellation fees. To book a flight later
today between these two cities would cost me $2.50 each way. To book a flight
later today with American miles would cost me $75. If I cancel all I lose is
the $2.50 on BA. If I cancel on American I’d be charged $150. So not only are
you spending less miles, you can also be way more flexible with when you use
them.
You can book any American SAAver
flight with Avios. I have a post here
about how to book AA flights with Avios.
ANA
ANA stands for All Nippon Airways, a
Japanese airline in the Star Alliance with United. ANA, like BA, has a
distance-based miles program. New York to Chicago costs 20,000 miles. That’s
not a ton cheaper than using United miles, but it’s something. The real
advantage here lies in the last-minute fees. ANA doesn’t charge last-minute
booking fees, and it appears as long as you book at least four days in advance,
you can use them. United normally charges $75 for bookings within 21 days of
departure.
You can book any United Economy Saver
award with ANA. I recently posted about ANA’s mileage program here.
How
to earn these miles
British Airways miles are probably
the easiest to earn of any mileage currency. They have their own credit card
with Chase, which has a 50,000 point signup bonus, and earns 1.25 points for
every dollar spent. But in addition to that, BA is also a transfer partner of
both Chase and American Express. This
means that any card earning Chase Ultimate Rewards or American Express Membership
Rewards can earn you Avios points. Here is a list of the top cards for British
Airways miles:
Chase
British Airways – 50,000 points after $1,000 spend in 3 months
Chase
Sapphire Preferred – 40,000 points after $3,000 spend in 3 months
Chase Ink
(business) – 50,000 points after $5,000 spend in 3 months
Amex
Gold (business) – 50,000 points after $5,000 spend in 3 months
Amex Gold (personal) –
25,000 points after $2,000 spend in 3 months
ANA miles are slightly harder to earn
only because they’re just a transfer partner of American Express and they don’t
have their own credit card for US residents. Because they’re more difficult to
earn I’ve also included the United Airlines miles cards. UA is a transfer
partner of Chase.
ANA
Amex
Gold (business) – 50,000 points after $5,000 spend in 3 months
Amex Gold (personal) –
25,000 points after $2,000 spend in 3 months
United
Chase United Explorer –
30,000 points after $1,000 spend in 3 months
Chase
Sapphire Preferred – 40,000 points after $3,000 spend in 3 months
Chase Ink
(business) – 50,000 points after $5,000 spend in 3 months
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