Travel Party of 5 | Points & Miles for Family Travel

Airline Alliances: Book Smarter, Not Harder

• Raya & Duane

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Airline alliances are essential to maximizing your points and facilitating family travel. By understanding and utilizing these partnerships, families can find better availability, save points, and streamline their travel experiences.

• Explanation of airline alliances 
• Importance of booking through the correct airline system 
• Discussion of major airline alliances 
• Real-world examples of leveraging airline partnerships 
• Tips for sweet spot locations and maximizing miles 
• Insights on transfer bonuses from banks 
• Recommendation of award search engines 
• Key strategies for family travel planning 

If this episode was helpful, make sure to subscribe and follow us on Instagram at TravelPartyof5 for lots more points and miles tips for your family of five or more.

Speaker 1:

If you've ever tried booking award flights for a family of five or more, you know it's not always easy. Airline alliances might just be the key to unlocking more availability, better routes and cheaper redemptions, and we're sharing how we think about airline alliances and some real-life examples in today's episode. Listen in Hi, I'm Raya.

Speaker 2:

And I'm Dwayne.

Speaker 1:

And we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five podcast, where we share how we travel as a family of five around the world.

Speaker 2:

We will also share how we use points and miles to travel as affordably as possible and sometimes even completely free.

Speaker 1:

So if you're wanting to travel more with your family but you're not sure how, we'd love for you to listen in.

Speaker 2:

So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn a thing or two to get you closer to your next trip. Welcome back, listeners. We appreciate you listening. Hope you're off to a great day, week, month year. Hello. Yes, we appreciate you. So what's the topic today? What are we going to be talking about today?

Speaker 1:

We are diving deep into the world of airline alliances, which can be maybe a little bit of a dry topic, so we're going to try to make it fun with some real life examples. But the reason for this episode is I've been getting a bunch of questions on Instagram lately around. Basically that all boil down to not having a good understanding of airline alliances and how things like that work. So, like people are saying, like how can I use my Alaska miles to book this American Airlines flight? I see it on the American website, but it's not on the Alaska website or like versions of that, and so we are. What we're not going to do is like word vomit all of the alliances and all their rules and details and status and partners. We're not going to do that because that's a snooze fest and that's also way too much information for one podcast episode.

Speaker 2:

And who likes word vomit?

Speaker 1:

Instead, what I'm aiming for is this is a how you should think through alliances to help you book your next trip. So the goal here is not to again bombard you with facts and statistics, but instead to explain how to think about alliances so that you can use them to your advantage and so that you're not stuck with a bucket of points that you can't use for what you want. And we've also got a few examples throughout the episode of how we've leveraged airline alliances to save points when booking trips for our family of five. Alliances to save points when booking trips for our family of five. So I think first let's explain what an alliance is. An airline alliance Do you know? No, I'm listening to this episode as if you're learning to. Yes, so an airline alliance is basically when multiple airlines work together to make travel easier and more convenient for its passengers. So instead of each airline operating by itself, they share things like flights, sometimes airport services, and this way you can travel to more places, like on the same ticket.

Speaker 2:

I mean, yeah, this is how you booked our trip to Europe, or no? Didn't you use some kind of?

Speaker 1:

On the way back. Yeah, that's one example that I have coming up. So I asked ChatGPT to give me an analogy of airline alliances to share. I hate that guy. Chatgpt saves me so much time in my life. He's great.

Speaker 1:

So, okay, I'm going to give you the two that it that it gave me that I thought were kind of decent. Some of them were. I was like, oh, that doesn't really make sense, okay. So the first one is airline alliances are like a school bus system. Okay, so imagine you live in a big town with many different schools. Each school has its own buses, but they can't reach every single neighborhood. So if your school's bus can't take you all the way home, it hands you off to another bus in the same network. You don't need to buy a new ticket or switch to a different system. You just hop onto another bus that's part of the same system and it gets you home. Okay, that was the first one.

Speaker 1:

The second one that I thought was fairly decent is imagine your town has a library, but it doesn't have every book you want. Luckily, your library is part of a bigger library network that includes libraries in other towns. If your library doesn't have the book you need, you can borrow it from another library in the same network. You don't need a new library card and you don't have to pay extra, you can just pick it up from your local library. In the same way as those two analogies, airline alliances work together. So if your airline doesn't fly to a certain city, a partner airline in the same alliance probably does, and so your ticket, your baggage, all of those work across the network, just like your library card or your school bus ticket would work across different libraries or neighborhoods. So I thought those were fairly decent analogies that kind of explain what an alliance is.

Speaker 1:

Another thing that like another vocab word, if you may, that I wanted to mention is a lot of times people will say oh well, that's, we're flying on United Metal, but we booked through Air Canada. Let's say Air Canada and United are in the same alliance. What they're saying is that the flight is operated by United Airlines, so it is United Airlines Metal. Right, the plane is United Airlines, but you can book it using some of their alliance partners, for example, in this case, air Canada. Okay, so when someone says oh, it's American Airlines Metal, right, that's what they mean, and that's with a T, not a D.

Speaker 1:

Metal M-E-T-A-L. Yes, am I saying it like metal, like in a war?

Speaker 2:

I would. If I were listening, I'd be like is she saying metal or metal, oh or metal or metal, or metal or metal.

Speaker 1:

So here's why alliances can be really important, especially if you're booking for a family like like ours. We have five people. That's a lot of points that you need. So, number one there's more airlines to choose from, which gives you more seat availability. Number two, you have the ability to book partner awards using different points currencies and you can save money. And number three, this kind of goes for everyone. And number three, this kind of goes for everyone. It's just your baggage transfers are seamless, right? So, like a lot of times, you'll book one ticket and you'll have a layover and one segment will be on one airline and the second segment will be on a different. But you don't have to like get your bag and recheck it. It just is checked seamlessly, even though it's two different airlines, because they're in the same alliance.

Speaker 2:

You know what I mean. I mean don't they do that regardless, they do.

Speaker 1:

And you're not even well no, not necessarily. Like if I were going to fly on American Airlines, right, and then I were going to fly on, like, Air France. Those are in two different alliances. I could never book one ticket on both. I would have to book one ticket on American and then one ticket on Air France. Those are in two different alliances. I could never book one ticket on both. I would have to book one ticket on American and then one ticket on Air France, and I'd have to pick up my bag in the middle. Are you sure about that? Yes, I'm positive.

Speaker 2:

I don't know about that. What? Because I'm saying when you check into the airport, they're like what's your final destination? You say whatever Japan, and you get to the airport're like what's your final destination? You, you say whatever japan. And you get to the airport, you give them your bags and you know you fly whatever american and then you have to transfer to japan airlines. I don't know if they're the same lines they are.

Speaker 1:

They're the same alliance, whatever.

Speaker 2:

That's why you can do that or ana on nippon airways, like they're gonna put your bag on that and ain't flight, right? You know, yeah, they are, they're going to put your bag on that in any flight, right?

Speaker 1:

No, yeah, they are. They're not. They're asking what's your final destination within their alliance is what they're asking, because if you were going to book through two separate alliances, you would have to book two separate tickets. Dwayne is frowning at me right now for everyone that can't see.

Speaker 2:

I get the two tickets part.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

But I don't think you have no luggage.

Speaker 1:

You do because delta would not fly if you had a flight on american airlines. Okay, delta is not going to deliver your bag to tokyo if you're flying on american what I'm saying is the baggage claim.

Speaker 2:

People that are underneath the airport that are doing the bags see that your destination is japan and it says, whatever flight, they're gonna take your bag to that right, but the the name, the destination that's on your bag matches your ticket, right?

Speaker 1:

so like if you go to the american airlines counter, they're gonna say what's your final destination? And if I say you know japan, but I'm flying on delta to japan, they're gonna be like that's weird, this says lax, you know. Like they're not gonna fly your bag on a different airplane than you're on. That's a security risk I'm just saying.

Speaker 2:

I've traveled a lot when I was young and I don't know if my mom was using the alliances I doubt it but we never used to have to take our, get our bag, recheck it well, I think that's the key is oh, you are a hundred percent.

Speaker 1:

She was booking on different alliances and had no idea yeah, like I, I have no idea like she was booking on, like she was booking a ticket from tokyo to new york.

Speaker 1:

Let's say okay, for there was probably different airlines within that ticket if you had a layover. But she would have no idea, because that's what an alliance does. You have no idea. When I flew to Montreal, my first leg was on United and my second leg was on Air Canada, but it was all booked as one flight. My bag, if I had checked a bag, would have gone through to Montreal. But that's because they're in the same alliance. Okay, yeah, but if they were in different alliances, you couldn't have even booked the ticket all the way through. Is what I'm saying. Does that make sense?

Speaker 1:

yes, that makes sense are you just yesing me to death?

Speaker 2:

no, I'm just saying like, if I'm gonna use two different alliances, I'm gonna book my ticket from New York or Tokyo to New York two different tickets, I get. Gonna book my ticket from new york or tokyo to new york two different tickets, I get that. But what I'm saying is the airport's gonna hand your bag off to the, the last airline that's gonna get you to new york from tokyo. That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1:

Like you're not gonna have to go pick up your bag and then recheck it the airline is not going to send your bag to a city that they are not flying to.

Speaker 2:

I know that You're not listening to me. So we're taking a flight from Tokyo to New York. Do you have a layover? Of course I have a layover. Where is it? Wherever it may be, but I'm saying at that layover destination they're going to take my bag. I mean sorry, bad example, tokyo to New York. You're going to have to recheck your bag because it's international. So let's say, la to New York and my layover's in Oklahoma, okay, in two different airlines. Oklahoma Airport is going to make sure my bag gets to New York on that flight. That needs to go to New York, even if it's not the same alliance. You see what I'm saying You're not going to go to Oklahoma.

Speaker 1:

You're not right.

Speaker 2:

Recheck your bag in.

Speaker 1:

Because if you're on two separate alliances, you've booked two separate tickets. That's what I'm saying to you. You cannot fly on two different alliances on the same ticket. So in your scenario, you would have had to have booked LA to Oklahoma on, let's say, star Alliance, and then Oklahoma to New York on one world alliance.

Speaker 2:

That's what I'm saying. I get that. I get that.

Speaker 1:

So in that scenario you would have to pick up your bag in Oklahoma and you would have to recheck it with your new airline because they're not part of the same alliance. Okay, but if you just booked LAX straight through to New York and the airline said you have a layover in Oklahoma, then you are correct that you do not have to pick up your bag because they will check it all the way through. Even if it's two separate airlines, they're in the same alliance. Do you understand what I'm?

Speaker 2:

saying Gotcha, let's move forward.

Speaker 1:

Okay. Okay, so there are three major alliances. They are SkyTeam, oneworld and StarAlliance. I'm not going to name every single airline within each alliance, but SkyTeam has airlines like Delta, air France, klm, virgin Atlantic, korean Air. One World is American, alaska, british Airways, cathay Pacific, iberia, japan Airlines, qantas, qatar, etc. And then Star Alliance is Air Canada, united, ana, that Dwayne mentioned, Avianca, lufthansa, tap, air Portugal, turkish, singapore and more, and so I already mentioned this.

Speaker 1:

But when I flew to Montreal last month, it was one ticket booked all together, but my first leg was on United, my second leg was on Air Canada. They are in both in the Star Alliance Alliance Um. I also earned United miles for all the legs of that flight, including the one that was on Air Canada, because the United uh, my United um member number is the one that I put in the thing when I booked it. I probably could have earned Air Canada miles instead if I had wanted to, but I didn't. So one thing to notice is that budget airlines so think Frontier Spirit, um in Europe, like Ryanair or even Southwest technically, is considered a budget airline in Europe, like Ryanair or even Southwest technically is considered a budget airline, and sometimes JetBlue. They're not on this list because they're not part of any alliance, although Southwest and Iceland Air have a new partnership that's very recent and JetBlue. You can also book using a different airline, which I forgot, but it's coming up soon. We'll talk about that in a minute.

Speaker 1:

So I think the most important thing to note about booking a flight using an alliance partner is you have to first consider where the points that you have live. So what kind of points do you have? Because that will determine what types of partners you can use. So, for example, if you have Alaska miles, which we briefly talked about already, you have to book on the Alaska website and choose from the flights that are available on the Alaska website. So if American Airlines, some of those flights may be American Airlines operated flights, but if American Airlines operates a flight, even if it's less points, and you can see it on the American Airlines website, but it doesn't show up when you search on Alaska, or it's more points when you search on Alaska, it doesn't matter, because you don't have any options. You only have Alaska points, which means you have to book on the Alaska website.

Speaker 1:

And that was one of the questions I got was like you know, the flight is less miles on American. How can I use these miles? And the answer is you can't. And so I think people think, oh, this is an alliance I can. I can book, you know, whatever I want in that alliance using my Alaska miles. And that's not the case. It's whatever they show you as available on their website is your only options, and so I also wouldn't speculatively transfer your points without having a game plan for how to use them.

Speaker 1:

Same thing if you have American Airlines miles, you have to book using flights available on the American Airlines website. So if British Airways or Cathay Pacific, which are in the same alliance, has the same flight for less points, it doesn't matter, because the AA points don't transfer. So again, you're super limited when you have points just in one airline partner for the most part. This is why points and miles people are always harping on the value of transferable points currencies. So, as a reminder, those are going to be points currencies like Chase Ultimate Rewards, american Express Membership Rewards, citi Thank you Points and Capital One Miles.

Speaker 1:

Those are the four major banks. Each of those banks has transfer partners that are generally some hotels and some airlines that you can transfer their points to, which enables you to unlock some of these Alliance sweet spots. For example, air France is a transfer partner of all four major banks and you can then use your Air France flying blue miles to book flights on Delta for likely a lot less points than Delta is charging for the same exact flight. So the flight might be on Delta metal, but you can book it using your Air France points, because they're in the same Alliance. And again, if you have if it's Air France points that you have, you have to find the flight on the Air France website. You can book a Delta flight or a KLM flight or whatever.

Speaker 1:

Hi friends, we are briefly interrupting the show to ask a favor. If you are enjoying this episode or any episode we've done, we'd so appreciate it if you'd take one minute to leave us a rating or a review, wherever you listen. Now back to the show. Okay, so any questions on that? From what I just said, no, I mean I.

Speaker 2:

I think it's self-explanatory.

Speaker 1:

You've done a great job explaining it as a side note, if anyone thinks that duane is right from our earlier discussion, send me a dm on instagram, and if you think I was right, send me a dm on instagram because I know the truth.

Speaker 1:

Okay, let's talk about some sweet spots for families, because using airline alliances to your advantage can really help you to save points. Right, when you have to book for a family, it costs a lot of points even to fly an economy. One of the things that I like to think about this for is repositioning. It's hard for families to do a repositioning flight because you need, as a side note, a repositioning flight is when you book a flight that's not at your home airport and then you have to take another flight to get from your home airport to wherever your flight leaves from. Okay, it's hard for families to do this because you still need five flights to a different airport and that can, if you're using points, can be a lot, and if you're paying cash, it can be a lot. I mean, flights from Phoenix to LAX are 200 bucks a pop. Usually. That's $1,000 for our family. That's a lot of money.

Speaker 2:

It is.

Speaker 1:

So using Alaska Airlines to book American Airlines flights can sometimes be a better option. Alaska uses a distance-based award chart, so shorter distances mean less points and the Phoenix to LAX or Phoenix to San Francisco can be booked for as low as 4,500 miles per person one way, and that is a fantastic option for a repositioning flight. Lax and SFO are both much bigger airports with much better international flight options flight options and in the same alliance as that, british Airways is also distance based and can be used to book flights on American Airlines or Alaska. And you can also transfer your British Airways Avios between Aer Lingus, iberia and Qatar, so they all operate on the Avios point system. So they all operate on the Avios point system and you can. You know some banks. For example, chase has British Airways as a transfer partner, so you could transfer your points from Chase to British Airways and then you could transfer your British Airways points to either Aer Lingus, iberia or Qatar. That is kind of the only airline that has that available option. Generally, once you transfer from a bank to an airline, your points are stuck there. British Airways and those other few airlines are the exception, but the key here again is to start with where your points live and then work from there. So if you want to book a flight on Iberia and you have chase points, you can transfer your chase points to British Avios, then transfer British Avios to Iberia and again, that is the only kind of airline group that has that option, and here's a real life example of that.

Speaker 1:

So in 2023, my grandfather passed away and I was able to take my Chase Ultimate Rewards points, transfer them to British Airways and book a same-day flight on points to get there. Thankfully, I was able to get there before he passed away and I also had zero stress about the cost of a last-minute flight. I think I ended up paying roughly 20,000 points, if I remember correctly. I did have to book two separate flights because when I searched on British Airways, it said no routes available for the full trip, so if that happens, I wouldn't be discouraged. I was able to figure out where that flight would typically connect, which was Charlotte, and so then I booked two one-way tickets. I booked one from Phoenix to Charlotte and then a second one from Charlotte to Wilmington. Wilmington is a smaller airport, so I'm pretty sure that's why there was no availability when I searched for the full route. Point. It was the beginning of our travel hacking journey, and so I had to start with where do my points live? And the only points I had were chase points and, so that you know, left me a little bit limited as to where I could transfer them to, and British Airways ended up being the best option.

Speaker 1:

Okay, another popular one is going to be flying to Japan. Japan is a hot topic right now. It seems like everyone is either going there or wants to go, and Japan Airlines is one of the best airlines to get you there, even in economy. And so, to the way that I understand it, the only way that you can book Japan Airlines with points is by booking through American Airlines or Alaska slash Hawaiian, and again, you have to just start with where your points live. So if you have American Airlines points, you have to book it on their website. If the flight isn't there, you can't do it.

Speaker 1:

It's very simple Find another day or time, you know, but booking Japan Airlines using American Airlines miles for economy or premium economy, even for five or more, is super doable If you have American Airlines points. The way that you will know is the flight number will say J, l and then a number If it says AA and then a flight number that is operated by American Airlines. What you are looking for is it'll say operated by Japan Airlines and the flight number will start with JL, and that's how you know when you're looking on the American Airlines website. Currently, as of time of recording, you can get economy flights one way on American Airlines and, I'm sorry, on Japan Airlines using American Airlines miles for 35,000 points one way in economy. Okay, what else?

Speaker 1:

Another sweet spot is going to be using Air France or Virgin Atlantic to book Delta flights. Delta flights are often super high end points they call them sky pesos for a reason but you can generally book the same flights that you'll see on the Delta website using Air France or Virgin Atlantic for much less points, and Air France has 25% discount for kids under 11, which increases your points savings even more. This is the example I think you were talking about earlier. So when we fly home from Europe next month, I was able to book all five of us on Virgin Atlantic premium economy from Madrid to Phoenix. We have an overnight layover in Paris for 150,000 points total and the actual cost of the flights was 195,000 points, but there was a transfer bonus at the time from Amex to Virgin Atlantic, which meant I only had to transfer 150,000 Amex points to get 195,000 points and was able to book that for all five of us.

Speaker 2:

That's pretty good. It's 30,000. That's great Paris to Phoenix.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and we. So we're flying on Air France metal, so the flight is the same flight that I could have booked on Air France, but the same flight on Air France was like 400,000 points for premium economy for all five of us.

Speaker 2:

I thought we were flying first class back.

Speaker 1:

No premium economy yeah.

Speaker 2:

I got to tell people that.

Speaker 1:

You've been telling people it was first class. No premium economy, sorry, first class on the way to Christmas markets.

Speaker 2:

Oh, maybe that's what I was talking about, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Okay. So that brings me to the next thing to keep in mind is transfer bonuses. So if there are multiple ways or airlines for you to book a ticket, you have to first check if there's any transfer bonuses from the major banks to that airline. So, for example, flying Blue transfers to all from. You can transfer from all four major banks to Flying Blue. But if American Express has a transfer bonus to Flying Blue and I have American Express points, it makes the most sense for me to transfer from Amex instead of Chase or Capital One.

Speaker 1:

And I think, if you're not sure, make a quick spreadsheet, do some award searches and track the points cost and the taxes and fees cost and then review that and choose the one that uses the least amount of points and or the least cash for the taxes and fees. I will say the downside of that Virgin Atlantic flight that I booked in premium economy is the taxes and fees were quite high, like they were around $300 a person, and so it was costly. That was before Virgin Atlantic did their. They recently updated their award chart and went to a more dynamic pricing model, which generally is not good, but they have good, some good options now and lower taxes and fees. This was booked before that happened, so it wasn't super cheap as far as the out of pocket cash price. So it did cost fewer points, but it cost a little more cash.

Speaker 1:

And then I think, my last. So my last like tool or recommendation would be to use award search engines to find seats. I really like seatsarrow. I pay for the premium version of that. The other ones that you can use are pointme or expert flyer. I don't use either of those. I like seatsarrow, but you can do searches on there and start to understand. You know, okay, I can book, you know, this same flight on Air Canada as I could book on United, and on United it's 56,000 miles, on Air Canada it's 47,000, right, that's just an example. I'm just pulling numbers out of my butt. So don't you know, tell me you can't find a word availability for those points prices, but you'll want to check to see if different airlines have the same exact flight and which one costs less points. Okay, that was a lot, and I didn't go anywhere in depth as I could have gone into all the alliances too.

Speaker 1:

I think sometimes less is more so well, again, I just wanted people to start thinking about like this is how you should think about the alliances and you know, go from there If you have questions reach out, don't hesitate.

Speaker 1:

DM on Instagram. So I think, as a recap, alliances can really help you save points, which is really important when you're booking for a lot of people. If you're struggling to find five award seats, don't like check alliance partners and if you need a process, I would think about it this way. So, number one start with wherever your points live.

Speaker 1:

Okay, if it's transferable points, figure out the transfer partners that you can transfer to, then make a list of which of those partners are in the same alliance and start running award searches on those airlines to get an idea of what flights cost. And, as a game, try to find the same flight on more than one airline's website and compare the points cost. If you don't have transferable points and you have flights within a certain airline program, like American Airlines, you have less flexibility and you'll have to book whatever partner flights are available, in this example, on the American Airlines website itself. So there's no point in looking on Alaska because AA doesn't transfer to Alaska, so it doesn't really matter what's over there. Okay, I'm going to take a deep breath. If this episode was helpful, make sure to subscribe and follow us on Instagram at TravelPartyof5 for lots more points and miles tips for your family of five or more, and that's all we've got for today, my friends.

Speaker 2:

Yes, well, we appreciate you listening. Hopefully this was helpful and again, if you have any questions.

Speaker 1:

Also, let's take a vote. If you think duane was right, let me know. If you think I was right, let me know instagram at travel party five, I'll. I'll report back if there are if there are votes again, we appreciate you okay, talk to you guys later.

Speaker 2:

Bye have a good one.