Guide to using ANA miles and award chart

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All Nippon Airways (ANA) miles can be such a powerful loyalty program. They’ve always had significantly lower award prices than U.S. competitors for many routes (40,000 miles round-trip to Japan, 65,000 miles round-trip to Africa, etc.) – but their crippling fuel surcharges kept most of us away.

Well, ANA recently ditched their prohibitive fuel surcharges, breathing new life into the program! ANA miles aren’t super difficult to earn, either – especially with the best American Express cards. You can transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to ANA at a 1:1 ratio – or Marriott points to ANA at a 3:1 ratio (plus a bonus 5,000 miles when transferring points in increments of 60,000).

Even if you have no desire to fly on ANA, you’ll often pay less using ANA miles for award flights on other airlines instead of that particular airline’s currency. In other words, if you like flying United, SWISS, or other Star Alliance airlines, ANA is a great investment.

The ANA award chart

ANA miles can be very useful for specific, low-priced flight awards.  Even though some websites such as United Airlines and Air Canada might be easier to use, ANA’s website can search for flights on every Star Alliance airline.

Below is a homemade ANA award chart for U.S. travelers to help you plan your travel on ANA (round-trip prices).

How to read the ANA award chart

There are a couple of things you need to understand about ANA:

• Only round-trip travel is permitted. You’re welcome to fly one-way, but you’ll pay the same as a round-trip
• Japan 1-A is the cheaper price to Japan, with only one connection

To find the price for a specific award flight, first, identify the zone of your origin and destination.

For example, flights from the U.S. to Europe are from Zone 6 to Zone 7, while flights from Japan to Sydney are from Zone 1 to Zone 10.

We put North America in the previous award chart for you, but head to this page if you’re departing from somewhere other than the U.S. You’ll find drop-down menus with your specific departure point, and can find at a glance how much it’ll cost to book your trip with ANA miles.

Fuel surcharges using ANA miles

ANA stopped incurring fuel surcharges for their award flights in mid-2020. This was an absolute game-changer for the airline, as the fees were so high that they negated practically all of the upside of the program’s cheap award prices.

As it stands, ANA is one of the most enticing programs out there.

Specific best uses of ANA miles

We’ll discuss this before we talk about stopovers – perhaps the actual best use of your miles. Stopovers aren’t really a part of this normal award chart. You’ll see what I mean later.

Africa and the Middle East for 65,000/136,000

Flying to Tanzania for 65,000 miles roundtrip is insane. That’s not much more expensive than what other airlines charge for a round-trip to Europe – and it’s twice as far away. If your goal is to get to Africa or the Middle East, this can save some miles. And 104,000 miles for business class is just about as cheap as you can get for the destination.

Air Canada & Air China to Asia: Economy or Business Class

Simply put, the prices to Asia are phenomenal. 40,000 miles for coach and 75,000 miles for a business class round-trip is great. And 60,000/95,000 for coach/business class for Northern Asia. But remember, “Asia 2” includes the “stans” and India, as well as the rest of Southeast Asia. 136,000 miles for business class round-trip to India is way cheaper than most airlines offer.

Try Air China business class to China for 95,000 miles, or to India for 136,000 miles.

Again, many of these spots on the chart are good prices and are very competitive. But the regions are big, which has pros and cons. “Latin America” is an absurd region spanning multiple continents. 50,000 miles for a roundtrip to the Caribbean is exorbitant for an economy flight – other airlines can regularly give you a coach round-trip for half that price. But if you’re headed to Chile and Argentina, it’s actually a good price. About 5,000 miles less than the average a U.S. carrier will charge.

In our favor, the Africa and Middle East prices are amazing. It includes so much of the world and for only 65,000 miles.

And there are few places in Africa and the Middle East that are considered Europe, like Morocco!

Stopovers and the “Round the World” award chart

ANA used to have a distance-based award chart, instead of the regional one pictured above. Peculiarly, they kept the exact same awesome award chart they used to have for Round the World itineraries – they just added some rules.

The ANA Round The World award chart:

ANA states:

• For Round the World itineraries, the required mileage is calculated according to the total basic sector mileage for the entire itinerary. (Calculations exclude ground transportation sectors.)
• Flights must be used to cross both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans once.
• The flight direction of the itinerary must be east-to-west or west-to-east. Backtracking is not permitted.
• Up to 8 stopovers are permitted between the departure point and the final return point. (Up to 3 stopovers are permitted within Europe and up to 4 stopovers are permitted within Japan.)
• The departure date of the final international flight to return to the country of departure must be at least 10 days after the departure of the first international flight on the itinerary.
• In addition to a maximum of 12 flight sectors, the itinerary may also include a maximum of 4 ground transport sectors (including travel between different airports in the same city).

Let me just price something out here that’s super basic.

New York, to Paris, to Hong Kong, to New York

A simple trip with only two stops. This would cross both oceans and I could fly Air Canada/United over to Europe and Air China home. Not sure which airline I’d take to get from Paris to Hong Kong, but that’s okay — I just want to price out the miles part.

The total distance flown on this route is 17,676 flown miles, which means the ANA miles price would be 65k/105k/160k.

That’s 65,000 miles for the round-the-world trip in economy, right on up to 160,000 miles for first class. And we still have six stops left! Yes, going out of your way will increase the price a little. But the next price point up is only 10,000 more for coach and 20,000 more for first class. That’s not a lot for a potential eight total destinations.

For me, this is a huge improvement to the award chart. We now get eight stopovers and can make it price out super cheap. Stop in Africa and the Middle East too. I can’t even imagine how I’d spend eight stopovers.

This is not bookable online, but you can see the power of this award chart over the “Zone” chart at the beginning of the post.

Bottom line

Award zones don’t become ANA like the old distance-based award chart. Short distances were nicely priced. Round-trips from East Coast Western Europe would be as cheap as 43,000 miles. But now, the best awards are to super far-away places, like Africa and the Middle East, which are 55,000 to 65,000 miles. That’s so cheap!

However, these Round the World tickets with their new rules completely make up for any downsides of the current ANA award chart.

What are your thoughts? Can you use the eight-stopover award chart? Can you use the 65,000-mile prices to Africa?