Award Comparison Charts Explanation

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Award Comparison Charts Explanation

Comparing airline award charts is like buying a car from a dealership. Every model is different, has different options and each dealer offers different arrangements/deals. The models (award charts) have different options (class of service, mileage requirements, regions with different countries, distance based) and each dealer (airline program) offers different arrangements/deals (one ways, stopovers, open jaws, routing rules, etc.). This makes comparing the charts quite tricky.

Used Car Salesman

Give me your miles!

For my initial analysis I will create a comparison chart on airlines that have region based award charts. The charts will break out mileage required and regions with an explanation of the different countries per region. Later I will write a separate post on each airline program which will focus on the different nuances and perks.

Here’s a quick example of what I’m working on. This is comparing the regions and official list of countries per program.

UA vs LH preview

As you can see, United has many more regions than Lufthansa (ie. UA – Southern South America and Northern South America, LH – South America). Also the breakout of the regions differ (ie. LH – North America includes Greenland). You can use this for your advantage as certain countries in one program may fall into a region which requires less mileage.

As you can imagine, this is a large undertaking which will take some time and will continue evolving as programs change and new airlines emerge and others go bust or merge. I also have a full time job so I apologize for any delays in responses and time to get these posts out.

I appreciate your feedback and if you want to stay up to date with the latest info from my blog you can follow me on twitter, facebook and my rss feed.

For those that are new to miles and points or to my blog, you may want to check out my original post and beginner’s guide.

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2 Comments

  1. Thanks for the overview. Seeing how the best mileage redemption techniques often involve taking advantage of the differences in categorizing the regions between airlines, I find this chart quite interesting. 😉

  2. Pingback: Flight from Europe - which points? Airline Region Award Chart Comparisons - Globetrotter HQ

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