The Complete Guide to ANA Mileage Club

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is Japan’s largest airline. It famously launched as a transportation service from two helicopters in the early ‘50s. Who would’ve thought it would become one of the most useful airline rewards programs in existence? point.me even selected ANA as the best airline loyalty program in Asia in our ranking of the world’s best airline rewards programs.

The reason ANA is exceptionally useful for you is because of its gaggle of airline partners, including United Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Air Canada, Lufthansa, and many more. Don’t discount this juggernaut carrier just because you never plan to visit Japan. It can help you get to pretty much anywhere.

Overview of ANA Mileage Club

There are two regions on this planet that really excel when it comes to operating a commercial airline:

• The Persian Gulf
• East Asia

ANA upholds this tradition. It’s a far-above-average experience for anyone used to the sometimes cramped, tattered cabin of a U.S. carrier.

To boot, you’ll find some of the best sweet spots in the points and miles game — whether you want to fly ANA or not. Let’s take a look at how to earn and redeem ANA miles. We’ll also uncover some fun ways to use your miles, which can result in a value of more than ten cents per mile.

Credit card transfer partners of ANA Mileage Club

ANA partners with few transferable rewards currencies compared to other popular airline programs. You can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to ANA Mileage Club at a 1:1 ratio, as well as Marriott Bonvoy points at a 3:1 ratio. Plus, when you transfer Marriott points in 60,000-point increments, you’ll receive an extra 5,000 ANA miles.

Airline partners of ANA Mileage Club

ANA is a member of Star Alliance, a collection of 25 airlines that partner to connect you all over the world. You can use ANA miles to fly on these airlines — not just ANA. That means ANA miles are handy for travel worldwide – not just to Japan.

For example, ANA doesn’t serve Santiago, Chile (SCL), but you can reach it by booking travel with ANA’s partner, Avianca.

ANA also has some partners outside of the Star Alliance, including Virgin Atlantic and Etihad. Here’s a complete list of its partner airlines:

Aegean Airlines	Copa Airlines	Singapore Airlines
Air Canada	Croatia Airlines	South African Airways
Air China	Egyptair	SWISS
Air Dolomiti	Etihad	TAP Portugal
Air India	Eurowings	Thai Airways
Air Macau	Eva Airways	Turkish Airlines
Air New Zealand	Garuda Indonesia	United Airlines
All Nippon Airways	LOT Polish	Virgin Atlantic
Asiana Airlines	Lufthansa	Vietnam Airlines
Austrian Airlines	Olympic air	Virgin Australia
Avianca	Philippine Airlines
Brussels Airlines	Shenzhen Airlines

What we love about ANA Mileage Club

ANA is handy for many different travel goals, but it’s exceptional for premium international flights. Here are some of our favorite things about it:

• You’ll find excellent redemption rates for popular routes.
• “Round the World” itineraries are reasonably priced.
• Award changes are free (and cancellation/redeposit fees are reasonable).

What we don’t love about ANA Mileage Club

ANA’s got its share of annoyances as well. For example:

• It requires you to book round-trip (or certain open-jaw) travel.
• It often imposes excessive fuel surcharges.
• Its miles are harder to earn than many other rewards currencies.
• Some award routing rules can be confusing.

ANA elite status tiers and how to earn them 

ANA “Premium Status” consists of four tiers. You’ll achieve each of these levels by earning something called Premium Points. You’ll earn these by flying on ANA and its partners based on your booking class, fare, route, etc.

Also, you can earn elite status more quickly by using what ANA calls “Life Solution Services.” Yes, it sounds cult-adjacent, but it’s just a reference to the airline’s alternate ways of earning rewards — including an online shopping mall, online travel agency, cobranded credit card, etc. Most of these services aren’t terribly relevant to a U.S.-based traveler (but some are).

Here’s what you’ll get from each ANA elite status tier:

Bronze

To earn Bronze status, you’ll need to amass 30,000 Premium Points in a year — 15,000 of which must be earned by flying ANA group-operated flights (not just ANA’s partners).

Alternatively, you can earn 15,000 Premium Points from ANA group-operated flights, use a minimum of four “Life Solution Services,” and spend the equivalent of three million Japanese yen (around $19,107 at the time of writing) on the ANA CARD U.S.A. VISA®.

Here’s the payoff:

• Up to 55% bonus miles for flights
• Complimentary access to select lounges
• Seat upgrades
• Early reservations and priority seat reservations for ANA flights within Japan
• Priority reservation waiting list
• Priority check-in
• Additional baggage allowance
• Priority airport standby
• Smoother immigration when visiting Hong Kong
• Earning Upgrade Points (for lounge access, seat upgrades, etc.)

Platinum

For Platinum status, you’ll need to earn 50,000 Premium Points in a year — 25,000 of which must be earned by flying ANA group-operated flights. You can also reach it by earning 30,000 Premium Points through ANA group-operated flights, using a minimum of seven Life Solution Services, and spending the equivalent of four million Japanese yen (around $25,476 at the time of writing) on the ANA CARD U.S.A. VISA.

Platinum status comes with all the Bronze perks plus:

• Up to 105% bonus miles for flights
• Waived advance seat reservation charges for international ANA flights
• Priority reservations for ANA international flight awards and upgrade awards
• Exclusive security checkpoint
• Priority pre-boarding
• Priority baggage claim
• Free valet parking at Tokyo Narita (NRT)
• Priority parking reservations at Tokyo Haneda (HND)
• ANA Suite Lounge access

Diamond

Diamond status requires a whopping 100,000 Premium Points per — 50,000 of which must be earned by flying ANA group-operated flights.

Alternatively, you can reach it by using a minimum of seven Life Solution Services and do one of the following:

• Earn 50,000 Premium Points through ANA group-operated flights and spend the equivalent of five million Japanese yen (around $31,845 at the time of writing) on the ANA CARD U.S.A. VISA®.
• Earn 80,000 Premium Points through ANA group-operated flights and spend the equivalent of four million Japanese yen on the ANA CARD U.S.A. VISA.

You’ll receive all the benefits that come with Silver, as well as:

• Up to 130% bonus miles for flights
• Premium member service desk
• Concierge service
• Waived international flight service charges
• Waitlist reservations for ANA flights within Japan
• Miles never expire (as long as you keep your status)
• An exclusive benefit, such as Upgrade Points, invitations to fancy restaurants, and more.

Diamond+ More

There isn’t a meaningful jump between Diamond and Diamond+ More status. You’ll just get a few extra benefits for going through the slog of earning it — namely, you must earn 150,000 Premium Points from ANA group-operated flights, use a minimum of seven Life Solution Services, and spend six million Japanese yen (around $38,214 at the time of writing) on the ANA CARD U.S.A. VISA.

This status level comes with the option of choosing one of the following benefits:

• Earn two ANA Sky Coins per mile
• Share Diamond status with someone else

Sky Coins can be used to purchase airfare and travel products. You can convert miles to Sky Coins at a rate between 1:1 and 1:1.7, depending on how many you transfer at once. So the ability to earn two Coins per mile could be valuable.

How to earn Mileage Club miles

Emirates has no shortage of ways to earn rewards. Its large collection of partners gives you lots of ways to spend your way to a (nearly) free award flight. Here are the most popular ways to earn Emirates miles:

• Fly on ANA. When you buy travel on ANA, you’ll earn miles based on your fare type and elite status. ANA’s got a nifty mileage calculator to help you understand how many miles you’ll earn.
• The number of miles you’ll earn depends on your route, fare type, and class of travel. You’ll also earn bonus rewards if you’ve got Emirates elite status.
• Fly on partner airlines. It’s possible to credit the miles you’d earn on an ANA partner back to ANA — though each partner pays out at varying rates.
• Use credit cards. Again, ANA is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Reward. This means any points you earn with cards like The Platinum Card® from American Express can be transferred to ANA. Also, ANA issues the ANA CARD U.S.A. VISA®, which earns miles directly for your everyday spending (though it’s a largely snooze-worth card).
• Book other travel. ANA offers an online travel agency that allows you to earn miles for booking a hotel stay or car rental. You can also book directly with several brands (think Marriott, Hyatt, Avis, National, etc.) and elect to earn ANA miles.
• Transfer hotel points. ANA partners with over a dozen hotel programs, which give you the option to convert Hyatt points, Marriott points, Hilton points, and others into ANA miles at a meager rate — if you’re in desperate need of miles.

Additionally, ANA also has a variety of obscure partners that you can spend with to earn more rewards.

Redeeming miles with Mileage Club

ANA has one of the less straightforward booking platforms.

While it should default to English for those in the U.S., if you find yourself on the Japanese version,  your first step should be to find the language button at the top of the page and change it to USA—English.

Then, find the “Flight Awards” tab and click “Award Reservation.”

At this point, you’ll be prompted to sign into your ANA account. Do that, and you’ll be taken to the search page.

Here’s the unfortunate bit: ANA demands that you book round-trip (or open-jaw) travel — so if you want to fly a different airline home, you’ll have to forfeit the return portion.

When you search for an award, ANA will show you both ANA flights and its Star Alliance partners in the results. If it’s possible to fly the whole thing on ANA, the price will be cheaper.

For example, you can book a flight from Chicago (ORD) to Tokyo (HND) on either ANA, a Star Alliance partner like United Airlines, or a mix of both. At the top of the search results, you’ll see two options: “ANA Award” (which costs 50,000 miles round trip) and “Star Alliance Award” (which costs 55,000 miles round trip).

You can also use miles to upgrade your seats or to book hotels and rental cars. If you don’t have any imminent travel plans, you could use miles for online shopping (but this is almost always a horrible value for your rewards).

Here’s our complete guide to booking ANA flights with points.

How much are Mileage Club miles worth? 

As with nearly every reward currency, Mileage Club miles don’t have a fixed value. The return you’ll get from them depends entirely on how you use them. See for yourself: We’ll look at a few examples of what you can get with LifeMiles.

30,000 miles or less

A round-trip economy class ticket from Newark (EWR) to San Diego (SAN) costs 30,000 ANA miles and $11.20 in taxes and fees. You’ll fly on ANA’s partner, United Airlines.

But this same itinerary costs just $197 in cash. After subtracting award fees, you’ll save just $185.80 by redeeming 30,000 miles. That’s an unimpressive value of 0.61 cents per mile.

50,000 miles or less

You can fly roundtrip from Houston (IAH) to Honolulu (HNL) for 47,000 miles and $11.20 in taxes and fees in United Airlines economy.

This exact same itinerary costs $632. You’ll save $620.80 by redeeming ANA miles, giving you a value of 1.32 cents per mile.

100,000 miles or less

A round-trip business class ticket from Washington, DC (IAD) to Frankfurt (FRA) costs 100,000 miles and $210 in taxes and fees on United Airlines.

This exact seat otherwise costs $5,672 in cash. After you account for the award ticket fees, you’ll save $5,462 by redeeming 100,000 miles. That amounts to a fantastic value of 5.46 cents per mile.

All of this to say, you can get both an abysmal and an incredible value for your miles. Receiving 1.5 cents per mile is a good goal.

The best Mileage Club redemptions

If you take a bit of time to mine its sweet spots, you can trade your ANA Mileage Club miles for some of the most jaw-dropping experiences at 37,000 feet. Here are a few of our favorites:

First class to Japan in “THE Suite”

ANA’s crown jewel is called THE Suite — a first-class seat that you’ll find only on certain Boeing 777s. They’ve got sliding doors, coat closets, a massive 43-inch TV, and incredible food (including bottomless Krug champagne).

To fly THE Suite round trip from San Francisco (SFO) to Tokyo (NRT), you’ll pay 170,000 ANA miles and $367.71 in taxes and fees. Sounds like a lot, but the same trip costs over $20,000. That’s more than 11 cents in value for your miles.

Business class to Europe

Crossing the Atlantic in business class is extremely affordable with ANA miles. You’ll pay 100,000 miles to get from the U.S. to Europe in a fancy lie-flat seat (though you can count on dropping a few hundred dollars in fuel surcharges as well).

For example, a flight from Newark (EWR) to Paris (CDG) will cost 100,000 miles and $294.11 when flying a combination of United Airlines and Lufthansa.

You can expect to pay at least 160,000 miles if you booked with, say, United Airlines. This ticket otherwise costs around $2,800 in cash, giving you a value of around 2.5 cents per mile.

Business class to the Seychelles

But why stop at Europe?? You can fly all the way to the Seychelles (that’s on the other side of Africa) in business class for just a few thousand more miles.

For example, a round-trip business class ticket from Washington, DC (IAD) to the Seychelles (SEZ) on Ethiopian Airlines costs just 130,000 miles and $184.93 in fees. The trip otherwise costs over $5,700, giving you a value of 4.24 cents per mile.

Tips for using Mileage Club miles

The ANA website and its sometimes fussy award rules can be tiring, but it’s worth the struggle. Here are a few tips to help you avoid pitfalls when redeeming your ANA miles.

Check all the route permutations to see if you can lower taxes and fees

One of the biggest downfalls of ANA Mileage Club is the ridiculous fuel surcharges it passes along. However, the price you’ll pay depends on the airline you fly. Some airline partners, like United Airlines and Ethiopian Airlines, have very reasonable fees. You can minimize your out-of-pocket by strategically choosing the airline you’ll fly.

On the flight results page, you can mix and match airlines and routes to see how much you’ll pay. ANA updates the prices in real time, which can save you over $1,000 on some itineraries.

Manually log out and back in

ANA Mileage Club uses cookies to keep you semi-logged in. You can walk away from the computer for days and come back, and it will still welcome you by name. However, you’ll still need to confirm your identity with a password before booking an award flight.

This secondary login page will sometimes endlessly load. You can often get past this annoying screen by logging out of your account (so that ANA forgets your name) and then logging back in through the site’s two-stage authentication.

Always tick the “compare seat availability” box

Unlike many other airline websites, ANA doesn’t offer a monthly calendar view of award availability. Therefore, it’s important to always click “compare seat availability +/—3 days” when looking for seats. 

Doing this will give you at least a one-week snapshot for both your outbound and return flights. If you don’t do this — and ANA has no availability — you’ll just receive an error message that says, “There are no results that match your specified search criteria.” It doesn’t offer any other information.