Use Points for Domestic Flights
Newcomers to award travel tend to focus on grabbing credit cards with the airlines they fly the most. But those of us who have been traveling on points know that that is not the best move. It turns out that credit card points, such as Chase Ultimate Rewards and Amex Membership Rewards give us so much flexibility that we can use these points to fly with all the major US airlines. So in this ToP Guide, we show you how to use points for domestic flights with the major US airlines. We go through our favorite programs to use for booking flights with American, Delta, United, and more.
RELATED: Also check out our ToP 10 Tips for Booking Flights with Points.
Tips for Booking Domestic Award Flights
Most of the programs discussed below in our guide on how to use points for domestic flights are partner airlines. This means you will be redeeming one airline's miles to fly on a different airline (like using Qatar Airways Avios to fly on an American Airlines flight). For seats to be bookable through a partner, you will need to find saver availability. Partners only have access to each other's saver awards. This is why sometimes you will see award availability with the operating airline (American) but when you search Qatar Airways, no flights show up. That's because there is no saver availability at that time. To learn more about saver availability, check out this post.
When it comes to pricing out an award, keep in mind the type of award chart that each program uses. Distance-based award charts are great for non-stop short-haul flights. But if your trip includes a connection, the cost of that award might go up by a lot. Meanwhile, zone-based award charts offer great value for long distance flights like a transcontinental trip from California to the East Coast.
In choosing between which program use points for domestic flights, keep in mind each program's advantages and disadvantages. Of course the cost of the flight is crucial. Some airlines charge more for some flights than others. But also consider each program's cancellation policy if your plans are still up in the air.
Lastly, consider which bank you will be transferring points to book your domestic flight. For example, if you have a lot of Membership Rewards but not as many Ultimate Rewards, you might want to pick an airline that is an Amex transfer partner instead of Chase. And remember to consider transfer bonuses–they can help lower the cost of an award and save you some points. You can always double check transfer partners with our handy Partner Transfer Tool, and you can check current transfer bonuses with our transfer bonus tracker.
Alaska Airlines & American Airlines
Alaska and American are both members of the Oneworld alliance, which also includes British Airways, Qantas, and Qatar Airways, to name a few. This means you can use miles from any of these programs to book a flight with either Alaska or American.
Until recently, British Airways was my favorite option, but they devalued their award chart for American and Alaska redemptions twice in just seven months.
Booking Domestic Flights with Qantas
- Award costs: starting at 8,000/18,400 points for economy/business for flights on American, 10,000/20,000 points for economy/business for flights on Alaska
- Transfer partners: Amex, Capital One, Citi
- Website to search: Qantas
Qantas is another good option for booking domestic flights on Alaska or American. Australia's flag carrier has different award charts for its many partners, so the cost of your flight will differ depending on whether you're looking at Alaska or American. Qantas' award charts are available on this page.
You can search and book directly on Qantas' website. Qantas' website is particularly helpful for searching award availability because it has a 30-day calendar view. This allows you to search for awards 30 days at a time, which is much more efficient than British Airways' or Qatar's websites.
Booking Domestic Flights with Qatar Airways
- Award costs: starting at 9,500/20,000 points for economy/business for flights on American or Alaska
- Transfer partners: Amex, Citi (also Chase and Capital One via British Airways)
- Website to search: Alaska, Qantas, British Airways, or the Qatar Airways app
The main downside to using Qatar is that their website is clunky and unreliable. But Qatar's app is quite easy, efficient, and reliable. To search for award availability, I use Qatar's app. Keep in mind that Qatar Airways does not show availability on regional flights operated by American Eagle. For these, you can search with Alaska, Qantas, or British Airways and call Qatar Airways to book. For more details, check out this post.
Here is Qatar's distance-based pricing for redemptions on American and Alaska (there are additional bands for greater distances, but these are the more relevant ones for domestic travel):
| Zone | Flight distance | Economy | Business |
| 1 | 1 – 650 miles | 9,500 | 20,000 |
| 2 | 651 – 1,150 miles | 13,000 | 27,000 |
| 3 | 1,151 – 2,000 miles | 14,500 | 34,000 |
| 4 | 2,001 – 3,000 miles | 16,000 | 43,000 |
One of the best things about Qatar Avios is that they are extremely easy to earn. You can transfer points directly from Amex and Citi. And you can transfer to British Airways from Chase and Capital One (as well as Amex) and then transfer to Qatar because both airlines share the same Avios currency. (You just need to make sure to link your accounts together on this page.) This means greater chances of transfer bonuses to take advantage of as well.
Delta Air Lines
Delta is a member of SkyTeam, which also includes airlines Virgin Atlantic and Air France/KLM among its members. Both programs are great ways to use points to book domestic flights with Delta.
Booking Domestic Flights with Virgin Atlantic
- Award costs: starting at 7,500 for economy, 21,000 for business
- Transfer partners: Amex, Bilt, Chase, Citi
- Website to search: Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is my favorite method for booking Delta flights with points. Their website is pretty easy to use and they have the best phone reps in the business if you ever need additional help.
Virgin Atlantic also has a distance-based award chart for Delta, which you can access here. To book, you can search and book directly on Virgin Atlantic's website.
What makes Virgin Atlantic such a great option for booking Delta is that they are a transfer partner with every major bank and regularly offer transfer bonuses.
Booking Domestic Flights with Flying Blue
- Award costs: dynamic
- Transfer partners: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, Citi
- Website to search: Virgin Atlantic, Air France/KLM
Flying Blue, the joint loyalty program for Air France and KLM, is also a great option for booking Delta flights. Even though Flying Blue uses dynamic pricing (meaning prices can fluctuate), award costs are usually on par with Virgin Atlantic.
To search for availability, I prefer to use Virgin Atlantic's website, which is more user-friendly and reliable. You also don't have to log in to search for availability with Virgin, but you do with Flying Blue.
Hawaiian Airlines
Hawaiian offers multiple non-stop flights to/from all over the continental US. In addition to have a couple of direct transfer partners, they also have a partnership with JetBlue.
Booking Domestic Flights with Hawaiian
- Award costs: zone-based
- Transfer partners: Amex, Bilt
- Website to search: Hawaiian
Award costs vary based on the zones you're flying. Hawaiian has separate award charts for various zones, such as intra-Hawaii flights or flights to/from the West Coast or East Cost. Hawaiian's award charts are available on this page.
Hawaiian's website is straightforward and having Amex as a transfer partner makes life easy. The biggest challenge with Hawaiian is finding saver availability, especially for business class, which is scarce.
Booking Domestic Flights with JetBlue
- Award costs: combination of distance- and zone-based
- Transfer partners: Amex, Chase, Citi
- Website to search: JetBlue or Hawaiian
JetBlue does not have a published award chart for awards on Hawaiian. Pricing varies based on distance flown as well as destinations. This means that connecting flights will cost significantly more than non-stop flights. Pricing isn't unreasonable but also not terrible. For example, non-stop from LAX to Maui (OGG) is 20,000 miles one-way in economy. A non-stop flight from JFK to Honolulu (HNL) costs 37,900 points one-way in economy.
To search points availability for domestic flights, you can either search directly on JetBlue's website or search for saver awards on Hawaiian's website first. I think JetBlue's website is easy and efficient enough to use directly, but preferences may vary. If searching for business class (which Hawaiian refers to as first class), then I would use Hawaiian's website first.
JetBlue Airways
JetBlue has multiple transfer partners, but it also has a partnership with Qatar Airways through which you can redeem Qatar Airways Avios for flights on JetBlue.
Booking Domestic Flights with JetBlue
- Award costs: revenue-based
- Transfer partners: Amex, Chase, Citi
- Website to search: JetBlue
JetBlue's TrueBlue loyalty program uses a revenue-based approach for redemptions for. This means that the number of points required for domestic flights is directly tied to the cash cost of that flight. With this, you can expect to redeem JetBlue points for around 1.3 or 1.4 cents per point, which is not particularly good value for transferable points like Ultimate Rewards or Membership Rewards. In fact, if you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve, you would even be better off redeeming Ultimate Rewards directly through the Chase portal at 1.5 cents per point in this case.
Booking Domestic Flights with Qatar Airways
- Award costs: starting at 6,000 Avios in economy, 12,500 Avios in business
- Transfer partners: Amex, Citi (also Chase and Capital One via British Airways)
- Website to search: Qatar Airways
Qatar Airways Avios are easier to accumulate than it may first appear. While you can transfer points from Amex and Citi to Qatar, you can also transfer Avios between British Airways and Qatar. This means you can transfer points from other banks to British Airways and then transfer them to Qatar. You just need to make sure to link your accounts together on this page.
To search and book, on the Spend my Avios page make sure to select “Flights with other partners” and choose JetBlue from the dropdown menu:
Southwest Airlines
Southwest is rather limited when it comes to redeeming credit card points for domestic flights. Chase is their only transfer partner and Southwest does not have partnerships with any other airline.
Southwest's Rapid Rewards loyalty program uses a revenue-based approach for redemptions, just like JetBlue. The number of points needed for an award flight is based off the cash cost of that flight. With this, you can expect to redeem Southwest points for around 1.2 cents per point, which is not good value when transferring Ultimate Rewards from Chase. In fact, even redeeming Ultimate Rewards through the Chase portal at 1.25 cents per point with a Chase Sapphire Preferred (or 1.5 cpp with a Chase Sapphire Reserve) would be a better deal.
United Airlines
United has a couple of transfer partners, but the biggest upside to booking flights on United is leveraging its many Star Alliance partners. Star Alliance is the largest airline alliance in the world by number of airlines, so it's no surprise that you have lots of good options for use points for domestic flights with United.
Booking Domestic Flights with Air Canada Aeroplan
- Award costs: starting at 6,000 points in economy, 15,000 points in business
- Transfer partners: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase
- Website to search: Aeroplan
Air Canada's Aeroplan program is one of my favorite ways to book United domestic flights with points. Aeroplan's award chart is a combination of zone- and distance-based. You can access their award charts here. Award pricing for travel within North America is very reasonable, capped at 22,500 points in economy for flights longer than 2,750 miles.
Searching and booking is a painless process through Aeroplan's website. But Aeroplan does charge a booking fee of $39 for award bookings with partner airlines.
Booking Domestic Flights with Avianca LifeMiles
- Award costs: starting at 7,500 miles in economy, 15,0000 miles in business*
- Transfer partners: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase
- Website to search: Aeroplan, United
Avianca LifeMiles is another good option to use points for domestic flights with United. Avianca uses a zone-based award chart that divides the continental US into 3 zones. Travel within each of these zones costs just 7,500 miles in economy one-way. Flights between any of the 3 zones cost just 12,500 miles in economy one-way. This means you can take a transcontinental flight from New York to California for just 12,500 miles in economy.
Unfortunately, Hawaii is a separate zone in the LifeMiles award chart. Flights between anywhere in the continental US and Hawaii are listed at 22,500 miles one-way in economy and 40,000 miles in business. This is still not a bad deal for folks on the East Coast.
That said, the LifeMiles website is not the most user friendly for using points for domestic flights. For starters, despite having a published award chart, award costs can fluctuate by 1,000 points here or there. Sometimes the change is in your favor and the award actually costs less than it should.
But all in all, Avianca is a solid option for booking flights on United, especially for longer flights.
Booking Domestic Flights with Singapore Airlines
- Award costs: 14,000 miles in economy, 26,000 in business
- Transfer partners: Amex, Capital One, Chase, Citi
- Website to search: Singapore Airlines
Singapore Airline's KrisFlyer program has a decent zone-based award chart for Star Alliance redemptions. Singapore lumps all of the US (minus Hawaii) into a single zone. You can access the award chart here.
A fixed zone-based award chart for the entire US is good for booking long distance domestic flights with points, but not as helpful for short-haul ones. So if you're looking to fly from San Francisco to Los Angeles, Singapore won't offer you the best deal. But if you're trying to fly across the country, then 14,000 miles one-way in economy isn't a bad deal at all.
Singapore's website is quite intuitive and the booking process is seamless. Just remember that transfers to Singapore from many banks are usually not instant and can take up to a couple of days.
Booking Domestic Flights with Turkish Airlines
- Award costs: 10,000 miles in economy, 20,000 in business
- Transfer partners: Bilt, Capital One, Citi
- Website to search: Aeroplan, United
Turkish still offers good value for using points for domestic flights on United despite its latest devaluation. 10,000 miles one-way for an economy flight to Hawaii from anywhere in the US, is a great deal. Turkish has a fixed award chart (instead of distance-based), so the cost of your flight will not change regardless of whether your itinerary includes any connections. The downside of booking with Turkish is having to deal with their lackluster call center if anything happens with your flight or you need to make any changes.
Booking Domestic Flights with United Airlines
- Award costs: dynamic
- Transfer partners: Bilt, Chase
- Website to search: United
United has dynamic pricing for award flights on its own metal, which means points costs fluctuate regularly. Every once in a while you can find a particularly cheap flight with United miles that is even cheaper than on Aeroplan or another partner, but that does not happen very often.
Use Points for Domestic Flights: ToP Thoughts
Credit card points offer incredible flexibility for booking flights with US carriers. This all goes to show that you don't need a co-branded American Airlines or Delta card to book award flights with those airlines. This is just one of the many reasons why transferable currencies like Ultimate Rewards and Membership Rewards are so much more valuable and useful than airline miles.
Let me know your favorite way to use points for domestic flights over in the ToP Facebook Group.
