Today’s email comes from reader Jim, who writes:
I’m planning a trip to South Africa in January-February 2017. Currently, my miles/points status is (approx.):
62,000 United
160,000 Ultimate Rewards
75,000 Starpoints
50,000 Amex
190,000 Marriott
200,000 Hilton
50,000 Citi TY
18,000 South African Airways
+ some American, Wyndham, and Air BerlinMy original thought is transfer what I need (320,000 miles, once I get them + fees) for a United flight round-trip (we want to fly business all or most of the way), but I ran across this article on the points guy: http://thepointsguy.com/2014/04/how-to-find-and-book-star-alliance-awards-not-showing-up-on-united-com/
I followed along as best I could as the website has changed somewhat since 2014, and joined the ANA mileage club to search their search engine for award availability. I found a business round trip for two people on the ANA Site IAD-DUR-IAD for 208,000 miles + fees on the dates we’re interested in but right now, I have 0 in ANA miles since I literally just created the account. At this point, my travel intelligence breaks down. I’m a little leery of transferring the points into ANA if this actually doesn’t work. Do you have advice on what the next step is? I assume that the choice will be presented at a further step in the booking, but I’d hate to be wrong on this.
Cheapest miles to South Africa
The gist of the question was that he was trying to book a flight from the US to South Africa, and he was looking to use ANA miles (transferring from Membership Rewards and/or SPG points). The 104,000 miles per person for a roundtrip flight to South Africa in BUSINESS class seemed low to me, but I went out to ANA’s website and found a sample itinerary
A roundtrip one stop flight from Washington to South Africa on Ethiopian Airlines in Business Class for 104,000 miles. Hmmm but what are the fees. 64,370 Japanese Yen… that’s probably not that much, is it?
Errrrr $623 in fuel surcharges, taxes and fees (per person!) seems like a LOT to me. Everyone has their own definition of the value of miles vs. dollars, but that would be hard to swallow for me. In contrast, United charges 80,000 miles one-way (160K roundtrip), but only has about $50 in costs. Is the $573 in savings worth 52,000 miles? I think you’re at least in the same ballpark, and there are other programs that would be even cheaper (JAL charges 65K oneway in business for example; Alaska charges 70K but only on British Airways with huge fuel surcharges as well)
(SEE ALSO: How can fuel surcharges on an award cost MORE THAN A PAID TICKET?!?!)
Is there a way to avoid fuel surcharges on the cheapest miles to South Africa?
According to this article over at Travel is Free, ANA is going to charge a few hundred dollars of fuel surcharges on almost every airline, including (unfortunately) South African Airways. I tried several different combinations of airlines and different city endpoints, and was still running at a minimun of 40,000 yen (~$400) no matter what I tried. It seems like United, Air Canada and a few other airlines won’t pass on fuel surcharges using ANA miles, but I haven’t figured out any way to avoid the fuel surcharges
Anyone have any suggestions for Jim on how to fly business class from the US to South Africa?
This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as thepointsguy.com. This may impact how and where links appear on this site. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Virgin Atlantic with Delta miles possibly?
I just flew The following
DFW-Auh-ebb- ord on EY. No fuel surcharge and minimal taxes
This was for 65k r/t in economy. Booking was easy. Cool thing about Ana award chart is Africa is one big region so the same would work on Auh to jnb flight EY has
I think United is his best bet. 180k pts for combinations on LH,LX, and SA for up to four legs. That would get him to Durban easily for very little in fuel surcharges. Transfer UR points to UA and book through UA.
Oh well, so you know I don’t just complain about your attitude/clothes :=) … I believe ANA can book Etihad roundtrip in business with no fuel surcharges for the 104K to IAD-AUH-JNB, and then there are very low cost flights JNB-DUR. Based on my analysis across programs, that’s the best value in business to SA from North America.
That’s what I’m talkin about! Does Etihad availability show up online with ANA or do you have to call it in?
Looking at Etihad, but it seems it goes IAD-AUH-SEZ-JNB with not much availability. I’m going to call ANA later (they codeshare) to see if booking points with them will work. Thanks for the tip!
Actually, Etihad has a direct Abu Dhabi-Johannesburg. You have to check for Guest seat awards on Etihad’s website, and then call ANA to book.
I just went there in May. It was beautiful. Next time I would go to Cape Town or Durbin instead of Johannesburg.
Qatar has availability using AA miles. We are going in Sept MCO-PHL-DOH-JNB
Why not use Singapore miles to fly United at 115,000 miles roundtrip?
I’m open to that, and appreciate the tip, but I have to admit I’m not very experienced on using miles/points in one system to fly on another. Can you explain how? Thanks
I think Singapore charges 145k for South Africa roundtrip
There was a report recently about phantom availability on ANA. The web site says Available, so people transfer points, but subsequent screens actually show a Wait List status.