While you can, of course, earn and spend ANA Mileage Club miles on flights operated by ANA, the airline also partners with dozens of other airlines. Additionally, there are also a number of transfer partners that allow you to convert their points into ANA miles.
Continue reading to find out all you need to know about ANA’s airline and transfer partners.
ANA Mileage Club Airline Partners
ANA is a member of Star Alliance. As such, there are two types of airlines that ANA partners with – other Star Alliance members and airlines that do not belong to the same alliance.
As a passenger, there are some things that you will be able to do when traveling on Star Alliance member airlines that you will not be able to do on non-alliance partner airlines. That said, there are also some things that you will be able to do with both types of partners.
Regardless of whether the ANA airline partner that interests you belongs to Star Alliance or not, you will be able to earn (subject to booking class) and redeem miles (subject to availability) on that partner’s flights.
When redeeming miles, ANA’s zone-based partner award chart will apply, and (like when booking regular ANA international awards) you will only be able to book roundtrip and open-jaw tickets. I.e., you will not be able to book one-way award tickets.
Star Alliance Member Airlines
Unsurprisingly, Star Alliance member airlines are integrated with ANA Mileage Club the most.
In addition to being able to earn and redeem miles on these airlines, you will also be able to enjoy frequent flyer benefits like lounge access and extra baggage allowance on these airlines’ flights if you have an ANA status equivalent to Star Alliance Silver or Star Alliance Gold.
When booking award tickets involving Star Alliance member airlines using ANA miles, you will be able to mix and match airlines. In other words, as long as there is availability, you will be able to, for example, fly one way on ANA and Thai Airways and the other way on Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines.
ANA’s Star Alliance partners include:
- Aegean Airlines
- Air Canada
- Air China
- Air India
- Air New Zealand
- Asiana Airlines
- Austrian
- Avianca
- Brussels Airlines
- Copa Airlines
- Croatia Airlines
- Egyptair
- Ethiopian Airlines
- Eva Air
- LOT Polish Airlines
- Lufthansa
- SAS Scandinavian Airlines
- Shenzhen Airlines
- Singapore Airlines
- South African Airways
- Swiss
- TAP Portugal
- Thai Airways
- Turkish Airlines
- United Airlines
In addition to the full Star Alliance members listed above, ANA also partners with Star Alliance Connecting Partner Juneyao Air.
Non-Star Alliance Partner Airlines
Like other airlines, ANA also partners with airlines outside of its own alliance. While some of these belong to one of the two other major alliances, others do not.
There are two major differences when related to ANA Mileage Club non-alliance partner airlines:
- When flying on these airlines, you will generally not be able to enjoy your frequent flyer status benefits
- When booking an award ticket with one of these airlines, you will not be able to mix and match airlines (for example, you will not be able to fly with Virgin Australia one way and with Thai Airways or Air Macau the other)
ANA’s non-alliance partner airlines include:
- Air Dolomiti
- Air Macau
- Etihad Airways
- Eurowings
- Garuda Indonesia
- Olympic Air
- Philippine Airlines
- Vietnam Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic
- Virgin Australia
ANA Mileage Club Transfer Partners
Lastly, it is also worth knowing about ANA Mileage Club’s transfer partners as this is oftentimes the best way to acquire ANA miles.
While in Japan, ANA has quite a few transfer partners including Rakuten and Resona Group, assuming you live outside Japan (or even in Japan), its international partners are more interesting to know about. There are two major types of those.
First, there are hotel programs that allow their points to be transferred to ANA. Those include:
- Hilton Honors (10 points to 1 mile)
- IHG One Rewards (5 points to 1 mile)
- Marriott Bonvoy (3 points to 1 mile plus 5,000 miles for every 60,000 points transferred at once)
- Shangri-La Circle (1 point to 1 mile)
- World of Hyatt (2.5 points to 1 mile)
Then, there are credit card companies that allow their points to be transferred to ANA. As an example, in the United States, American Express Membership Rewards points can be transferred to ANA Mileage Club at a 1 point to 1 mile ratio.
One thing you should keep in mind is that the time it takes to transfer points from one of the programs above to ANA Mileage Club varies. As the transfers are not instant and can take days (weeks in some cases), the award ticket that you were eyeing might not be available anymore by the time your miles land in your account.
Another thing to keep in mind is that some of the programs have a specific number of points that you need to transfer at a time. E.g. you cannot transfer just 5 IHG One Rewards points but instead have to transfer them in batches of 10,000 points (2,000 miles).
Summary
ANA partners with more than two dozen airlines. While most of these are Star Alliance partners, it also has a good number of non-alliance partners. On all of these partner airlines, ANA Mileage Club members can collect and spend ANA miles. On Star Alliance partners, they can also enjoy reciprocal frequent flyer status benefits.
When it comes to booking award tickets, airlines can be mixed and matched in one itinerary if they are all Star Alliance members. Non-Star Alliance partner award tickets, however, can only include flights operated by one of the partners.
In addition to airline partners, ANA Mileage Club also has a number of transfer partners. Most notably these are the major hotel programs like Marriott Bonvoy and IHG One Rewards that allow you to convert their points into ANA miles and financial institution partners like American Express.
While collecting transfer partners’ points is a great way to acquire ANA miles, it’s good to keep in mind that the transfers do not happen instantly and that there is often a minimum number of points that need to be converted at once.
Next, you might want to read about some of the best ways to use ANA miles.
