Travel Tips

Travel Tip: It’s Getting Easier to Use Your Miles to Buy One-Way Tickets

seatsIt used to be that airlines only wanted you to use frequent flyer miles for round-trip tickets, if and when you could redeem them at all. But things are changing.

Delta announced it’s lowering the threshold for redeeming miles for one-way tickets. Instead of 12,500 miles, you can now get a flight for 10,000 miles on some U.S., Mexican, and Caribbean routes.

That’s less than half of what would be required for a round-trip ticket.

American Airlines has something called One-Way Flex Awards, starting at 12,500 miles, or half of what’s needed for a round-trip ticket.

Just remember, you have to book at least 21 days in advance or you’ll be charged a fee.

Now, here’s why being able to use your miles is important: One-way tickets are often prohibitively expensive. Sometimes three or four times more than a round-trip ticket.

That’s because one-way tickets are usually booked by business travelers who aren’t necessarily looking for the best deal, so there’s no incentive for the airlines to compete on price.

That’s why using miles, when you can, is a better deal all around.

For more information about mileage and reward programs, check out:

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