41. Booking Smart: How to Use Airline Alliances to Your Advantage

Points Talk®: Your Travel Dreams, Made Possible by Points

Alex, Pam and Jess

Places & Travel, Education, Society & Culture, How To

4.9 • 734 Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2023

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Welcome back! In our today's episode we uncover the hidden gems within airline alliances! Ever wondered about flying Q Suite for fewer miles than you'd expect? Or how about discovering those hidden airline sweet spots that seem elusive? We've got you covered.

We dive deep into the world of airline alliances. These power-packed groups allow travelers like us (and you!) to book flights using miles from one airline but fly on another. To put it in perspective, imagine using Virgin Atlantic miles to book a Delta flight and snagging a bargain in the process. And yes, flying Q Suite on Qatar Airways with American Airlines miles is entirely possible—we've done it!

And for those of you keen on understanding the potential of less-talked-about loyalty programs, Pam dove deep into her experiences with Avianca Life Miles.

Want to catch all the details and tips we shared? Press play on the episode and embark on a journey of points and miles mastery with us!

Links For All Things Travel Mom Squad: stan.store/travelmomsquad

Links For This Episode:

Award Travel Academy Next Level: https://travelmomsquad.com/ata-next-level

Transfer Partner Cheat Sheet: https://travelmomsquad.ck.page/cheatsheet

Episode Minute By Minute:

00:48 Jess breaks down how airline alliances work, check the cheat sheet in the show notes!
02:49 Working with a partner airline can save a lot of miles, but it's not always an option
04:27 Alex shares her favorite airline alliance sweet spots
06:59 Alex and Pam share their experience with Qatar airlines, flying in Qsuite
11:51 Pam talks about the sweet spots that she’s taken advantage of with Avianca Life miles
15:11 Jess shares her favorite sweet spot with Star Alliance
18:29 Alex talks about booking Delta flights through Virgin Atlantic
21:00 Pam gives another tip when it comes to booking flights to Hawaii
25:10 Jess shares her plan to get home from Japan with American Airlines miles
26:12 Breaking down sweet spots that don’t involve airline alliances
28:01 Jess talks about Turkish Airlines, known for an amazing experience
32:54 Make sure to check out the Award Travel Academy Next Level course!

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Points Talk with the Travel Mom Squad, previously known as the Travel Hacking Mom Show.
0:05.8	Follow the links in the show notes to stay up to date with what the Travel Mom Squad has been up to.
0:10.5	Do you ever look at booking a flight and think, whoa, that is a lot of miles?
0:15.0	Today, we're going to show you how sometimes you might be able to book that flight for less.
0:20.2	Keep listening to find out how.
0:23.9	Welcome to the Travel Haki Mom Show.
0:25.8	We are three moms who've discovered how to leverage credit card welcome offers to get hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel expenses for nearly free.
0:33.9	We've used credit card points and miles to take vacations to places like Hawaii, Paris, Greece,
0:39.2	the Maldives, Italy, and so much more. And the best part? We each still have an 800 plus credit score.
0:45.2	Imagine being able to book a vacation without having to check your bank account. It's totally possible,
0:50.0	and we're here to show you how. Hey, I'm Alex. And I'm Pam, Alex's mom.
0:55.1	And I'm Jess.
0:55.9	We are travel hacking moms.
0:58.4	Today, we're talking about some of our favorite sweet spots when it comes to redeeming points and miles for flights.
1:05.4	Many of these sweet spots are possible due to leveraging airline alliances.
1:09.7	So first, let's go over how exactly the airline alliances work.
1:15.2	So there are three main alliances.
1:18.0	There is the One World Alliance, which includes airlines like American Airlines, British Airways, Qatar, Japan Airlines.
1:26.9	There is the Sky Team Alliance, which includes
1:30.2	airlines like Delta, Air France, and KLM, and Virgin Atlantic. And then there's the Star Alliance,
1:37.4	which includes United, Singapore Airlines, Air Canada, Turkish Airlines, and more. I do not expect any of you to remember all of that.
1:46.8	There's not going to be a quiz at the end of the episode. We have a transfer partner cheat sheet
	...

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