There’s nothing more exciting than uncovering a new mileage programme that lets you transfer and redeem miles for new airline partners. When I got my first credit card and started earning transferrable points (in this case AmEx Membership Rewards points), I enjoyed the new redemption opportunities I had access to, such as Flying Blue, Emirates Skywards, and more. There are also open-loop loyalty programmes such as HeyMax (whom I work with, for full disclosure), which also allow for lots of these opportunities.
However, either for fraud prevention or to help incentivise genuine loyalty, airlines sometimes impose restrictions on account age, or number of miles in the account, in order for you to maximise these sweet spots. Here are some ways that you can set up your accounts now. I’ll focus on airlines in this post, though I’ll be writing a little bit about hotel transfer options as well in the future.
The aim is that you can minimise the frustrating “gah, I can’t redeem this award because my account’s not 90 days old” moments. As a heads up, most of these are “buy miles” options, including if you’re using a virtual card issued by an open-loop loyalty currency – if you don’t use this feature often, feel free to skip this post.
Sign up to Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards
Alaska Airlines sometimes has awesome buy miles promotions, where you might be able to get an up to 50% bonus. However, your account needs to be at least 10 days old in order for you to take advantage of this. There’s no workaround once you find a redemption opportunity, so I’d recommend you sign up for an account now.
If you’re a HeyMax user, do note that HeyMax issues you virtual cards to buy miles when you’re looking to transfer, so your account also needs to be 10 days old – I’d recommend you signing up for an account now, just in case you come across a good redemption opportunity in the future.
Alaska Airlines is a Oneworld partner, and you can easily find Oneworld award space on their website (including newcomer Oman Air, which many other Oneworld airlines haven’t integrated into their booking system yet); furthermore, they have other fun partners that you can redeem miles for, including Porter Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Air Tahiti Nui, and Starlux Airlines.
Use Atmos Rewards points to fly Starlux business class
As a side note, Alaska is known to lock accounts that have been inactive for 2+ years. However, many report that this is easily resolvable by contacting customer service.
Sign up to American Airlines AAdvantage and credit one mile
American Airlines AAdvantage is one of my favourite airline programmes, and occasionally can have great buy miles promotions, especially during the early winter. The catch is that your account needs to be 30 days old, and you need at least one mile in your account in order to buy miles. Sources aren’t incredibly consistent on this, though most sources suggest that you need both requirements, or at least the 30-day old account age requirement.
While there aren’t many credit card opportunities in the UK/Hong Kong, any Oneworld flight (Cathay Pacific/Malaysia Airlines etc.) will do. Alternatively, AAdvantage also partners with IHG, so you can stay at an IHG hotel for a night and credit your miles directly to your AAdvantage account. I’d recommend you sign up for an account now, so you don’t get caught out by the 30 day requirement (if anything).
If you’re a HeyMax user, you’ll also need to meet this requirement, as HeyMax currently issues virtual cards for you to buy AAdvantage miles.
Use AAdvantage miles to redeem for Etihad business class, <30 days out (which you need at least one naturally earned AAdvantage mile to do)
Credit one mile to British Airways Avios
As of this month, the Avios ecosystem (British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, Qatar Airways, Aer Lingus, Loganair) no longer requires you to have had an account for at least 90 days, or to have a non-zero Avios account balance in order for you to transfer your miles between programmes. This is great, since Avios for each one of these programmes is quite easy to come by – AmEx Membership Rewards, Barclaycard, Avios Hotels, etc. are all ways where you can earn Avios without flying. If you’re a HeyMax user, you can transfer your miles instantly to Qatar Airways Avios, then move them throughout the network (without a minimum account age requirement).
However, if you’re taking advantage of a buy miles promotion, you do still need at least one Avios in your account, or to have collected and/or redeemed one Avios in the last three years. There’s probably an easy workaround with another system if you get to this, though it’s good to make sure that you keep your Avios active just in case the opportunity arises.
Keep your Avios account balance active, even if there are fewer reasons to do so than in the past
Credit one mile to Emirates Skywards
Similarly, Emirates only lets you buy miles if your account has prior earning activity. So if you’d like to buy Skywards miles (for a promotion or otherwise), you can’t do that in a fresh account. While Emirates keeps its award space to itself (so it’s very difficult to find a good-value award on Emirates if you’re not using Skywards), they have lots of earn partners, including Korean Air, Qantas, Air Canada, Bangkok Airways (where you can credit your flight to Emirates Skywards), as well as some direct transfer partners, AmEx/HSBC Rewards, various car rental companies, and most major transferrable hotel currencies. Transferring from some of these direct partners shouldn’t require prior account activity, so you can use it to “qualify” your account.
If you’re a HeyMax user, HeyMax issues virtual cards for you to buy Emirates points, so you’ll be subject to this requirement before you can transfer your Max Miles. Otherwise, Emirates doesn’t do too many buy miles promotions, so this isn’t a major issue (though in case another open loop loyalty currency joins the game, I’d recommend you to try and “activate” your Skywards account anyway).
Emirates’ A380 business class, which you can’t redeem for immediately using Max Miles without prior account activity
Earn one Velocity Frequent Flyer point
Virgin Australia’s Velocity points have some great uses – you can redeem points for flights within Australia, or you can even redeem for Virgin Atlantic, Qatar Airways, Etihad, Singapore Airlines, etc.. You can even transfer your Velocity points to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer at a 1.55:1 ratio (this is good news for HeyMax users, especially if based in Singapore, as HeyMax doesn’t have KrisFlyer as a transfer option at the moment).
However, you do need at least one Velocity Frequent Flyer point in order to buy miles, including taking advantage of any buy miles promotions. If you’re a HeyMax user, you’ll also need at least one Velocity Frequent Flyer point in order to transfer your Max Miles over, as it’s also issued via a virtual card. Transferring from any transfer partner (e.g. AmEx, Marriott Bonvoy) or crediting a flight from any of the aforementioned partners to Velocity Frequent Flyer should do the trick – you can even link your DiDi account if you’re ever travelling within China.
Use Virgin Australia Velocity points to redeem for Qatar Airways business class
Put together points with another transfer source for EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
EVA Air’s Infinity MileageLands programme is valuable because it opens up the most award space (by far) for EVA Air business class, which is excellent. The catch is that you need to have naturally earned at least 50% of the points required for any redemption – you can’t pay more than 50% of the balance using bought points.
If you’re a HeyMax user, HeyMax currently issues virtual cards for Infinity MileageLands, so these will count as “bought” points (meaning you can’t redeem more than 50% of the account balance with points transferred from Max Miles).
Fortunately, HSBC and a few other programmes collaborate with Infinity MileageLands, and allow for direct transfers at the moment. You’ll be able to put these together with your bought points in order to redeem for EVA Air business class.
Use Infinity MileageLands points to redeem for EVA Air business class
Sign up to Air Canada Aeroplan
Air Canada Aeroplan actually doesn’t have a published buy miles requirement. However, I’ve seen some users be locked out of their accounts when they tried to buy miles in a new account, including those who were using virtual cards issued by HeyMax.
I’d recommend signing up for an account going now, just to reduce fraud alert when the time comes to make a redemption.
Use Aeroplan miles to redeem for Singapore Airlines business class
Conclusion
Due to fraudulent activity and loyalty incentives, airlines sometimes impose a transaction activity or account age requirement in order for you to use their airline miles. Doing some of the above actions will allow you to get past some of these requirements, and maximise the mileage redemption opportunities you need for your next flight.
Are there any other “easy wins” you know of that will help maximise the liquidity of your miles?
