Use 'partner' awards to get better availability of mileage tickets

One of the most frustrating things about using miles from your credit card is finding flights at the days and times you want to travel. Unfortunately, many times travelers will quit their search in frustration without exploring one very important, and easy to use angle: using your miles for flights on partner airlines.

Partner airlines are airlines that have agreed to allow members of another frequent flyer program to earn and use miles on their flights. They are also called 'alliances.' For example, your United Airlines miles can be used for flights on United, as well as their partners US Airways, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, and many more.

Let's say you want to travel from Chicago to Phoenix for a winter vacation with United miles. Many times, travelers and agents will only look at the nonstop flights United offers. However, US Airways, a United partner, offers several nonstop flights a day to Phoenix. So, even though you may not see space on United flights, there could be space on convenient US Airways flights.

What makes this tricky is sometimes partner award options do not show when you do an online search, or immediately show on a telephone agent's screen. A reliable way to check is to separately ask for specific partner airlines when an agent does your search. You can find a list of many major airlines' partners on our Airline Cards pages under 'redemption opportunities.'