One of the biggest frustrations of ANA’s Mileage Club loyalty program has long been the fact that it’s not been possible to book one way awards. That – and a couple of other factors – have made it a risky program to transfer Amex Membership Rewards to because you had to rely on round trip flight availability to use the program.
View From The Wing has highlighted good news on that front because one way awards will finally be bookable from June 24, 2025. However, it does come at a cost.
For starters, round trip award pricing on ANA metal will increase in high season. Most disappointingly for some, the ability to book Round The World tickets will end.
One way awards
First, the good news. From June 24, 2025, you’ll be able to book one way award flights using ANA’s loyalty program on ANA metal. Here’s what the award chart will look like:
Pricing in the low season is fairly good, regular season isn’t bad, but high season awards could be brutal, especially if you’d like to travel in first class as that’ll cost you 150,000 miles one way.
What’s a relief is that ANA isn’t moving to a dynamic pricing model in the way that many other airlines have. Instead, there are clearly defined tables listing the dates that fall into low, regular and high season:
As you can see, only about two months of the year fall into high season. That means most of the year will be bookable at low and regular season rates.
Increased round trip pricing on ANA metal
Last year, ANA conducted a devaluation on all kinds of awards, with some of the harshest changes being to business class awards on ANA metal. That said, even with those increases the business class pricing was still fairly attractive compared to other programs.
This year there’ll be a further devaluation for all cabin classes, but only if you want to travel in high season:
Where business class tickets to/from Japan used to cost 110,000 miles round trip in high season, that kind of redemption will now cost 165,000 miles – a whopping 50% increase. First class awards in high season will also increase 50% from 200,000 miles to 300,000 miles, while high season award tickets booked in economy and premium economy will increase by 31%. Thankfully low and regular season bookings remain untouched.
No More Round The World
One of the best potential redemptions in any airline loyalty program has historically been ANA’s Round The World tickets. This provided the ability to book up to 12 segments and stops in up to eight cities for a comparatively low number of miles versus what would be required if booking those flights separately.
Unfortunately, from June 24, 2025 you’ll no longer be able to redeem ANA miles for these Round The World tickets. If you’ve redeemed for one of these awards before that date, you can still travel and book on those tickets; it’s only new redemptions that will end from that date.
I’d long wanted to be able to take advantage of that ANA sweet spot, but my travel plans never aligned and now it looks like I’ll miss out on that opportunity entirely.
Your thoughts
Are you excited by the ability to book one way awards with ANA, or will the high season increased pricing and removal of Round The World tickets dampen your enthusiasm for the program? Let us know in the comments below.
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Are there other programs that offer a good option for RTW? I wanted to do one in the middle of next year and ANA is now no longer an option. I was building up my Amex points, but if I need to focus on a different program, which one?
If I can get star alliance coach to SE Asia cheaper than United miles, I say it’s a good change. Never used ANA precisely because of RT requirements.
Had anyone done the analysis: using one way partner awards, what would now be the cost of an RTW booking with three or four stops?
How much do they charge for one way LH F to Europe?
Aren’t partner awards priced identical to ANA high season? So are partner awards going up too or not?
Please correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t finding first class award space for two people on ANA between the USA and Asia pretty much impossible during, say, a given month? I know the five of you flew together last year but IIRC it was on fairly short notice, which most of us can’t pull off easily if at all.
How is ANA about releasing a couple of business class award seats?
I must be reading this wrong. April in Japan is low season?
I had the same thought
What Tony wrote below about partner awards should be added to the post. That makes ANA miles very useful for last minute bookings on United, for example. Though RTW ending is big devaluation, I might be more inclined to park some miles in ANA because their one way partner award pricing is better than UA, AC, etc.
How are the ANA business award inventory to their own members? It’s great to have one way business redemptions in the future, but not entirely useful if inventory will be low
A lot are waitlisted. If you’re very flexible you can find them. I honestly think this will just intensify competition for already low inventory…
Hi AJ W, do you have any experience with “Waitlist” bookings? Business is pretty much always available as Waitlist, but how exactly does it work? Are you first in line if they add business award inventory? Thanks
Waitlists almost never clear unless you have status with ANA. There’s almost always a long queue and you are at the bottom of it.
For most people these changes may be a net positive. The requirement to book round trip was a major disincentive to even considering to use this program.
Ouch! I booked roundtrip to Africa last year on ANA, but had to cancel due to illness of my travel companion. I was hoping to use those ANA miles for a RTW trip for August 2026. But ending them in in June 2025, makes that not work. I don’t think we (different travel companion) can get time off to make a RTW trip sooner. Hmm . . . I guess change of plans are in order.
That’s a bummer! But why not make the Africa trip happen? August is an excellent season for safari in lots of places.
One-way partner awards will also be bookable and there’s no further devaluation of partner awards at this time. I’ve been waiting for ANA to drop its roundtrip requirement to make its program usable again. Its award pricing is still competitive, so it’s a net positive from my perspective.