How Many Airline Miles Do You Need for a Free Flight?
Key Takeaways
- The number of award miles needed for an award flight will depend on a variety of factors.
- A domestic, one-way economy flight between New York and Los Angeles ranged from 5,000 to 140,000 miles in our sampling, depending on the dates and carrier.
- A one-way international economy flight between New York and London cost around 20,000 to 325,800 miles, while one-way in first class started at around 60,000 miles.
The exact number of miles needed for a free flight will primarily depend on three things:
- Origin and destination
- Cabin type
- The airline you’re flying and/or booking through
This is the case for airline miles earned with a specific airline. Many airlines offer co-branded credit cards that earn miles directly with their program. There are also credit cards that earn flexible points that you can transfer to airline miles, as well as cards that earn generic points that can offset the purchase cost of flights booked with any carrier.
Miles needed for a free flight by airline
We sampled flight awards available with U.S. carriers and found that consumers need between about 5,000 and 140,000 miles to get a free one-way coach flight.
Free flights in business or first class start at around 15,000 miles and climb to well over 400,000 miles one-way. In most cases, the cost of a round-trip flight is approximately double.
There are two pricing models that airlines use when determining award amounts: region-based and dynamic pricing.
- Region-based pricing: Some carriers have a region-based award chart with the lowest-level award prices published. Awards are often available for a greater number of miles if these “saver” seats are sold out.
American Airlines, Alaska, Hawaiian and Frontier fall into this category. American Airlines offers “Web Special” awards that can be cheaper than the published rate, while Alaska’s chart takes flight distance into account.
- Dynamic pricing: Other airlines (including Southwest and Delta) use dynamic pricing, where the cost of a free flight in miles depends on the cash ticket price.
In the table below, we sampled prices for domestic flights between New York City (EWR/JFK/LGA) and Los Angeles (LAX), booked a little more than a month in advance. You can expect short-haul tickets, like a flight between San Francisco and Los Angeles, to cost fewer miles.
Average flight award values by issuer
| Airline | Coach/Economy | Business class | First class | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 25,000 - 63,000 | 124,500 | 58,500 - 169,500 | Region-based |
| Delta Air Lines | 25,000 - 45,500 | 118,000 - 150,000 | 220,000 - 480,000 | Dynamic |
| Southwest Airlines | 13,773 - 60,948 | N/A | N/A | Dynamic |
| United Airlines | 17,900 - 30,800 | 63,400 - 120,000 | N/A | Dynamic |
| JetBlue | 14,500 - 38,400 | 55,300 - 231,000 | N/A | Dynamic |
| Alaska Airlines | 5,000 - 12,500 | N/A | 15,000 - 40,000 | Region-based |
| Spirit Airlines | 7,500 - 20,500 | N/A | N/A | Dynamic |
| Frontier | 10,000 | N/A | N/A | Region-based |
| Hawaiian | 7,500 - 140,000 | 65,000 - 130,000 | 15,000 - 130,000 | Region-based |
How many miles do you need for a free flight to Hawaii?
Looking to soak in some sun on a Hawaii beach? Free flights to the 50th state require more miles than flights within the continental U.S., as you might expect. Based on our research, we found that one-way coach tickets to Hawaii cost between ~13,000 and 130,000 miles.
We sampled flights from both the East Coast (JFK) and West Coast (LAX) to Hawaii (HNL):
| Airline | West Coast (LAX) | East Coast (JFK) |
|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 22,500 - 35,000 | 28,500 - 75,000 |
| Delta Air Lines | 27,000 - 59,000 | 57,000 - 78,000 |
| Southwest Airlines | 13,857 - 54,349 | 29,156 - 62,464 |
| United Airlines | 25,000 - 80,000 | 38,800 - 68,800 |
| JetBlue | 20,000 - 50,000 | 37,900 |
| Alaska Airlines | 17,500 - 50,000 | 25,000 - 65,000 |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 20,000 - 95,000 | 30,000 - 130,000 |
How many miles do you need for a free international flight?
The general number of award miles needed for a free international ticket in a coach/economy cabin from New York to London ranges from 20,000 miles to 325,800 miles.
Tickets in business and first class start at 35,000 miles, but can sometimes cost you in excess of 300,000 miles. First class awards are expensive as well, ranging from 60,000 miles to more than 500,000 miles one-way.
For the purposes of data collection, we examined the price of booking a flight between New York City (EWR/JFK/LGA) and London (LHR/LGW) in the table below. Note that booking award travel to other parts of the world — including Africa, Asia and Australia — can be significantly higher for U.S. passengers.
| Airline | Coach/Economy | Business class | First class |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 54,000 - 57,000 | 115,000 - 457,500 | 296,500 - 490,500 |
| Delta Air Lines | 66,000 - 93,000 | 220,000 - 480,000 | 220,000 - 480,000 |
| Southwest Airlines | 21,580 - 52,539 | N/A | N/A |
| United Airlines | 35,200 - 40,000 | 80,000 - 245,000 | 80,000 - 200,000 |
| JetBlue | 20,900 - 39,000 | 165,300 - 290,000 | N/A |
| Alaska Airlines | 27,500 - 45,000 | 45,000 | 67,500 |
| Air Canada | 31,600 - 325,800 | 72,100 - 300,000 | 60,000 - 533,600 |
| Virgin Atlantic | 20,000 - 30,000 | 35,000 - 55,000 | 95,000 - 135,000 |
| British Airways | 20,750 - 30,000 | 62,000 - 90,000 | N/A |
| Air France | 20,000 - 56,000 | 76,000 - 108,000 | N/A |
Watch out for fuel surcharges
One oddity about booking international flights with miles is that you may incur significant charges in the form of fuel surcharges and taxes. These can range from a few dollars to several hundred dollars. While all U.S. taxes (with the exception of a $5.60 departure security fee) are covered by miles, with many programs, the traveler is on the hook for all international fees and taxes.
For example, even if you fully pay for a trip to London in miles, you can still be charged as much as $151 in taxes on a one-way economy flight. If you want to fly in a premium cabin, a one-way Upper Class flight with Virgin Atlantic can cost you $826 in taxes and surcharges. This begs the question, is using miles for free flights always the best choice for premium cabins?
Business/first class is a better deal when redeeming free flights
It is often better to use your miles to pay for a first class or business class seat, rather than coach or economy. Even though it takes more miles to get a free business-class seat, you get a greater return on your points — this holds true primarily for international flights.
For example, let’s assume a round-trip economy seat on American Airlines flying nonstop from JFK to LHR costs $622. A business class seat on a similar itinerary would cost $3,684, and you’d pay $5,797 for first class. Those same flights would cost you 60,000, 130,000 and 250,000 miles for economy, business and first class, respectively.
To get the per-mile value, you simply need to take the dollar fare, subtract the taxes and fees, and then divide the result by the price in miles.- Economy: ($622 – $206) / 60,000 = $0.0069 (0.69 cents)
- Business: ($3,684 – $339) / 130,000 = $0.0257 (2.57 cents)
- First: ($5,797 – $338) / 250,000 = $0.0218 (2.18 cents)
As you can see from these calculations, business and first class on American Airlines provides a better value, with business getting you nearly four times the value for each mile.
How many credit card miles do you need for a free flight?
The number of credit card miles you need will depend on the number of award miles a flight requires. Travel credit cards earn points and miles, which are typically worth 1 to 2 cents each and can be redeemed for flights. Some cards are flexible, meaning you can earn rewards on any travel purchase. Co-branded cards often allow you to earn points and miles on a specific airline.
- Co-branded: Airline co-branded credit cards award you miles for every dollar you spend, directly with their affiliated airline. Nearly every carrier has their own credit card — United, Southwest and Delta offer some of the best airline cards. When it comes to using those miles for free flights, everything we said above will apply to these credit cards.
- Flexible points: Cards that earn flexible points, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and American Express® Gold Card, aren’t tied to a specific airline. However, they can still get you an award flight. These miles can be transferred to any of the bank’s loyalty partners, which include a variety of airline and hotel programs. For example, Chase has a list of 14 transfer partners.
Points generally transfer at a 1:1 ratio to airline miles. However, programs will occasionally run transfer bonuses, which means you’ll need fewer bank points than the number of miles required by the airline.
- Miles: Some cards, like the Discover it® Miles, earn “miles” that aren’t really miles as we’ve described. These “miles” can be redeemed for flights through your credit card’s travel portal, or redeemed retroactively to pay off travel purchases made on your credit card. This means that you would use the card to pay for the airfare, taxes included, and then use any miles you accumulate on your account to pay off those charges.
The benefit of these miles is that your flight can be completely free, as generic travel miles will also cover any international taxes or fuel surcharges. You can also fly with a wide range of different airlines, which offers more flexibility.
With general travel rewards cards, 1 mile usually equals 1 cent in airfare
Therefore, to know exactly how many miles you’ll need to pay for a ticket, you need to multiply the price of that ticket by 100. You’re essentially redeeming miles as cash, although there may be restrictions where you can only redeem for travel purchases.