The Guide to ANA Mileage Club

All Nippon Airways, also known as ANA Airlines, is based in Japan with hubs at Tokyo-Haneda and Tokyo-Narita airports. ANA Airlines is a member of the Star Alliance, joining airlines like Air Canada and United, with flights from Japan to destinations across Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. In addition, ANA is a transfer partner of American Express, providing opportunities to transfer your AmEx points to ANA to book flights on Star Alliance airlines.

This guide to ANA Airlines gives you an overview of the airline’s frequent flyer program, called ANA Mileage Club, so you can understand all your options for booking award flights on this popular carrier.

What ANA miles are worth

NerdWallet values ANA miles at 2.8 cents each, which is meaningfully higher than the points valuation of many other airlines. In addition, the valuation reflects the lower-end value of redemptions (i.e., economy tickets), so if you’re redeeming your ANA miles for business or first class, you’ll likely extract even more from your miles.

How to earn ANA Mileage Club miles

Earn ANA miles by flying

There are three primary ways to earn ANA Mileage Club miles by flying.

Domestic ANA flights

To calculate the miles you'll earn for domestic flights, multiply the basic sector mileage (distance flown) by the accrual rate for the booking class (the percentage of miles you'll get credit for). Accrual rates for these flights range from 50% to 150%.

International ANA flights

Similarly, the way to calculate the miles you’ll earn from international ANA flights is the basic sector mileage times the accrual rate of the fare class. Accrual rates for ANA’s international flights range from 30% to 150%, with the exception of O, I, R and X fare class flights — these tickets are ineligible for mileage accrual.

» Learn more: 5 award sweet spots using ANA Mileage Club miles

Partner flights

Earning ANA miles when flying a partner airline flight works like flying an ANA flight. The calculation is the basic mileage times the accrual rate of the fare class; however, accrual rates for these flights are driven by the partner airline you are flying, not by ANA.

The ANA partner network is vast, including all Star Alliance member airlines, and other partners, including:

• Air Dolomiti.

• Air Macau.

• Alitalia Airlines.

• Etihad Airways.

• Eurowings.

• Garuda Indonesia.

• Germanwings.

• Jet Airways.

• Juneyao Airlines.

• Olympic Air.

• Philippine Airlines.

• Vietnam Airlines.

• Virgin Atlantic.

Partner airlines may change accrual rates and eligible booking classes without notice.

Earn ANA miles by spending on credit cards

Currently, there’s only one credit card that directly earns ANA miles with spending on the card, the ANA Card U.S.A. This card is issued by First National Bank of Omaha and requires a $70 annual fee.

New cardmembers earn 5,000 bonus miles after making the first purchase with the card, plus 1 ANA mile per dollar spent on every purchase. Card benefits include 25% bonus miles when flying on ANA Group flights, lower requirements for ANA Bronze elite status and priority check-in on ANA international flights.

Earn ANA miles by transferring AmEx points

ANA Airlines currently partners with American Express Membership Rewards, so the points that you earn on cards like The Platinum Card® from American Express can be transferred directly to your ANA Mileage Club account to book award flights.

AmEx points transfer at a 1:1 ratio, but may take a couple of days to appear in your ANA Mileage Club account. Terms apply.

Earn ANA points by transferring Marriott points

For Marriott Bonvoy, points transfer at a 3:1 ratio, with a 25% bonus for every 60,000 points that you transfer at one time. In essence, 60,000 Bonvoy points will get you 25,000 ANA miles. Keep in mind that Marriott points are worth 0.9 cent each, which means that 60,000 Bonvoy points are valued at around $540. If you do the transfer, you’ll end up with 25,000 ANA miles, which are worth $700 based on the 2.8 cents valuation of ANA miles. In this case, you’d actually end up with points that are more valuable, and a transfer may actually make sense.

Other ways to earn ANA miles

• Hotel stays. The ANA Global Hotels program allows members to earn ANA Airlines miles when they book a hotel through its hotel booking platform. However, hotel stays booked through ANA Global Hotels may not earn separate hotel points or allow you to utilize your hotel elite status benefits.

• Car rentals. Travelers who book regular car rentals may want to do so through ANA Global Car Rental. Similar to ANA Global Hotels, you earn ANA Airlines miles when booking car rentals through the platform. However, you forfeit elite status benefits when booking car rentals in this way.

• Online shopping. Shop online through the ANA Global Mileage Mall. Log in to your ANA account, click through to the merchant where you want to shop and you’ll earn additional ANA Airlines miles on most purchases.

How to redeem ANA Mileage Club miles

The ANA Mileage Club program uses three separate award charts:

• ANA Domestic Flight Award Chart.

• ANA International Flight Award Chart.

• Partner Flight Award Chart.

No matter which chart you use, award flights must be booked as round-trip tickets. However, you also have the ability to book open jaw tickets and add in a stopover. For example, ANA allows stopovers (connections greater than 24 hours) on a round-trip itinerary as long as the stopover is within the same zone, which determines the miles required.

» Learn more: 5 award sweet spots using ANA Mileage Club miles

Domestic flights on ANA

For ANA Airlines domestic flights, the number of ANA miles required to book a flight is driven by the seasonality — low season, regular season or high season — and the distance.

For example, a round-trip domestic flight on ANA during the low season between Tokyo-Narita and Osaka will run you 10,000 miles total.

International flights on ANA

There are three factors that determine the number of miles required to book an ANA Airlines international award flight: zones of your travel, seasonality and class of service.

To estimate the number of ANA Mileage Club miles you’ll need to redeem for your flight, find the zone of your travel first, followed by the seasonality and then the class of service.

For example, a round-trip ANA business class flight from Chicago-O'Hare (Zone 6) to Tokyo-Haneda (Zone 1) during the low season requires 75,000 ANA miles.

Partner flights

The number of miles required for ANA airline partner award flights is based upon the zones of your travel and class of service.

For example, a round-trip TAP Portugal business class flight from Boston (Zone 6) to Lisbon (Zone 7) requires 88,000 ANA miles.

If you were booking this flight, you could book a stopover on both the outbound and return leg. Let’s say you also wanted to visit Lisbon for a week and then Paris for another week on your European vacation. You could book Boston to Lisbon, “stop over” for a week, and then fly onward to Paris. The itinerary would still cost 88,000 ANA miles due to the airline’s flexible routing rules.

You can also book Round the World award tickets with ANA’s Star Alliance partners. The miles required vary based on distance flown and ticket level. ANA Mileage Club members who live outside of Japan can add up to eight family members, including themselves, to a joint Family Account for pooling miles and booking award flights. Only relatives within two degrees of kinship are eligible.

Other ways to redeem ANA Mileage Club miles

• ANA international and Star Alliance upgrade awards. If you pay for your ticket in cash, you can use miles to upgrade your class of service.

• Extra bags on ANA international flights. Use miles to pay excess baggage charges when flying between countries.

• Gift cards. Redeem miles for gift cards at retailers like Amazon, Hotels.com and Macy's.

How ANA elite status works

There are three elite status tiers in the ANA Airlines Mileage Club elite status program: Bronze, Platinum and Diamond. To qualify for elite status, you must earn Premium Points, which are different from the redeemable miles you earn and spend to book award flights. A portion of these Premium Points must be earned from flying ANA Group-operated flights.

How to get ANA status

Premium Points earned between January and December determine your elite status level for the following year. To calculate the number of Premium Points you earn per flight, multiply flight mileage times fare class times route rate, then add in your boarding points.

You can use the Premium Points Simulation tool to estimate points accrual if you don’t want to manually calculate them with the formula.

The route ratios are as follows:

• Domestic Japan flights = 2x.

• ANA Group flights between Japan and Asia, Japan and Oceania, and Japan and Vladivostok, Russia = 1.5x.

• All other ANA Group flights and Star Alliance flights = 1x.

The number of boarding points you earn is based on the fare class of your ticket.

In addition to Premium Points, Upgrade Points can be given to elite status holders. These special points are awarded to elite status members based on the number of premium points they earned on ANA Group-operated flights between January and December of the previous year. These points can be used for lounge access or seat upgrades.

ANA Mileage Club elite status tier levels

Bronze

The lowest ANA Airlines elite status is Bronze. Members receive this status after earning 30,000 Premium Points, 15,000 of which are required to come from flying on ANA Group flights.

Benefits available to Bronze members include:

• Ability to use Upgrade Points for lounge access and seat upgrades.

• Premium member service desk.

• Early access to booking domestic ANA flights and flight reservations for ANA international award flights.

• Priority seat reservations for domestic ANA flights, standby on waiting lists for fully booked flights, and check-in and baggage services.

• Additional baggage allowance on international flights.

• Priority standby for other flights on your day of departure.

• Frequent Visitor E-Channels at Hong Kong Airport.

• Flight bonus miles.

Platinum

ANA Airlines middle elite tier is called Platinum. This status is awarded after earning 50,000 Premium Points, 25,000 of which are required to come from ANA Group flights.

Platinum members receive all of the benefits of Bronze plus:

• Waived advanced seat fees on all ANA international flights.

• Access to priority seat and waitlist reservations for international award flights.

• Additional baggage allowance on all flights.

• Exclusive security checkpoint.

• Priority preboarding on all ANA flights.

• Priority baggage claim.

• Priority parking lot at Tokyo-Haneda airport.

• Complimentary valet parking at Tokyo-Narita Airport.

Diamond

Diamond is the highest elite tier you can earn in the ANA Airlines Mileage Club program.

As a Diamond elite, you receive all of the benefits of Bronze and Platinum elite status, plus:

• Dedicated travel concierge when flying ANA from Tokyo-Haneda or Tokyo-Narita airports.

• Waived change fees on international flights.

• Ability to waitlist for ANA domestic award flights.

• Airline miles do not expire.

What it's like flying ANA

When you fly ANA, you have four cabin classes to select from, which are:

• ANA first class.

• ANA business class.

• ANA premium economy.

• ANA economy class.

ANA is known for its fine service all around, and ANA’s first class is widely considered one of the best in the world by many travelers. But even the lower-cost cabins are impressive. Economy class seats are surprisingly comfortable even on a long flight crossing the ocean.

Premium economy seats get you extra legroom with 38 inches of pitch (that's 4 to 8 inches more than you'll find in most long-haul economy seats), measure 19.3 inches wide, and offer a universal power outlet, USB charging outlet, personal reading light and extendable leg rest.

Once you get into fancier cabins like business and first class, the service elevates — all the way to when you arrive at the airport. There's priority check-in at some airports to speed up your arrival. And many airports offer either ANA Lounge or partner lounge access. Of course, the leg room is certainly abundant, offering plenty of room to stretch out.

Some standout components of flying ANA are the unique food and beverage options. Traditional Japanese Arare rice crackers are served alongside beverage service, and other candies and snacks are self-service.

As far as drinks go, you could certainly opt for the usual soft drinks and juices but you might opt to try ANA's original beverage, Aromatic Kabosu. It's made from sun-drenched kabosu (a green citrus fruit) grown in Oita, Japan, and tastes faintly sour, but also has a touch of sweet honey. If you prefer an alcoholic beverage, try the sake.

If you fly ANA airlines this year

The ANA Airlines Mileage Club makes it relatively easy to accumulate miles from flying with ANA and its airline partners, or by transferring points from other partners, like AmEx and Marriott Bonvoy. Its three-tier elite status program rewards members with benefits that can make each status worth pursuing.

ANA Airlines has competitive award prices when redeeming its miles to book award flights, particularly on flights from the U.S. to Japan. The next time you plan a trip to Asia, consider using ANA Mileage Club to book your flight.