Japanese Star Alliance carrier ANA is raising the cost of many award tickets on its own flights, effective with travel booked June 24, 2025 onward. At the same time, they’re finally introducing one-way awards for half the cost of roundtrip – both on ANA flights as well as partner awards.
Here are changes to roundtrip award prices between Japan and North America on ANA flights:
| Class | Low Season | Regular Season | High Season |
|---|---|---|---|
| Economy | 40,000 | 50,000 |
|
| Premium Econ | 62,000 | 72,000 |
|
| Business Class |
100,000
|
105,000
|
|
| First Class | 150,000 |
170,000
|
|
And here are the seasons for travel between Japan and North America:
| Year | Low Season | Regular Season | High Season |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 |
|
|
|
| 2026 |
|
|
|
| 2027 | January 6 to February 28 |
|
January 1 to January 3 |
A year ago ANA devalued its Star Alliance awards.
ANA Mileage Club was always better in theory than in practice. Among the major transferrable bank currencies, they only partnered with American Express Membership Rewards. You couldn’t put awards on hold, and transfers take 24-72 hours depending on when the transfer is initiated.
So find award space, transfer points, and the space may be gone by the time that you can book it. That means you need to keep points in your ANA account in order to jump on opportunities. But ANA miles expire after 36 months, and cannot be extended in most cases.
@gary, thanks for the info. Is there info on their upgrade awards?
Another one bites the dust
ANA awards have been one of my main reasons to keep an Amex card, but I haven’t been able to actually book a roundtrip for years and the ANA program was starting to feel like a scam – with almost nothing available that wasn’t “Waitlist” and no real chance of being able to put together a roundtrip. Not happy about the huge devaluation but being able to book a one-way might make this program of value again. Now that JAL is back to form I imagine ANA has to compete in a more fulsome manner.
I bet they made the change after realizing that few are utilizing their program because of the roundtrip requirement (and hard expiration dates). If they remove the roundtrip requirement from their Star Alliance awards, I’d consider parking some miles in their program, even if the 3-year expiration remains in place.
The last domino falls. In exchange for restrictions and fees that scare many off, you got access to a great chart especially for last minute. Now there’s basically no reason to go through them. No instant transfers, miles expire, high fees, high award prices. It was nice knowing you, ANA.
I’ve found a relatively affordable *paid* business class tickets to much of Asia, routing through HND. Alright, so it’s not the sweet deal of a quick, easy Amex transfer to their program for a reasonable redemption, but those days may indeed be over (based on availability alone, before these rate changes). As for HND, even when you have to switch terminals (that ‘bus’ between 2-3), it’s still efficient and enjoyable; both business class lounges there are excellent, too. And, mercy me, those business suites, called “The Room,” on their 773… wow, just wow. 10/10. Would do again. Those screens are sooo big. Delicious food, too. Always go for the ‘Japanese’ option and get some sake while you’re at it. It’s the closest thing to ‘perfect’!
A few years back, I was able to utilize my miles several times for a round-trip ticket. First class the past two years. It is virtually impossible..
ANA needs to show some respect to its loyal customers, but that will never happen.
Everything‘s great once you get on board, if you can.
This may end up being worthwhile if and only if ANA mimics JAL JMB and holds out higher-priced mileage awards to ANA Mileage Club members which is not also bookable by alliance partners. If not, there’s frankly no point here.
Least if the increase in miles is only in high season, shouldn’t be too hard to avoid it.
Time to try and get tickets for next year again.
Is the around the world pricing being devalued too?
Before the pandemics, ANA was my go-to for business award tickets to Asia. There were always plenty of seats on ANA’s own metal and EVA Air and for 88K miles roundtrip. What a steal! Since the pandemics, it’s impossible to find any award seats to Asia on ANA or EVA Air even when I search a year out; and now with the devaluation and the ridiculously high fuel surcharges…….. So sad!
Ana mileage is impossible to use. Always wait listed. Always. At least with JAL there is an easy to use calendar that shows availability and amount of points required. I fly more jal now than Ana because of this. Ana has lost my loyalty.