Traveling with Points: A Business Class Beginner's Guide 2026

There's a moment when the topic of points and miles stops being an abstract hobby and starts delivering concrete value. For me, that was the day I booked a Business Class flight to Tokyo for the first time. Not for 4,000 EUR, but for 110,000 miles. Points I had accumulated over months through completely normal spending behavior.

That was about four years ago. Since then, I've refined the system, made mistakes, learned, and by now have booked a dozen Business and First Class flights with points. This is the story of how I started and what I learned along the way.

The Beginning: Collecting Points Without a Plan

Like most Amex cardholders, I started by collecting Membership Rewards points without really knowing what to do with them. The points sat in my account, the number grew slowly, and occasionally I browsed the Amex online shop to see if there was anything worthwhile.

Spoiler: the redemption values in the Amex online shop are almost always poor. A point is rarely worth more than 0.5 cents there. That's the worst way to use Membership Rewards.

What I didn't know: Membership Rewards points are transferable. You can send them to a whole range of airline partners, and there they're worth significantly more. That changed everything.

The Moment It Clicked

I stumbled across a post in a travel forum where someone described booking ANA Business Class from Frankfurt to Tokyo Narita for 110,000 miles. The regular ticket price was over 4,000 EUR. 110,000 ANA Mileage Club miles, transferred from Membership Rewards at a 1:1 ratio.

At that point, I had about 115,000 MR points in my account. Enough for exactly that flight.

The math was simple. 110,000 points for a flight worth 4,000 EUR yields a value of about 3.6 cents per point. Compared to the 0.5 cents in the Amex shop, that was seven times the return. That was the moment I understood why people take this hobby so seriously.

My First Booking: Step by Step

The first award booking was both exciting and frustrating. Here's how the process went.

Step 1: Search for availability. This is the hardest part. Not every flight is available as an award booking. Airlines only allocate a limited number of seats for award redemptions, and on popular routes they go fast.

I searched the ANA website for Star Alliance award availability. Frankfurt to Tokyo, Business Class, flexible dates. After some back and forth, I found availability for a Wednesday in October. Not my preferred date, but I was flexible enough.

Step 2: Transfer points. Once I confirmed availability (important: search first, then transfer), I moved 110,000 MR points to ANA Mileage Club. The transfer took about 48 hours in my case. With some partners it's faster; with others it can take up to five business days.

Step 3: Book. As soon as the miles hit my ANA account, I booked the flight through the ANA website. Business Class, Frankfurt to Tokyo Narita, with a stopover in Munich. Taxes and fees came to about 280 EUR. That's a typical amount for Star Alliance award tickets from Europe.

Step 4: Fly. The ANA Business Class was outstanding. Fully flat bed, Japanese cuisine, attentive service. For 280 EUR and 110,000 points instead of 4,200 EUR.

The Learning Curve: Mistakes I Made

My first success made me euphoric, and euphoria leads to mistakes, as we know. Here are the most important ones I made in the first two years.

Mistake 1: Hoarding Points Instead of Using Them

After the Tokyo booking, I started collecting points obsessively. I wanted more and more, bigger and bigger redemptions. The problem: airlines regularly devalue their mileage programs. What costs 110,000 miles today could cost 130,000 tomorrow.

In 2023, ANA did exactly that and raised prices for Star Alliance award tickets. My sweet spot of 110,000 miles for Business Class to Japan still exists, but other routes have gotten more expensive. Anyone who hoarded points for years hoping for the "perfect redemption" lost real purchasing power.

My rule today: points are a currency that loses value. Use them promptly for good redemptions instead of waiting for the perfect opportunity.

Mistake 2: Transferring Points Before Confirming Availability

I did this exactly once, and it taught me never to repeat the mistake. I transferred 60,000 MR points to British Airways Avios because I wanted to book a specific flight. By the time the Avios landed in my account, the flight was no longer available.

Points transfers are generally irreversible. The 60,000 Avios then sat in my BA Executive Club account waiting for me to find another use. That took a few months.

Today the rule is: search for availability first and confirm it, then transfer. No exceptions.

Mistake 3: Booking Economy Class with Points

In my first year, I actually booked an Economy Class flight to London with miles. 25,000 Avios for a flight that would have cost 180 EUR at retail. That's a value of 0.7 cents per point. Terrible.

The ground rule I've followed since: only use points for Business or First Class. In Economy, the value per point is almost always poor because cash prices are relatively low. In Business Class, cash prices are so high that the per-point value is three to five times better.

There are rare exceptions. An Economy flight during peak season that costs 1,200 EUR at retail can make sense as a miles booking. But as a rule of thumb, restricting redemptions to premium cabins works remarkably well.

Sweet Spots I've Found Over the Years

Not all award bookings are equally good. There are routes and programs where the value is particularly high. Here are my personal favorites.

ANA Business Class, Frankfurt to Tokyo Narita: 110,000 Miles

My first sweet spot and still one of the best. ANA Mileage Club charges 110,000 miles for a Business Class roundtrip (both directions) between Europe and Japan in the low season. In the high season, it's 120,000 miles. For a cash price of 4,000 to 5,000 EUR.

The transfer from MR to ANA is 1:1. Availability through the ANA website is sometimes better than through other Star Alliance search engines. It's worth searching directly on ANA.

Singapore Airlines Business Class via KrisFlyer

Singapore Airlines has one of the best Business Class products in the world, and KrisFlyer miles are also a Membership Rewards transfer partner. A one-way flight from Frankfurt to Singapore costs about 92,000 KrisFlyer miles in Business Class.

The cash price for this flight often ranges from 2,500 to 3,500 EUR. The per-point value is somewhat lower than with ANA, but the product is superb. Singapore Airlines' new Business Class Suite is among the best in the sky.

One note: with Singapore Airlines, award availability for partner miles is more limited than for direct KrisFlyer members. If you want to book with KrisFlyer miles, search several months ahead.

British Airways Business Class, London to New York: 50,000 Avios

British Airways Avios can be collected via Membership Rewards at a 1:1 ratio. A Business Class flight from London Heathrow to New York JFK costs 50,000 Avios per direction, plus taxes and surcharges of about 250 GBP.

The cash price for LHR-JFK in Business Class typically runs 2,000 to 3,500 GBP. Even after subtracting the surcharges, the per-point value is excellent.

The downside: surcharges at British Airways are comparatively high. Other airlines in the oneworld alliance have lower surcharges, but availability through Avios is often worse there.

Lufthansa Business Class via Miles & More

Not an MR transfer partner, but worth mentioning because many readers in Germany collect Miles & More miles through the Lufthansa credit card. A Business Class flight within Europe costs 35,000 miles; intercontinental to North America costs 70,000 miles per direction.

Award ticket availability at Lufthansa was historically difficult but has improved over the past two years. On long-haul flights from Frankfurt and Munich in particular, I find award availability significantly more often than five years ago.

The Tools I Use

Without the right tools, award travel would be much more tedious. Here's what I use regularly.

Google Flights for cash price comparison. Before I use points on a flight, I check what it costs at retail. If the cash price is low, I'd rather pay in euros and save the points for more expensive bookings.

Airline websites for award availability. ANA, Singapore Airlines, British Airways, and others have their own search engines for award bookings. They're sometimes clunky to use but deliver the most reliable results.

AwardHacker for route ideas. This website shows you which mileage program offers the best price for a given route. Useful when comparing different options.

Seats.aero for a cross-program search of award availability. Not perfect, but helpful for a quick overview.

My Current Situation: What's Realistic

I earn about 80,000 to 120,000 Membership Rewards points per year through my Amex cards. That comes from normal everyday and business spending, without artificially changing my purchasing behavior. On top of that come welcome bonuses from new cards, but those aren't predictable.

With this volume, I can realistically book one to two long-haul Business Class flights per year through points. No more. And not every month. But one to two premium redemptions a year that together represent a value of 4,000 to 10,000 EUR are achievable with normal spending behavior.

This year I'm planning a flight to Tokyo via ANA Mileage Club (110,000 miles, low season roundtrip). That leaves me points to either use for a short-haul flight via British Airways Avios or carry into the following year.

Realistic Expectations

I don't want to sugarcoat anything here. Award travel isn't a system that lets you fly around the world for free. There are taxes and fees you always pay. It requires flexibility with travel dates. And it requires willingness to engage with mileage programs, availability, and transfer timelines.

Availability isn't always there when you need it. Popular routes during peak season are often booked out months in advance. You have to be willing to shift your travel dates by a few days. Or fly a different route. Or depart a day earlier or later.

It's also not a linear process. Some bookings work on the first try. Others require weeks of searching until availability appears. Patience is an underrated quality in this hobby.

What I can say with certainty: if you already have an Amex Platinum or another MR-earning card and regularly run spending through it, you're leaving value on the table if you don't deploy your points strategically. The gap between redeeming in the Amex shop (0.5 cents per point) and a good award booking (3 to 5 cents per point) is so large that it's worth investing the time.

My first Business Class flight to Tokyo changed my travel behavior. Not because Business Class was so much more comfortable (though it was). But because for the first time, I understood that the points in my account have real, tangible value. You just have to know how to unlock it.