Award Success! Last Minute Egypt Air Cairo – Dubai Awards (But From Which Program?)

Not all miles are created equal, and the program from which you should redeem them greatly varies, as the example this time demonstrates.

Earlier today, I was looking for a last-minute business class (or even economy would be manageable) award ticket from Cairo to Dubai for tomorrow or Friday. I was also looking for paid options, but I wasn’t keen on going via Muscat or Bahrain and wasting hours.

I participate in Air Canada, Aegean, Avianca, Singapore Airlines, and United Airlines frequent flier programs (all Star Alliance) with access to, or at least should, to Egypt Air award inventory.

United Airlines

United appears to have an issue pulling up the Egypt Air award inventory, and they only suggest itineraries in Turkish when the website is functional.

Aegean

They can pull up various itineraries, including transiting via Athens and flying them to Dubai, but the direct flight in business would set you back 30K miles and 158 euros.

Avianca

Avianca LifeMiles used to be a great way to acquire miles cheaply and use them for Star Alliance flights, but that is no longer the case.

You would need 36K miles and $72 for this Egypt Air flight.

Singapore Airlines

Not sure what is up with the Singapore Airlines? 41,500 miles + $170 for this one flight?

Air Canada

Aeroplan comes to the rescue again at 20,000 miles and $72.

My account was a bit short, and I transferred 1,000 miles from Capital One, and the transfer was instantaneous.

The ticket was issued immediately after I had completed the purchase.

Conclusion

Avianca LifeMiles has heavily relied upon having an attractive award chart for selling its miles, but they are rarely, if ever, any more competitive when looking at any of the redemptions that I have made, not taking into account the various ticketing issues that you may face.

I contemplated issuing an Aeroplan award with a stopover in Dubai and then continuing somewhere else, but I decided to forgo that idea for now.

I like the options that you have with Air Canada Aeroplan miles. You could have even created an itinerary with a transit in Baghdad!

IMHO, they are currently the most flexible and worthwhile purchasable and convertible currency among the alliance airlines.

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