How to use AI to find the best airline program for your points

Reading Time: 3 min

When you earn points with a credit card, you can transfer them to an airline to book a flight. Seems easy, right? But once you start digging deeper, you quickly realize airline alliances, partnerships, and transfer-ratio nuances aren’t always intuitive.

That confusion is exactly why I started using AI as a shortcut to cross-check airline partnerships and redemption options before booking a flight. This helps me get the best deal for my hard-earned credit card points and miles based on all the transfer partner options available. You’ll find the exact prompt to enter below.

There are three major airline alliances: Star Alliance, SkyTeam, and Oneworld. Within those alliances, airlines generally let you redeem miles for flights on one another. For example, United Airlines is part of Star Alliance, which means you can use Air Canada Aeroplan points or Avianca LifeMiles to book many of the same United-operated flights.

But then there are airline partnerships that exist completely outside of alliances, and that’s where things get messy.

For example, JetBlue doesn’t belong to any of the three global alliances, yet it still maintains its own partnerships. You can redeem JetBlue points for flights on several international carriers, including Qatar Airways and China Airlines, which are part of Oneworld and SkyTeam, respectively. On the other hand, Virgin Atlantic belongs to SkyTeam but offers point redemptions to All Nippon Airways (ANA), a Star Alliance airline, allowing some of the best-value business-class redemptions to Japan.

Keeping track of the best redemption paths can feel nearly impossible, especially when you’re also trying to determine which transferable credit card points to use.

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I started using a simple AI prompt to help narrow down my options:

Help me find the best airline programs I can use to book a nonstop flight from [ORIGIN] to [DESTINATION]. [Mention if you're willing to fly into nearby airports or want to keep your options limited to the specific destination.] Include alliance partners and non-alliance partnerships.

I have [TRANSFERABLE POINT CURRENCIES; list out your rough balances for each if you want more tailored advice], so find which points I can transfer over and which option offers the best redemption rates.

Make sure your information on airline programs, partnerships, and alliances is up to date.

For example, if I’m planning a trip from Salt Lake City to New York, I simply swap in those cities for the bracketed sections. You can get even more specific by entering exact airports, but for my upcoming trip, I’m flexible and willing to fly into any of the New York-area airports.

Within seconds, AI shows a breakdown of which airlines operate nonstop flights on that route, which loyalty programs can book those tickets, and which of my transferable points currencies can be used to access them. It also highlights alliance and non-alliance partnerships that you may not have considered, giving you an excellent starting point for finding the best redemption.

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For my search, AI found that Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, and United Airlines all operate nonstop flights on this route. Beyond the airlines’ native loyalty programs, it also suggested additional partner programs to check, including Air France-KLM Flying Blue and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club for booking Delta flights, Air Canada Aeroplan and Avianca LifeMiles for booking United flights, and even United Airlines MileagePlus and Etihad Guest for booking JetBlue flights.

It even took into consideration that United and JetBlue released reciprocal mileage booking abilities. Then, once I dig deeper and find the best partner to transfer to, I can use my Chase Ultimate Rewards points and Amex Membership Rewards points to transfer them over to any of these programs.

Of course, it’s still important to verify award availability and pricing directly with the airline before transferring points, since most transfers are irreversible. But for beginners trying to digest these complex concepts, AI can dramatically flatten the learning curve.

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