I’m new to the airplane mileage game. I have an ANA mileage account buy only used it for one international flight.
I have an American friend who is a kingpin when it comes to using miles, but his scam is through using united credit cards to get hundreds of thousands of instant miles to fly around the world for free.
I’m curious on peoples experience on the most efficient way to collect ANA miles?
Any advice is appreciated.
7 comments
Check if you can get a US Chase Sapphire Preferred/Reserve card. Likely the highest accrual.
If not then just get a ANA credit card, check kakaku dot com for the highest yielding ones.
Have you zeroed in on ANA miles? ANA applies fuel surcharges on tickets booked through miles. While there are airlines such as Singapore Airlines which does not.
If you have decided on ANA, one of the easiest ways to accrue miles is through credit card spending. The optimum one will depend on your annual spending and usual areas of spending. In terms of miles earning rate, ANA premium cards have 1.5% while ones like ANA Sorachika card can give 1% earnings at significantly lower annual fees.
If you have not zeroed in on ANA and want flexibility with respect to converting your card points any mileage program you want at that point in time, Marriott Bonvoy Premium card is probably the best.
Getting an ANA credit card would be a good place to start.
You can then also get it linked to your train/bus card and also ETC card (if you own a car)
If you spend over around 3/4 million a year on your credit card or if you fly a lot and would make use of the lounges included in Priority Pass then get an ANA Platinum Card (88k yearly fee). If not then get Gold (15k a year). I suggest you go with Visa since they have the better point campaigns than the Mastercard usually and are actually usable unlike Amex etc. Make sure you max out the sign up bonus and meet the requirements since they’re the best chance you get e.g. the campaign that’s going on now if you sign up for an ANA Visa can get you a maximum of 55k free miles for the platinum or 35k for the gold (you need to register for the campaign after your card arrives so don’t forget). Requirements are things like use the card for 10k in one month and 50k over 6 months during the campaign period that if you switch all your bills and spending to the card you should hit anyway.
There’s some tips here.
https://www.bridge-salon.jp/toushi/ana-mileage-points/#back
But why limit to ANA? Why not use the same techniques and go with United?
I fly American and JAL, and Cathay, and well basically just all the One World airlines, and I’m now up to like 400k miles? I’ve used a bunch also, so it probably would have been like 600k otherwise. Though I don’t know the exact breakdown, I’d say probably half of that or more is from using a co-branded credit card. The good ones also come with lounge access, which is essential.
I’m sure whichever alliance ANA is on (is it Star? What’s the other one after that?) has similar cards.
Also, no matter what partner airline you’re booking something on, try to book it through ANA as a codeshare if possible so that your miles all go to that account.
You can convert normal Rakuten points to ANA miles at a 2:1 rate. Rakuten books also have a 1 ANA mile per 100 yen spent just go to this page and enter your AMC number before buying https://books.rakuten.co.jp/event/ana/campaign/index-sp.html.