Oneworld Award Flights to the Caribbean: Which Miles Best To Use?

With US Airways and American Airlines are both members of the oneworld alliance and both offer major extensive networks to the Caribbean on their flights. With that in mind, we have some incredible opportunities to use our oneworld partner miles for relaxing vacations in the islands. There are many airlines in the oneworld alliance, but the following miles programs are the most popular and the easiest to collect:

• British Airways Executive Club Avios
• American Airlines AAdvantage Miles
• US Airways Dividend Miles

Provided you can find low level award availability, you can fly to the Caribbean on a combination of American Airlines and US Airways flights with any of these three miles programs. However, the tickets will come up with completely different miles prices in each of the three programs. That’s because the award chart pricing works differently for each program. The same flights that may cost 9,000 round-trip on British Airways can cost 35,000 miles on American Airlines. Similarly, something that may cost 30,000 miles on US Airways can go up to 50,000 on British Airways. To get the best value for our miles, we need to know exactly which miles to use when.

British Airways charges per segment, US Airways allows stopovers and American Airlines has pretty good off-peak deals. Although which miles you redeem does depend on which miles you already have, it’s definitely helpful to know which miles to get so we can plan properly. In this post, I am going to break down how award pricing to the Caribbean works with all three of these programs and explain exactly which miles to redeem when.

Overview: Which Program Is Best?

It’s not necessarily that one program is best overall, but a best one in a particular situation. None of these charge any fuel surcharges so the departure taxes you pay for the Caribbean are the same across all three. Let’s do a quick summary of how each program works so we know which points to pay attention to later in the full breakdown.

• British Airways has a distance based award chart where you are charged for each segment. Short segments of 650 miles cost just 4,500 British Airways Avios and it goes up from there based on distance. These are great if you live a short hop or two from the Caribbean, but not very good if you need to have lots of segments or need to travel from far away.
• American Airlines charges a flat 17,500 miles each way from the US to the Caribbean in peak season and 12,500 miles each way during the off-peak season of September 7 – November 14. Trips can be booked as one-way or round-trip and only stopovers of at most 24 hours are permitted. That is, if you want to overnight in Miami on the way to Grand Cayman, that’s fine.
• US Airways charges 35,000 round-trip from the US to the Caribbean, but also imposes an additional $50 international award processing fee. The one thing it lets you do, however, is have a completely free stopover anywhere along the way for pretty much as long as you like. If you manage to fly on only US Airways operated flights and have the US Airways credit card, then the total flight price drops to 30,000 miles round-trip (including free stopover).

British Airways Miles

Best for: Short distance travel with few segments. 

British Airways miles are king when it comes to short distance flights. The way the program works is that you are charged by distance per segment. I previously wrote a full breakdown of how the program works: How to Visit the Caribbean from 4,500 British Airways Avios Each Way!

If your flight is under 650 miles, for example, you pay just 4,500 British Airways miles. If you need to connect two segments, one of 1000 miles and one of 500 miles, then you’ll be charged 7,500 miles for the first and 4,500 for the second for a total of 12,000.

How British Airways miles work:

• Your miles cost does not depend on your destination, but on how long your individual segments are. You get charged based on the length per segment according to the above chart.
• Miles can be used on British Airways partners, such as American Airlines or US Airways.
• Flying within North America will not incur fuel surcharges (unlike trips to Europe, for example).

Best use examples: If you happen to live in Miami, Charlotte or even NYC and can find a non-stop flight to the Caribbean, then you really can’t beat the price. Miami to Grand Cayman will cost 4,500 miles each way, Charlotte to Turks and Caicos will cost 7,500 each way and New York to Sint Maarten will cost 10,000 miles each way. And this is independent of season.

American Airlines AAdvantage Miles

Best for: Longer distance travel in the off-peak period.

American Airlines pricing to the Caribbean is probably the easiest to understand. All awards are booked as one-way and no stopovers of over 24 hours are allowed.  It’s a flat 17,500 miles each way in SAAver economy class during peak and 12,500 each way during off-peak season which runs from September 7 to November 14.

The advantage of using American Airlines miles arises when you want to travel in the off-peak period. The flights are 12,500 miles each way at that time and, if you have an American Airlines co-branded credit card, you will receive a rebate of 10% of the miles (up to 10,000 miles a year). So your trip can cost as little as 25,000 (or 22,500) miles round-trip. The disadvantage of American Airlines miles is you cannot schedule any stopovers anywhere.

Here’s a quick summary of how Caribbean travel on American Airlines works:

• No stopovers over 24 hours allowed.
• 17,500 miles each way during peak period (35,000 miles total).
• 12,500 miles each way during off-peak period (25,000 miles total) from September 7 to November 14.
• Holders of American Airlines co-branded credit cards get a 10% miles rebate on awards.
• Miles can be used on American Airlines and US Airways and off-peak pricing applies to either partner.

Best use examples: If you’re traveling from far away and during off-peak, this is pretty much your go-to program. As an example, say you want to fly from Los Angeles to Cayman Islands in October and managed to find a flight connecting in Charlotte. You’ll be paying

US Airways Dividend Miles

Best for: Travel on all US Airways flight for 30,000 miles. Travel when you’d like to add an additional stopover or free one-way flight.

US Airways does not allow one-way awards and books everything as a round-trip. The round-trip price of award travel to the Caribbean is 35,000 miles plus a $50 international award processing fee. If you actually only fly on US Airways operated flights, you get an additional 5,000 mile discount if you hold the  US Airways World MasterCard.

The big advantage of using US Airways miles rather than American Airlines miles is the fact that stopovers are permitted. As an example, you can fly to the Caribbean and schedule a stopover for as long as you like anywhere along the way. If you don’t want a stopover on your actual Caribbean trip, you can do something even fancier like add a free one-way flight before your Caribbean trip for the same miles price, as I explain in this post:  A Round-Trip to the Caribbean Plus a Free One-Way from 30,000 US Airways Miles Total. 

Here’s a summary of how US Airways miles work:

• One free stopover is allowed anywhere along the way. This can als0 be leveraged into a free one-way flight before the trip.
• 17,500 miles each way during peak period (35,000 miles total).
• 12,500 miles each way during off-peak period (25,000 miles total) in September on US Airways flights only.
• Holders of the US Airways World MasterCard receive a 5,000 mile discount when flying all US Airways flights.
• Miles can be used on American Airlines and US Airways.

Best use examples: The big advantage for US Airways miles comes in when you want to schedule a stopover of free one-way. Say you’re flying from Los Angeles to Grand Cayman during peak period with a connection in Charlotte on US Airways flights. This will cost 35,000 US Airways miles + $50 (or 30,000 miles if you hold the US Airways credit card) or 35,000 American Airlines miles (plus a 10% rebate if you hold an American Airlines credit card). These are about even. However, with US Airways, you get the option to add a free one-way flight before your trip at no extra cost (following the steps in my article mentioned above) so, if that’s something you’re interested, go with US Airways.