Airline Peak and Off-Peak Award Charts: The Ultimate Guide

- UPDATED: November 19, 2019

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Commercial aviation is one of the most seasonal industries in the world. Typically, the busiest time of the year for airlines is the summer or pre-summer months from May to October.

Of course, this varies depending on the exact destinations, countries, or even cities that you visit. That being said, customer demand plummets in the winter months from November to March, especially when visiting Europe.

Airline revenue ticket prices fluctuate wildly thanks to revenue management departments, crazy algorithms, and seats sold. The same is generally true for airline award tickets. As a result, many major airlines have chosen to adopt a binary award pricing scheme, whereby there is an off-peak set of dates priced cheaper than the remaining peak dates.

In this guide, we’ll be taking an in-depth look into every major airlines’ seasonality charts and discussing the nuances of each program with the ultimate goal of minimizing the number of points you’ll use for award flights.

Table of contents

Why Is Understanding Peak/Off-Peak Seasonality Important?
Airlines That Have Peak/Off-Peak Award Charts
Final Thoughts

Table of Contents

Why Is Understanding Peak/Off-Peak Seasonality Important?
Airlines That Have Peak/Off-Peak Award Charts
Final Thoughts

Why Is Understanding Peak/Off-Peak Seasonality Important?

Travelers with flexible plans ought to book flights during off-peak when possible in order to spend fewer miles.

You’ve already worked so hard to earn your points and miles, so why spend any more than absolutely necessary?

By planning trips around off-peak award dates, you’ll extract the maximum value from your points and miles. There’s a minimal amount of work in understanding what constitutes peak and off-peak dates for each airline you want to fly on, but it’s all worth it in the end!

This guide is not about variable award pricing, which itemizes mileage and award prices based on distinct levels. Instead, we’re going to be talking about the major airlines that have specific peak and off-peak travel dates.

Airlines That Have Peak/Off-Peak Award Charts

Before talking about each individual airline, keep in mind that some airlines adopt different seasonality policies depending on what route you fly on, while others have a simple binary system.

Let’s look into the airlines and dissect their peak and off-peak award charts.

Aer Lingus

Aer Lingus is Ireland’s flag carrier. Aer Lingus is owned by the same company that owns British Airways, IAG. Their frequent flyer currency is known as Avios.

Each calendar year, Aer Lingus publishes its off-peak and peak periods. The off-peak periods constitute two-thirds of the year, whereby you can book award flights for less Avios.

Additionally, Aer Lingus has a distance-based award chart along with peak/off-peak pricing. You can redeem Aer Lingus Avios for great value, especially if booking during off-peak dates.

Aer Lingus’s remaining off-peak dates for 2019 and 2020 are as follows:

September 9, 2019 – December 18, 2019
January 9, 2020 – April 2, 2020
April 20, 2020 – June 12, 2020
September 7, 2020 – December 16, 2020

Meanwhile, Aer Lingus’s remaining peak dates for 2019 and 2020 fill the remainder of the calendar:

December 19, 2019 – January 8, 2020
April 3, 2020 – 19, 2020
June 13, 2020 – September 6, 2020
December 17-31, 2020

Now that we’ve pieced together the seasonality, let’s talk briefly about how many points you’d save by booking off-peak. Here’s Aer Lingus’s award chart for one-way flights:

Zone	Origin	Destinations	Off-Peak Economy	Peak Economy	Off-Peak Business	Peak Business
Zone 1	Belfast	London	4,000	4,500	N/A	N/A
	Cork	Amsterdam, Birmingham, Bristol, Brussels, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Paris	4,000	4,500	N/A	N/A
	Donegal	Glasgow	4,000	4,500	N/A	N/A
	Dublin	Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Birmingham, Bordeaux, Bristol, Brussels, Paris, Donegal, Cardiff, Doncaster, Dusseldorf, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Isle of Man, Jersey, Kerry, Leeds Bradford, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Nantes, Newcastle, Newquay, Rennes	4,000	4,500	N/A	N/A
	Shannon	Birmingham, Bristol, London	4,000	4,500	N/A	N/A
Zone 2	Belfast	Palma	6,500	7,500	N/A	N/A
	Cork	Alicante, Barcelona, Berlin, Faro, Geneva, Lisbon, Malaga, Munich, Nice, Palma	6,500	7,500	N/A	N/A
	Dublin	Alicante, Barcelona, Bilbao, Bologna, Copenhagen, Faro, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hamburg, Lisbon, Lyon, Madrid, Marseille, Milan, Munich, Murcia, Nice, Palma, Perpignan, Pisa, Prague, Pula, Salzburg, Santiago de Compostela, Stuttgart, Toulouse, Venice, Verona, Vienna, Warsaw, Zurich	6,500	7,500	N/A	N/A
	Shannon	Faro, Malaga	6,500	7,500	N/A	N/A
Zone 3	Belfast	Alicante, Faro, Malaga	8,500	10,000	N/A	N/A
	Cork	Dubrovnik, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Tenerife	8,500	10,000	N/A	N/A
	Dublin	Agadir, Athens, Bourgas, Budapest, Catania, Corfu, Dubrovnik, Fuerventura, Gran Canaria, Izmir Lanzarote, Malaga, Naples, Rome, Split, Tenerife	8,500	10,000	N/A	N/A
	Shannon	Lanzarote	8,500	10,000	N/A	N/A
Zone 4	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Zone 5	Dublin	Boston, Chicago, Hartford, Minneapolis, Montreal, Newark, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, Washington	13,000	20,000	50,000	60,000
	Shannon	Boston, New York	13,000	20,000	50,000	60,000
Zone 6	Dublin	Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, San Francisco, Seattle	16,250	25,000	62,500	75,000

Suppose you wanted to fly from Miami to Dublin in Aer Lingus business class on September 18, 2020. Assuming you find availability on this date, you’ll be traveling on off-peak dates, meaning you’ll pay 62,500 Avios one-way as opposed to 75,000 Avios (the peak season price).

Let’s also suppose that the departing segment of your trip falls on peak dates while the returning flight falls on off-peak dates. In this case, you’d simply pay the peak price one-way and the off-peak price the other way.

Aer Lingus’ system is pretty straightforward, but you can save up to 12,500 Avios each way by planning your off-peak travel accordingly.

All Nippon Airways

All Nippon Airways’ loyalty program is a fantastic overall program. Although their online user interface is somewhat dated, ANA has so many fantastic redemptions that you can’t miss out on.

ANA Mileage Club takes some time to learn about, but once that time is invested, you’ll find yourself digging up value redemption after value redemption.

Hot Tip: You can start racking up ANA miles pretty easily by following our guide on how to earn lots of ANA Mileage Club miles!

You can only book round-trip award bookings with ANA, so bear that in mind, too.

Most airlines split up their peak/off-peak dates into a simple binary system, whereby a date is either a peak or off-peak date. ANA has 3 seasonality periods. These are low season, regular season, and high season.

ANA uses seasonality only for ANA flights. Seasonality does not apply for partners like United Airlines. The following is a chart that depicts the most updated seasonality dates for flights between Japan and Europe/North America until March 2021:

ANA Seasonality Periods	2019	2020	2021
Low Season (L)	January 7 – February 28 April 1-25	January 6 – February 29 April 1-23	January 5 – February 28
Regular Season (R)	March 1-31 May 8 – July 24 August 20 – November 17	March 1-31 May 11 – July 22 August 20 – December 17	March 1-31
High Season (H)	January 1-6 April 26 – May 7 July 25 – August 19 December 18-31	January 1-5 April 24 – May 10 July 23 – August 19 December 18-31	January 1-4

Seasonality charts for dates beyond April 2021 are scheduled to be announced around March 2020.

Keep in mind that there are different seasonality periods depending on what regions you’re flying to/from, and even for domestic flights. You can find out more here.

For flights between North America and Japan, here’s the round-trip award chart:

Cabin Class	Low Season Price	Regular Season Price	High Season Price
Economy	40,000	50,000	55,000
Premium Economy	62,000	72,000	77,000
Business	75,000	85,000	90,000
First	150,000	150,000	165,000

So, if you choose to fly on ANA business class round-trip from New York City to Tokyo departing on January 10 and returning on January 31, you’ll pay the low season price, an incredibly low 75,000 ANA miles.

On the other hand, flying during high season on the same route will cost a decent 90,000 miles. This represents a 20% hike in prices, just for flying during different times.

Bottom Line: In order to figure out the price you’ll pay for a specific ANA flight during a specific date range, you’ll need to figure out the seasonality of the route first. Then, you can figure out the award price by matching the award chart pricing with the correct seasonality and route. Keep in mind that this only applies if you intend on using ANA miles on ANA flights.

American Airlines

American Airlines does offer off-peak awards, and these off-peak awards are often fantastic deals. However, American Airlines only does this for economy flights.

Additionally, qualifying tickets include partner airlines and aren’t limited to flights operated by American Airlines. That being said, American Airlines has off-peak economy tickets for many regions, and these tickets are called “MileSAAver off-peak.”

Hot Tip: In order to minimize your out-of-pocket costs at the hands of fuel surcharges, try to plan your travel solely on American Airlines flights.

Here’s the exact breakdown of flights, separated by region.

Route	Region	MileSAAver Off-Peak Cost	MileSAAver Cost
Contiguous 48 U.S. states and Canada to Hawaii	August 11 – November 18, 2019 November 24 – December 10, 2019	20,000	22,500
Hawaii to Contiguous 48 U.S. states and Canada	August 18 – November 27, 2019 December 3-25, 2019	20,000	22,500
Contiguous 48 U.S. states and Canada to Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America	September 7 – November 14, 2019 April 27 – May 20, 2020	12,500	15,000
Contiguous 48 U.S. states and Canada to Europe	November 1 – December 14, 2019	22,500	30,000
Contiguous 48 U.S. states and Canada to Asia Region 1 (Japan/Korea)	July 1 – November 30, 2019	32,500	35,000
Asia Region 1 (Japan/Korea) to Contiguous 48 U.S. states and Canada	September 1 – December 31, 2019	32,500	35,000
Contiguous 48 U.S. states and Canada to Asia Region 2 (China and Hong Kong)	October 11 – November 30, 2019	32,500	35,000
Asia Region 2 (China and Hong Kong) to Contiguous 48 U.S. states and Canada	October 2 – November 30, 2019	32,500	35,000
Contiguous 48 U.S. states and Canada to South America 1	September 7 – November 14, 2019	17,500	20,000

One thing that is important to note is the fact that the travel direction matters in order to determine whether a flight will be priced off-peak. As you can see, the off-peak bookings will save a small number of miles, usually around 2,500 miles.

The catch is you need to find MileSAAver award availability in order to get off-peak pricing on American Airlines flights. Additionally, there aren’t off-peak rates for the remainder of routes, which include flights between the South Pacific, Alaska, Canada, within the continental U.S., and South America Region 2.

Bottom Line: American Airlines offers off-peak pricing for economy flights, and these include partner airlines. You can save a small pile of points by booking during off-peak dates. Try to stick to American Airlines flights in order to reduce your taxes and fees as much as possible.

Asiana Airlines

Asiana Airlines has deservedly garnered a great reputation with its loyalty program: Asiana Club. In addition, Asiana Airlines continues to be a top airline of choice to earn miles on, thanks to their attractive (and niche!) ways to redeem for maximum value.

Asiana Airlines has off-peak and peak pricing only for their own flights. They also have different peak season dates departing on your exact route. Lastly, you can avoid peak season surcharges if you’re an Asiana Club Diamond Plus or Platinum member for both award bookings and upgrades.

Asiana Airlines charges 50% additional miles for flights during high season, so you’ll absolutely want to avoid flying during popular times. Here is the peak season chart for the remaining dates in 2019 and 2020:

Route	Peak Dates	Off-Peak Dates
International flights departing from the Americas	December 5-23, 2019 May 16, 2020 – July 5, 2020 December 8-27, 2020	Every other date
International flights departing from non-Americas locations	December 24, 2019 – January 5, 2020 January 23-27, 2020 July 11, 2020 – August 16, 2020 September 29, 2020 – October 5, 2020 December 24-31, 2020	Every other date
Domestic South Korea flights	December 31, 2020 – January 1, 2020 January 23-27, 2020 February 21, 2020 – March 1, 2020 April 30, 2020 – May 5, 2020 July 24, 2020 – August 22, 2020 September 29, 2020 – October 4, 2020 October 9-11, 2020 December 25-27, 2020 December 31, 2020	Every other date

The award chart for Asiana Airlines flights is as follows for one-way flights:

Type of ticket	Route	Economy Peak	Economy	Business Peak	Business	Business Smartium Class Peak	Business Smartium Class
Nonstop	Domestic Flight	7,500	5,000	–	–	–	–
	Korea ⇄ Japan, China/Northeast Asia	22,500	15,000	33,750	22,500	37,500	25,000
	Korea ⇄ Southeast Asia	30,000	20,000	45,000	30,000	52,500	35,000
	Korea ⇄ Southwest Asia	37,500	25,000	56,250	37,500	67,500	45,000
	Korea ⇄ US, Oceania, Europe	52,500	35,000	78,750	52,500	93,750	62,500
Connecting via South Korea	Japan ⇄ China/Northeast Asia	33,750	22,500	45,000	30,000	52,500	35,000
	Japan, China/Northeast Asia ⇄ Southeast Asia	41,250	27,500	52,500	35,000	63,750	42,500
	Japan, China/Northeast Asia ⇄ Southwest Asia	45,000	30,000	60,000	40,000	75,000	50,000
	Japan, China/Northeast Asia ⇄ US, Oceania	56,250	37,500	82,500	55,000	101,250	67,500
	Japan, China/Northeast Asia ⇄ Europe	56,250	37,500	82,500	55,000	101,250	67,500
	Southeast Asia ⇄ Europe	63,750	42,500	93,750	62,500	116,250	77,500
	Southeast Asia ⇄ Southwest Asia	52,500	35,000	78,750	52,500	97,500	65,000
	Southeast Asia ⇄ US, Oceania	63,750	42,500	93,750	62,500	116,250	77,500
	Southwest Asia ⇄ US, Oceania	71,250	47,500	105,000	70,000	131,250	87,500
	Oceania ⇄ US	78,750	52,500	120,000	80,000	150,000	100,000
	Oceania ⇄ Europe	78,750	52,500	120,000	80,000	150,000	100,000

To put this to an example, let’s say you want to fly from Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD) via Seoul-Incheon (ICN) on Asiana Airlines, using Asiana Club miles, departing on July 15, 2020 and returning on August 10, 2020. The first segment is off-peak, while the returning segment is during peak season.

Furthermore, these flights have “Business Smartium Class” installed, which is their best long-haul business class seat. This means that you’ll pay 100,000 miles plus 150,000 miles for the returning flight during peak season. You’ll definitely want to be careful to avoid peak season if you can, since a 50% price hike is huge.

Bottom Line: Asiana Airlines raises prices for peak season award tickets by 50% across the board. Therefore, if flying on Asiana Airlines while redeeming Asiana Airlines miles, you should book off-peak tickets when you can.

British Airways

British Airways employs a distance-based award chart with multiple zone brackets. In addition, there’s off-peak and peak pricing. British Airways also has multiple award charts, but British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus are the only airlines eligible for off-peak pricing.

Here are the remaining 2019 and 2020 off-peak and peak dates you’ll reference when redeeming British Airways Avios for British Airways, Iberia, or Aer Lingus flights.

Off-Peak Dates:

November 5, 2019 – December 13, 2019
January 7, 2020 – February 13, 2020
February 18-20, 2020
February 25, 2020 – March 26, 2020
April 15, 2020
April 20, 2020 – May 21, 2020
June 1, 2020 – July 3, 2020
July 7, 2020
August 11, 2020
August 18, 2020
September 7, 2020 – October 9, 2020
October 12-15, 2020
October 20-22, 2020
October 27, 2020 – December 11, 2020
December 15, 2020

Peak Dates:

December 14, 2019 – January 6, 2020
February 14-17, 2020
February 21-24, 2020
March 27, 2020 – April 14, 2020
April 16-19, 2020
May 22-31, 2020
July 4-6, 2020
July 8, 2020 – August 10, 2020
August 12-17, 2020
August 19, 2020 – September 6, 2020
October 10-11, 2020
October 16-19, 2020
October 23-26, 2020
December 12-14, 2020
December 16-31, 2020

British Airways’ peak and off-peak calendars consist of wide bands, but they also contain multiple single date occurrences for off-peak dates. Once you’ve identified that seasonality of your travel dates, you’ll want to figure out how much your flight will cost.

To accomplish this, you’ll also need to figure out what the total distance of your flight is. Great Circle Mapper is a valid resource to gauge your flight distance.

Zone (Miles)	Economy		Premium Economy		Business		First
	Off-Peak	Peak	Off-Peak	Peak	Off-Peak	Peak	Off-Peak	Peak
Zone 1 (1-650)	4,000	4,500	5,750	6,750	7,750	9,000	15,500	18,000
Zone 2 (651-1,151)	6,500	7,500	9,500	11,250	12,750	15,000	25,500	30,000
Zone 3 (1,152-2,000)	8,500	10,000	12,750	15,000	17,000	20,000	34,000	40,000
Zone 4 (2,001-3,000)	10,000	12,500	20,000	25,000	31,250	37,500	42,500	50,000
Zone 5 (3,001-4,000)	13,000	20,000	26,000	40,000	50,000	60,000	68,000	80,000
Zone 6 (4,001-5,500)	16,250	25,000	32,500	50,000	62,500	75,000	85,000	100,000
Zone 7 (5,501-6,500)	19,500	30,000	39,000	60,000	75,000	90,000	102,000	120,000
Zone 8 (6,501-7,000)	22,750	35,000	45,500	70,000	87,500	105,000	119,000	140,000
Zone 9 (7,001+)	32,500	50,000	65,000	100,000	125,000	150,000	170,000	200,000

Let’s take an example flight from Boston (BOS) to London-Heathrow (LHR) in British Airways first class on April 15, 2020. Since this date falls into the off-peak category and the flight distance is 3,265 miles according to Great Circle Mapper, you will pay 68,000 Avios for this flight. This represents a savings of 12,000 Avios compared to a peak flight.

Hot Tip: See our guides on the top ways to earn lots of British Airways Avios, and then make sure you’re redeeming them for the best value possible!

Iberia

Iberia is Spain’s flag carrier. The airline happens to be owned by the same company that owns British Airways and Aer Lingus (discussed in earlier sections of this guide), but interestingly, the peak and off-peak calendars don’t match when using Avios from different frequent flyer programs.

Additionally, Iberia uses peak and off-peak dates for flights on Iberia, Iberia Express, and Iberia Regional/Air Nostrum. For all other airlines, a different award chart will apply and seasonality is not used.

The remaining 2019 and 2020 off-peak and peak dates are as follows:

Off-Peak Dates:

November 5, 2019 – December 4, 2019
December 7, 2019
December 9-13, 2019
December 25-26, 2019
January 14, 2020 – April 1, 2020
April 4-7, 2020
April 14-29, 2020
May 2, 2020
May 4-13, 2020
May 16, 2020
May 18, 2020 – June 9, 2020
June 12-13, 2020
June 15-18, 2020
September 14, 2020 – October 7, 2020
October 10-11, 2020
October 13-21, 2020
October 24-29, 2020
November 3, 2020 – December 3, 2020
December 6-7, 2020
December 9-15, 2020
December 21-22, 2020

Peak Dates:

December 5-6, 2019
December 8, 2019
December 14-24, 2019
December 27, 2019 – January 13, 2020
April 2-3, 2020
April 8-13, 2020
April 30, 2020
May 1, 2020
May 3, 2020
May 14-15, 2020
May 17, 2020
June 10-11, 2020
June 14, 2020
June 19, 2020 – September 13, 2020
October 8-9, 2020
October 12, 2020
October 22-23, 2020
October 30-31, 2020
November 1-2, 2020
December 4-5, 2020
December 8, 2020
December 16-20, 2020
December 23-31, 2020

Since Iberia uses off-peak and peak pricing only on their own flights, we’re going to be referencing the award chart for Iberia flights only.

Here’s the Iberia Avios award chart for flights on Iberia:

Distance	Economy Blue		Full Fare Economy		Premium Economy		Business
Miles	Off-Peak	Peak	Off-Peak	Peak	Off-Peak	Peak	Off-Peak	Peak
0 – 650	4,500	5,000	6,750	7,500	N/A	N/A	9,000	10,000
651 – 1,150	7,500	8,250	11,250	12,500	N/A	N/A	15,000	16,500
1,151 – 2,000	10,000	11,000	15,000	16,500	N/A	N/A	20,000	22,000
2,001 – 3,000	11,000	12,500	16,000	18,750	N/A	N/A	21,250	31,250
3,001 – 4,000	17,000	20,000	22,000	28,000	25,500	35,000	34,000	50,000
4,001 – 5,500	21,250	25,000	27,750	35,000	31,750	43,750	42,500	62,500
5,501 – 6,500	25,500	30,000	33,250	42,000	38,250	52,500	51,000	75,000
6,501 – 7,000	29,750	35,000	38,750	49,000	44,250	61,250	59,500	87,500
7,000+	42,500	50,000	55,250	70,000	63,750	87,500	85,000	125,000
Exceptions
Air Shuttle	N/A	N/A	6,250	6,250	N/A	N/A	13,500	13,500
Madrid-London	6,500	7,500	9,750	11,250	N/A	N/A	12,750	15,000

For example, if you’re planning on flying in business class from San Francisco (SFO) to Madrid (MAD) on September 23, 2020, then you’ll be paying for an off-peak business class award for a flight that spans 5,811 miles. This corresponds to a 51,000 Avios price, which is significantly cheaper than the 75,000 Avios cost for a peak award.

Korean Air

Just like its main competitor airline Asiana Airlines, Korean Air uses peak and off-peak pricing. Korean Air SKYPASS is a fantastic program to redeem miles on, with plenty of options ranging from Korean Air first class to Etihad First Class Apartments.

Although there aren’t very many ways to accrue Korean Air miles from transferable points, there are still great ways to earn lots of Korean Air SKYPASS miles.

Korean Air employs a region-based award chart. Also, one-way flight redemptions are only allowed on Korean Air. For all partners, you must book round-trip if you want to use miles.

Hot Tip: Korean Air is one of the few airlines that still operates the A380. Check out our review of Korean Air’s A380 first class.

To determine whether or not your flights fall into peak season, you’ll need to know the route and the travel dates. Peak dates for Korean Air are:

Origin	Destination	Remaining 2019 Peak Dates	2020 Peak Dates
Korea	Korea	December 31, 2019	January 1, 2020 January 23-28, 2020 February 22-29, 2020 April 30, 2020 – May 5, 2020 July 25, 2020 – August 22, 2020 September 29, 2020 – October 5, 2020 October 8-11, 2020 December 25-27, 2020 December 31, 2020
Korea, Africa, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Oceania	Korea, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Oceania, Africa, North America, South America	December 20-31, 2019	January 1, 2020 January 22-28, 2020 July 12, 2020 – August 16, 2020 September 25, 2020 – October 5, 2020 December 20-31, 2020
North America, South America	Korea, Asia, Oceania, North America, South America	December 10-23, 2019	May 14, 2020 – July 10, 2020 December 10,-23, 2020

Korean Air’s round-trip award chart is as follows (one-way awards are half the price):

Routes		Season	Economy	Prestige	First
Domestic within Korea		Off	10,000	12,000	–
Domestic within Korea		Peak	15,000	18,000	–
Korea	Japan, China/Northeast Asia	Off	30,000	45,000	65,000
	Japan, China/Northeast Asia	Peak	45,000	65,000	95,000
	Southeast Asia	Off	40,000	70,000	90,000
	Southeast Asia	Peak	60,000	105,000	135,000
	Southwest Asia	Off	50,000	90,000	115,000
	Southwest Asia	Peak	75,000	135,000	175,000
	North America, Oceania, Europe/Middle East/Africa	Off	70,000	125,000	160,000
	North America, Oceania, Europe/Middle East/Africa	Peak	105,000	185,000	240,000
	South America	Off	100,000	180,000	220,000
	South America	Peak	150,000	270,000	330,000
Japan	China/Northeast Asia	Off	40,000	60,000	90,000
	China/Northeast Asia	Peak	60,000	90,000	135,000
	Southeast Asia	Off	50,000	70,000	90,000
	Southeast Asia	Peak	75,000	105,000	135,000
	Southwest Asia	Off	60,000	90,000	115,000
	Southwest Asia	Peak	90,000	135,000	175,000
	North America, Oceania, Europe/Middle East/Africa	Off	70,000	125,000	160,000
	North America, Oceania, Europe/Middle East/Africa	Peak	105,000	185,000	240,000
	South America	Off	100,000	180,000	220,000
	South America	Peak	150,000	270,000	330,000
China/Northeast Asia	Southeast Asia	Off	50,000	70,000	90,000
	Southeast Asia	Peak	75,000	105,000	135,000
	Southwest Asia	Off	60,000	90,000	115,000
	Southwest Asia	Peak	90,000	135,000	175,000
	North America, Oceania, Europe/Middle East/Africa	Off	70,000	125,000	160,000
	North America, Oceania, Europe/Middle East/Africa	Peak	105,000	185,000	240,000
	South America	Off	100,000	180,000	220,000
	South America	Peak	150,000	270,000	330,000
Southeast Asia	Southwest Asia	Off	70,000	125,000	160,000
	Southwest Asia	Peak	105,000	185,000	240,000
	North America, Oceania, Europe/Middle East/Africa	Off	85,000	150,000	190,000
	North America, Oceania, Europe/Middle East/Africa	Peak	125,000	225,000	285,000
	South America	Off	110,000	195,000	240,000
	South America	Peak	165,000	290,000	360,000
Southwest Asia	North America, Oceania, Europe/Middle East/Africa	Off	95,000	170,000	210,000
	North America, Oceania, Europe/Middle East/Africa	Peak	140,000	255,000	315,000
	South America	Off	120,000	215,000	260,000
	South America	Peak	180,000	320,000	390,000
Oceania	North America, Europe, Middle East/Africa	Off	110,000	195,000	240,000
Oceania	North America, Europe, Middle East/Africa	Peak	165,000	290,000	360,000
North America	South America*	Off	60,000	105,000	140,000
North America	South America*	Peak	90,000	155,000	210,000
Europe	Europe*	Off	25,000	45,000	60,000
Europe	Europe*	Peak	37,500	67,500	90,000
Southwest Asia	Southwest Asia*	Off	25,000	45,000	60,000
Southwest Asia	Southwest Asia*	Peak	37,500	67,500	90,000

*direct flights only

If flying from New York City (JFK) to Seoul-Incheon (ICN) on Korean Air first class on December 17, 2020, your flight will fall into peak season. For this, you’ll pay 120,000 Korean Air miles one-way compared to 80,000 Korean Air miles for off-peak travel.

Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic employs off-peak and peak seasons for Virgin Atlantic flights only, so they are not applicable to airlines like All Nippon Airways. Furthermore, Virgin Atlantic splits up seasonality calendars between Caribbean routes and all others.

For Caribbean routes, the remaining 2019 and 2020 off-peak season consists of the following date ranges:

November 10, 2019 – December 10, 2019
March 8, 2020 – April 2, 2020
April 26, 2020 – July 14, 2020
September 6, 2020 – October 23, 2020
November 8, 2020 – December 11, 2020

On the other hand, Caribbean peak dates are:

December 11, 2019 – March 7, 2020
April 3-25, 2020
July 15, 2020 – September 5, 2020
October 24, 2020 – November 7, 2020
December 12-31, 2020

The rest of Virgin Atlantic flights follow these off-peak dates:

September 9, 2019 – December 12, 2019
January 6, 2020 – April 2, 2020
April 22, 2020 – June 19, 2020
September 7, 2020 – December 11, 2020

Lastly, the peak dates for Virgin Atlantic’s non-Caribbean flights are:

December 13, 2019 – January 5, 2020
April 3-21, 2020
June 20, 2020 – September 6, 2020
December 12-31, 2020

Flights on Virgin Atlantic can be significantly cheaper if planning during off-peak dates. Here’s the Virgin Atlantic award chart for one-way, off-peak season bookings:

Route To/From U.K.	Economy Classic	Premium	Upper Class
U.S. — Northeast (Boston, Newark, New York-JFK, Washington, DC)	10,000	17,500	47,500
U.S. — Midwest and South (Atlanta, Miami, Orlando)	12,500	22,500	47,500
U.S. — West (Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle)	15,000	27,500	67,500
Africa, China, and Hong Kong	12,500	22,500	57,500
Caribbean	10,000	17,500	57,500
India	10,000	17,500	37,500
Tel Aviv	9,000	16,000	28,000

And here’s the Virgin Atlantic award chart for one-way peak season bookings:

Route To/From U.K.	Economy Classic	Premium	Upper Class
U.S. – Northeast (Boston, Newark, New York-JFK, Washington, DC)	20,000	27,500	57,500
U.S. – Midwest and South (Atlanta, Miami, Orlando)	22,500	32,500	57,500
U.S. – West (Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle)	25,000	35,000	77,500
Africa, China, and Hong Kong	22,500	32,500	57,500
Caribbean	20,000	27,500	67,500
India	20,000	27,500	47,500
Tel Aviv	11,000	20,000	33,000

Let’s take an example flight from London-Heathrow (LHR) to Las Vegas (LAS), which is on the U.S. west coast. If you book a flight during peak season in Upper Class, you’ll pay 77,500 miles, as opposed to the off-peak price of 67,500 miles.

Final Thoughts

Overall, there are a lot of airlines that have unique peak and off-peak season policies. For the most part, airlines tend to limit the price variation from seasonality to their own airlines. For example, Asiana Airlines levies peak surcharges only on flights operated by Asiana and not on any other carriers.

An exception to this would be American Airlines AAdvantage, which makes off-peak pricing in economy available on partner airlines such as British Airways.

Keeping track of peak dates and booking travel flexibly to avoid peak season is a recipe to conserving your hard-earned points and miles. As a result, you’ll want to confirm that you’re getting the best value redemption prior to committing to a flight.

Now, you have a one-stop-shop for a guide on the airlines that carry peak and off-peak policies for award bookings. Happy booking!