What Are the Hardest Miles to Earn and Why Should I Get Them?

In this industry of aviation, credit card points, travel, and airline miles, you’ll often be able to book a flight for 10 different prices using 10 different miles. At first glance, it may make the most sense to use whatever costs the least miles. Upon closer inspection, however, you might notice that those miles are incredibly hard to get!

Whether it’s a lack of transfer partners, unattractive mileage earning structures from revenue flights, or just a lack of awareness in the general public, some airline miles are unbelievably difficult to accrue a large balance of.

In this guide, we’ll be dissecting our top choices for the hardest miles to earn. We’ll first provide a broad overview of the frequent flyer program. Then we’ll talk about some of the ways you can earn these miles and explain why exactly you want to have these miles in your points wallet.

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan

Alaska Airlines is an airline that most travelers are familiar with. This airline is the fifth largest airline in America and its focus is on connecting the Pacific Northwest with the rest of the U.S.

Alaska Airlines doesn’t operate a lie-flat business class product — in fact, it only has domestic recliner seats aboard its fleet of aircraft. What it does have is an unbelievably useful frequent flyer program: Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.

Earning Alaska Miles

Although earning Alaska Airlines miles is a straightforward process, it still takes quite a while to earn them. This fact is primarily due to the lack of transfer partners that Alaska Airlines has. Alaska has demonstrated the value of its frequent flyer program time and time again, and if it adds more transfer partners, it will probably have to devalue the program.

Alaska Airlines has exactly 1 transfer partner: Marriott Bonvoy. If you need to accumulate Alaska miles quickly, you’re probably going to focus on earning Marriott Bonvoy points. Chase and American Express both offer co-branded Marriott cards:

1. Marriott Bonvoy Business^® American Express^® Card
2. Marriott Bonvoy Boundless^® Credit Card
3. Marriott Bonvoy Bold^® Credit Card

Marriott Bonvoy transfers at a 3:1 ratio with a 5,000-mile bonus for every 60,000 Marriott points transferred to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. This means that for every 60,000 Marriott points transferred to Alaska Airlines, you’ll earn your normal 20,000 Alaska miles plus a bonus of 5,000 miles, bringing up your total to 25,000 miles.

Additionally, you can earn Alaska Airlines miles directly by using the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature^® credit card. However, the earnings categories aren’t attractive, so it’ll be difficult to rack up a giant balance of Alaska miles, unless you fly a lot on Alaska Airlines or a partner airline, such as Cathay Pacific.

The last-ditch effort way to get a bunch of Alaska Airlines miles quickly is to buy them. This can be an attractive option at times since Alaska is known to offer bonus miles of up to 50% with your purchase. This can make first class flights at a 80-90% discount possible, provided that you find award availability.

Redeeming Alaska Miles

Alaska Airlines miles are incredible for a few reasons:

• Top-notch partners like Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, and even Emirates
• Attractive redemption prices for business/first class
• Great stopover/open-jaw policy for even more value

Although Alaska Airlines doesn’t belong to an airline alliance, it has taken the opportunity to build individual partnerships that it has more control over to offer a useful route network for travelers hoping to use their miles.

Hot Tip: We’ve put together the industry-standard guide on the best ways to redeem Alaska miles for max value, so don’t miss out on the tens of thousands of dollars you could be getting in first class travel. 

As we just mentioned, you can book some incredibly first class and business class products using Alaska Airlines miles. Here are some great flights from the U.S. that you can book using Alaska miles:

• Cathay Pacific first class to Asia for 70,000 miles one-way
• Emirates business class to the Middle East for 82,500 miles one-way
• Emirates first class to the Middle East for 150,000 miles one-way
• Hainan Airlines business class to Southeast Asia for 55,000 miles one-way
• Japan Airlines first class to Southeast Asia (excludes India, Japan, and South Korea) for 75,000 miles one-way
• Qantas first class to Australia for 70,000 miles one-way

As you can see, Alaska Airlines has an epic, star-studded panel of world-class airlines that you can redeem miles in business and even first class for. The mileage prices are extremely attractive, often the lowest you can get.

Korean Air SKYPASS

Korean Air SKYPASS is a frequent flyer program of fluctuating loyalty. Once a Chase transfer partner, this airline currency has become less accessible than ever. Booking Korean Air first class is possible only with Korean Air’s own miles.

Korean Air has a bunch of weird routing rules, such as no one-way awards on partner airline flights. Additionally, the process for booking awards for others is quite troublesome. To make matters worse, the SkyTeam airline’s mileage currency is difficult to earn.

Earning Korean Air Miles

Korean Air SKYPASS is transfer partners with only 1 transfer partner: Marriott Bonvoy. Points transfer at a 3:1 ratio. Transfer times can run anywhere from 7 days to 3 weeks. The good news is that you can request award holds of varying lengths, depending on which customer representative you talk to.

You can also earn Korean Air miles by opening any of Korean Air’s co-branded credit cards. In the U.S., the bank that issues Korean Air credit cards is U.S. Bank. Generally, this is not recommended, as the earning structures aren’t favorable.

Other than earning from credit cards, you can also credit airline flights to earn Korean Air miles, as long as your ticket is eligible to earn miles and the airline you’re flying on is a qualifying Korean Air partner.

Redeeming Korean Air Miles

Redeeming Korean Air miles is absolutely something you’re going to want to keep an eye out for. If you want to book Korean Air first class, the only option you have is to redeem Korean Air miles.

Also, one of the only feasible ways to book first class on any SkyTeam airline, such as Saudia, is to use Korean Air miles. You can also book flights on China Southern, Emirates, Etihad, and Japan Airlines using Korean Air miles, even in first class! You’ll have to book round-trip, though, as Korean Air doesn’t permit one-way flights on partners.

If you’re redeeming Korean Air miles, the most attractive option for you is probably going to be flying on Korean Air first class. The best part about booking Korean Air first class, besides the great product itself, is that there’s so much award availability. If you’re booking in advance, it’s not unusual to see 2-6 first class seats! This makes family travel that much easier to plan.

Other valuable redemptions include:

• Air France business class to Tahiti (Bora Bora) for 90,000 miles round-trip
• Air France or KLM business class to the Middle East for 120,000 miles round-trip
• Delta Air Lines economy class to Hawaii for 25,000 miles round-trip
• Emirates business class to the Middle East for 140,000 miles round-trip
• Emirates first class to the Middle East for 210,000 miles round-trip
• Hawaiian Airlines business class to Hawaii for 60,000 miles round-trip
• Korean Air business class to Korea for 62,500 miles one-way

In addition to being part of the SkyTeam alliance, the value of Korean Air extends to its non-alliance partners.

Japan Airlines Mileage Bank

Japan Airlines Mileage Bank, also known as JAL Mileage Bank, is an incredibly difficult mileage currency to get your hands on. The value of JAL miles is difficult to definitively ascertain, as they’ve got lots of different partners that can dictate the bang you get for your buck.

However, 1 true thing is that Japan Airlines miles are difficult to earn. Japan Airlines has also devalued its miles many times over the years. When you think about how there’s still value despite numerous devaluations, you can begin to understand why Japan Airlines makes it so difficult to earn miles.

Earning Japan Airlines Miles

Japan Airlines is a transfer partner of Marriott Bonvoy. You can transfer Marriott points at a 3:1 ratio with a 5,000-mile bonus for every 60,000 Marriott points transferred. That means that you’ll receive a total of 25,000 miles for every 60,000 Marriott points transferred to JAL Mileage Bank.

Additionally, there’s a co-branded JAL USA CARD that has poor earning categories. Nonetheless, it’s still an option.

Besides earning via Marriott Bonvoy and JAL co-branded credit cards, you can credit paid flights to Japan Airlines. Because Japan Airlines is a Oneworld partner, you can earn Japan Airlines miles with paid American Airlines flights that you might take frequently in the U.S.

Redeeming Japan Airlines Miles

Redeeming Japan Airlines miles isn’t the gold mine that it used to be. Still, you can use JAL miles for travel on many airlines outside Oneworld:

• Air France
• Alaska Airlines
• Bangkok Airways
• China Eastern
• Emirates
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Jetstar
• Korean Air

Japan Airlines uses a distance-based award chart, which means that the price of your award ticket will depend on the distance you’re looking to fly. As a reminder, the round-trip cost is actually cheaper than 2 one-way tickets, so you’ll save miles when booking round-trip.

When you put all of this information together, you can find some great redemptions worth redeeming your miles for:

• Chicago (ORD) – Seoul-Incheon (ICN) – Delhi (DEL) one-way in Korean Air business class for 85,000 miles
• Los Angeles (LAX) – Osaka (KIX) one-way in Japan Airlines business class for 50,000 miles
• Melbourne (MEL) – Dubai (DXB) – Boston (BOS) one-way in Emirates first class for 165,000 JAL miles + ~$65 in taxes and fees
• New York City (JFK) – Shanghai (PVG) – Singapore (SIN) one-way in China Eastern first class for 135,000 miles or round-trip for 190,000 miles
• Paris (CDG) – Los Angeles (LAX) – Pape’ete (PPT) one-way in Air France business class for 85,000 miles

Booking Japan Airlines first class using JAL miles is similarly possible. If you’re wondering what to expect on Japan Airlines first class, check out our review.

Lufthansa Miles & More

Lufthansa is the flag carrier of Germany. As the largest airline in the European powerhouse country, Lufthansa’s parent company Lufthansa Group also owns Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, and Swiss International Air Lines.

Simply put, Lufthansa is an essential part of connecting Europe to the rest of the world. All of these airlines share a frequent flyer program: Lufthansa Miles & More.

Earning Lufthansa Miles & More Miles

Earning Lufthansa miles is very difficult. Ever since Lufthansa axed its partnership with former sole transfer partner Marriott Bonvoy, it’s been nearly impossible for normal people to earn Lufthansa miles.

At the moment, the 3 major ways to earn Lufthansa miles are:

1. Spending on the Miles & More^® World Elite Mastercard^® card issued by Barclays
2. Transferring points (at a terrible ratio) from hotel partners
3. Crediting paid tickets on Lufthansa and/or partners to Miles & More

Redeeming Lufthansa Miles & More Miles

Lufthansa miles are extremely useful for 2 reasons:

1. Award availability on Lufthansa first class in-advance
2. Enhanced award availability on subsidiary airline business class, such as SWISS

By now, it’s fairly common to know that Lufthansa first class is the only feasible first class product bookable directly to Europe. Lufthansa releases first class award availability to partners up to 15 days before departure, which is an extremely tight window for most.

With no guarantees of award availability, Lufthansa first class is something we normally have to hope for; if you’ve submitted your vacation time already, it can be extremely nerve-wracking waiting for a flight to open up.

If you’re in a lifestyle, profession, job, career, or business where you have lots of spending power, you might want to put your spending towards earning Lufthansa miles to access first class award space further in-advance.

Besides this specific use case, Lufthansa miles can be leveraged to access additional award availability on subsidiary airlines such as Austrian Airlines or SWISS. The difference between partner availability (on United MileagePlus, for example) and Miles & More availability is huge.

If you’ve got your eyes set on trying out Austrian Airlines business class, for example, having Miles & More miles will dramatically increase your chances of snagging one of these seats without wanting to pull your hair out searching for award availability. Here are some great example routes you can take:

• Auckland (AKL) – Houston (IAH) one-way in Air New Zealand business class for 71,000 miles + ~$71 in taxes and fees
• Chicago (ORD) – São Paulo (GRU) one-way in United Polaris class for 56,000 miles + ~$29 in taxes and fees
• Copenhagen (CPH) – San Francisco (SFO) one-way in SAS business class for 56,000 miles + ~$41 in taxes and fees
• Los Angeles (LAX) – Frankfurt (FRA) one-way in Lufthansa first class for 91,000 miles + ~$680 in taxes and fees
• New York City (JFK) – Seoul-Incheon (ICN) one-way in Asiana Airlines business class for 71,000 miles + ~$160 in taxes and fees
• San Francisco (SFO) – Toronto (YYZ) one-way in Air Canada business class for 20,000 miles + ~$220 in taxes and fees

Hot Tip: Check out our guide on the best ways to redeem Lufthansa miles to get more travel inspiration!

Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles

Turkish Airlines has one of the least user-friendly award programs out there: Miles&Smiles. However, using Turkish Airlines miles can be absolutely worth it in the right circumstances.

Booking Turkish Airlines awards can be incredibly troublesome, requiring e-mail communications or even in-person visits to Turkish Airlines offices to book your award ticket.

Additionally, Turkish Airlines miles are somewhat difficult to earn.

Earning Turkish Airlines Miles

Turkish Airlines is transfer partners with Citi ThankYou Rewards, Capital One Miles, and Marriott Bonvoy. Citi and Capital One transfer to Turkish Airlines at a 1:1 ratio, and transfers take around 1-2 business days to process. Also, Citi has offered a 25% transfer bonus to Turkish Airlines in the past, so be sure to look out for those when possible.

On the other hand, Marriott Bonvoy transfers at the usual 3:1 ratio with a 5,000-mile bonus for every 60,000 Marriott points transferred to Turkish Airlines. Transfers take around 3 business days to complete.

Because of the better transfer ratio from Citi, you’re definitely going to want to lean on that when possible. The cards that earn ThankYou Points are:

• Citi Prestige^® Card
• Citi Premier^® Card

You can also earn Turkish Airlines miles by taking advantage of its position in the Star Alliance and crediting paid airfare from airlines like United.

Hot Tip: Check out our guide on the best ways to earn Turkish Airlines miles!

Redeeming Turkish Airlines Miles

Turkish Airlines miles are incredibly useful and there are so many great ways to redeem Turkish Airlines miles. If you’re patient enough to follow Turkish Airlines’ award booking process, you can get some great redemptions. Here are some examples:

• Continental U.S. to Hawaii in economy for 7,500 miles one-way
• Continental U.S. to Hawaii in business for 12,500 miles one-way
• Transcontinental business class in the U.S. for 15,000 miles one-way
• U.S. to Europe in business class for 45,000 miles one-way
• U.S. to South Africa in business class for 67,500 miles one-way

The redemption prices are extremely attractive, especially when you consider that flights to Hawaii usually cost around 25,000 miles one-way. Furthermore, U.S. to Europe flights in business class usually cost around 60,000-75,000 miles one-way, which demonstrates just how good the award pricing is.

Asiana Club

Asiana Airlines is another example of a top airline that has an elusive mileage currency. Its frequent flyer program is known as Asiana Club which has an attractive mid-tier elite status equivalent to Star Alliance Gold. If you have Asiana Club Gold status, you’ll enjoy Star Alliance Gold status, which grants you access to business class lounges on same-day departure flights, regardless of cabin class.

Asiana Club also has some amazingly attractive premium cabin prices, which demonstrates a huge opportunity to get lots of value. However, Asiana miles are difficult to earn, which balances out the awesome award prices.

Earning Asiana Club Miles

Earning Asiana Airlines miles is made difficult by 2 facts:

• Lack of transfer partners
• Low multipliers on paid airfare, particularly discount economy tickets

Asiana Airlines is transfer partners only with 1 currency: Marriott Bonvoy. Although there are many different ways to earn Marriott points, it’ll be difficult to build an appreciable pile of points due to the 3:1 transfer ratio. Even so, you’ll get a 5,000-mile bonus for every 60,000 Marriott points transferred to Asiana Club. Transfers take around 4 business days to execute, so keep that in mind.

Another way to earn Asiana miles is to open the co-branded Asiana Airlines credit cards from Bank of America:

• Asiana Airlines Visa Signature^® Credit Card
• Asiana Visa^® Business Card

If you open these credit cards, you can potentially get a bonus that will add a nice chunk of miles to your Asiana Airlines balance.

You can also credit paid airfare to Asiana Airlines, thanks to its Star Alliance partners. Unfortunately, crediting paid airplane tickets, especially discount economy tickets, will earn you very few miles, such as 30% or 25%, so it’ll take quite a long while to accrue miles this way.

Redeeming Asiana Club Miles

The value proposition for using Asiana miles is immense — so much so that we put together our own guide on the best ways to use Asiana miles for maximum value. When you’re using Asiana miles, there are 2 main partners typically booked:

• Etihad (non-alliance partner)
• Lufthansa (Star Alliance partner)

If you’re flying from the U.S., you can book Lufthansa first class for a jaw-dropping 50,000 miles one-way and business class for a shocking 40,000 miles one-way. When you compare this to other partners’ award prices, you’re going to see a massive discount anywhere from 40-60% over other frequent flyer programs!

However, Lufthansa charges huge fuel surcharges, up to $900 one-way in first class when originating in the U.S.

Another great airline partner is Etihad Airways, which has fantastic airline products like the Etihad First Class Apartments. To fly from the U.S. to the Middle East will cost 80,000 miles in first class and 60,000 miles in business class. When you consider that first class costs 115,000 American Airlines miles one-way, you’ll start to realize the massive discounts you can be getting.

Let’s not leave out the other airlines that you can book with Asiana miles, such as Air China, ANA, SWISS, and more. All of these airlines belong to the Star Alliance, and the same mileage prices apply to all partners. If you book Asiana Airlines, you’ll need to consider seasonality, peak, and off-peak pricing. Here are some great example routes you can take:

• Abu Dhabi (AUH) – London (LHR) one-way in Etihad First Class Apartments for 40,000 miles + ~$40 in taxes and fees
• Los Angeles (LAX) – Abu Dhabi (AUH) one-way in Etihad business class for 60,000 miles + ~$80 in taxes and fees
• New York City (JFK) – Abu Dhabi (AUH) one-way in Etihad First Class Apartments for 80,000 miles + ~$80 in taxes and fees
• Paris (CDG) – Abu Dhabi (AUH) one-way in Etihad First Class apartments for 40,000 miles + ~$120 in taxes and fees
• San Francisco (SFO) – Munich (MUC) one-way in Lufthansa first class for 50,000 miles + ~$800 in taxes and fees
• Washington, D.C. (IAD) – Abu Dhabi (AUH) one-way in Etihad first class for 80,000 miles + ~$80 in taxes and fees

EVA Air Infinity MileageLands

EVA Air, which is the Star Alliance airline based in Taiwan, offers a unique frequent flyer program named Infinity MileageLands. Although the airline has a bunch of quirks, it can be useful to keep in mind.

Earning EVA Air Miles

Earning EVA Air miles is quite difficult in the sense that even Marriott Bonvoy isn’t a transfer partner. EVA Air’s transfer partners are Citi ThankYou Rewards and Capital One Miles.

Citi isn’t terribly surprising as Taiwanese people have a general inclination towards Citibank as an incredibly Asian-friendly bank. Citi is a 1:1 transfer partner, and transfers take around 2 business days to process.

On the other hand, Capital One transfers at a 2:1.5 ratio, which isn’t quite as good as 1:1. It takes around 36 business hours for transfers to execute.

Hot Tip: If you’re interested in Capital One Miles, get some inspiration from our guide on the best ways to redeem Capital One miles for maximum value.

Redeeming EVA Air Miles

As a rule of thumb, EVA Air doesn’t offer the best value for redemptions. However, there are a few niche redemptions where EVA Air is the cheapest (or close to the cheapest) in mileage price.

We detailed our best ways to redeem EVA Air miles in a separate guide, but we’ll discuss it broadly. For example, you can book:

• Houston (IAH) – Buenos Aires (EZE) one-way in United economy for 30,000 EVA Air miles
• Los Angeles (LAX) – Washington, D.C. (IAD) – Cairo (CAI) one-way in United business class and EgyptAir business class for 67,500 miles
• San Francisco (SFO) – Tel Aviv (TLV) one-way in United Polaris class for 67,500 EVA Air miles

In any case, the value of EVA Air miles is there — you just need to look into different origin destinations such as North Asia or the South Pacific to get maximum value. Here are some routings you can contemplate:

• Seoul-Incheon (ICN) – Bangkok (BKK) one-way in Thai Airways first class for 62,500 EVA Air miles
• Tokyo-Haneda (HND) – Sydney (SYD) one-way in ANA business class for 77,500 EVA Air miles
• Tokyo-Narita (NRT) – Bangkok (BKK) – Bali-Denpasar (DPS) one-way in Thai Airways business class for 40,000 EVA Air miles

Garuda Indonesia GarudaMiles

Garuda Indonesia has a reputation for being a fantastic airline. Although its business class product is decent, its first class product is revered in the world of luxury travel and it is high up on our list of the top international first class airlines.

The Indonesian flag carrier airline is a member of SkyTeam. Unfortunately, this airline makes it extremely difficult to earn its frequent flyer miles, GarudaMiles.

Earning GarudaMiles

Garuda does not have any transfer partners. You’ll have to earn GarudaMiles the old-fashioned way: butt-in-seat flying. Not all hope is lost, however. If you’ve got strong ties to Indonesia but aren’t located in Indonesia anymore, you can utilize the SkyTeam airlines (like Air France, Delta, and Xiamen) to credit your paid airfare to GarudaMiles.

Otherwise, you can earn miles by:

• Buying up to 50,000 miles per year at a rate of 275,000 IDR per 1,000 miles (~1.9 cents per mile)
• Fly, stay, travel, shop, and bank with popular Indonesian brands

Redeeming GarudaMiles

Now that we’ve talked about how absurdly difficult it is to earn GarudaMiles, let’s talk about the 1 reason you’ll want to redeem GarudaMiles: Garuda Indonesia first class.

A long time ago, Garuda Indonesia offered an obscene 90% off award tickets, which would have dropped a one-way ticket between Europe and Indonesia down to 19,000 miles for a 10-13 hour first class flight.

On the off chance that the “mileage deal of the decade” will return, it might be worth having a balance of GarudaMiles to snag a ticket at literally inconceivable prices. Here are the routes on which Garuda Indonesia offers first class (hint: there aren’t many):

• Tokyo-Haneda (HND) – Jakarta (CGK) one-way in first class for 108,000 miles
• Tokyo-Narita (NRT) – Bali-Denpasar (DPS) one-way in first class for 108,000 miles

Middle East Airlines Cedar Miles

Our last choice is perhaps the most peculiar one of all. There’s certainly nobody analyzing this award program, simply because it’s one of the most obscure loyalty programs in the world. SkyTeam partner Middle East Airlines is the flag carrier of Lebanon and is headquartered in Beirut (BEY). Its frequent flyer program is called Cedar Miles.

Hot Tip: Thinking about flying to Lebanon? Check out our guide on the best ways to fly to Lebanon with points and miles.

Earning Cedar Miles

Middle East Airlines Cedar Miles are incredibly difficult to earn. There aren’t any U.S. transfer partners, which means that you can’t use points like Chase Ultimate Rewards to earn Cedar Miles.

Because Middle East Airlines is a SkyTeam partner, you can credit paid tickets from travel on both MEA and SkyTeam airlines, as well as Qatar Airways.

Redeeming Cedar Miles

Cedar Miles is an extremely interesting program. When you book partner flights, you can only book round-trip tickets. There are some sweet spots, which you’re definitely going to want to consider.

MEA isn’t great in terms of its business class product. It is mostly a regional carrier with lackluster premium products, so the most value will come from airline partners.

Here are some great nonstop example redemptions you can make with SkyTeam partners using MEA Cedar Miles:

1. Los Angeles (LAX) – Shanghai (PVG) non-stop for 130,000 miles round-trip in Delta One Suites
2. Miami (MIA) – Moscow (SVO)- Vladivostok (VVO) for 130,000 miles round-trip in Aeroflot business class
3. New York City (JFK) – Buenos Aires (EZE) non-stop for 90,000 miles round-trip in Aerolineas Argentinas business class
4. New York City (JFK) – Shanghai (PVG) non-stop for 130,000 miles round-trip in China Eastern business class
5. San Francisco (SFO) – Taipei (TPE) non-stop for 140,000 miles round-trip in China Airlines business class

Final Thoughts

Understanding the best points and miles is a bit of a misnomer. While there are great rules of thumb to follow, such as sticking primarily to earning transferable points, there are definitely use cases for collecting other miles in order to effectively book a dream vacation.

Additionally, the correlation between the difficulty of earning a specific type of mileage currency and the utility of earning miles isn’t always strong. In fact, some of the easiest airline miles to earn, such as ANA Mileage Club and Virgin Atlantic, have amazing redemptions and are incredibly easy to earn.

It’s also great to consider the most difficult-to-earn miles and how they are useful. This can spark an interesting dining table discussion if people ever ask you about miles.