7 Best Airlines to Book Business Class on Points in 2026

lately it seems that we have seen so many different devaluations with different airline programs and if you're not familiar with what a devaluation is it's kind of like inflation hitting points prices and not just cash prices and when an airline devalues its award chart an example of this might be like hey standardly today we charge 60,000 points for this flight but going forward the new price for this exact same flight exact same route is going to be 75,000 points so it's just airlines increasing the points prices required for different flights and we see this over and over and over again it's a reason that we recommend not hoarding your points and finding the best ways to use them as fast as possible so today i'm going to cover seven different airlines where we still consistently find great saber space deals for our clients in business class using their points these aren't in any particular order but the first one that i want to cover is air canada aeroplane air canada still has the most different airline operating carrier partners out of any of the airlines i think they partner with about 130 co-chair partners or so and they're a star alliance carrier so you can often book things like united with taunza and i even recently booked a and a first class with aeroplane if you're interested in our full first class guide for how to book some of the best first class flights in the world you can just go to georeachtravel.com/firstclass and get the guide there but as far as some of our different examples for clients and what they can book through aeroplane we have a client who is a doctor in the u.s but he goes to egypt pretty frequently because he has family there so oftentimes he will need us to find him a last minute flight over to egypt direct if possible he'll stay for a few months and then he'll need a flight back so we're booking these in one way segments with air canada since the flights tend to be pretty last minute they can also make it challenging but aeroplane is pretty good about this with egypt air so pretty regularly we'll find him something from either jfk or washington dc direct into kaira with egypt air business class for 75,000 aeroplane points air canada also very commonly has transfer bonuses from lots of different credit card programs like chase american express capital one build a row so that helps to bring the points priced down a little bit more from unreasonable to more palatable and i know egypt air is not the nicest of business class products in the sky far from but i am really excited for the launch of their new airbus a350 planes and the business class there around the sneak peeks of what it would look like it looks pretty nice let me know in the comments what you guys think and if you would fly it before a client who tends to fly between the u.s and egypt a lot a recent booking that we made for him was from his amics points we transfer them over to aeroplane 75,000 points direct flight from jfk over to kaira sticker price for that flight since he tends to travel one way last minute was about 4,165 dollars making it a sense for point redemption of about six cents per point which is pretty solid for another client of ours they needed three people on a european tour going through a lot of different cities like paris, munic, rome, england and we found them a flight on leftonza this one we also booked through air canada we're able to find three seats on this one because air canada for business class generally is pretty good about showing you how many seats are left and very commonly you can find seats with two three four or even more seats on the same flight using aeroplane so for this one for three people it was 225,000 points to fly them from houston to frankfort on leftonza business class using air canada points so that comes out to 75,000 points per person and the sticker price for all three tickets since they were flying one way into one city and then flying back from a completely different city that flight retails for about 28,000 dollars for all three tickets which gets us a 13 cent per point redemption we're just amazing for air canada the second airline where we tend to consistently find great sweet spots for our client bookings is with cathy pacific and this isn't necessarily just for finding flights over to hong kong on cathy pacific's own metal because cathy pacific is in the one world alliance we actually find a lot of great deals on british airways planes booked through cathy pacific for example our client karen we booked her flights from iid through london into glasco on british airways business class they needed two tickets and we didn't book it through british airways or american airlines which are the normal ways to book this because the taxes and fees are so high if you do that it's like seven hundred dollars plus per person one way very often but if you book through cathy pacific as long as there's saver space availability you're looking at about sixty three thousand points and only two to three hundred dollars in taxes and fees instead of seven hundred which if you're booking multiple tickets can add up very very fast so for her flights that we book from iid through london into glasco two tickets british airways business class booked by moving her capital one points into cathy pacific we had to use up one hundred and twenty six thousand points for two tickets the retail value of those two tickets would have been about seven thousand and fifty nine dollars which comes out to a sense per point value of about six cents per point which is amazing for capital one if you're looking for another way to save on those really high british airways taxes and fees when you are flying to her from europe i would say don't fly british airways if you have a bunch of points second obvious or even with american airlines since that's also a very common way to book british airways flights look into thin air instead so this is another sweet spot that we often find for clients by booking it with american airlines for example for our client Paula we found her a flight back from Helsinki to Dallas Fort Worth because she needed a flight back from europe she was great about being open to positioning flights and it was way cheaper as far as taxes and fees goes to fly her from Finland back to the us versus from London back to the us still using her american airlines miles because either way the saver space price is still fifty seven point five thousand american airlines miles but the taxes and fees vary widely as we mentioned if you're booking british airways those taxes and fees could be more than seven hundred and fifty dollars per person one way but with the thin air flight that we found points rises still fifty seven point five thousand points and the taxes and fees are more like sixty or seventy dollars so if you're looking for great sweet spots on american airlines you want a flight to and from europe see if you can just avoid the british airways flights look for flights to or from Helsinki instead because also if you're looking to maximize your sense per point redemption that one business class flight that we found happened to be on a pretty expensive day so one way it was more than six thousand dollars and got Paula a twelve cent per point redemption i think that's a little bit out of the norm normally they're not priced that high usually it's more in the three to four thousand dollar range but still an amazing use of american airlines miles to redeem them for thin air flights and if you have a bunch of points stuck in obvious programs like guitar or british airways you can move those through british airways into the thin air programs since they all use the obvious currency and you'll oftentimes pay lower taxes by booking through their versus by booking through british airways so if there is a redemption that you're trying to make with obvious i recommend just doing a quick check to see if you can find that same route using thin air because oftentimes i find the taxes and fees and sometimes the points prices are a bit lower on that versus some of the other programs like british airways the number four program that i want to talk about today is united they have gone through some devaluations and i know that when people log in there's sometimes seeing a points price of two hundred and fifty thousand points three hundred thousand points four hundred thousand points for flying to europe or asia or wherever they want to go in business or first class the trick with this one is if you can get a united co-branded credit card even the free one like i just have the free united gateway card and it still gets me access to card holder exclusive pricing so a lot of the european flights will be eighty or eighty eight thousand points instead of a hundred some thousand points and flights over to asia can get discounted from two hundred and fifty thousand points down to about a hundred thousand points which is huge if you're interested to see if this card is a good fit for you or what other cards we might recommend we do free credit card consultations at geobreeze travel dot com slash consultations or if you just want to go through the list of cards on your own please check out geobreeze travel dot com slash cards one other great thing about united is it will often tack on positioning flights on either end at no extra points costs you just have to pay the extra taxes and fees like for example our client eric was looking to get from portland main not even portland organ portland main into japan and obviously there is not a direct light that does that but by using united miles we were able to get him a flight that was all on one itinerary from portland main through new work into haneita two business class tickets on united calaris hundred and eighty thousand points for both tickets one way and the sticker price of those tickets would have been about fifteen thousand dollars so that got him a nine cent per point redemption on united and we see this very commonly for our clients so i know we always say try not to get your point stuck in a particular airline don't just rack up a whole bunch of south-west or delta miles or something but if you do happen to have a lot of united miles or even american airline miles not all hope is lost so if that's you and you have points stuck with united or american airlines or really any type of points currency and you want some ideas for how to make the most of it because you've been struggling to find these great redemptions on your own you can apply to be a one-on-one client at geobreeze travel dot com slash set call will let you know if you have enough points where we can help you or if we recommend earning some more points first and then we can get you some of these amazing redemptions like the examples we're going over in this video number five airline where we still consistently find sweet spot deals for our clients is with air france and i know this one's weird to bring up because they just announced a round of devaluations where their cheapest business class saber space products is going to go up by about twenty percent from sixty thousand points or so to seventy five thousand points as the standard now they will still have business class light where you can find those super saber space but i would avoid them in the future because two things let's say you find a great flight deal from Paris back to the united states at sixty thousand points first of all it doesn't come with lounge access anymore if you book business class light on points so that could be an issue if you're flying from the us over to france or amsterdam using the flying blue program and then you find the super saver price and you're like, "Well, I have priority pass access. I have a capital one lounge from my home airport. I have a centurion lounge. I have the chase staff I reserve lounge. I'll just go to one of those. Lack of air France lounge isn't a problem, by all means, then it's non-issue. I think it would be more of an issue if you're flying from Paris or Amsterdam back into the United States. But the second issue is a lot more concerning." And that is, if you book a business class light a word fair going forward with air France, the points just are not refundable or changeable. So if you book a 60,000 point flight and then you realize you can't go on that trip, normally we would just say, "Oh, pay the hundred or 150 euro for the cancellation fee." The points will be re-depositated back in your air France account. We'll just help you use them for a different trip. Not the case anymore. Now they just go poof. So I would just ignore the business class light. That's how I'm gonna be advising our clients and our students going forward is just ignore the cheapest price. Kind of the same way that I tell people ignore basic economy because there's just so many different ways for things to go wrong and you can't get compensated for it anymore. In my mind, I'm just thinking, okay, the new price for air France for the cheapest flight we can get is gonna be 75,000, not 60,000. The 60,000 point thing is a trap. So that's how I'm gonna be looking at air France and KLM bookings from now on. Given that, though, 75,000 points is still a great deal. From the sweet spots we bring naming off with other programs, 75,000 points to Europe is a pretty good sweet spot with Air Canada, with United. It's 80 to 88,000 American Airlines, 57.5,000. Hopefully you can avoid the British airways, taxes and fees with Catholic Pacific over to Europe. It's about 63,000 points. So, air France and KLM's new standard pricing of about 75,000 points is not terrible. Also though, air France and KLM have been really, really jacking up their taxes and fees. Oftentimes it's more than $600 per person, one way in business class, either for light or business class standard. But if you're okay paying more points and fewer taxes, they do have a third tier called Flex, where the general price is gonna be about 110,000 points per person one way in business class, but the taxes and fees are about half as much. It's more like $300 versus $600. So, you play with that as you will. The good things about air France and KLM flying blue is that if you have a large group of people like a family of four, five or six, still one of the best ways to find a lot of tickets over to Europe on the same flight. Also, if you have a kid who's traveling with you on point somewhere between the ages of two and 11, they still do have the 25% off points pricing for children. So, helps you to save a little bit more on points pricing with air France that way. And they are also known to have a lot of transfer bonuses throughout the year and pretty much everything will transfer there. Chase, MX, Capital One, City, Build, Rove, everything goes over to air France. Also, a sweet spot redemption on the flying blue program that we booked a few clients on earlier this year is actually with their partnership with Aero Mexico. We booked our client Sam some tickets from Miami all the way to Tokyo on the same ticket. It went from Miami through Mexico into Tokyo. There were two tickets on Aero Mexico business class, booked through Air France. There was an Air France 25% transfer bonus. And so, at the time, he spent 173,000 points transferred into Air France for the transfer bonus. And then the sticker price for those two tickets, I guess Aero Mexico tickets are fairly expensive, especially going to Japan, 'cause the retail value was more than 20,000 points for the two tickets. And the sense per point that we calculated was about 12 cents per point. I personally haven't flown Aero Mexico. Let me know in the comments if it's a good business class product and if you'd recommend that I check it out. And also, is it a five or eight or $10,000 product? How would you rank it against other business class products that you have flown? All right, airline with lots of sweet spots that we booked for clients number six on our list is Virgin Atlantic. This one is also great if you have to book a lot of tickets onto the same flight. Sometimes we have booked, I think, up to nine people on the same flight with Virgin Atlantic. Pretty much everything transfers over here as well. Chase, MX, Capital One City, built, rove. Everything moves over to Virgin Atlantic. And if you happen to be based in Orlando, which for some reason we have a lot of clients based out of Orlando and our central Florida, this is one of the best ways to have a direct flight into Europe. Taxes and fees can be a little bit higher and they don't do positioning flights very well with Virgin Atlantic. It's not like United or American Airlines where you can sometimes get the positioning flight tacked on for free. That doesn't really work as well because Virgin Atlantic just focuses on long haul redemptions. But sometimes that works in your favor because for our clients three, they have a family of three. We were able to book them three tickets from IAD through London into Bangalore, India on Virgin Atlantic. This one was actually not in business class. I think this one was in premium economy. And for all three tickets, it was only 84,000 points and the sticker price for all three tickets would have been about $4,685. So you don't always need to be flying in business class to get these great points redemptions because that's still a six-end per point redemption. So premium economy can have some pretty great deals as well. And Virgin Atlantic is known to have a lot of availability in their premium economy. And I have not personally flown this. I've only done their business class but from what I hear, the premium economy product is pretty good. Let me know in the comments if you have flown it and if you would recommend. And the last airline where we tend to find so many different sweet spots for our clients, you could probably guess is Alaska. So for our clients or anybody out there who has Alaska Miles, there are so many different cool coach or partners that you can fly with this. I have personally booked myself in Starlux for later this year. It's just a short hop within Asia but still the business class product. Very excited to experience that. Now use Alaska Miles all the time, whether it's just for one world partners over Europe, you can fly Iceland air with them if you want to hop over to Iceland. Condor Airlines is also a very common redemption that we help our clients book if they have a lot of Alaska Miles. And for this particular example that I want to cover, we helped our clients who's and booked two tickets into Tahiti. This one was also a premium economy deal because it had to line up on a particular date. We helped her get two premium economy tickets on air Tahiti, Neue. From Tahiti back into California, total price for two premium economy tickets was only 80,000 points. So 40,000 points per person in premium economy for that eight or 10 hour flight between Tahiti and California. Sticker price for those two tickets combined one way would have been about $4,766. So that is once again a great redemption at six cents per point in premium economy. And again, Alaska partners with so many different co-chair partners. We have helped clients book using their Alaska or build points which are the only things that transfer into Alaska. British Airways, the Lupina Airlines is a new one that a lot of our clients are excited about. Condor business class, Starbucks, Hawaiian Air Business class because we get a lot of clients who want to fly to Hawaii. Or sometimes just booking American Airlines flights for cheaper than it would be on AA's own website. So there you have it. Those are the seven programs that I recommend still checking out for amazing sweet spots in 2026. And again, if you have some of these points and you'd like to apply to be a one-on-one client to see what kinds of redemption we can help you get, go ahead and apply at geobreezetravel.com/setcall and I would love to speak with you. (upbeat music)