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Did you know some airline frequent flyer programs let you hold award tickets before paying? Admittedly, the list is dwindling, but this is my favourite underused feature of award programs.
Why Hold an Award Ticket
It’s beneficial in so many ways to be able to hold award space before paying for it later. The primary use case is undoubtedly having more time to transfer points from a credit card.
Say you find availability for a flight, but you don’t have any miles. It takes Amex a few days to move miles over, and it’s possible the seats may be snapped up by then, given how competitive premium cabin seats are. This is the perfect scenario where holding award tickets gives you the peace of mind that you’ll have the ticket as soon as your points transfer.
Holds also buy you time to finalize plans or decide if you actually want the trip. I’ve booked rare awards on impulse, only to reconsider later. Holds let you “book now, think later” without paying cancellation fees.
Which Frequent Flyer Programs Allow Holds
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
Cathay Pacific is listed first as a prime example of points taking a few days to transfer. We can transfer both Amex MR and RBC Avion here in Canada to Asia Miles, and neither arrives instantly. Amex takes a few days, while RBC moves points to Asia Miles only on Wednesdays.
You can only hold flights on Cathay Pacific metal for up to two days. However, you can call in when it’s about to expire to extend the hold another 2 days and so on. There’s a $39 USD fee, though it doesn’t seem to be charged most of the time.
Hold Cathay Pacific Asia Miles awards up to 2 days
There are also reports online of the $39 fee only when holding partner tickets, but my understanding is partner tickets aren’t actually held when using Asia Miles and the seats can still disappear.
Air France KLM Flying Blue
Flying Blue allows award holds of up to 72 hours and agents tell you the exact expiry time when you call in to place the hold. If the departure date is less than 14 days away, the hold is up to 24 hours.
There’s no fee for holding the ticket, but there is a $25 USD phone booking fee since you need to call in to confirm the ticket.
Hold tickets with Flying Blue up to 72 hours
I’ve tried this a few times myself, but have always been lucky with award space still online, allowing me to essentially let my hold expire and bypass the $25 fee.
American Airlines AAdvantage
This is another case where transferring RBC Avion points can take up to 5 business days, so being able to hold an award ticket is very valuable.
AA makes it super easy by allowing holds online with no need to call in. You can hold tickets for up to 24 hours this way, and it works on partners as well. Once you have the miles and are ready to book, AA has a handy graphic on how to do this.
The hold option is only offered when you don’t have enough miles in your account. This makes sense because AA already offers free changes and cancellations on award tickets.
Other Programs
Other programs that allow award holds include:
- ANA Mileage Club (2 days)
- Emirates Skywards (1 day)
- EVA Air Infinity MileageLands (1 day)
- Lufthansa Miles & More (5 days)
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer (1 day)
- Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles (2 days)
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club (1 day)
EVA has online award holds, while all other programs require a phone call. I’ve had positive experiences with Emirates and ANA, but note that award holds can be “your mileage may vary” (YMMV) depending on the phone agent and their level of familiarity.
How Often Do I Use Award Holds
On Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, I use the award hold feature all the time. I’m usually using Amex MR Canada, which takes a few days to transfer. Even when I have a stash of Asia Miles, I like using the award hold feature so I can have a few days to work on the rest of the trip and see if the flight fits.
My personal experience with Asia Miles has been that the 24-hour free cancellation is YMMV, especially if a flight does not touch North America, so I prefer to hold the ticket.
With other programs, I’ll usually only hold if I need to transfer miles in. I’ve done this with Emirates, and it worked exactly as intended. Otherwise, I’ll usually just take advantage of 24-hour free cancellation, since many holds are only 1 day anyway.
Hold tickets with Emirates Skywards up to 1 day
Takeaway
Award holds are an underrated but powerful tool in miles and points. Being able to lock in award space while you transfer points or finalize plans can be the difference between booking a flight and missing out entirely.
