ANA Mileage Club Tips and Tricks (2026): Upgrading to First, One-Way Awards and the 96-Hour Rule

ANA Mileage Club in 2026: What Changed and What Didn't

In July 2026 a member of FlyerTalk's Virgin Atlantic forum booked ANA first class from Tokyo Haneda to Chicago about two days before departure and called it "easy peasy." They paid with Virgin Atlantic points, and that detail is the story: with ANA's own miles the booking was impossible, because ANA stops selling award tickets 96 hours before departure. It is one of a handful of rules that decide whether ANA miles are the best currency in your wallet or a balance you cannot spend.

ANA Mileage Club is the frequent flyer program of All Nippon Airways, Japan's largest airline and a Star Alliance member. It is one of the few big programs that still prices awards from fixed, published charts: one for ANA's own flights, with low, regular and high seasons, and a flat chart for its partners. Two things changed on 24 June 2025. One-way awards became bookable at exactly half the round-trip price, and the Star Alliance round-the-world award was withdrawn. High-season prices on ANA's own flights jumped at the same time: a round-trip business class award between Japan and North America went from 110,000 to 165,000 miles, and first class from 200,000 to 300,000.

Every ANA rule and price below comes from ANA's own pages, read on 1 October 2026 and listed at the end, with reports from FlyerTalk and the points blogs where they show how a rule plays out. Programs change; check the page before you move points.

Upgrading to First With Miles: 40,000 Miles, and the 24-Hour Deadline

Yes, you can buy a business class ticket and spend miles to move up to first class on ANA, and "40,000 miles" is right for the West Coast. ANA prices its International Upgrade Awards per flight, from each route's basic sector mileage, the IATA distance ANA publishes for every city pair. Tokyo to San Francisco is 5,130 miles and Tokyo to Los Angeles 5,458, both in the 4,501 to 5,500 band, so business to first costs 40,000 miles one-way. Chicago (6,283) and New York (6,739) are in the top band at 45,000. Honolulu (3,831) is 35,000.

Three conditions decide whether you can use it. The flight must be operated by ANA, not a codeshare. The ticket must be paid, in an eligible booking class: J, C, D or Z for business to first, which leaves out P, ANA's discounted business class. And the flight needs a first class cabin at all. From the US that means The Suite on New York JFK, the 777-300ERs that alternate onto Chicago and San Francisco, and the A380 first class to Honolulu, as our ANA The Suite guide sets out route by route. You cannot jump from economy straight to first: economy fares can move up to premium economy or business, never first.

The 24-hour part is right too. ANA takes upgrade applications from 355 days before departure until 24 hours before the flight. Inside that window you can only waitlist, which ANA allows until the departure date; an upgrade that has not cleared by then is confirmed, or not, at the check-in counter on the day. The miles are deducted only when an upgraded seat is secured, and cancelling an upgrade you have not used is free up to 24 hours before the flight. Status holders who spend their own miles get priority on the upgrade list. A family member travelling on the member's miles without the member does not.

Clearing is the hard part. "Unlike UA, NH does not clear upgrades to the last seat," one member wrote in a May 2026 FlyerTalk thread, so first class can fly half empty with people still on the list. The rule of thumb in the same thread: six or more open first class seats two weeks out gives a decent chance; three or fewer, not much of one.

Apply online if your ticket number starts with 205, ANA's ticket stock. Anything else, including a ticket another airline or agency issued on its own stock, has to be upgraded by phone, as do bookings with an infant and parties where only some travelers are upgrading. The upgraded flight earns miles at the original fare's rate, you pay any extra tax the higher cabin triggers (the UK's Air Passenger Duty, for one), and you cannot upgrade an award ticket: upgrade awards are for paid fares only. Status holders should also note that ANA is ending Upgrade Points after fiscal 2026; points issued in that year can be used until 31 March 2027.

Is the Upgrade Worth It?

It is at its best when a flexible business fare is being bought anyway, by a company travel policy for instance, and the traveler holds ANA miles. If you are paying yourself, price the alternative first: an award seat in first on the same flight costs 75,000 miles one-way in low season and 85,000 in regular season, while the upgrade costs 40,000 to 45,000 miles on top of a J, C, D or Z fare, and those usually cost far more than ANA's discounted business fares. Check the fare's booking class before you buy, never after.

Upgrade seats are also their own, limited inventory: ANA notes that upgrade awards may be unavailable on a flight even when paid seats are for sale. Our desk prices all three paths on the same flight: the eligible fare plus the upgrade, the award, and a discounted business fare through our airline contracts. We also regularly move clients from business to first when a seat opens close to departure.

How to Use ANA Miles Well

ANA miles go furthest on ANA's own long-haul flights to Japan, which price from the seasonal chart. One-way between North America and Japan, business class costs 50,000 miles in low season, 52,500 in regular season and 82,500 in high season; first class costs 75,000, 85,000 and 150,000. That first class award is the one YouTube loves: Daily Drop titled its video on The Suite "We Paid $300 for ANA's $30k FIRST CLASS Suite." Economy starts at 20,000. On the 777-300ERs that carry first class, the business seat is The Room, which our The Room vs The Suite comparison puts beside ANA's first.

Japan connections come free. An ANA award allows one connection in Japan in each direction, on an ANA flight, and the price is set by zone, not city, so New York to Sapporo or Okinawa via Tokyo costs the same miles as New York to Tokyo.

The constraint is space, not price. In FlyerTalk's long-running ANA award availability thread, regulars put ANA's first class award seats at one per flight on most routes and two at most, and report that business class award space tends to open about two weeks out on flights that still have plenty of empty seats. Book the day the calendar opens, 355 days out, or watch the last few weeks.

Hawaii is priced on its own chart. ANA flies its A380s between Tokyo Narita and Honolulu, and a one-way award costs 40,000 miles in business and 60,000 in first in low season. That first class is the A380's own cabin, not The Suite.

Partner flights price from a flat chart with no seasons. Business class between the US and Europe on United, Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian or another Star Alliance airline costs 50,000 miles one-way; United business to Japan costs 55,000 on a simple itinerary. Partner awards cannot be booked in premium economy or waitlisted, and ANA adds the operating airline's carrier surcharges, which vary by airline and route, so price the cash side before you transfer. The partner list also moves: Asiana flights are bookable only for travel until 16 December 2026, ITA Airways was added on 1 April 2026, and Singapore Airlines first class and SWISS first class are not bookable with ANA miles.

One-Way or Round Trip?

Until June 2025 ANA sold international awards only as round trips. Now it sells both, and the math is identical: a one-way is exactly half the round trip, and a round trip with each direction in a different season is priced half and half. So the choice comes down to the rules.

Book one-ways when you want the outbound the day it opens. ANA books and tickets both directions of a round trip together, so a round trip only becomes bookable once the return flight is inside the 355-day window; a one-way opens 355 days before its own flight. One-ways also let you fly out on ANA miles and home on another program or a cash fare, and changing one direction never touches the other. You cannot turn a round trip into a one-way later, or the reverse, and a waitlisted round trip cannot be ticketed as a one-way.

Book a round trip when you want a stopover. One-way awards allow none. A round trip on ANA's own flights allows one stopover of more than 24 hours besides the destination, but only on trips that start outside Japan; a partner round trip allows one stopover too. Open jaws work on both, within ANA's same-country rules: the US and Canada count as one country, so Vancouver out and Seattle home is fine. And if you might cancel the whole trip, one round trip means one 3,000-mile cancellation fee per person, where two one-ways mean two.

The 96-Hour Rule: No New Awards Inside Four Days

ANA's booking window for international and partner awards runs from 355 days before departure until 96 hours before the first flight. The window opens at 9 a.m. Japan time, which is 4 p.m. the previous day in Pacific winter time and 5 p.m. in summer. Inside 96 hours ANA's terms do not allow a new award, and they make no exception for phone bookings; forum reports of agents bending the rule are years old and inconsistent. If a seat opens on Tuesday for a Friday departure, ANA miles cannot book it.

The rule covers new bookings, not changes, and that is the trick. An ANA-operated award that is already ticketed can be moved to another flight on the same route and in the same cabin up to 24 hours before the new flight departs, as long as the original flight has not left. ANA lists no change fee; you only pay, or get back, the mileage difference if the new date falls in a different season. So the people who fly ANA on short notice with miles are usually the ones who booked something on that route earlier and moved it. A change inside 24 hours of any flight on the itinerary has to be made by phone.

It does not work on partner awards, where changes close 96 hours before the new flight, the same as new bookings. Waitlists close earlier still: a waitlisted ANA award must clear 14 days before departure or it is cancelled, and FlyerTalk regulars warn that "NH's waitlist OFTEN never clears". Partner awards cannot be waitlisted at all. Upgrades on paid tickets, as above, close 24 hours out.

Other programs are not bound by ANA's 96 hours, which is how the booking at the top of this guide happened. They have limits of their own: the FlyerTalk thread's summary of Virgin Atlantic's rules says business class awards to or from the continental US cannot be booked within 14 days of departure. If the seat you want is inside four days, send it to us. We check the programs that can still book it, price a discounted business fare through our contracts, and if you already hold an ANA award on the route, we can move it.

Getting Miles In, and Who Can Use Them

From the US the practical way into ANA is American Express Membership Rewards, at 1:1. The transfer is not instant (our desk plans on one to three days) and ANA does not hold award seats, so confirm the space while logged in to ANA and accept that it can go before the miles arrive. September 2026 showed how long "not instant" can get: from 2 September some Amex transfers left Amex and did not reach ANA for days or longer, and on 17 September ANA said it was working with Amex on a fix, as Doctor of Credit and Frequent Miler reported. Check that transfers are flowing before you start one. Marriott Bonvoy points also convert, more slowly and at a worse rate.

Miles expire at the end of the 36th month after the month they were earned, and activity does not extend them. One FlyerTalk member found 190,000 miles had quietly expired; a forum regular replied: "ANA miles expire 36 months after they were earned, no leniency." ANA Diamond members and Million Milers are the exceptions. Transferred miles start that clock in the month they land, so transfer for a booking, never for a balance.

ANA awards can only be used by the member, a spouse or same-sex partner, and relatives within two degrees, such as parents, children, siblings, grandparents and grandchildren. Each traveler has to be registered as an award user in advance (up to 10), ANA may ask for proof of the relationship, and changing or deleting a registered user costs 5,000 miles. You cannot book ANA awards for a friend, a colleague or a boss. That rule, more than any other, sends travelers booking for a colleague or a client to Virgin Atlantic or United, which book the same ANA seats for anyone. Family members on ANA's family account services can pool miles for awards and upgrades.

Fuel Surcharges and Fees: The Cash Side of an ANA Award

ANA adds fuel surcharges to award tickets on its own flights and revises them every two months. On tickets issued in September and October 2026, a trip that starts outside Japan pays $352 per flight between Japan and North America or Europe and $223 between Japan and Hawaii; a trip that starts in Japan pays ¥55,000 and ¥35,800. A low-season round-trip business award from the US to Tokyo is therefore 100,000 miles plus about $704 in surcharges, plus taxes.

That is the trade-off against United MileagePlus, which charges more miles for ANA seats but adds no fuel surcharges, and against Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, which charges fewer points (52,500 one-way in business from the West Coast, 60,000 from the East Coast, 72,500 and 85,000 in first) but books ANA only by phone and passes on carrier surcharges too.

ANA charges no ticketing fee on its website and $25 when its US office issues an award by phone. Date and flight changes are free. Cancelling an unused award costs 3,000 miles per person, or the equivalent of ¥3,000 by card online, and must be done before the first flight departs; a no-show forfeits the miles.

Run the cents-per-mile math before you transfer. Our fare scans priced ANA business class between Los Angeles and Tokyo Haneda 888 times between February 2026 and September 2026: the median round trip was $7,420 and the cheapest $2,648. Against 100,000 miles and about $704 in surcharges, the miles are worth roughly 6.7 cents each at the median fare and 1.9 cents at the cheapest. When the cash fare dips, keep the miles.

How Biirdee Works ANA Miles for You

ANA is a program where the rules matter more than the chart, and that is where an advisor earns their keep. Tell us the trip and whose miles you hold. We check ANA's own space, then the same seats through Virgin Atlantic, United, Aeroplan and Lufthansa Miles & More, price the surcharges on each, time any Amex transfer to a confirmed seat, and price a discounted cash fare on the same flight so you can see which wins. Our own ANA first class tickets show why all of those channels matter: of the 10 our desk issued between November 2024 and September 2026, 6 were bought with cash and 4 with miles, and all 4 of the award tickets were booked through Lufthansa Miles & More, not ANA.

We also handle the parts ANA makes hard: phone-only upgrades and partner bookings, waitlists, moving an award you already hold onto a close-in flight, and cancelling for 3,000 miles when plans change. Quotes are free and we charge no booking fees.

ANA Mileage Club FAQs