Everything below comes from ANA’s page for international flight awards, which applies to reservations and tickets issued on or after 24 June 2025. It covers what the airline lets you build once you have found a seat.
Miles are never the whole price
ANA members can redeem international awards from as few as 6,000 miles.
You also pay a minimum of USD 70, covering taxes, the Passenger Facility Charge, fuel surcharge and other fees. That is ANA’s stated minimum as of February 2015. The page says these amounts change and are calculated from the itinerary, class of service and exchange rates.
The payment is due in advance, by credit card, when the ticket is issued, from the member or the actual passenger.
Stopovers
A stopover is a stay exceeding 24 hours. Under 24 hours is a connection.
- One-way itineraries: no stopovers.
- Round trips: one stopover besides the destination, but only when departing from outside Japan.
- Departing from Japan: no stopovers.
If you are based in Tokyo, that is the opposite of what most people assume. A stopover is open to the traveller starting the journey outside Japan, which for readers flying from the United States is the normal case.
Stopovers count toward your number of connections, so they fall under the transfer limits below.
Transfers and ground segments
- One-way: up to one transfer in Japan.
- Round trip: one transfer in Japan for each leg, outbound and return.
- Transfers at the destination itself do not count.
A ground transportation segment counts as one transfer for both of its endpoint cities, so a single surface sector uses your transfer allowance twice.
What counts as your destination
Where an itinerary touches several cities, the destination is the point that requires the largest number of miles to reach from your selected departure point. The award is priced against it.
ANA’s example: Seoul → Tokyo → Los Angeles → Tokyo → Seoul has Los Angeles as the destination, because it is the most expensive point to reach from Seoul.
Two one-year clocks
- The itinerary must be started within one year of new ticket issuance.
- Sectors other than the first must be used within one year of the itinerary start date. ANA’s example is a travel start of 1 February 2023, making the last valid departure for later sectors 1 February 2024.
An open-jaw plan that leaves the return unused indefinitely breaks both rules.
Which miles get spent
You do not choose. Miles are deducted in order of the earliest expiration date, automatically.
Where miles share an expiry date across different mileage account groups, they are combined and deducted in the priority order Group 4 → 3 → 2 → 1.
Refunds
If you change to a flight that costs fewer miles, the difference is refunded. Two details work in your favour:
- Refunded miles are valid until the end of the month 36 months after the refund, so they come back with a fresh three-year life rather than their original expiry. They are returned in the priority order Group 1 → 2 → 3 → 4.
- If some of those miles had already expired at the time of the refund, the expired miles are refunded too.
Booking for someone else
Awards can be issued for registered award users, who may be asked to present documentation verifying their relationship to the member. Registration is on the website or through the ANA Mileage Club Service Center.
To pool miles across a household, ANA Card holders must register for ANA Card Family Miles or the ANA Mileage Club Family Account Service.
Premium Members redeeming for their own travel get priority reservations. Registered award users travelling without the member are not eligible for prioritised reservation or wait-listing. When seats are scarce, the name on the ticket changes your odds.