Earlier this month, Ashlee and I had our first chance to fly to the US Virgin Islands (St. Croix) for a friend’s wedding at the Buccaneer Resort.
We were also able to check out St. Thomas, a quick 15 minute flight or ~2 hour ferry ride away. We opted for the latter but I’d recommend booking the quick flight if you’re prone to motion sickness.
We booked round-trip tickets from Washington (DCA)>Miami (MIA)>St. Croix (STX) at the American Airlines AAnytime Level 1 price of 27,500 miles each way.
The total came 55,000 miles per round-trip ticket plus $30 in taxes and fees. Taxes and fees are required on all award tickets and increase in cost with international travel.
At the time of booking, these flights were $560/ticket requiring nearly a $1,200 outlay so we opted to use American miles.
If your dates are more flexible, ours were not, AA offers MileSAAver Off Peak and MileSAAver pricing of 12,500 and 15,000 one-way respectively, which is roughly half the miles required for our trip. Ouch!
For future trips to the US Virgin Islands (St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. John), I thought it’d be helpful to look at the most efficient use of points and miles to St. Thomas (STT) and St. Croix (STX).
St. John does not have a commercial airport but the island is a 15 minute ferry/boat ride from St. Thomas.
Award Programs
When the time comes to book your award flight, below are the point and mile redemptions I’d consider.
I prefer to fly minimize the number of stops, so all of these options are prioritized by non-stop flights to either St. Thomas (STT) or St. Croix (STX).
Korean Air
SKYPASS, Korean Air’s loyalty program, is the best way to maximize points and miles to fly their SkyTeam partner Delta.
For 25,000 miles, you can fly a round-trip Delta economy flight from Atlanta (ATL) and New York (JFK) to St. Thomas.
Marriott is your only transfer partner, however, the transfer time is not instant so keep that in mind before transferring your points to Korean Air.
When searching for award availability, Delta, Korean Air, Air France, and KLM are all sites I’d recommend using.
If you don’t have a Korean Air credit card, or fly Korean Air or a SkyTeam partner regularly, Marriott point transfers will be the only way to earn Korean Air miles.
Flying Blue
Flying Blue, loyalty program of Air France/KLM, requires 30,000 miles to fly their SkyTeam partner Delta on both their Atlanta and JFK routes to St. Thomas.
The beauty about this redemption is having all 5 transferable point programs at your disposal.
Delta, Air France, and KLM will be the best search engines to use to search for award availability.
When you find the flight that you want, Amex, Capital One, Chase, Citi, and Marriott allow you to convert points directly into Flying Blue miles.
British Airways
Using Zone 2 (651-1,150 miles) on British Airways’ partner airline chart requires 15,000 miles to fly their Oneworld partner American to both St. Thomas and St. Croix from Miami.
It’s the lowest mileage requirement and has the ability to use 3 of the 5 transferable partners.
Routes from Charlotte (CLT) and New York (JFK) will add an additional 5,000 miles to the 15,000-point total.
British Airways is where you’ll head to search for and book American Airlines award flights.
After locating award availability on British Airways, transfer points to British Airways from Amex, Chase, or Marriott.
American Airlines
American requires 15,000 miles each way at their MileSAAver level (12,500 off-peak) to St. Thomas on its Charlotte, Miami, and New York routes.
There are 2 main ways to earn the required points: 1) American Airlines co-branded credit cards and 2) Point transfers from Marriott.
It’s important to note that Marriott provides a 5,000 mile bonus per 60,000 points transferred to an airline partner. With the 3:1 transfer ratio, 60,000 Marriott points become 25,000 American miles. (60,000 / 3 = 20,000 * 25% bonus).
American Airlines is the place to go to search for and book these awards flights. Unlike the previous redemption, you’ll won’t need to use British Airways to search because you’re flying on American and using American miles.
Outside of co-branded credit card spend, Marriott is the only program that allows you to earn points that can be converted into American miles. Note that transfer times can be up to 2 days so keep that in mind.
Other Award Programs
If island hopping is of interest, Cape Air has codeshares with United Airlines, JetBlue and American Airlines for their service between St. Croix and St. Thomas/San Juan.
Codeshare means one can book a Cape Air flight with miles from the previously-mentioned airlines.
Seaborne Airlines has codeshares with Air Europa, American, Delta, JetBlue, and United for their service between St. Croix and St. Thomas/San Juan.
Lastly, I’d also look into JetBlue service into San Juan from multiple US destinations (Boston>St. Croix) and United’s seasonal service from Chicago (ORD), Houston (IAH), Newark (EWR), and Washington (IAD).
Conclusion
Having four programs with competitive redemptions opens up travel all across the Caribbean from the US.
For travel on Delta, Korean Air and Flying Blue are your programs. For travel on American Airlines, British Airways is your program unless you do not have a non-stop route.
