Award Bookings Are Live For Royal Air Maroc Partners In Oneworld
Partner award bookings are up and running for Royal Air Maroc partners in the oneworld alliance. Now that these flights can be found online, how many miles do we need for booking them? Which booking options are the best, and how do these compare to previous booking options? Today, we’ll take a look at booking some popular routes with Royal Air Maroc partners and see what the points & miles requirements are.
Recap: Royal Air Maroc, Oneworld, Morocco Is In Europe Now
As a quick recap, a lot happened with Royal Air Maroc in the past year. Back in February 2020, they joined oneworld alliance. That came after the award chart devaluation Etihad had for booking Royal Air Maroc awards (which used to be insanely good), so having more booking options is a good thing. In April 2020, American Airlines did a funny thing and moved Morocco into the Europe award region, likely because of Royal Air Maroc and headaches with AA routing rules otherwise.
Booking Award Flights With Royal Air Maroc Partners
Now that we have more options for booking award flights with Royal Air Maroc partners, who’s the best? It depends on the route. Royal Air Maroc is based at CMN airport in Casablanca, Morocco. Their flights can be booked with their own program, but it has no transfer partners. They can also be booked by all of the oneworld partners now. Here’s a comparison for economy and business class mileage requirements on
- New York JFK to Casablanca CMN
- São Paulo GRU to Casablanca CMN
- Casablanca CMN to Beijing PKX
- Casablanca CMN to Amman, Jordan AMM
- Casablanca CMN to Lagos, Nigeria LOS
- New York JFK via CMN to London LHR
Let’s check these using American Airlines, British Airways, and Asia Miles from oneworld. We can compare those to the Etihad Guest mileage requirements, which are distance based and published in a table on their site.
New York JFK to Casablanca CMN
First, let’s look at taking a direct flight from JFK to CMN, which is 3,601 miles. Here are the mileage requirements from the different airline programs.
- American Airlines: 22,500 economy / 57,500 business
- Asia Miles: 27,000 economy / 61,000 business
- British Airways: 20,750 economy / 62,000 business
- Etihad Guest: 22,000 economy / 44,000 business
In this scenario, British Airways is the best for economy. Etihad Guest is still the best for business class.
São Paulo GRU to Casablanca CMN
Next, let’s look at taking a direct flight from São Paulo GRU to CMN, which is 4,685 miles. I took this flight in reverse, and you can read my review here. Here are the mileage requirements from the different airline programs.
- American Airlines: 50,000 economy / 87,500 business
- Asia Miles: 27,000 economy / 61,000 business
- British Airways: 25,750 economy / 77,250 business
- Etihad Guest: 22,000 economy / 44,000 business
Using Etihad Guest is the cheapest option, and that holds true by a long shot for business class.
Casablanca CMN to Beijing PKX
Royal Air Maroc announced this new, longest route in their program last year. That’s also when the award program with Etihad Guest changed, so that flights are priced now ‘per segment’, and I have a suspicion this was to avoid us flying from JFK to Morocco to Beijing for just 44,000 miles in business class. CMN to PKX 6,259 miles. Here are the mileage requirements from the different airline programs.
- American Airlines: 35,000 economy / 75,000 business
- Asia Miles: 35,000 economy / 70,000 business
- British Airways: 31,000 economy / 92,750 business
- Etihad Guest: 22,000 economy / 44,000 business
Again, Etihad Guest is still the cheapest option.
Casablanca CMN to Amman, Jordan AMM
If you’re heading to Jordan to visit Petra, Royal Air Maroc flies direct from CMN to AMM. The flight distance is 2,522 miles. Here are the mileage requirements from the different airline programs.
- American Airlines: 20,000 economy / 42,500 business
- Asia Miles: 15,000 economy / 30,000 business
- British Airways: 13,000 economy / 38,750 business
- Etihad Guest: 22,000 economy / 44,000 business
For this flight, British Airways becomes the best option for economy. In business class, Asia Miles is the cheapest by a long shot.
Casablanca CMN to Lagos, Nigeria LOS
Now that American Airlines moved Morocco out of its Africa region on the award chart, I was curious what flights to another country in Africa priced as. Royal Air Maroc flies direct from CMN to LOS. The flight distance is 1,978 miles. Here are the mileage requirements from the different airline programs.
- American Airlines: 30,000 economy / 55,000 business
- Asia Miles: 15,000 economy / 30,000 business
- British Airways: 11,000 economy / 22,000 business
- Etihad Guest: 15,000 economy / 30,000 business
There’s a huge discrepancy in the programs now. Since this involves flying from one region to another in the American Airlines AAdvantage program, it’s easily the worst option. British Airways is the best here.
New York JFK via CMN to London LHR
Since Etihad Guest charges ‘per flight segment’, American Airlines charges by zone, and Asia Miles & British Airways charge by distance, here’s a comparison of an itinerary that connects through Casablanca. Flight distances are 3,601 + 1,301 = 4,902 total miles. Here are the mileage requirements from the different airline programs.
- American Airlines: 30,000 economy / 57,500 business
- Asia Miles: 27,000 economy / 61,000 business
- British Airways: 25,750 economy / 77,250 business
- Etihad Guest: 32,000 economy / 64,000 business
In this scenario, the best economy option is British Airways. The best business class option is American Airlines.
Other Important Factors
The Etihad rates haven’t changed, and for most of the long, non-stop, ‘no connection’ routes, they’re still cheapest. However, there are 3 other factors for why this is great news for travelers. The first is that awards can be booked online. The second is that award seat space can be found online now, also. Lastly, we have more currencies at play.
Booking Online With Royal Air Maroc Partners
Booking partner flights with Etihad Guest requires calling to make a booking. We previously didn’t know if the seats were actually available that we wanted with Royal Air Maroc. Pick a few dates and options, then call and be flexible. Now, we can find them and book them online.
Finding Seat Space Online
The other part of this that’s great is that we can see seat availability. In several options, Etihad Guest is still the best booking option. However, now we can find specific flights and know that the seats are available before calling in. This makes the process easier and avoids long times on the phone feeding numerous dates and routes to the phone agent, hoping to get lucky. We previously couldn’t find seat availability for Royal Air Maroc on Expert Flyer, but now we can.
More Mileage Currencies to Use
There are now more options for the types of points and miles we can use to book these flights. See our master list of transfer partners here.
Etihad Guest is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Points, Barclays Arrival Miles (1.4:1 ratio), Capital One miles (2:1.5 ratio), and Marriott points (3:1 ratio).
We now also have the option of using Chase Ultimate Rewards to book with British Airways or Iberia. We can also use American Airlines AAdvantage miles now.
Final Thoughts
Having more options to book with Royal Air Maroc partners is a good thing. Depending on the route you’re taking, different programs require more or less miles. It’s nice to have options. Instead of just taking what you get with Etihad Guest, now we can shop around. We looked at a few routes that Royal Air Maroc flies and compared mileage requirements in some popular programs. We also talked about the upsides to this availability being online for the first time. Royal Air Maroc isn’t the most amazing airline ever, but their 787 long-haul product isn’t bad, either. I’d fly it again, and it’s nice to have more options when searching for flights online without having to call and wait on hold.
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Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
I have to mention that BA abd Iberia Avios charge a huge amount of YO and taxes for Ram flights.
So very sad to use less avios but have to pay a lot of extra money in taxes.
Valid point. That wouldn’t be my “go to” for any bookings and would try to use others first for any bookings that don’t start in Brazil since they limit fees by policy https://milestomemories.com/avoid-carrier-surcharges/