Best Ways to Redeem GOL Smiles Miles for Peak Experience!

Before you book a flight Gol Transportes Aéreos flight, take a moment to explore some of the best ways to redeem GOL Smiles Miles and get the most out of your booking. There might be better options than just a standard flight redemption that can help you gain access to premium cabins at a reasonable price. 

GOL Smiles Miles is the airline’s frequent flyer program, which travelers can use to purchase a flight. For every flight you take with GOL Airlines, you earn specific miles that can be exchanged for a future flight or other rewards. 

Quick Overview of GOL Airlines Smiles Program

Smiles is the GOL’s free loyalty program for travelers who love to travel and can’t wait to visit their desired destinations. This allows each member to earn miles through the purchase of flight ticket products and various services. When you have collected a certain amount of miles, you can utilize them for not just flight tickets but also for other things like car rentals, hotel accommodations, shopping smiles, and air journeys on partnered airlines. 

Moreover, it offers multiple membership tiers with different benefits, such as Club Smiles, elite tiers, Smiles & Money, etc. Passengers with Gold and Diamond Elite membership get the following benefits when flying on Air France-KLM and selected partner airlines:

• Priority Boarding
• Early Check-in
• Additional Baggage Allowance (Silver, Gold, and Diamond)
• Priority Check-in and Baggage Claim (Gold and Diamond)
• Access to VIP Lounges at the Airport.
• Free Gol+ or standard seats

Perks and Downsides of GOL Smiles

GOl Smiles loyalty program offers generous benefits to its members, which are enough to upgrade one’s flying experience. However, the program also has some downsides to it. If you want to understand its process better, you must first learn what you will be getting out of the frequent flyer program of the airline. 

Some of the primary benefits of the GOL Smiles Miles Redemptions

• Passengers can use the earned miles for some remarkable award redemptions. 
• The airline’s loyalty program is partnered with some of the major airlines in the industry, giving passengers a range of options for redemption. 
• The value of Brazilian real currency against USD results in more compelling redemptions. 
• Passengers can buy the GOL Smiles miles as low as 0.69 cents per mile, allowing them to get an award flight at a significant price reduction in comparison to the actual ticket price. However, this totally depends on the ticket availability.
• You can look for an award flight on the website without the need to log into the account. 

Some of the primary downsides of the GOL Loyalty Program

• While it’s reliable most of the time, the Smiles search engine can sometimes be highly irritating for its partner airlines. This is unidentified as to why the award space doesn’t turn up; either inventory or technical issues can be the reason. 
• It is not hard to earn or purchase Smiles miles. What’s frustrating is that the face-value mileage prices are high! You can buy the same flight at a 50-70% discount on other airlines. 
• Members do not get access to the U.S. credit card transfer partners. They can only use foreign co-branded credit cards and transfer partners.
• Members do not always get access to purchase premium fare class with GOL Smiles on all partners. 
• The airline does not provide any award chart online. So, you will have to search online to find the how much a redemption will actually cost you. 

While the airline might have some confusing and unusual rules, it also provides a great opportunity to combine points earned through flying with actual cash to get amazing deals on flights! In a way, you can book high-quality flights at a major price cut than usual.

Steps to Use Your Hard-earned GOL Miles

After you have accumulated enough miles on your loyalty program, the following action is to book a flight through the GOL Smiles Miles redemptions. But does one do that? Worry not! We have elaborated on each step to make the process clearer and easier for you.

• Start by visiting the official website of the Smiles loyalty program.

• Select the ‘Trip’ option from the topmost menu bar. This will load another page where you can search for your flight after providing details on departure and arrival airport codes.

• Now, enter the travel date and select the preferred departure date from the drop-down calendar. The same goes for the arrival date if you are booking a round trip. 

• In case you want to book a one-way flight, select the option next to the ‘destination’ block and choose the preferred flight type. You can also book multiple destinations.

• Enter the total number of passengers in the reservation. 

• Finally, click on the “search flight” button. 

• The next page will appear with various flight options. You can use the filter tab to rearrange the flight options according to the desired travel cabins. Depending on your preferences, choose the one that best fits your flying goals and requirements. 

• Make sure to enter your Smile number at the time of ticket purchasing or flight check-in. 

Top 8 Best Uses of GOL Smiles

If you want to use the GOL Smiles Miles program for flights, we recommend booking through a partner airline rather than through GOL. Wondering why? This way, you will generally need fewer miles to book the same flight using a partner airline’s award system. 

On top of that, if you use the airline’s Smiles & Money, which refers to a system where you can use both miles and cash to pay for a flight. Essentially, this allows passengers to redeem their miles partially for a flight while still paying the remainder with cash. This option provides great flexibility and value, irrespective of which airline partner you choose to fly. 

In short, there is more than one way to utilize your hard-earned miles. For this reason, we are going to be discussing the GOL points best uses, mainly focusing on redemption using the Smiles & Money scheme. 

Using Smiles & Money for Korean Air Premium Cabin Tickets (US and Korean Route).

Among one of the great partners of GOL Airlines, Korean Air award flights are very easy to access. You can purchase an award flight using Smiles miles when you notice partner availability on the SkyTeam website, such as Delta or Air France/ KLM. 

When searching for award flights on Korean Air’s website, you should not depend on the information shown because they display a very small portion of their available seats to partner airlines. This simply means that you might miss out on many potential award seats that could be available if you search through another partner airline’s booking system. 

Redeeming Smiles & Money for Etihad Airways First Class Cabins.

GOL Smiles, the loyalty program of GOL Airlines, has added Etihad Airways as a partner airline, so now members of GOL Smiles can use their accumulated miles to book flights on Etihad Airways in first-class cabins. 

However, when you use your GOL Smiles miles to book a flight with a partner airline, you will still be charged a fuel surcharge on top of the miles redemption. Despite this, access to the same number of available partner ward seats will remain.

Etihad Airways First Class Apartments are private suites on the Airbus A380 known for their comfort, privacy, and attentive service. And now, you can use the GOL Smiles and Money to purchase these tickets!

Smiles & Money for South African Airways Business Cabins (U.S. and Africa Routes).

Another partner on our list is South African Airways, the famous carrier of the country. It is known for providing its customers with luxurious and up-to-date business-class cabins on the A330-300 aircraft and entertaining inflight services. The airline offers only two non-stop flight services to the United States, which are New York City (JFK) – Johannesburg (JNB) and Washington, D.C. (IAD) – Accra (ACC).

Passengers flying on NYC flights will get older business class seats, while Washington D.C flyers will have access to the upgraded and better business class seats. Additionally, when you book a South African Airways flight from the U.S. using frequent flyer miles, you won’t have to pay an additional “fuel surcharge” on top of the miles you redeem, which is a positive thing. 

Utilizing Smiles & Money for Air Canada Business Class (Canada and US).

Another way to get a great value out of your GOL Smiles Miles redemptions is by using them for Air Canada Business Class tickets. This partner airline offers quite remarkable offers on premium cabin products and transcontinental flights. Signature Class is Air Canada’s premium cabin, which offers fully lie-flat seats arranged in a “reverse herringbone” pattern with a 1-2-1 configuration. This means every passenger gets their own aisle access.

The consistent motif is that using Smiles miles to redeem for award flights is often not a good deal compared to other options. However, using the “Smiles & Money” program can offer significantly better value for your redemption. 

Use of Smiles & Money for TAP Air Portugal Business Cabins (U.S. and Portugal Routes).

TAP Air Portugal is another partner of the GOL Smiles program. Unsurprisingly, a strong historical connection between Portugal and Brazil leads to significant economic and cultural ties between the two countries. This makes it very natural for a Portuguese airline to partner with a Brazilian loyalty program like Smiles. 

This partner airline offers passengers a unique network of long-haul flights; all credit goes to its connection to former Portuguese territories. Plus, its business-class services and amenities have received good reviews from travelers. Thus, don’t miss the opportunity and purchase this flying using your smiles miles. 

Using Smiles & Money for Air France Business Tickets (Paris and South America Routes).

The business class products of Air France fulfill all criteria for premium inflight services and amenities. Your experience will include fully reclining seats with privacy, comfortable bedding, great food, and attentive service. 

Let’s get back to the discussion of the price of one-way business class flights from Paris (CDG) to different South American cities. We would like to highlight that a ticket to São Paulo is the most expensive at $7,000, Santiago is slightly cheaper at $6,000, and Buenos Aires is the most costly of the three at $7,500.

Coming to the miles redemption, utilize the Smiles & money as a Club or Diamond member. You will get a higher value per mile redeemed (between 10-17 cents) compared to if you were not a Smiles Club member, where the value per mile would be lower (between 9.8-16 cents). 

Apply Smiles & Money for Delta One Suites (U.S. and Europe Routes).

If you’re looking for GOL Smiles Miles best uses to book a business class seat, a Delta One Suite is considered one of the best options available due to its high level of privacy, excellent food, and luxurious amenities. It is a highly in-demand choice for travelers seeking a luxurious inflight experience. 

While it can be very difficult to find seats on flights that can be booked using airline miles, especially on routes along the West Coast of the United States, if you look thoroughly enough, you can still discover suitable flights to book with your miles.

The price of the ticket is close to $9,000 for one–way, which is an overwhelming amount, especially when the flight is less than an 8-hour long journey. If you use Smiles & Money (Smiles Club and Diamond Members), you can earn a value of 34-35 cents per mile.

Utilize Smiles & Money for Delta One (U.S. and Europe Routes).

Delta One flight tickets offer comfortable lie-flat seats and a decent experience, but it is not as luxurious as the Delta One Suites. But the thing is, the latter is not available on all routes. Even though the standard Delta One seats aren’t as private, they still provide a good experience with their reverse herringbone layout.

If you choose to book a business flight that retails for $8,000 for a one-way trip, using the Smiles & Miles for redemption would give you an exceptionally high value of 46-58 cents per mile. This is generally considered a rare and excellent deal as compared to typical redemption value. Members holding Smiles Club status can get the same offer for 50-62 miles in value, which is remarkably insane. 

How To Maximize Your GOL Smiles Redemption

Maximizing the benefits of your earned GOL Miles is a whole new topic. However, the easiest way to boost these perks is through purchasing the miles with a Smiles Club membership. It is a monthly subscription program that offers members a specific number of bonus miles every 30-31 days, including additional benefits as well. For this purpose, you can subscribe through:

• Credit Card (Monthly Membership)
• Annual Installments
• A Single Upfront Yearly Payment

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