San Juan on points: award prices from six US cities

How far San Juan is from six US cities, and how that was measured

Aeroplan states that its points are "based on the actual distance flown between origin and destination," and Virgin Atlantic and Atmos both price by distance band, so everything starts with one repeatable mileage per city pair. The figure used here is the great-circle distance between two airport reference points, the shortest path over the Earth's surface. With latitude φ and longitude λ in radians, the haversine formula is a = sin²(Δφ/2) + cos φ1 × cos φ2 × sin²(Δλ/2), and the distance is 2R × arcsin(√a), taking R = 3,958.8 miles. Each result was recomputed with the spherical law of cosines, R × arccos(sin φ1 sin φ2 + cos φ1 cos φ2 cos Δλ), and the two methods agreed to the tenth of a mile on all eleven airports checked.

A flat-map shortcut checks the Miami figure by hand. Miami (25.7960 N, 80.2898 W) and San Juan (18.4394 N, 66.0018 W) are 7.357 degrees of latitude and 14.288 degrees of longitude apart. Scaling the east-west gap by the cosine of the mean latitude, 0.9265, gives 13.238 degrees; the root of the two squares is 15.14 degrees, and at 69.1 miles a degree that is 1,046 miles against the formula's 1,045.2. The coordinates come from the OurAirports public-domain airport file, so they are airport reference points, and a booking engine working from another data set can differ by a few miles.

The six cities cover the stretch from 1,000 to 2,200 miles where all three programs change price. New York has three airports, and Newark (1,611.9 miles) and LaGuardia (1,612.4) sit within 11 miles of JFK, so none of the bands below changes if you use either. Chicago Midway is 2,059.0 miles and Dallas Love Field 2,152.2, again inside the same bands as O'Hare and DFW. Among the 23 mainland airports measured, none is within 1,000 miles of San Juan; Miami (1,045.2) and Fort Lauderdale (1,046.2) are the nearest. Orlando is 1,188.9 miles, Tampa 1,237.4 and Philadelphia 1,580.0. The remaining seven airports measured are Washington Dulles (1,574.5), Baltimore (1,568.7), Detroit (1,932.8), Pittsburgh (1,742.3), Minneapolis (2,405.8), Denver (2,731.5) and Los Angeles (3,382.1). Two other airports show how thin the margins get: Charlotte, at 1,476.6 miles, is 23.4 miles inside Aeroplan's 1,500-mile line, and Houston Intercontinental, at 2,005.8, is 5.8 miles past Virgin's 2,000-mile line.

Aeroplan: the within-North-America chart and what United's row means

Air Canada's announcement of its 2026 chart changes carries a footnote on the zones: North America includes Canada, the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean. Puerto Rico is both a US territory and a Caribbean island, so under either word it sits in the same zone as the six mainland cities, and a mainland to San Juan award prices from the Within North America page of the Flight Reward Chart dated 2026-08. The chart has no separate line for Puerto Rico. The policy adds that a trip whose origin and destination share one zone cannot connect through a third zone, which rules out a routing through, say, Reykjavik to reach San Juan.

The page has two rows per band. The first covers Air Canada and the select partners, a list the footnote gives as United Airlines, Emirates, Flydubai, Etihad Airways, Canadian North, Calm Air, Bearskin Airlines and Provincial Airlines. Apart from United, those are Canadian regional carriers and Gulf airlines, so for a mainland to San Juan search the select row is United's row. It prints a starting price and a median for economy, premium economy and business. The second row, for all other partners, prints one price per cabin and leaves premium economy blank. The footnote says starting amounts are not guaranteed with all carriers, and that medians come from member redemptions on Air Canada and select partners, in a window the chart prints as January 2025 through December 2026.

The median is a more realistic budgeting figure than the starting price, with the caveat below. In the 501 to 1,500 mile band, United economy starts at 10,000 points and the median is 15,000, which is 1.5 times the floor. In the 1,501 to 2,750 mile band the start is 12,500 and the median 17,000, which is 1.36 times. Business moves further: 20,000 against 30,100 in the lower band and 25,000 against 44,700 in the upper. The chart prints each median once per distance band for the whole North America zone and pools Air Canada and select-partner redemptions, so it is a band-wide history, not a San Juan or United-only figure. It is a benchmark for the band, not a promise for any one flight.

Two policy rules decide how a connection prices. The chart footnote ties points to the distance flown, so every connecting mile counts. And routings must not exceed twice the nonstop distance in a direction, a limit none of the routings priced below approaches: the largest, Dallas through Newark, is 1.38 times its nonstop distance.

Virgin Atlantic on Delta: one fixed price per distance band

Flying Club sells seats on Delta-operated flights, Delta Connection included (the program is explained in Virgin Atlantic points on Delta flights), and the page that governs them prints a distance chart under the label All other flight routes. The list beneath it names the routes that chart covers: domestic US travel, travel between the US and Alaska or Canada, and travel from the US to the Caribbean, Central America, Hawaii and further afield. San Juan falls under the US to Caribbean line. Central America sits on the same list, and Costa Rica and Central America on points sets thirty pairs from six cities against that chart and three others. The prices are one way, exclude passenger taxes and fees, and, unlike Aeroplan's and Atmos's, carry no starting-at wording, so each band is a single number. Delta-marketed flights operated by another carrier cannot be booked, and reward seats must be booked on Virgin's own site.

Three things in the chart need handling. First, the Delta One column as printed reads 21,000 for 0 to 500 miles and 11,000 for 501 to 1,000 miles, which is out of order against the economy and premium columns; no San Juan routing from the mainland falls in either band, since the nearest airport measured is 1,045 miles away, so the anomaly does not touch any price below. Second, the page lists standard and peak season dates for all other routes, including peak windows of 23 October to 3 November 2026 and 7 December 2026 to 3 January 2027, yet the chart for those routes prints a single price per band and does not say which season it describes. Third, the page says the mileage is for a one-way ticket without saying whether a band is measured on the flown distance or on the distance between origin and destination; the comparisons below follow the flown distance, as Aeroplan does, and mark where that assumption matters.

Because no airport on the mainland sits inside 1,000 miles of San Juan, the 11,000-point economy band is out of reach for the whole market. Miami and Fort Lauderdale land in the 1,001 to 1,500 band at 16,500, which is 5,500 points above the 501 to 1,000 band that no mainland city reaches.

Atmos Rewards on American: the Americas partner chart

Atmos publishes two sets of tables that are easy to confuse. The block titled Alaska and Hawaiian award charts, which the page says applies to awards wholly on Alaska Airlines or Hawaiian Airlines, holds a North American table with economy at 4,500, 7,500, 10,000, 12,500 and 20,000 points across five distance bands. That table does not apply to an American Airlines flight. The partner charts do, and the Americas tab beneath them carries the note "Includes travel from US to Americas and within Americas." American Airlines appears on Atmos's oneworld partner page, so an American seat to San Juan prices from the Americas partner table; Atmos Rewards points from bank transfers sets out the rest of that chart.

The chart is described as general starting redemption rates by region and distance band. Its terms add that actual requirements may vary with city pair, partner airline pricing, market demand, the number of flight segments and limited availability at lower tiers, and that some origin and destination pairs may not be available at the lowest published level even within the same band. Unlike Aeroplan, Atmos prints no median, so the starting figure is the only number the page gives. Fees are stated plainly: taxes and carrier-imposed fees from $5.60 per person each way, and a $12.50 nonrefundable fee per person each way when any segment is on a partner.

The figures quoted are from a Wayback Machine copy of Atmos's own award chart page, saved May 18, 2026. Atmos reserves the right to change point requirements without notice, which makes the copy a dated record rather than a guarantee, and a price on the Atmos search screen outranks it.

Economy from each city, three programs side by side

The table puts each city's distance through all three charts. For Aeroplan it shows United's starting price with the median in brackets; Virgin's single number is the fixed price for a Delta flight; Atmos's number is the starting price for an American flight. Each column assumes the airline operates the flight you want, which a search shows and a chart does not.

Two patterns jump out. Virgin Atlantic is the highest of the three at every city, even against Aeroplan's median: 16,500 against 15,000 at Miami, 18,500 against 17,000 at Atlanta, New York and Boston, and 22,000 against 17,000 at Chicago and Dallas. And Atmos is the outright lowest at exactly one city. Miami's 7,500 is 2,500 under Aeroplan's floor and 9,000 under Virgin's price; from Atlanta, New York, Boston and Chicago the Atmos and Aeroplan floors are the same 12,500, and from Dallas Aeroplan's floor is 5,000 under Atmos's.

Premium economy and business, same six cities

The premium columns follow the same bands but spread wider. Aeroplan's business median is 50 percent above its floor in the Miami band (30,100 against 20,000) and 79 percent above in the other (44,700 against 25,000), so a United premium seat budgeted at the starting price can come in far higher. Which cabins a flight carries is a schedule question the charts do not answer, and the names differ: Atmos prices business and first separately, Aeroplan's within-North-America page has no first column, and Virgin names its top cabin Delta One. When a front-cabin seat shows in a search, compare its points with the chart column the program assigns to that seat, not the cabin name on the airline's site.

Which of the three charted programs wins from which city

The airline decides before the chart does. An American seat can be bought with Atmos points among these three programs, a United seat with Aeroplan, and a Delta seat with Virgin, so the first step from any city is to see which of the three airlines has a seat on your date. The chart then answers the narrower question of what that seat costs, and the comparison only matters when two airlines have space.

Miami: Atmos wins on floor, at 7,500 against Aeroplan's 10,000 and Virgin's 16,500. Against Aeroplan's median of 15,000 the gap is wider, 7,500 points. Miami sits well inside Atmos's 7,500 band (345.2 miles above its 700-mile line, 354.8 under its 1,400-mile line) and Aeroplan's lower band. Virgin is the thin one: Miami is 45.2 miles past its 1,000-mile line, which is the whole reason the Delta price is 16,500 and not 11,000.

Atlanta: the Atmos and Aeroplan floors tie at 12,500, and the tiebreak is the median and the fees. Atlanta is 47.8 miles past Aeroplan's 1,500-mile line, which is what keeps it out of the 10,000-point band; Charlotte at 1,476.6 miles is the example of a city that clears it. A routing through Miami from Atlanta flies 1,641.0 miles and stays in the same bands on every chart, so a Miami connection costs no more in points than the Atlanta nonstop.

New York and Boston: the same three prices as Atlanta, with more room. JFK is 398.2 miles inside Virgin's 2,000-mile line and 498.2 inside Atmos's 2,100 line; Boston is 321.2 and 421.2 inside. The risk for these two cities is not their own distance but the connection that lengthens it, which the next section prices.

Chicago: the interesting city. O'Hare is 26.0 miles inside Atmos's 2,100-mile line and so pays 12,500 there, but it is 74.0 miles past Virgin's 2,000-mile line and pays 22,000, which is 3,500 more than Boston pays on the same chart. A Chicago traveler holding Delta space should set that 22,000 against Aeroplan's median of 17,000 and Atmos's 12,500, and Virgin comes out last.

Dallas: the one city where Aeroplan beats Atmos. DFW is 63.8 miles past Atmos's 2,100-mile line, so the American price is 17,500, while Aeroplan's band runs to 2,750 and DFW is 586.2 miles inside it, so United's floor stays at 12,500. Aeroplan's median of 17,000 is 500 points under the Atmos floor. Dallas Love Field, at 2,152.2 miles, lands in the same bands.

The rule that comes out of the six cities is short. Floors are a safe comparison only when a city is far from every line. Compare Aeroplan's median with Virgin's fixed price when Delta and United both have space, and note that on these charts Aeroplan's median is below Virgin's fixed price at all six cities, though the median is a band-wide figure and not a San Juan price. Where an American seat exists, Atmos wins at Miami, ties Aeroplan's floor at four cities and loses to it at Dallas, and the Atmos number is a floor with no median beside it, so a seat priced above 12,500 from New York is not a surprise.

Routings that cross a line

A nonstop sets the distance for the best case, and the connecting routes that add miles can move the price. The table sums two great-circle legs for routings through hubs; each sum is the flown distance if the flight paths follow the straight lines, which real flights only approximate. Aeroplan states that it prices on the distance flown. Atmos and Virgin do not say, and the Atmos terms mention the number of segments as a factor, so the Atmos and Virgin columns show the band the flown mileage would land in and should be confirmed on a live search before points move.

The Miami connection is the big one. New York and Boston through Miami fly 535.0 and 626.3 miles more than their nonstops, which moves Atmos from 12,500 to 17,500 and Virgin from 18,500 to 22,000, while Aeroplan, whose band ends at 2,750, does not move. Chicago through Miami adds 170.3 miles and moves only Atmos, since Chicago already pays Virgin's 22,000. Chicago through Atlanta crosses Atmos's 2,100-mile line by 54.5 miles. Dallas shows the opposite behavior: through Miami it flies 2,165.0 miles, 1.2 more than its nonstop, and no chart changes.

The Aeroplan line that matters is 2,750. Dallas through Newark flies 2,981.8 miles, and the select-row economy starting price rises from 12,500 to 17,500, with the median at 22,900. Virgin does not move, since 2,981.8 is still inside 2,001 to 3,000, but it moves at 3,000, which is 18.2 miles further. A routing that adds a connection for the convenience of a morning departure can therefore cost 5,000 more on Aeroplan or nothing on Virgin, depending on the airport.

A positioning award does not pay here. The step between Aeroplan's lower and upper band is 2,500 points of economy floor, 5,000 of business, and a separate award from Atlanta to Miami (595.8 miles, in the 501 to 1,500 band, from 10,000 points on Aeroplan's select row if a select partner flies it) costs four times the 2,500 it would save.

Cash that survives a San Juan award

The three program pages print different fee components. Atmos prints the most: taxes and carrier-imposed fees from $5.60 per person each way, plus $12.50 per person each way for any partner segment, so $18.10 each way and $36.20 round trip before anything else. Aeroplan's policy charges a CAD 39 partner booking fee per ticket on any reservation with a non-Air Canada flight, adds a non-refundable CAD 30 if the booking has to go through the contact centre, and says a reservation may include a US Tax Recovery Fee, collected to recover "United States international transportation taxes applicable to certain Flight Reward itineraries." Virgin's page excludes "passenger taxes, duties, fee, charges and surcharges" from its mileage and prints no amount for this route group.

TSA's September 11 Security Fee, which every column shares, is stated by TSA as $5.60 per one-way trip in air transportation that originates at an airport in the US, capped at $11.20 per round trip. The Atmos floor of $5.60 matches it, and the round-trip figures here assume the fee also applies on the San Juan departure. The rest of the federal stack is where a San Juan ticket differs from Hawaii's. The FAA's 2026 rate sheet and the IRS Form 720 instructions give $5.30 per domestic segment, $23.40 for international transportation beginning or ending in the US, and $11.70 for domestic segments to or from Alaska or Hawaii (the IRS says this last rate applies only to departures). Neither names a rate for Puerto Rico. The Internal Revenue Code defines the United States geographically as the States and the District of Columbia, and none of the documents says which of those lines a mainland to San Juan award carries.

The workable position is to keep the sure lines in the plan and treat the rest as unknown until the payment screen shows them. For Boston to San Juan and back, one adult on Atmos has $36.20 of stated fees, on Aeroplan $39.28 (CAD 39 for the single round-trip ticket at an illustrative 0.72 US dollars per Canadian dollar is $28.08, plus TSA at $5.60 each way), and on Virgin the $11.20 TSA floor. If the same trip is booked as two one-way Aeroplan awards and each counts as a separate ticket, which the policy does not state, the booking fee doubles: $28.08 twice plus $11.20 is $67.36. Each of these is a floor, not the total. The structure of the total, and why domestic awards still carry some tax, is in award taxes and carrier surcharges.

The cash fare a seat has to beat

Cents per point on a booking is the cash fare you would otherwise pay, minus the fees that survive on the award, divided by the points. Turn that around and a cash price can be set for any target: the break-even fare is the points times the target, plus the surviving fees. The table does this for one adult on a Boston round trip, at 25,000 points on Atmos and on Aeroplan's floor, 34,000 at Aeroplan's median (17,000 each way) and 37,000 on Virgin, using the fee floors from the previous section. The targets are placeholders for yours.

At a 1.50 target, an Atmos seat is worth booking against any cash fare above $411.20, and a United seat priced at its floor against any fare above $414.28. The same United seat at the median needs $549.28, which is $135.00 more, and a Delta seat through Virgin needs $566.20. If Boston to San Juan is selling at $380 round trip, nothing in the 1.50 column clears, and the points are better kept. At a 1.00 target the Atmos and Aeroplan floors clear, Aeroplan's median clears by 72 cents at $379.28, and Virgin's $381.20 misses by $1.20. The four columns keep the same order at all three targets, and only the size of the fare they need changes.

Lap infants on a San Juan award

Aeroplan's policy exempts two cases from its infant fare: travel wholly within Canada and travel between Canada and the United States. For all other itineraries a lap infant under 2 needs a separate ticket at a discounted fare of CAD 25 or 2,500 points per direction, one infant per adult, subject to the partner airline's own restrictions. A mainland to San Juan trip is neither exempt case on the policy's wording, so a round trip adds 5,000 points or CAD 50, and the extra ticket may attract the partner booking fee as well, which the policy does not address.

Virgin Atlantic prints the infant price outright: 1,000 points for economy, 2,000 for Premium Select and 5,000 for Delta One, on a reward flight. Over a round trip the economy infant costs 2,000 points on Virgin against 5,000 on Aeroplan, which is 3,000 less. Atmos is the open one. Its terms say lap infants are not permitted on international partner awards, while standard lap infant policies apply for travel wholly within the United States or wholly on Alaska Airlines. Whether San Juan counts as wholly within the United States is not stated, and an infant ticket should be confirmed with Atmos before the adult award is booked. The lap infants and kids on award tickets guide compares the rule across more programs.

Which banks reach which program

Each bank's own page lists its airline partners, and the three programs priced here are not reached equally. Atmos appears only on Bilt's list among the four banks tabulated, so the Chase, Citi and Capital One pages cited here do not list Atmos, and among the four banks tabulated, the 7,500-point Miami price is reachable only through Bilt. Aeroplan is reached by Chase, Capital One and Bilt. Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is reached by Chase, Citi and Bilt; Capital One's page lists Virgin Red, which that page does not name as Flying Club, so it is shown separately. Citi's list also names American Airlines, whose AAdvantage awards sit outside the charts compared here. American Express is not tabulated.

Transfer timing deserves a line even on a short flight. Chase says transfers usually process by the next business day but can take up to 7 business days; Bilt says transfers are in most cases immediate and can take up to 48 hours. Both treat a completed transfer as final: Bilt says transfers cannot be reversed, and Chase says transfers to travel partners are final. The practical order is the one every guide on the site repeats: find the award first, then move only the 1,000-point blocks it needs. The basics are in how to transfer points to an airline, and transfer ratios explained covers why a 5:3 ratio such as Capital One's to JetBlue changes the price you should compare.

Programs that publish no chart for this route

Several carriers that serve San Juan price awards with no chart at all, and none of them can be put in the comparison above. Southwest's Rapid Rewards terms say the number of points required to redeem for reward flights may vary based on destination, time, day of travel, demand, fare class, point redemption rate and other factors, and that the number is disclosed on the Southwest website. Delta's SkyMiles page publishes no award chart and says awards are subject to capacity controls and may require higher prices depending on routing rules and restrictions. No JetBlue or American points figure is printed here.

That absence has a use. When a search shows a TrueBlue, Southwest or SkyMiles price, the three charted programs give a reference on the same flight: an American seat compared with Atmos's floor for its band, a United seat with Aeroplan's median, a Delta seat with Virgin's fixed price. The dynamic program is the better booking when its points price is below the chart equivalent after fees and the transfer ratio. A ratio below 1:1 matters: Capital One's page lists JetBlue at 5:3, so 1,000 Capital One miles become 600 TrueBlue points. Southwest and Delta are covered by Southwest points from bank transfers and Delta flights with bank points.

Checking a quote against the chart before any points move

Three checks test a quote on a search screen against the charts. First, name the row: an American seat prices from Atmos's Americas partner table, a United seat from Aeroplan's select row, a Delta seat from Virgin's all-other-routes chart. A price that matches neither the chart nor the median suggests a different row or chart applied. Second, measure the routing: add the legs, compare the total with the program's lines, and treat anything within about 25 miles of a line as a price to confirm. Chicago at 26.0 miles inside Atmos's line and Houston at 5.8 past Virgin's are the kind of cases that matter. Third, write down the cash that is left, using the stated floors and whatever the payment screen adds.

If a seat shows in a search but will not book, phantom award space explains why. For finding space in the first place, how to search award availability walks through the search tools. Families pricing four seats should read the family of four playbook before choosing, because four seats on one flight is a harder search than one. Other warm-weather trips priced from the same mainland cities are in the destinations hub and in Mexico and the Caribbean on points.

San Juan award worksheet

• List which of American, United and Delta has a seat on your dates from your city.
• Measure the flown miles for the routing, and compare the total with each program's distance lines.
• Pick the chart row: Atmos Americas partner table, Aeroplan select row, Virgin all-other-routes chart.
• Treat Aeroplan's median as a band-wide benchmark and the starting price as a floor; the search screen's price is the one that counts.
• Add the stated fees and leave the unlisted federal taxes as an unknown line.
• Compare the points price with the break-even fare for your target.
• Move points in 1,000-point blocks only after the seat is on screen.