Over the last couple of years, I’ve noticed a proliferation of fare deals to Europe and Asia that would make me think twice about a coach class redemption to either destination. They seem to show up everywhere from, Flyertalk’s Mileage Run forum, blog posts, secretflying.com, on Facebook groups and I even saw one recently mentioned on the evening news.
There is just so much competition and seat availability. The use of miles, specifically on coach itineraries, seems like a waste of a valuable resource.
Finding cheap international flight deals
Being an “old guy” I just checked the Mileage Run forum and the Good Deals thread on Flyertalk, in particular for opportunities in the last month. The U.S. to Asia fare for under $500 and the U.S. to Europe readily available in the $300’s round-trip makes it tough to plunk down 60,000 miles to Munich or 65,000 miles to Japan on American.
JFK to Barcelona was recently advertised at $255 round-trip. A mid-week September JFK to BCN flight was 60,000 miles. And I don’t think it just my imagination that more origination cities are now in play as well. Dallas to Iceland in the $300’s? Yup!
West Coast or East Coast just don’t seem to be penalized going in either direction either. But that transcontinental coach fare can be a steep one. Or, maybe the 25,000-mile domestic award is the answer when needed?
Getting value out of miles
I know at times it’s tough for newbies and those financially struggling to see the world, to think about using cash or stepping up to the front of the plane for more comfort and a better quality redemption.
But if you aren’t getting a minimum of at least 1 cent per mile on that international coach redemption, I think you’re overpaying in miles. It’s too bad I can recommend selling a few miles to pay the fare. But we all know that’s against the airline’s policy
You may be better off using a 25,000-mile domestic redemption to pay for your positioning flight to the origination city of the international fare and paying these cheapo fares across the ocean.
One of my favorites was 25,000 miles roundtrip coach from Traverse City to Baltimore and then $64 round-trip Baltimore to Iceland on Iceland Air. That was a few years ago but illustrates the possibilities of combining a domestic award and cash international purchase.
Final thoughts
The naysayers say the hobby is dying. I’m going to continue believing it is just evolving and we need to keep up and share the information we have and ideas we hear.
Are you monitoring the sites and blogs suggested? Are you interacting with your fellow hobbyists and sharing the info you hear and see? Have you joined a travel hacking group? Or considered attending a travel hacking seminar where ideas and concepts are thick in the air?
Some of you may say: “Hey this is a manufactured spending blog”. But I submit that most of you are collecting miles as well, and deserve to get the most out of your efforts as possible.
I’d love to hear your breakeven point on paying cash or using miles. I’ve got more miles saved up then I may ever use. But still cringe at the idea of getting less than 1 cent per mile on any ticket, domestic or international.
How about you?
I need to go from CVG to Chicago. My options are > $200 or 15k mile redemption. Which one is the best value? Miles isn’t it?
I always say, do what saves you money. Also, think about what it cost you to earn those miles and make sure the redemption value outweighs that.
A whole blog post and not even an affiliate/referral link to pump, SAD!
Prepping the newbies for the “apply for seven cards in one day” blog posts soon, when? Ariana, what is taking so long to get the credit card affiliate links, come on? You both know very well that is where the dinero is!
Your content is major yawn Rick…I mean, did you hear that legacy airlines are all going dynamic award pricing yet? That business award ticket will soon be priced based on how much it costs! And that will require…wait, MORE credit cards to apply for the sales commissions!
You were the blogger who coined: “It’s all about conversions”
Can’t wait for your next post for your referral links, bumped dot bomb again?
I am typing this early in the am so Ariana will delete it, you know, censoring and all that jazz…
Staying away from trolling my blog? How come? You don’t want to see your readers pointed to your insane trolling in my blog because now you have…conversions on the line? When during your retirement you couldn’t give a damn and stayed true to yourself trolling away?
Love always.
As a wise man once said, “When you assume, you make an ass out of you…” To clarify:
1.) I’ve never censored a comment and I’ve seen some racist, sexist, vile stuff.
2.) Credit card affiliate links: I’m waiting on your expert opinion. How are the referral links going that you’re always pushing? Baseless assumptions about “where things are headed” sound ultra-paranoid. Lay off the weed buddy!
3.) Rick’s content: If you’re currently being held at gunpoint and forced to read Rick’s post, please respond with an SOS. Help will be on the way.
Thanks for stopping by to “ignore” us again.
+1
Way to go Arianna and Rick!
@TravelBloggerBuzz – who are you anyway – go troll somewhere else!
My daughter is traveling abroad in the Spring. Super relevant content for me. Also good strategy on how to get her there and maximize my redemption at the same time.
Stay in your own lane buddy!
Wow! Rick and Trump have occupied every sane corner of your mind. Not much left for rational thinking. Keep up your obsession. It’s good entertainment to see you disintegrate before our eyes.
I’m close to EWR, and always fly Economy. I would use miles for international (=TATL for me) in certain situations, like:
1. some sweet spots, like flights to London on BA or VS. In other words, positioning flights to Europe.
2. taking advantage of stopover rules, whether used as designed or “hacking” those rules to add a stopover at EWR
3. flying to an airport that is almost always expensive; fewer and fewer examples of those nowadays, and a cash positioning flight and onward award flight is usually better
4. when I’m pressed for time to do (1.) or (3.) and adding my usual 6-12 hour safety buffer between flights cuts into that too much
I’ve never had the opportunity to do any of the above, so my award flights have all been domestic or intra-Europe. Since I almost always check bags, valuations on intra-Europe or non-UA domestic (I have the Explorer card) are consistently good.
While I agree that fares can be extremely low, we have a rule in our house to never pay anything, always use points. Because that’s the whole reason we do this.
And a good rule it is. Thanks
Yup, use points if you’ve got em. Forget about an arbitrary 1cpp min redemption value – everyone paying attention should be earning points at significantly lower cost than that. I didn’t blink an eye redeeming 400K rt pp on UA Polaris to NZ – the only nonstop option with lie-flat seats with decent availability. A far cry from the good ol’ days, but I generate ~150K MRs a month, so barely a blip in my points stack.
Why is anyone still flying back of the bus on international flights?
Wow Ron, if I could generate 150k MR a month I’d take your position as well. I’ve only got 180k DL and have set my arbitrary standard at 1 cent. Congratulations on your big monthly haul
150K MRs a month with MS?
1. If everyone flew the front of the plane it would tip over.
2. 150 MR pts/mo msing? Yeah right! You don’t say msing but since this is a ms blog, why else you here? You might get away with it the first month.
3. There has to be some value attached to the point. Can’t you get $0.006/pt as a statement credit on MR points? That puts a floor on it at least!
I completely agree!! My husband thinks I’m crazy looking at paying cash for a trip to Europe next year. But if the fare is under $500 I think it’s a waste of miles and I would rather save them for a business class trip to Asia or Australia.
OH and I don’t do all the extreme MS that many of you do so I value my miles at a premium. It is not a bottomless vat of points for me.
My points absolutely have a value. Right now I am looking to book a trip to LHR from BOS. 60,000 AAdvantage miles +ridiculous BA surcharges OR ~$400 ROUND TRIP on BA. Both directions are daytime flights. It’s a no brainer for me to save my mikes/points for overnight flights “up front”…..
*miles
Try checking Iberia, sometimes their surcharges are significantly lower. Pittiful website, but some decent flight deals, Iberia also uses Avios and BA transfers to Iberia 1:1 (but can’t transfer back to BA). I think Iberia is an AA partner, check that first.
My point is that I wouldn’t spend 60,000 AAdvantage miles for a round trip (no matter what the fees are) when it’s only ~$400 round trip. That’s 2/3 cents per mile.
There are other things to consider when looking at those cheap fares to Europe. Many of them are in basic economy, meaning you’ll have to pay more to choose your seat. I just saw a R/T from MIA to Barcelona over Thanksgiving for $533. Looking further I saw that it was only non-stop one way. If I wanted to have a non-stop on the return flight I would have to pay extra. Looking even further I saw that this was basic economy and I could not choose my own seat. The total after upgrading to a non-stop return and seat selection came up $795, no longer such a great deal.
I booked this same flight for only 45,000 AA miles and got to choose my seats and selected a non-stop for both directions.
Another thing to consider is whether or not I’d actually take this trip if it weren’t for miles. Even for flights costing $300-400, that comes out to $600-800 for both my wife and myself. The last few years we’ve been going to Europe over Thanksgiving and have only been doing this because of award flights. I would not want to pay $600-800 for two tickets just to spend a long weekend in Europe. I would consider it for a longer trip but not for 5 days. But I haven’t thought twice of spending 45,000 miles each because I’ve had no problems finding ways to accumulate AA miles.