Yesterday I encountered what seemed like a pretty strange phenomenon. There was a roundtrip United fare between Chicago and London for under $600.
There was a mystery because some systems showed it available for Saturday departures only, and other systems showed it every day. And Momondo was finding even cheaper fares, still.
Why all the discrepancy? And how can you use that to your advantage to find the cheapest fares yourself?
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
There’s a $529 roundtrip fare between Chicago and London on United with travel available October, November, and January through March. They actually mention prices “as low as $412” but I haven’t found anything sub-$500 on United between these two cities.
There’s even cheaper fares out of New York – $361. And both of these fares illustrate interesting ways that airfare booking seems to be changing.
Since the UK lacks a Great Wall across its borders, they find themselves needing to deport people. They use budget airlines for that, like easyJet flight 5263 from London Gatwich to Venice.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Delta is running a sale on domestic economy and extra legroom coach awards for bookings made by September 30. One-way prices start at 5000 miles.
21 day advance purchase is require and travel much be completed by April 7.
Booking Europe awards with American miles can be tough. American releases very little space on its own flights, and their primary transatlantic partner is British Airways — and British Airways fuel surcharges can be truly choke-worthy.
On odd occasions American offers great spurts of availability on their own flights, then it dries up. Fortunately there’s Iberia… Iberia business class award space for two passengers is fantastic for summer next year.
Low cost transatlantic carrier Norwegian has fares between New York and Stockholm from just $253 roundtrip all-in, with all taxes: “Valid for travel from January, 2017 – February, 2017. November, December and March, 2017 for a little more.”
But there’s a trick to getting the fare to appear this low.
It’s been over a decade since I’ve regularly seen roundtrip coach fares to Southeast Asia for under $600. Now they seem to be popping up all the time. Sometimes they’re even under $400. I don’t even bother posting fares to Europe unless they’re under $500… preferably under $400.
Airlines have a hard time telling the difference between business and leisure travelers. Airlines are doing their best to figure out how to price in a way that picks up the cheap leisure travelers who won’t buy at a higher price…
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
