When people learn about my travel addiction hobby, they almost always ask for at least one tip that they may not know about. That is, if they are still standing there listening to me rambling on about loyalty programs… For a while my advice was the basic stuff about joining a loyalty program or opening a certain card. However, over time I’ve learned the most valuable advice I can give is this: When booking flights, get creative.
What I mean by that is, when looking to book a trip, especially one abroad, is to look at various origins and destinations. So, if you’re trying to get from Indianapolis to London, maybe it’s significantly cheaper to book New York to London and use the savings (or the miles earned) to get from Indy to New York. Likewise, if you want to get to London, maybe it’s cheaper to book a flight to Paris and then book a cheap connection from there. It’s incredible how much you can save if you are flexible with your routing and/or dates.
Taking My Advice A Bit Further
On top of that flexibility, it’s also incredible to see how much money you can save if you book a reverse round-trip. So, let’s say you want to visit Europe twice in a single year. This opens up some flexibility which could allow you to book a trip that actually begins in London. By booking a trip that begins in London you could save a ton of money on your round-trip fare. Then, you just have to book the second round trip on either end of your travel dates to synthetically book two round-trips. Ok ok, I’ll stop and you can ask more questions later on if you’d like.
The reason I’m mentioning this is because I’ve done exactly that this year. On New Year’s Eve last year (2018), Cathay Pacific published some absolutely incredible fares. Specifically, they mistakenly priced First Class from Vietnam to New York at just $1,400 and Business Class for just $600. Since I needed a way to earn a ton of AAdvantage Elite Qualifying Dollars this year I jumped on both. I ended up booking one trip in First Class and another in Business Class.
The only issue with this strategy is to begin my journey I needed to first get to Vietnam. I wrote a post on this a while back, but eventually found a First Class seat on JAL. I found this seat just a few days before I departed. Now, a few months later, I find myself in the opposite situation. I have my final return flight to Asia coming up and, at the moment, I have no way to get home!
My Options To Get Home From Asia
Earlier this year I ignored this slight issue as I figured it would be incredibly easy to get home from Asia. Worse case scenario, I’d book a cheap economy ticket and get home. Unfortunately, a month before I’m supposed to travel, I can’t find any cheap tickets. Everything I’m looking at is going for well over $800 at the moment. Frankly, I have no interest in paying that amount of cash to get home. Instead, I’d rather burn miles.
However, that seems to be quite difficult as well. I’ve searched several city pairings with United and Star Alliance carriers and can’t find any saver level award space. The same goes for American, but I haven’t really looked into Delta and SkyTeam yet. Originally I thought finding award space from Asia to the US would have been easy, but it’s proving quite difficult.
Thankfully I did manage to find some award space though that fit my schedule. The only thing I could find was either JAL Business of JAL First from Toyko NRT to Chicago. Either would be a nice option as I’ve flown both products earlier this year. JAL First class is pretty incredible and offers a great suite, but costs 80,000 miles.
Business Class is just 60,000 miles, but the seat is similar in size to British Airways Club World.
Don’t get me wrong, either are great options, but because I flew both earlier this year I’m less inclined to pick either.
Final Thoughts
I’m currently on hold with American to book one of these two flights. I can’t decided if I should book JAL First Class or stick to Business. The business flight gets me in later in the day, but means I have some time to explore Toyko. First Class gets me into the US earlier and gives me the full day to connect, but costs more. Either way, by grabbing one of these seats now I at least have a guaranteed way home.
Worst case scenario is that something more intriguing comes along and then I can cancel either option if needed. Because I maintain Executive Platinum status with American I have a ton of flexibility with award flights which I’ve come to greatly appreciate.
