Perhaps this is just me, but it seems like there are a LOT of posts talking about airfare “deals”.  And I know that I’m probably guilty of this as well to some degree.  What one person might think is a great deal, another might not.  Different people have different places they’re interested in visiting, and different price thresholds.  That’s why one of my 5 steps to get you ready for the next fare sale includes figuring out what is a deal for YOU, so that when it shows up, you don’t have to decide in the moment.  Delay can cost you, as some people found to their dismay when they waited too long on the recent Amex Platinum 100K offer
I do post some fare deals (mistake or otherwise), but generally tend to go on the side of really cheap deals. Â Most recently I posted about a $99 fare sale to Europe, and here’s a variety of some of the other posts I’ve written about over the past few months (all of these deals are dead, and shared just for comparison)
- Crazy good deal – Australia to the US for $150!
- Amazing fares to Colombia! As low as $95 one-way!
- Roundtrip from Europe to US in FIRST class for ~$80
- Sub $100 fares to Sweden are STILL available!
- ~$300 fares to Costa Rica and Chile!
But is this REALLY a deal?
Within the past few days, there have been several posts about a fare sale for paid business (or first) class travel to Europe in the ~$2000 range
- View from the Wing –Â Stack Discounts and a New Sale to Get British Airways First Class from $2100 Roundtrip (and Business for Less)
- One Mile at a Time –Â Great Deal! Transatlantic FIRST Class For ~$2100
- The Points Guy –Â Deal Alert: Business Class to Europe from $2,333 Round-Trip on Delta and United
I don’t mean to necessarily pick on these guys, as generally I enjoy reading their blogs, but it just seems like these are not deals under 99% of people’s definition of deals?
And it’s not just these particular deals though they are what sparked my memory – over on the Points With a Crew Slack channel, we have a channel that posts occasional deals from The Flight Deal and some of those recently have seemed pretty weak (in the $600 or $800 range for economy travel)
I mean, I get that these may be very good prices for business and first class travel (I don’t pretend to know the market for transatlantic first and business class flights, so I assume that these guys know what they’re talking about). Â But $2000 is a LOT of money!
I was reminded of an excellent post over on Money Metagame, wondering if travel hacking was really a smart financial move, or do you just end up spending the money you’ve “saved” on more travel. Â I know for myself at least, I’ve been guilty of that, and I think you do find as you travel more, and in higher cabins of service, you become “accustomed” to that and thus do it more (spending more money than you might otherwise have done)
What do you think?
Maybe I’m just being overly dramatic. Â It’s certainly possible. I did look through the comments of those posts and did find 2 people that said they booked flights. Â And I don’t mean to judge anyone’s manner of travel – I’m a firm believer in you travel how you want to travel, and let me travel how I want to travel. Â So if these “deals” are really deals for you, then I tip my cap and hope you enjoy your flights!
I just was wondering if other people feel the same way as me? Â Or do most people agree that these flights are not quite “deals”?
So what do you think?  Are these fares “deals”?
This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as thepointsguy.com. This may impact how and where links appear on this site. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
I agree, I saw those recent posts regarding “deals” and promptly moved along to another post.
reference the piece on money metagame: Of course, you end up more money on travel but that is perfectly okay for folks who find travel immensely rewarding and satisfying. Especially in style. 🙂
Ultimately, it is all about what you want to do. There are many blogs which try to tell you how to retire early… like 40 or something. And I am like what will I do if I retire at 40?! Work is joy as well!
I booked r/t from Chicago to Frankfurt… $2200. Couple that with the targeted United PQD promotion I just got a few weeks ago…say it’s a great deal. I should get a bonus of 90k miles for hitting PQD target this summer plus I got a paid business class ticket (and all the EQM and redeemable miles earned from this flight) for a steal
2.2k for first class (not business) is pretty damn cheap. Had you used aa miles to fly the same journey for 170k miles, you’re looking at a valuation of less than 1.5 cents per mile… And that doesn’t even include the miles you earn on revenue fares.
3 to 5k is a pretty typical business class fare
I totally agree with everything you said…. but…. I dunno. Maybe I’m in the mindset of a family of 8, where that $2200 becomes $17,600 pretty quick! (not that I’d necessarily book all 8 of us on first class flights). But even the $250 fares to Australia I passed on in part because that $250 becomes $2000 really quick. I still might have done it if schedules had worked out
I guess it depends on your perspective. Having flown paid business class several times a year for about a decade, I can say with authority that those are pretty good fares. My big multinational company had killer negotiated business class “flat fare” rates for transatlantic flights, which were typically $2900-$4000 depending on the route and seemed to average about 60% of the fare published on a airline’s web site. The cool thing was, I could book that flat fare on Friday and fly on Saturday. I would guess that those big blogs have a lot of business travelers in their audience so many probably find that fare sale info useful.
Deals are in the eye of the beholder. I can’t get excited about $99 WOW fares because they don’t fly from an airport near CVG. Could I use miles or an LCC to get to one of those cities? Yes, but doing that seriously diminishes the overall value proposition. Another example, if Rodeway Inn had an “all rooms are $29” promo…I wouldn’t bite. It’s just not my cup of tea and in my mind that’s about what their rooms are worth.
$2100 for roundtrip first class is both expensive and a real bargain compared to usual price. Not for everyone. I don’t expect everything I write to resonate with every audience. Should it be a priority for every family to take advantage? Certainly not. And I never suggest otherwise…
In my case, I needed a round trip ticket from RDU to AMS next month, and RT tickets in Business were $2000 versus $1900 in coach…so yes, I found it to be worth it! 🙂
Needless to say, I definitely wouldn’t have paid $1900 for a coach ticket under any circumstances, but $2K AI, plus earning the EQMs I need, 100% bonus miles with my status on AA, and an additional 25,000 bonus miles for flying Business Class on a OneWorld carrier with the AA promo announced yesterday, I think makes this a decent deal…
But I think that’s part of what feels odd to me. You can’t say at the same time “I wouldn’t pay $1900 for a ticket” and “the difference between coach and business was $1900 to $2000”. If you wouldn’t pay $1900 for a coach ticket, then you can’t use that to compare against business travel.
Again, you travel how you want to travel and don’t let me tell you otherwise
He didn’t say he wouldn’t pay $1900 for a ticket. He said he wouldn’t pay $1900 for a COACH ticket. Apparently, he WOULD pay $1900 (or more: in this case, $2000) for a business ticket. And the fact that the difference in class fares was only $100 made it feel like a sweet bargain to him. In other words, if the coach tickets had been a more reasonable $500, the business class fare would have felt like less of a bargain. At least, that’s what I understood from his post.
As for me personally: I love cruising. And I generally take an oceanview room. I don’t like interior rooms, and balcony rooms are usually too rich for my blood. But you know, while I expect the oceanview room to cost more than an interior room on the same sailing, I do note the difference in price. If the difference is too great, I will feel like the oceanview room is overpriced and I will look at a different sailing. Likewise, if the difference in price is really tiny, which does sometimes happen, then I will think the oceanview is a bargain and I’ll be a lot more likely to grab it. By the same token, if the difference between an oceanview and a balcony is tiny, then I will pony up a few bucks for the balcony. I once saw a sailing where the balcony was only $2 more than the oceanview, and the oceanview was only $50 more than the interior. Obviously, that balcony was a steal. (I would have grabbed it, but it happened to conflict with an unmissable annual business conference. But I will always regret missing it.)
I’d have to say, this was a pretty “spot on” assessment of my sentiments….well, that and also my situation was also similar to what @Charlie pointed out in his comment as well.
Here was my situation…which option would you have chosen?
1) 80k AA miles and ~$500 in taxes to fly RT in Coach
2) 110k AA miles and ~$800 in taxes to fly outbound in Coach with 2 connections, and return in Business with 2 connections
-$1900 RT in Coach with 2 connections each way + 1 EQMs for this year’s status + 100% bonus miles due to AA Platinum + 2,000 bonus miles from the latest AA promo
-$2000 RT in Business (2 connections on outbound; 1 connection on return) + 1.5 EQMs for this year’s status before AA goes revenue based + 100% bonus miles due to AA Platinum + 25% bonus class of service miles + 25,000 bonus miles from the latest AA promo
No contest. $2000 RT business wins.
The reason for me saying that “I definitely wouldn’t have paid $1900 for a coach ticket under any circumstances” is because peak Summer travel to Europe from where I live typically ranges from about $1200-$1500, with $1500 being the high end in coach….So to pay nearly $2k for a coach ticket with multiple connections to Europe in my opinion is just insane, especially given the decrease in tourism to the continent this year due to terrorism fears. You literally can fly to almost anywhere in the world in coach for that price…
It is a deal at those prices – but being a good deal does not mean everyone needs/should take advantage of it. First class at that price will fit nicely in with someone’s plans and give them a lot of value for the price. If someone was not able to find award availability for their dates and they were willing to pay economy for $1,300 (depending on the season, perfectly normal), spending $800 more to get a lot more miles, baggage allowance, more comfortable flights, and help with elite status could be a consideration. So, yes, it is a deal. Is it a deal that I or others will be taking advantage of? No, but that does not make it any less of a deal.
You’re comparing apples and submarines. Those blogs–especially OMAAT, are geared to those of us who travel hack PRIMARILY or ONLY to travel in high style. Your blog is specifically for families. Personally, I would never, ever pay for first class for a kid, much less several. But I’m a single professional who enjoys travel hacking entirely because it provides a way for me to travel much more in the style to which I’ve become accustomed. (My former husband used to joke that my idea of roughing it was if they put a domestic chocolate on my pillow.)