Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Star Alliance continues to have some great prices from New York to Europe (which we first wrote about yesterday), with round trip flights to Palma de Mallorca, Spain now starting around $365 round trip through Google Flights — or as low as $322 if you plan an extended stay and book through a lesser-known agency. While I haven’t stayed there myself, the Park Hyatt Mallorca looks like a fantastic lodging option at 20,000 Hyatt points per night.
There are also excellent fares available from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Spain, France, and more — plenty of examples follow below (skip to the “West Coast” section if you’re looking for those sales).
New York to Mallorca
Flights are readily available through Google Flights in the $360’s in both September and October:
According to the Internet, average weather in September is still pretty nice in Palma de Mallorca:
Here is a set of example dates, click the link to go to Google Flights and adjust dates:
New York to Palma de Mallorca, Spain from $361
These prices are available more or less through the end of the schedule. What I found interesting with this sale is that you could leave quite a gap between the departure and return and still get the same (or better) pricing. For instance, here are results from low-cost-agency consolidator Momondo.com for a departure in August and return in March:
New York to Palma de Mallorca, Spain from $322
That might allow you to nest this with a cheap round trip flight in the opposite direction for two trips. TAP Portugal continues to have round trip business class tickets from Europe to the US for under $1200 round trip. For $322 and what could potentially be less than 60,000 Membership Rewards points, you could have two trips to Europe, with one direction in business class on each trip.
That said, I’m not convinced that I would book with “TravelMerry” for $322. Their online reputation isn’t exactly stellar.
With credit card protections, I’m not sure I wouldn’t book through a lesser-known site like this (recognizing that the group of people most likely to review a company like this are unsatisfied customers), but with a small difference in price like this, I might pay more to book through Google.
Mallorca has what looks like a decent place to stay in the Park Hyatt Mallorca. You may have seen it recently on the Hyatt home page:
If that’s not enough to interest you, just scroll the pictures that Charlie posted at Running with Miles. Unfortunately, cash rates at the Park Hyatt are unreasonably high.
But you can book that Park Suite King (with a cash price of about $1860 a night in USD) for 20,000 Hyatt points a night plus a DSU Globalist Tier Suite Upgrade award (or you can book a suite at this property for 32,000 points per night with a 3-night minimum based on what an agent told me). Remember that with the new World of Hyatt, Globalists can apply those suite upgrades on award stays. Actually, at those rates, I’m going to doubt that the Park Suite category sells out all that often — I wonder if a Globalist member even needs to use a suite upgrade award as they should theoretically get upgraded to a suite on check-in if one is available (and in my experience thus far with WOH, that has been true). Charlie has a review of that Park Suite as well, and it looks pretty nice, too.
H/T: Secret Flying
West Coast to France, Spain, and more
There are a number of great airfares from both San Francisco and Los Angeles to both France and Spain as well as several other cities.
Los Angeles to Lyon from $364
That is, of course, a bit cheaper yet through Momondo:
Los Angeles to Barcelona $387 with Google Flights or $334 with Momondo
San Francisco to Lyon is just a bit more for September dates (or $400-$450 in August):
San Francisco to Amsterdam for $379
San Francisco to Rome $408 with Google or $337 with Momondo (same Travel Merry site as before)
San Francisco to Barcelona from $379 with Google Flights or $307 with Momondo
H/T: Mighty Travels
Final Word
Some of yesterday’s fares may also be available. A number of these fares are available as early as August if you’re willing to travel for at least a couple of weeks. If you’re looking for a shorter trip, September and October are still great months to visit Europe. Many more routes are likely on sale — this is definitely a good time to book late summer and fall European travel.
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Super helpful. Thanks for this post! Are you seeing any good deals on premium economy or business? We were able to snag R/T biz last summer for around $1600 a ticket from LA.
Wow, you are lucky with the Hyatt program. As a globalist I have had zero upgrades into suites. In fact in years gone by, I used to find it rare that I could even use the suite upgrade certificates in advance as most hotels only have a few “standard” suites that you can upgrade into.
This is a fine hotel for 20K points, but I find it a little too pricey for what you get. Look at the reviews.