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United and JetBlue are offering some dirt cheap fares from New York to Orlando on select dates in January and February – from $83 round trip in United basic economy — but you can do even better by using the Visa Infinite Discount Air benefit to book 2 people on JetBlue for $114.80 round trip. That’s a pretty good excuse to escape the winter chill.
No qualifying Visa Infinite? United Basic Economy for $83
For those without a qualifying Visa Infinite card, the basic economy fare might be attractive — while basic economy certainly has its drawbacks, MileagePlus card holders (who book with their Mileage Plus credit card) will still get a free checked bag and priority boarding — the main restriction is that you can’t bring on a full-size carry-on. That might work OK for some folks.
Availability
Availability looks spotty at first, with just a handful of dates showing at $83 round trip in January and February.
However, after you select a departure date, you might find expanded return availability:
You can click this image below to go to Google Flights and play with dates:
Google doesn’t make it clear that this is a basic economy fare, but United certainly does when you click through to United.com….because, you know, they don’t really want you to buy it.
Visa Discount Air w/ United
That said, if you have a Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite or CNB Visa Infinite, you don’t have to buy the basic economy fare. I’m seeing full economy class for $132.40 on United’s site:
Logging into the Visa Discount Air site with my Ritz card, I see the same fare on United:
And when I go through to the booking stage with the United flights, it shows an original price of $132.40 just like on United.com, with a total of $164.80 for two people round trip.
That’s $82.40 total round trip — about the same as basic economy. Keep in mind that United only gives you a free checked bag if you pay with your Mileage Plus credit card — so you won’t get it if booking with your Ritz-Carlton card (but you should get a free full-sized carry-on). While I had read some reports about the Visa Discount Air site booking basic economy tickets, I’ve also situations where you can choose basic economy / economy / etc (like this). Since the price here is identical to the United.com full economy price, I’m pretty confident it’s not basic economy in this case (though YMMV).
If you noticed the “All Airlines – $121” fare above, I did check that out. It was departing on United and returning on American — but it gave me a message saying the fare was no longer available when I tried to select it.
But JetBlue gets even better
On some mid-week dates in January and February, JetBlue has this route priced at just under $108 RT direct. Those are bookable through the Visa Discount Air booking engine:
When booking for two people, that comes down to $114.80 total for two people round trip, on direct flights. I haven’t flown JetBlue in a while, but I’d take their economy over United Basic Economy — and at $57.40 per person round trip, that’s a no-brainer.
Bottom line
These are pretty solid fares from New York to Orlando. For those looking to escape the winter and visit Mickey Mouse or take advantage of the Universal Orlando Amex Offer, this could be a nice excuse to get out of Dodge.
H/T: Slickdeals for the United basic econ fare
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Until a couple of months ago, it was possible to book fares that were under $100 with the $100 airfare discount, now most fare must be $101 each in order to qualify for the discount when you buy 2 or more.
Correct. That’s why the JetBlue fare worked in this case.