Great ways to save money or miles on flights

Whether you plan to book flights with cash or points, it’s great to pay less. This post is a high-level round-up of techniques for saving cash, points, or miles when booking your next flight.

Book a companion for free or with a discount (save money or miles)

Click through any applicable companion discount listed below to go to the relevant section in our Complete Guide to Travel Companion Tickets.

• Aer Lingus Commercial Companion Ticket
• American Airlines Companion Certificate
• Alaska Airlines Companion Fare
• British Airways Travel Together Ticket
• Cathay Pacific Companion Ticket Awards
• Delta Companion Ticket
• Hawaiian Airlines Companion Discount
• Iberia $1,000 Discount Voucher
• Lufthansa Companion Ticket
• Southwest Companion Pass
• Virgin Atlantic Companion Fare

Book vacation packages (save money)

Bundled air + hotel vacation packages sometimes offer far better flight prices than those available directly from the airlines unbundled. If you don’t need the hotel portion, you may be able to book the cheapest hotel option for just one night (and throw it away) even if you plan to stay at the destination far longer. Alternatively you may be able to bundle a car rental instead of a hotel. As an example, I’ve saved tons of money in the past booking Delta Vacation flights + car rentals to Hawaii. In those cases, it was significantly cheaper to buy the vacation package, with the needed rental car, than airfare alone.

Book flights with partner airline miles (save miles)

It’s weird but true that it’s often cheaper to book a flight with miles from a partner airline rather from the airline operating the flight. For example, you’ll sometimes do better booking Virgin Atlantic flights with Air France miles, and you’ll sometimes do better booking Air France flights with Virgin Atlantic miles!

Use an award search tool to find the best award flight deals. See: Which award search tool is best?

Maximize value on pay with points bookings (save points)

Many pay with points reward programs offer a fixed value of 1 cent per point. In some cases you can do better. Here are some examples:

• Amex Membership Rewards: Get slightly over 1.5 cents per point value with the Amex Business Platinum card, or up to 2 cents per point with the Centurion card. More details can be found below, under “Earn a rebate on pay with points bookings”.
• Bank of America Premium Rewards Elite: Get 1.25 cents per point value when using points to book flights through the Bank of America Travel Center or Concierge.
• Bilt Mastercard: Redeem points through Bilt’s travel portal for 1.25 cents per point value.
• Chase Aeroplan Card: With the Air Canada Aeroplan Card you can pay for travel with your card and then use your Aeroplan miles to “pay yourself back” for any of those charges at a rate of 1.25 cents per Aeroplan mile.
• Chase Ultimate Rewards: Get 1.5 cents per point with a Chase Sapphire Reserve card. If points are in another account, move them first to your (or a household member’s) Sapphire Reserve account before booking travel through the Chase portal. You can similarly get 1.25 cents per point with the Sapphire Preferred card or Ink Business Preferred card.
• US Bank Altitude Reserve: Altitude Reserve cardholders automatically get 1.5 cents per point value for travel booked through the US Bank portal. It’s also possible to get 1.5 cents per point value via Real Time Mobile Rewards.

Book cheap, then same day change (save money or miles)

Whether booking with miles or money you may find that the 5am flight is cheap, but the flight you really want is expensive. Each airline has different same day change policies, but in many cases it is possible to book that cheap flight and then call the day before (or day-of in some cases) to get a confirmed change to the flight you really want.

Most airlines charge a fee for this unless you have high level elite status with the airline. In some cases you won’t be able to confirm the change, but may be able to stand by for the desired flight.

This is the type of thing that you wouldn’t want to do unless you’re willing to go on the originally booked flight in case things don’t work out the way you hoped.

Take advantage of cardholder discounts (save money)

Some cards offer cash rebates or discounts for cardholders. Here are some examples:

• Chase British Airways Visa Signature Card: Offers two money saving perks:
  • 10% off BA flights originating in the US.
  • Up to $600 per year in award fee rebates
• American Express Platinum or Centurion Cards: Amex’s International Airline Program offers discounts on premium flights originating in the United States and select Canadian gateways. See more details below.

Book premium cabin international flights w/ Amex Platinum card (save money)

Anyone with an Amex Platinum or Centurion card can potentially save money by booking international premium cabin flights through Amex. Amex’s International Airline Program has the following rules:

• In most cases, travel must originate in and return to U.S. gateway (may exclude certain overseas territories) and select Canadian gateways.
• One-way travel permitted on some airlines where routing originates in U.S. or select Canadian Gateways.
• Available service classes in First, Business or Premium Economy are subject to airline availability.
• Card Member and up to seven additional First, Business or Premium Economy Class passengers must travel on same air itinerary.

Via this program, I was personally able to buy Premium Economy flights for less than economy. See this post for more: International Premium Economy for less than coach. Amex’s details about the program can be found here.

Take advantage of cardholders award prices and discounts (save points)

Some cards offer award rebates or discounts of some kind for cardholders. Here are some examples:

• The JetBlue Plus card and the JetBlue Business card offer 10% back on awards.
• Almost all United credit cards offer expanded saver award availability for their own flights and sometimes offers discounts for partner awards as well.
• The Chase Aeroplan card offers discounted awards for Air Canada’s own flights.
• The Amex Business Platinum card offers a 35% points rebate when you redeem points for a flight with your selected airline (or when booking a premium cabin for any airline). More below under “Earn a rebate on Amex pay with points bookings.”
• Amex Platinum cards offer Insider Fares (discount fares) when paying with points for certain flights. See ” Amex Insider Fares” below.

Earn a rebate on Amex pay with points bookings (save points)

The Business Platinum card offers a 35% Airline Bonus. When you redeem Amex points through Amex Travel for either a First or Business class flight on any airline, or for any flights with your selected airline, you get 35% of the points back. This results in just over 1.5 cents per point value for flights. Even better, if you have the Centurion card and use points to book any flight, you’ll get a 50% rebate. This results in 2 cents per point value.

Amex Insider Fares (save points)

If you have enough Amex Membership Rewards points to cover the cost of the fare, then you’ll be eligible for Amex Insider Fares when searching for flights via Amex Travel. Discounts appear to range from less than 2% to about 15%. This example shows a 13.5% discount:

When booking Insider Fares, you are required to pay with Amex Membership Rewards points. Since it is often possible to get much better value by transferring points to airline programs, I don’t recommend using this feature unless you have the Business Platinum card which offers a 35% Airline Bonus (Get 35% of your points back when you redeem points through Amex Travel for either a First or Business class flight on any airline, or for any flights with your selected airline), or if you have the Centurion card which offers a 50% rebate. If you do have one of those cards, then insider fares are a great way to save more points.

Membership Discounts (save money)

Various memberships claim airfare savings. I don’t have personal experience with any of them, so I can’t say whether this really works. If you belong to a program that offers flight discounts it may be worth checking it out. Here are a couple that I know of:

• We Salute (formerly Veterans Advantage): Offers 5% off United flights (details here).
• Founders Card: Offers various airline discounts. Nick described his experience with their United Airlines discount here. Note that Founders Card benefits are subject to change. I do not know whether the United discount is a current benefit.
• AARP: Offers up to $200 off British Airways flights.

Change the way you book it (save money or miles)

Book saver business class instead of standard economy (save miles)

When searching for award flights, don’t forget to check for business class awards even if you’re fine with economy. Sometimes the cheapest economy award flights simply aren’t available when you need them. But, you may find that cheap business class awards are available.

Book round trip instead of one way (save money or miles)

It’s less common than it used to be, but airlines still sometimes charge far less for round trip flights than two one-ways. With awards too, some airlines price round-trip awards cheaper than two one-way awards. In fact, it is sometimes possible to save miles by booking a round trip award even if you intend to throw away the return flight.

Book two one-way awards instead of round-trip (save money)

With both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, the taxes and other surcharges imposed on award flights are often lower when booking two one-way awards rather than a single round-trip.

Book positioning flights separately (save money or miles)

Let’s say there’s a great sale to Europe from your home airport, but your desired European destination is not included in the sale. You can often still save money or miles by booking that flight and then buying a cheap flight to your desired destination. This can also work at the other end. For example, perhaps there’s a great deal on a flight from Chicago to somewhere in the world you want to go, but you don’t live in Chicago. You can separately book a cheap flight that positions you in Chicago.

Caution: Leave extra time for connecting from one airline to another. When flights are booked separately like this, it’s up to you alone to deal with missed connections. It can also be a hassle dealing with checked bags when doing this since airlines will usually refuse to check the bags through to flights booked separately (there are exceptions though so it’s worth asking).

Book throw-away segments (save money or miles)

This trick, which is known as hidden city ticketing or skiplagging, goes against airline rules but is not illegal. I covered the topic in depth here: Skiplagging for the best flights at the best price.

In case you don’t want to read that, here are bullet points from that post:

• The segment you plan to skip must be the last segment of your itinerary. If you fail to show up for an earlier segment, most airlines will cancel the rest of your trip. In general, this means that you should book these flights as one-ways.
• This technique only works when you are flying to a connecting airport (ideally a hub).
• Never check your bags. You do not want your bags to end up at your ticketed final destination. There are exceptions to this rule when flying internationally since you sometimes have to retrieve your bags along the way, but you seriously need to know what you’re doing if you rely on this.
• Avoid gate checking bags. In some cases when gate checking bags, the gate agent may try to check your bag all the way to your final destination. If you are forced to gate check your bags, make sure that it is checked only to your intermediate destination.
• Consider leaving your frequent flyer number off the ticket. If you’re worried about the possibility of retribution from the airline, you may be better off simply not earning miles at all for the flight.
• Always have a story ready. In case of irregular operations, the airline may try to reroute you to your final destination. Have a story ready about why you need to get to that connecting airport.
• Don’t try this with kids. I would only do this when flying alone. By myself, if I get stranded somewhere I didn’t mean to be, I can deal with it. I think it would be much harder to deal with if an entire family was traveling together.
• Try it with miles. This technique can work just as well with airline awards, but it can be a bit harder to find those opportunities. Airlines that tie award prices to ticket prices, though, are pretty easy. If you see a hidden city opportunity with Southwest or JetBlue, for example, you should find that you can get similar savings by booking that route with miles.

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