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Via Airfare Spot there are several great deals from New York to Europe on Delta, British Airways and United right now.
You can fly to Zurich, Paris, or London and I’m seeing roundtrip itineraries from just $325.
For instance, Zurich fares are available in May. Delta’s non-stops from New York JFK are coming back at $353 roundtrip.
I find it especially interesting — and this really underscores how great a deal this is, you cannot get the tickets cheaper than this really — the “base fares” are $2.50 in each direction, plus fuel surcharges and taxes.
You don’t want to credit these miles to SkyMiles if you can avoid it, since you earn based on the ticket price. Czech OK Plus will give you one mile per mile flown…
Now, United has Zurich flights even cheaper at least when looking with airfare metasearch site Momondo.
You can credit the miles for these trips to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer as nearly all United fares earn more miles this way. (This appears to be a United K fare which would earn one mile per mile flown in Singapore’s KrisFlyer program.)
While a non-elite MileagePlus member crediting United flights to the revenue-based MileagePlus program will only earn 5 miles per dollar on the cost of the ticket excluding taxes, nearly all United fares earn 100% of flown miles when crediting to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer (.pdf). That means you earn 5-10 times as many miles with Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer for your trip flying United than you would crediting to MileagePlus.
While Singapore miles do expire after 3 years (not 3 years of inactivity), you can top off a KrisFlyer miles account with transfers from American Express, Chase, Citi, and Starwood.
Paris fares are available in May and again September through November starting at $381 non-stop on British Airways OpenSkies out of Newark or New York JFK and into close-in Paris-Orly.
Cheap London non-stops appear to be available as well.
deals gone, I cant find fares this low
I’m still seeing these fares
Which 3x do you suggest?
Gary- If I credit to Singapore wihat affect will this have on Uniteds PQM? Do these fare earn PQM?
Would love a detailed post on how flying LH in Europe sometimes earns PQM and sometimes not depending on ticket. Confused. Thanks
What is the relevance to a consumer of a low $2.50 base fare when the actual ticket price is >70x more?
I explain in the post above.
@Chad: If you credit these flights to SQ, then you wouldn’t earn any PQM/PQS on UA at all. You can only credit flights to one airline program. Regarding crediting LH flights to UA, well, you have to look at the fare code ticketed by the airline that you bought the ticket from. Not all fare codes are equal and some only give you 75%, 50%, 25% or 0% mileage. And airlines put partner airlines in different groups about crediting miles. You need to look at both LH and UA websites for the groupings / mile earning % and mile earning on partner airlines.
For example, Air Europa (UX) has fare sales now to Spain, Paris and Amsterdam (under $300 or $400) from JFK and MIA now but the fare code is “Z,” which is 0% mile earning on UX and on DL (Delta). So if you book a discounted ticket on UX website and fly UX metals, you’ll get 0% mile in UX SUMA (their new frequent flyer program since UX left FlyingBlue). And since it’s 0% on UX, it’s also 0% in Delta SkyMiles.
@Ric: Regular consumers probably don’t care about the base fare. People who pursue airline status care more since they have to earn elite qualifying dollars 🙁