Tag Archives for award availability.
I actually do not think this pricing is a mistake. LifeMiles is aggressive in managing its pricing. There are some awards you’ll find with other Star Alliance frequent flyer programs that LifeMiles won’t show availability for. That’s intentional. When an award is too expensive for their pricing, LifeMiles doesn’t let you book it. But they also drop their pricing below award chart pricing with some regularity and this too has been intentional.
Air France KLM’s Flying Blue program has made award space wide open across the Pond for nearly all of their transatlantic routes, starting this summer (when space has been scarce!) and through the end of their schedule.
Right now there’s exceptional availability in both business and first class between New York JFK and Hong Kong between January and March 8th, which you can use to connect onward in Asia.
Delta SkyMiles rarely have much value for international business class travel. They charge 4-6 times more than their partners do for the same flights. And flights to Asia are usually even more expensive than to Europe.
Right now, though, there is amazing business class availability on their Seattle – Taipei flight. You can get 9 or more passengers in business on many flights. And pricing starts at just 146,200 miles roundtrip.
Qatar flights from Dallas, Houston, Washington Dulles and New York JFK in February and March 2025. There is also space out of Miami, Chicago and Atlanta. This is basically towards the end of the schedule, when Qatar has traditionally released award seats.
Turkish Airlines is adding a new Denver – Istanbul flight this summer, and business class awards are wide open – with availability most days starting in July through end of year (and plenty of space returning in January 2025 as well).
Use this to fly to Europe in peak summer! Even during the Paris Olympics. Connect west back to Western Europe, or connect eastward to Asia – you don’t need to use this to go to Turkey. It may be your jumping off point to the Mideast as well. And United Airlines saver award space can be added into awards to get to and from Denver as well.
Qatar has one of the best business class product in the world in its ‘QSuites’ that offer doors and movable partitions that allow two and even four passengers to travel together in their own space. Their QSuite is a fantastic hard product, and service and food in the air are outstanding.
Right now there’s amazing award availability for the new second flight they’ve added from Miami. You’ll generally find two business class awards Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays on flights QR781 and QR782 from September through December.
Points Path is a new browser extension that lets you search for award flights using Google Flights. When you search for paid travel, it also shows you the price of an award. And if helps you compare whether it’s a good use of points or not.
It turns out there’s also amazing availability now through summer on a variety of Delta transatlantic routes as well, which can be booked for 50,000 Virgin Atlantic points each way without surcharges (and Virgin partners with most bank currencies).
Specifically, 9 or more seats available on some routes February through August.
What’s special about this is that copious award space is available throughout the month on Singapore Airlines – and that it’s not just for a seat or two, but much of the cabin. And while Singapore is discounting these seats 30%, they’re also available at a reasonable rate through Air Canada Aeroplan as well.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
