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✈️ How to book business class for less than economy
+ 3 Useful tools for award flight search
Taymoor F.
April 20, 2024
Read time: 4 min 🕐
The key to booking business class for less than economy is to book an award flight.
An award flight is a flight booked with loyalty points. Most airlines have a loyalty program you can join to book award flights through.
I recently booked Qatar Airways’ business class with a ~95% discount by paying with points instead of cash.
It’s easier than it sounds. Here’s how you can get started:
1. Choose an airline loyalty program to earn miles with
Ideally, the program:
Has co-branded credit cards that you can apply for
Is based in your country of residence
Is part of an airline alliance or has other partner airlines
As a Canadian, the loyalty program that ticks these boxes for me is Air Canada’s Aeroplan.
For Americans, American Airlines AAdvantage, United MileagePlus and Delta SkyMiles are good options.
2. Earn points
The quickest way to earn points is to apply for a credit card which either:
Earns points that can be transferred to your airline loyalty program
EXAMPLE: the American Express Cobalt Card lets you earn AMEX Membership Rewards points, which can be transferred 1:1 to Aeroplan.
Is co-branded with your airline loyalty program
EXAMPLE: the American Express Aeroplan Card lets you earn Aeroplan points directly.
The credit card should ideally have a high sign-up bonus and good earning rates. The AMEX Cobalt card is great for Canadians because it has high earning rates, like 5x points on eats & drinks - If you spend $600 on food and groceries every month with the Cobalt card, you’d be passively earning 3,000 points per month, or 36,000 points a year.
Make sure that you’ll be able to satisfy the spending conditions for the sign-up bonus. You want to optimize your current spending to maximize the points you earn, so if you’re thinking about applying for a card with a high sign-up bonus that requires a lot more spending than you’re capable of, it’s probably not a good card to apply for.
3. Search for flights and book
In most cases, airlines have a separate search engine for award flights. Here’s how to find it:
On Google, search for “[loyalty program name] award search”
EXAMPLE: “Aeroplan award search”
Open the corresponding link and search for a flight
EXAMPLE: BAH to LHR on Oct 16, 2024
via Aeroplan
This 6h55m flight in business class on Gulf Air’s excellent Boeing 787-9 costs 45,000 Aeroplan points and $78 in taxes/fees.
Assuming that you earned 50,000 points after applying for the AMEX Aeroplan Card and paid the card’s $120 annual fee, you would end up paying $198 for this flight with points.
This same flight costs $4,039 if you book it with cash right now.
via Google Flights
Book your flight and enjoy!
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CREDIT: The Flip Flop Traveller
👋 Hi, I’m Taymoor! I’m a Toronto-based travel and aviation enthusiast who has spent many years learning how to unlock massive savings on flights and hotels. I created this newsletter to share tips that will help you book your next vacation for less.
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DISCLAIMER: All prices quoted in this newsletter are in Canadian Dollars (CAD) unless stated otherwise. The guides presented in this newsletter are for informational purposes only and are not personal financial advice. This publication may contain curated content with links to source materials. Recommendations and opinions are those of the original authors, and Travel Edition assumes no liability.
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