point fu

As I've written about before , many airlines offer Business Class fare deals between the US and Europe during the summer when business-related travel is low and vacation travel is at its peak. UPDATE (7/2018): Trip Report here ! We really want to attend a college friend's 50th Birthday party this summer in Poland, so I've had SkyScanner and Google Flights tracking fares and emailing me with any deals that show up. Based on previous years, I was expecting to actually purchase the flight sometime in April, but I got an alert last night (mid February!) that Singapore Airlines has a great deal on their direct service from New York to Frankfurt – many dates around or below the $2000 mark ! Keep in mind that an Economy ticket on the same flight is currently $1578 (and competing airlines' flights are all north of $1400). I bought our tickets with my Chase Sapphire Reserve, and as with my SAS flight last summer , I'll earn $300-ish worth of Chase and United points f...

As I've mentioned before , in spring you can often find great deals Business Class fares for summer travel to Europe. Some years, like last year , they're harder to find, but I just now snagged a June round trip from New York to Berlin on Scandinavian for $2200 . It's a one-stop itinerary via Oslo, with the long leg in their new(ish) lie-flat seat on an A330. I bought directly from SAS's website using my Amex Gold card for the 3x airfare bonus. SAS lie-flat Business Class $2200 isn't a great fare, but it's definitely a good one . The rest of the year these flights are usually in the high $3000s. With all of the recent mileage devaluations, this flight would have set me back 140,000 United miles. Using the mileage math , that comes out to 1.6¢ per mile when the flight is $2200. Since I'm always aiming for 2¢ a point at the bare minimum , doing this with miles didn't make sense. Furthermore, I'll earn nearly 20,000 miles for this flight (s...

Normally Thanksgiving week is a great time to find cheap Business Class fares to Europe from the US. I'm guessing it's because most people have that week off from work, and the people who are traveling are going so to see family within the USA. One way or the other, it's usually a great time to find round-trip fares to Europe for well below $3000. As I mentioned here , I earned 9600 United miles and 11,000 Amex points for a trip I took on a cheap summer Business Class fare. I always take a look at the coach fares too, so I have some idea of how much extra I'm actually paying. I the case of my Singapore Airlines flight, I paid an extra $500 for Business and got a boatload of miles on top of getting a much nicer flying experience.  Right now I've been keeping an eye on the Thanksgiving fares because I might end up trying to meet my brother in Prague for turkey day (though I'm guessing in Prague it'll end up being more of a goose day). Unfortunately I w...