Plus, Great Summer Advance-Purchase Fares
Anyone who’s tracked premium fares for long knows that the best time to travel can be when corporate travel is off—typically during holiday seasons and the summer. Oh, to only have more holidays.Voila!
January was a month of sound and fury for European fares. It’s always been the month when one airline or another starts a summer fare war—this year has been no exception—but now the airlines decided to roll Easter into the holiday mit. Here’s a guide to the promotions.
The windows of opportunity
Easter: Key Point: 50-day advance-purchase required. Travel: April 18 through April 29 for departure, and April 23 through May 5 for return. Minimum stay is three days. Purchase By: March 30.
Summer: Key Point: 60-day advance-purchase required. Travel: June 28 through Sept. 4 for departure; return by Sept. 8. May 31
[aside headline="Little Known First Class Upgrade Strategy" alignment="alignright" width="half" headline_size="default"]Use Starwood points to book an upgrade to First Class on American via Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles program. It costs 10,000 to 35,000 more miles, but you avoid the $1,100 American surcharge.[/aside]
Airlines offering the deals
Easter and Summer: Almost all of them, including Air Canada, Air France, Alitalia, American, Continental, Delta, KLM, Lufthansa, United and US Airways. The holdouts are British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.
How these deals stack up against other discounted premium fares
Easter: On New York to Paris, the savings can be as high as $1,600 (49%) compared to the lowest, 50-day advance-purchase Business Class fare.
Summer: The savings can be as high as 51% (NYC to Brussels).
Book these flights and you’ll get a “free interclass upgrade”
Continental has completed flat-bed installation on its B777s, which it uses from Houston to Frankfurt and London; and from Newark to Brussels, Frankfurt, and London. US Airways has also just completed installing new flat-bed Business Class seats on its A332s (A330-200s), which fly from Philidelphia to Frankfurt (flight 702 starting in April), London (Heathrow), Madrid, Munich (April), and Paris.
Sample of Promotional Business Class Fares to Europe
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Great First Class deal from two Star Alliance carriers
Lufthansa and United are offering discounts of up to 77% on 42-day advance-purchase First Class fares from April 18 through 29. That means you might pay cash rather than cash in miles. See chart below for more sample savings.
Sample Easter Fares on Lufthansa and United
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Spend miles or pay cash?
With award Business Class prices starting at 100,000 miles, and the lowest fare starting at $1,700, the return-on-miles is only 1.7¢—and less if you factor in the miles you would have earned on a paid Business Class ticket. The same holds true with Lufthansa and United First Class promotions to Europe. United charges 135,000 miles for a First Class award ticket, a return-on-miles of about 2.8¢. That’s better than the return on Business Class, but far below the normal return, 7 to 9¢ for First Class.