Smart questions from FCF subscribers answered.
Sweet Redeems are routes and airlines with low-cost Business and First Class mileage award availability, which we alert you to on a regular basis. What else but “sweet” would you call a mileage ticket that you can get for 115,000 miles when it’s normally 270,000?
That’s great, you say, but what happens if I live in a different city than the one in the alert? Can I use miles for a flight that connects to that city? Or will I have to pay more? Consider this report your Frequently Asked Sweet Redeem Connecting Flight Questions.
“Hi FCF, I saw an incredible FCF Sweet Redeem between Chicago and Frankfurt, but I live in Cincinnati and want to go to Rome. Should I forget it?”
FCF only shows non-stop long-range routes in our Sweet Redeem alerts—that’s where the value and comfort lie most. But the important thing to note is that you can very often add a connecting flight for free (or a low fee) from where you live to the city in the Sweet Redeem alert. And you can do the same at the other end.
So, you can get a free connection from Cincinnati to Chicago with many mileage programs, and then a free connection from Frankfurt to Rome. It’s free if you stay with the same airline, or airline alliance (see alliances below) and are using a zone-based award chart (like what American, Delta, and United use).
This is one of the best-kept secrets in travel. We talk about it a lot. We use it a lot. We want every FCF-er to use it a lot. Here’s the play:
1. Find a jaw-dropping FCF Sweet Redeem deal here.
2. Get to the Sweet Redeem departure city using a free (or a low fee) connection; just check the availability directly with the airline online or over the phone.
When short-haul connecting flights aren’t available in Business or First Class, check in coach (as I’ll sometimes endure a short flight in a tight seat if it makes an otherwise opulent itinerary work).
3. Enjoy the sweet long-haul flight in Business or First.
4. Then connect for free (or a low fee) on a short-haul flight to your final destination.
5. Do the same thing coming home.
“I spotted a Sweet Redeem I’ve got to have but can’t use miles for the connection to get there. What do I do?”
We hear this one often—and you do have options:
- Buy a connecting-flight ticket in either coach or Business Class from your home city to the Sweet Redeem departure city with cash. Make sure you have a longer connecting time than is required, as flights can be delayed and this could result in missing your international connecting flight.
- Buy a connecting-flight ticket in economy and use miles if possible, to upgrade to Business Class.
- Buy a ticket from your departure city using miles with another airline to the Sweet Redeem route. For example, you see a Sweet Redeem using United miles from Chicago to Europe, but you live in Philadelphia, and United has no connecting mileage award flights available, you could use British Airways miles and book a second ticket for an American flight from Philadelphia to Chicago for 30,000 miles (20,000 fewer miles than AA charges for its own ticket).
- If you’re in Europe, think about a train trip. The rail system there is fantastic.
One thing to note: When you buy that second ticket, check with the airline to make sure your bags will be checked right through. This depends on the airlines involved and their “interline agreements,” which is way too boring to go into here.
Or travel with carry on bags only. This is so liberating for many reasons, including not having to restrict yourself to flight opportunities that involve multiple tickets or airlines.
And/or take your connecting flight early in case it gets canceled or delayed so you don’t miss your long-haul segment. When you buy separate tickets, the second carrier is not responsible for what the first carrier does, unless you have all the segments on one ticket. So just be careful when you are on two tickets.
“What airlines can I get free connecting flights in the U.S. or Europe?”
Normally it’s any airline within the alliance and as you probably know, there are three major alliances:
Star Alliance
Air Canada, Air India, All Nippon, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines, United, and more.
oneworld
American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Qantas, and more.
SkyTeam
Air France, Alitalia, China Airlines, Delta, KLM, Korean Air, and more.
It’s amazing how many travelers don’t consider the power of these alliances. Think of all the airlines within them as one big airline with all the added flexibility it can offer.
The connecting flights apply within these alliances to all cities in the continental U.S. and Canada, as well as in Europe, that use region-to-region based award charts.
Let’s say you see an FCF Sweet Redeems alert on United flying Houston-London, but you want to go to Copenhagen, not London. And what if you live in Amarillo? Based on availability, you can get a free connecting flight from Amarillo to Houston on United and from London to Copenhagen on Scandinavian Airlines—at no extra cost—because of free airline alliance connections with region-based pricing.
In effect you’re getting six flight segments: Amarillo-Houston-London-Copenhagen-London-Houston-Amarillo.
So, if you have stacks of United miles, you can use them to fly on Scandinavian Airlines within Europe to get to your final destination because they’re both Star Alliance members. It’s that simple.
“Do I have to pay more for a connecting flight?”
Short answer: It varies depending on the mileage program. Many mileage charts (all the ones in the U.S.) are zone-based. So as long as you’re “in the zone” the connecting flights are free, as discussed above, for example within continental North America.
But some mileage charts use a flight distance chart. In that case, they charge by the miles actually flown. Imagine you’re flying from Boise to Budapest. British Airways charges each segment separately. But with American, a zone-based airline, the Boise to Seattle flight is a free “tack on.” The long-haul “bridge flight” on American from Seattle to London is the discounted mileage award ticket, and the British Airways skip flight from London to Budapest is also free because BA is an American partner. In general, flight-distance mileage programs offer better value on certain non-stops and shorter flights.
“How come my city doesn’t show as a connecting city in the drop-down list in your widget?”
It’s really a function of numbers and space. In the U.S. there are 285 cities with more than 100,000 people, so we don’t have room to cover them all. But we do cover the larger ones that are geographically spread evenly.
But keep in mind what we said above, free connecting flights apply within alliances to all cities in the continental U.S. and Canada for region-based schemes. So even if your city isn’t in the drop-down menu, you can still win. We only provide these cities as “examples of the potential.”
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Does this help fill in any gaps for you? Have any other questions about FCF’s Sweet Redeems? Please let us know at: mr.upgrade [at] firstclassflyer.com