Still Got It: The World’s Best Airfares Are Here Months Later

After 21+ years of premium airfare analysis, we thought one thing was constant: Really great deals don’t stick around for long.

For one particular strategy however, spectacular fares are still ripe for the picking.

FCF’s Leg Stretch Strategy:
How to Stretch Your Business Class Dollar the Furthest

FCF readers have surely seen the special reports we’ve written over the past few issues under the heading about the Leg Stretch Strategy.

A quick recap: The Leg Stretch Strategy uses unconventional routings and a North American stopover to save money on international tickets—in other words, it connects non-North American continents, with the U.S. acting as the middle-leg.

For example, you live in the U.S. and do business or vacation in Europe twice a year or more. In addition, you have a hankering to go to South America if you can get the right fare.

The Leg Stretch Strategy packages these seemingly disparate destinations into one beautifully fare-friendly ticket that doesn’t have to be done in one go. You break up the itinerary to suit your schedule.

It does this by making use of free round-trip stopovers, which are cheapest out of little-known special-fare cities in Europe. Some folks turn off right there because they live in the U.S. and want to go to Europe. The trick is in the sequencing of the trip, and the first part is: get yourself to Europe on a discounted one-way flight, not hard to do.

From there, the sequencing goes: Europe to the U.S. (free stopover), U.S. to South America, South America to the U.S. (free stopover), U.S. to Europe. The report links below all show how the structure works.

Keep Stretching 

As mentioned, the great news is that the Leg Stretches FCF has been writing about recently are still active, particularly the best fare, as reported here in May involving Europe and the South Pacific, a savings of over $6,000. We’ve been constantly updating these routes and fares and our Trip Widget gives you everything you need to know to make it happen.

In June the Leg Stretch covered Asia and South America, a savings of over $4,000.

In July it was Europe and South America using Delta and their SkyTeam partners, getting Business Class for less than coach.

In August it was United and Star Alliance partners between Europe and South America, getting Business Class for less than coach.

If you haven’t done so, we urge you to take another look at the Leg Stretch Strategy, because it is quite an astonishing way to save on airfares. The airlines could put a stop to this with a simple fare rule change, but haven’t yet. That could change by the end of this paragraph. Don’t wait. Get out that bucket list and make it work for you.