Questions and Answers

Hello everyone,
I’m going to be flying back and forth between Washington DC and London starting in September 2016. What sort of things can I do now to minimize the cost? I’ll probably have to go back and forth 15 times over a year and a half. I have an AMEX Platinum which is great, but wondering if there’s something better I can use.
Kind Regards,
Adam

[USER=1296]@CaptainAdam[/USER]

Welcome.

Are you planning on flying on one airline/alliance or just buying the cheapest ticket there is?

Since you seem concerned about the cost can we assume you are paying for the tickets yourself and not forwarding the bills to client/employer?

What class of service are you planning to fly?

[USER=268]@No Name[/USER]

Hi,
I’m self funded- I’m going to school part time in England so I have to pay for the travel myself. Because of this, I planned to just find the cheapest ticket there is. I planned to go to Orbitz and find the cheapest ticket, but I’m hoping with some pre-planning I can find something better.
As a student, I’m also perfectly happy with coach.

[USER=1296]@CaptainAdam[/USER] Buying the cheapest airfare is probably your best bet. You can use tools like Kayak, Google Flights and Hopper to track pricing if you know in advance when you’re likely to travel. If prices are within a few bucks of each other consider trying to book with the same carrier/alliance so you can accrue status. Will help with a little more comfortable travel experience and hopefully a stash of miles you’ll be able to use in the future.

Hi Gaurav,
Thanks for the advice! I’d never heard of a couple of those sites. It may help though because I’ll know months in advance when I’ll need to fly, and I have always thought there was a “sweet spot” a month or two in advance of the flight when tickets are cheapest. I certainly don’t want to purchase a flight 6 months out and the price drop the next three months.

[USER=1296]@CaptainAdam[/USER] – also check yapta.com, which is a sister site to Kayak. There you can set alerts on flights and they’ll let you know when the price drops.

[USER=1296]@CaptainAdam[/USER]

Gaurav and MidsouthSkier had some good advise as normal. If you know months ahead when you will be traveling try keeping an eye on the deals forum on Flyertalk.
[URL]http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-deals-372/[/URL]
And don’t forget the premium fares forum either, sometime you can find very cheap premium seats there.
[URL]http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/premium-fare-deals-740/[/URL]

If you are after Amex points consider picking up the Premier Rewards Gold card, earns 3X points for flights booked with airlines.
[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/best-current-credit-card-offers/bank-rewards-cash-back-cards/[/URL]

Actually, I didn’t think about the credit card angle so good catch [USER=268]@No Name[/USER]. I would also look at the Citi Prestige and Barclays Arrival + to offset some of your travel costs and provide some comfort.

Everyone,
Thank you so much for this advice. It will probably save me big for when I start going back to school.
Is there a way to see online how many FF points it takes for an international flight? I’m guessing it’s anywhere from 50,000-100,000 points to fly coach, but interested if there’s a way to check it online.
Thanks again,
Adam

Here you go, all in one place.

[URL]http://millionmilesecrets.com/mile-and-point-resources/airline-award-charts/[/URL]

You might wan to read this article also when it comes to credit cards.