tl;dr – How about $1300? –
‘Deals I’m Booking That You Should Too’ is a recurring series featuring a travel deal(s) I’m moving on that you may also want to consider.
We’re back with another installment of “Deals I’m Booking That You Should Book Too”, a weekly series where I walk you through a random (possibly more) curated deal(s) – points & miles, cash, otherwise (?) – that I find compelling for one reason or another. You can find the past installments here (and yes, volumes 3-6 are on their way, I have forgotten!). Ok, let’s dive into it.
The Challenge
Recently, I needed to book a return flight from Japan. I actually needed to book two tickets. I discovered availability for two business class seats on a Japan Airlines (JAL) route from Tokyo’s Narita Airport to Los Angeles, CA (LAX), that was my exact date.
Perfect. Now I needed to get a hold of some miles in order to make the redemption.
In a previous edition of “Deals I’m Booking That You Should Too” I discussed using AAdvantage miles to book business class to/from Japan for $1500. Would that be the best deal I could find this go-round?
A Battle Royale of Points Sales – Which Airline’s Miles Should I Buy?
The JAL flight, and award availability was showing on four (if not all) of JAL’s partner airlines – American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Qantas, and JetBlue.
As luck would have it, each of these airlines are currently running sales on their miles, so I figured there was a good chance I could purchase the necessary miles and save big time money off the cash rate of the flight.
BTW, here’s a look at the cash price:
$4357.
I’ll also point out that the going rate for ‘laying flat’ to or from Japan, anyday, is around $1200-$1400, on ZipAir. On this day it’s $1364.
Of course, as a budget carrier, you’d be getting a no-frills experience – really just the seat – but I make mention of that as that was more or less my reserve price.
After confirming the availability of the tickets on each airline’s website, I got to work figuring out who had the best price. Each carrier was asking for a different amount of miles (in their own currency, of course, e.g. Atmos Rewards, AAdvantage Miles, etc.).
Alaska Airlines
First off, I checked Alaska. I was targeted for an 80% bonus on Alaska’s current Atmos Rewards sale, which is decent but not as good as the 100% bonus offer some Atmos members have received. Booking this partner business fare through Alaska would cost 75,000 Atmos Rewards per seat, so I’d need 150,000 total.
The cost for 150,000 Atmos Rewards?
$2975. Add in the $58 (per ticket) taxes and fees, and my out the door price fro booking with Atmos awards is $3091.
American Airlines
Ok, let’s check American Airlines now. American Airlines just ended its biggest miles sale of the year, then turned around and offered a slightly less competitive sale where you could buy miles with up to a 40% discount.
It cost 60,000 AAdvantage miles per ticket (120,000) total for the JAL seats. As the 120,000 miles I need don’t qualify for the deepest (40%) discount, my total price for these miles was $3160.50. Taxes and fees on the award tickets were only ~$50 per seat, but given that price to purchase miles is already higher than what I just saw with Alaska, I knew American Airlines wasn’t going to be the winner.
Qantas
Next, I looked at Qantas. Qantas is offering up to a 60% bonus on Qantas Points purchases. I was cheating here a little bit in that I had some rogue Amex Membership Rewards I was planning to transfer to Qantas if I found their sale to be competitive enough. To redeem this fare on Qantas Points, I’d need 129,000 points (+ ¥37100.00 JPY = $237.55).
Factoring in the Amex points I planned to transfer, I’d need to purchase an additional 216,500 points at a cost of AUD 3640 ($2422.42). (Side note: I love purchasing points from Virgin Velocity and Qantas because of the favorable exchange rate.)
Ok, after factoring in the $237.55 in taxes and fees per ticket, my all in cost booking through Qantas (and supplementing with those Amex points) is $2897.52. That’s cheaper than Alaska but again, I would need to use those Amex rewards. I’ll keep this in mind.
JetBlue
And then there is JetBlue. I rarely interact with JetBlue as the carrier’s routes don’t really match my travel patterns. Despite JetBlue having some decent partners – Qatar Airways is one – I’ve found there are more attractive redemption options for most of the fares on partner airlines that can be booked with TrueBlue points.
Which is why I was super surprised to see that JetBlue was the winner here!
Each award fare costs 79,900 points and $208.53. The cost to purchase the needed 159,800 TrueBlue Points were $2257.50.
Factoring in those taxes and fees ($208.53 X 2 = $417.06) and my total price for those two business class JAL tickets on JetBlue was $2674.56 or $1337.28 per ticket.
I’ll remind you that ZipAir was asking $1364 – a few dollars MORE expensive than what I’ve paid – and importantly, the ZipAir fare doesn’t include the same stellar soft product and in-flight service that JAL does (not to mention, no pre-flight lounge access).
At a savings of over $3000!!! off the cash price, I’ll take it. JAL, here I come.
The power of points and miles.
