Unrelated news update: As of 5 a.m. ET this morning, Global Entry is reopening. Yay!
The great thing about booking flights with miles and points is that you can potentially change your plans without losing all of your money. Many airlines let you change/cancel award flights for free, while some charge a cancellation/change fee. But still, usually that fee is better than losing the entire fare.
I try to book award flights as soon as airlines release the flights, usually 11-12 months ahead of time. When I find something that works, I book it before the award availability is gone. I don’t always get the top cabin or routing, but I book something that I can live with, knowing that potentially I can change my trip if I find something better closer to my trip time.
My Track Record with Booking Last-minute “Better” Award Flights
Well, I’m not going to sugar coat this: My track record is bad. Despite setting price alerts and constantly searching for better routing or an upgraded cabin, I’ve never had luck with last-minute award bookings.
For example, when my family went to Japan last year, I had to book my son and his friend on Economy. Unfortunately, even though I kept searching, no Premium Economy award seats opened up for our dates. Similarly, my daughter and I flew home from Shanghai in Premium Economy. I would have loved to fly home in Business class, but nothing ever opened up.
In a few days, my family is traveling to the Caribbean for spring break. For our flights home, we actually have two stopovers: an overnight in Miami, followed by a short layover in Houston before landing at DFW. I had hoped we could find a nonstop flight from Miami to DFW eventually, whether with miles or a cheap cash fare. Alas, that didn’t happen. Both cash and miles prices for a nonstop flight over spring break are ridiculously expensive. Even though I’m now dreading two layovers, it is what it is.
In a few months, my daughter and I are traveling to Asia again. Our return flights are a bit cumbersome right now: Krabi to Bangkok to Hong Kong to Seattle to DFW. The long flight is in Premium Economy. I’d love to find a more direct route or an upgraded award flight in Business class. But, I’m not counting on it.
Have you had luck finding last-minute better award flights? I’d love to hear your experiences.
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
I can totally relate to this, it’s way harder than it sounds to snag those last minute upgrades
I’ve also kept checking flights nonstop hoping for business class to open up, but no luck most times
It really feels like you have to get lucky with timing more than anything
Still, booking something decent early is definitely the safest move
Oman Air cancelled our flight from the Maldives with no notice. Found next day biz class on Virgin Atlantic to London (using 65k delta), in those bizarre inward facing sort of “lie flat” seats.
@profoundcherryblossom Wow, what a great last-minute find!
I had a 35k AA economy flight booked from Atlanta to Tokyo a couple years ago, and then luckily a 60k business flight opened up a couple days before my trip and it was an easy switch!
@bc Wow, that’s great luck!
Finding saver space in premium cabins for long haul flights can be rough these days for sure. Do you have multiple award currencies available? Are the trips midweek when there’s generally lower demand? Most of the award space that comes open late to/from Asia tends to be into west coast cities and to/from Europe more east coast. For Caribbean I’d keep looking but for spring break, even on a weekday the odds are pretty bad. Please don’t advertise this but if you have Alaska miles you can fly Condor BKK-FRA-YYZ for 85K miles +$100 each in business on certain days. There is some availability in May/June.
@Christian Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately the Condor route is not available at a saver rate for my dates. But I’ll keep looking. 🙂