Yesterday we casually booked a flight home from Paris. Yes, you read that right, ‘from Paris.’ Why did we book a flight from Paris without figuring out how to get to Paris first? Meh, details. Well as you know Maine gets a little chilly in the winter and we wanted to plot a March escape somewhere….to Paris where it is also chilly! 🤣
Let the Redemption Dictate the Destination
I was scanning points/miles redemptions from a few places we were targeting. We were thinking either Rio or Paris…(they are so similar!), and Air France had a redemption that was too good to be true. 50,000 miles per person on the direct flight in business class between Paris to Boston. Air France (so far) has my favorite business class product so this was exciting! The seats, food and service are always wonderful. We booked, got excited…and identified a problem. How are we getting to Paris?
Business class flights between Boston and Paris were outrageous whether on points or money. Now, I could have waited weeks, months and hoped for better pricing. But don’t let this blog fool you, I have too much anxiety for that! I was hoping TAP Portugal would bail us out since they tend to have significantly lower prices, but alas the Portuguese failed me. They were a bit cheaper, but not enough.
I did notice United was on the lower end of miles and actual cost. We have plenty of United miles so I figured we could pay for one ticket and redeem for the other. Matt sacrifices so much to provide me and the dogs a wonderful life in Maine. He is always on the road shlepping around the country. If we were going to spend money on a business class ticket, I would prefer it to be on United as that is his airline of choice for frequent business travel and by paying for his ticket, he would get credits towards his status. United does not have a direct flight to Paris from Boston as that is not their hub and we would have to transfer from Newark or Chicago. Is it me or does United choose the absolute worst airports as their Hubs? Like who chooses Newark?
Reposition Yourself!
Then I had a thought! What if I just looked at the cost of the United flight between Newark and Paris and just skipped the connection part? I am glad I had that thought because it saved us 900 dollars and about 50,000 miles if we just booked the flight directly from Newark. We booked my ticket on miles and paid for Matt’s ticket. Then I checked to see what the cost of 2 tickets between Portland and Newark. The cost was 185 dollars for the two of us. We also save about 100 dollars paying for our driver to take us to Portland instead of Boston (which pays for one of our flights to Newark 😉). Repositioning ourselves saved us almost 1,000 dollars and about 50,000 miles.
Are There Risks to This?
The only risk is technically the Portland to Newark flight and the Newark to Paris flight are on different reservations. This means you would have to fetch and recheck luggage and if your first flight is delayed, you are f*cked as this is not considered a connection. To minimize the risk, Matt and I are flying into Newark the night before. We would have 24 hours to figure out how to get to Newark (including renting a car if we had to) if our Portland flight never took off, but as long as it leaves at some point, we will be fine with an overnight layover.
Doesn’t Paying for a hotel in Newark Negate Some of the Savings
Nope, because of flight times and us having to work, we would have stayed in Boston for an evening prior to our flight if we started our journey there. Actually, this saves money as Newark is (a dump) much cheaper than Boston.
Moral of the Story
We are going to Paris because I noticed redemptions were very cheap for the flight home. While I wish this vacation was completely on miles, by repositioning ourselves we are saving quite a bit of money/miles and not wasting any time as we would have had to connect anyway! Be open-minded, flexible or creative and deals are to be found!
Bon Voyage,
Andrew
Out And Abroad 