Originally this was going to be in my email list, but since I do not directly offer flight booking services, I thought it made more sense as a blog post.

Refundable flights are tricky because it usually costs dramatically more while hotels are more negligible. Please note that many airlines now do not charge change fees which makes booking non-fundable fares less risky, UNLESS you do not plan on flying with them again or anytime soon. Always read the fine print.

Scenario

Matt and I will be traveling to South Africa and Zimbabwe in October. We booked one-way business class tickets to Cape Town using a great United Airlines award redemption. From there I designed a vacation using my partner company, Kensington Tours to design a customized itinerary enabling us to see Cape Town, Safari in Kruger, Victoria Falls and Johannesburg. This is something I can also do for you for those seeking complicated itineraries and need help organizing. The problem was, now we needed to find a way home, in business class without going broke 😊.

Refundable Fare

I started looking for mile redemptions out of Johannesburg to Boston and was just not finding anything that I liked. I had a lot of Capital One points to transfer and burn but none of the redemptions looked any good. This means we had two options; fly economy (how tragic) or pay for business (less tragic as it did not bankrupt us).

I saw Virgin Atlantic airways had two business class seats for $2,000 a person. While steep, $2,000 for a 25-hour flight experience is actually quite good value in today’s market. $80 an hour to have a sleep pod, good food and the comforts of business class is quite good. I also noticed that for $500 dollars more a ticket, it would be refundable. I don’t know what Virgin Atlantic’s change fees were or anything like that, nor do I know when we would ever fly them again. Is another $1,000 for the two of us worth it for refundable tickets…ABSOLUTELY. Let me tell you why.

It Buys Us Time

We are not leaving until the very last week of October, 2025. This means I have 9 months to find a better price or ideally a reward redemption. Yes, if we do end up using these tickets you can argue we just wasted $1,000 dollars, but I had confidence in my skills that I can either find a better price or reward redemption. 9 months is a very long time, and I will look every day.

The other way to look at it, our professional and health outlook can change 9 months down the road so refundable was ideal in case we need to cancel.

We Were Satisfied with $2500 a Person

$100 an hour to fly home in business class is still totally worth it. We spend far more per hour to fly in cattle class when we travel domestically. Whenever we use cash for hotels or air travel, we use our heads and spend what is acceptable for our budget.

Happy Ending

As I said, we had no intention of not taking the refund and finding a better way home, we just wanted to secure an acceptable solution for now to take the pressure off. 2 weeks later, I already canceled it and collected our refund. How did I do it? I got creative with partners and transfers!

Did We Need to Fly to Boston?

 Why fly to Boston when we could fly to Dulles! A lot more international airlines fly to Dulles than Boston and I figured we might get a better redemption there. I immediately began searching and quickly found a way home using Air Canada miles.

Air Canada Flies from Johannesburg to Dulles?

Of course not, but one of their Star Alliance partners does and because Air Canada is a partner of Capital One, I was able to transfer my bank points to Air Canada’s program and book our business class flights home for free.

Wait, Isn’t Dulles Like Far From Maine?

Sure, but United has a direct flight between Dulles and Portland. Win-win! Now we land 20 minutes from home instead of dealing with Boston Logan!

Wait! Don’t You Have to Pay for those Dulles to Portland Flights?

Yes, $300 dollars for the two of us. In other words, for $300 dollars Matt and I are flying to and from South Africa in business class and landing in Portland, ME Not bad, right? 😊

What Are You Going to Do with Your Virgin Atlantic Refund?

We just paid off our 5-star luxury spa retreat in the Italian Dolomites with it. Canceling one flight just paid for our entire next vacation.

Final Thoughts

Travel coordination requires patience, planning and not giving up. At the end of the day, Matt and I paid a cash price of what we found acceptable, but also were willing to play the long game. My hotel, tours and cruise services are all complimentary, but if you need help with flights, points or just general travel strategy like this, reach out and we can discuss what would be an appropriate cost for my consulting.

Bon Voyage,

Andrew

Email: andrew.reiser@fora.travel

Instagram: areiser86

Website: Andrew Reiser Fora

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