The Power of Points for Last Minute Flights

Author: Matthew June 18, 2024

What's a better Father's Day gift than saving my parents from an 8-hour drive to Charleston by getting them free flights on points? Ok, maybe there are several better options, but I want to share in this blog post how having points saved both time and money in a last-minute decision. By building up a bank of points with the right credit cards, I now have the flexibility to find point deals and help myself and family save on travel.

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How last minute was this?

My parents drove down from Philly to visit Sarah and me Saturday , June 8 as a road trip break before they continued on with their 8-hour drive to Charleston for the week. Their original plan was to drive down early Sunday morning, stay for five nights, then drive back up all day Friday, with another break at our house. Doing the math over dinner, that would be

16 hours of driving (and lost quality time),
over $100 on gas,
$100 for overnight parking , and
just added fatigue of driving

Expensive flights

Sure, it'd be more convenient to fly, but as you can see on the right, flights were $500/person, or $1,000 total for the two of them. Flying (and then the added Uber to/from the airport) would kill any cost saving and not be worth the 16-hour drive.

Points to the rescue

Point bookings don't always follow the same rules as cash bookings; for example, some are distance-based, like British Airways which we'll dive into.

Booking the flight down on AA through British Airways

Looking at American Airlines, I found the same cash flights for a lot cheaper on points - only 8,500 miles per person, one-way. That was easy, but not the optimal move. I then went to British Airways since they are a partner airline with AA to see how much it would cost to book that AA flight using their miles - Avios. Lo and behold, it was cheaper by a few hundred points. BA calculates flights by distance, so the 8,250 was standard and what I wanted to book. Plus, it was more worth it to save my AA miles since they're harder to earn AND I already had a bank of British Airways miles from booking Airbnbs by booking through the BA x Airbnb portal.

Note - I know I could have looked at other partners that evening to find even cheaper options, but since the flight was literally the next day, I didn't want to delay as this deal was good enough.

The Savings

So, instead of paying $250/person ($500 total) for the trip down, I only paid $11.20. Our cent per point value would be ($500 - $11.20) / 16,500 = 2.96 cpp | a great value here

Bonus Lunch

Because my parents were now flying out of DCA and I recently referred my dad to the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card, he was able to use his complimentary Priority Pass lounge access at the only restaurant in DCA, the Great American Taproom, where my parents were able to get $56 off from their bill (excluding tip). This was a much nicer lunch to have than some random place on the road down.

A kerfuffle and warning

Failing to book the return flight on Air Canada

Since I live near Dulles, it was more convenient for my parents to fly back directly from CHS to IAD, and United is the only airline with that route. Since we attended church in Arlington on Sunday, it was easier to drop them off in DCA. So, for the flight back, we found saver awards on United for 15,000 points per person, one-way. But 15,000 points was still a little much for our taste, so we looked at United's partner, Air Canada, to find something cheaper. And there we go, on AirCanada the flight was 6,000 point per person and $34 USD OR 10,670 points with no taxes/fees.

For this flight, my dad actually wanted to book this with is own points, thinking I had done enough, so we unfortunately went through this problem. He created an AirCanada Aeroplan account and used that member number to send the sufficent amount of points to AirCanada. However, I suspect because it was a new account, the points didn't immediately transfer like normal, and thus we weren't able to book the flight that night. And unfortunatley, he didn't get the points into his account until after he returend from Charleston. So, as a warning, make sure in your free time you create frequent flyer accounts so they're ready to go.

The safe alternative

Booking the return flight on AA through Qantas

So, it was back to me to find a good flight back for them on the Wednesday while they were on their trip and coming back in a few days. By then, the Air Canada flight option was gone too, so I couldn't just transfer my points there. Having more time, I returned back to the AA route (CHS -> DCA) and looked at other partners for options. It's hard to beat BA's low rate, but I thought I'd give it a shot, and Wuhoo, we found an even cheaper flight - 8,000 points per person. I transferred my 16,000 Amex points to Qantas right away and booked their flight back.

Bonus Breakfast

At the CHS airport, they once again had lounge access, this time at The Club at CHS, allowing them to get free breakfast and mimosas while waiting for their flight.

Lessons Learned

I hope this example can encourage you to build up your points bank and see a real-life situation where points can help offset a huge burden in travel. If you ever have questions, contact us!

Build up a bank of points so you can use it at a moment’s notice
Point booking don’t always follow the same pattern as cash bookings. Cash prices for last-minute flights can increase a lot, but point bookings might actually become cheaper.
Know your transfer partners, and make those frequent flier accounts early, so you don’t run into transfer delays
Transferrable points are gold. Because I had Amex and Chase points that can transfer to a variety of airlines, I had the flexibility and choice to go with cheaper point options.

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