Using airline miles isn’t nearly as simple as paying cash for a flight – especially if you’re aiming for the comfy seats up front. Airlines are increasingly throttling prized premium cabin award space for the growing audience of American travelers flush with points, making business class much harder to book…
One easy solution? Start your search for long-haul flights from Canada instead, where it's often much easier to find a lie-flat seat bookable with points.
We search hundreds of routes per day for our Thrifty Traveler Premium subscribers, so you can trust us when we say: There are plenty of business class awards out there … especially if you're willing to take an extra step and depart from our neighbors to the north. Again and again, we've seen that flights from Toronto (YYZ), Montreal (YUL), Vancouver (YVR), and even Ottawa (YOW) often have far better “saver” award availability than the big U.S. hubs like New York City (JFK), Chicago (ORD), or Los Angeles (LAX).
I can hear it now: “But I don't live in Canada.” That's OK! You can book a cheap positioning flight to one of these cities – and given the increased award availability, it's worth it.
The reason is twofold: More points, fewer seats. The booming U.S. credit card market means more travelers have miles to burn, creating fierce competition for business class availability. Meanwhile, new tools like Seats.aero and Point.me have made it easier than ever to find and book the few remaining seats.
But by tapping into this Canadian sweet spot, you can fly in style for fewer miles. Here’s how.
The Proof is in The Pudding
While this isn't a comprehensive list of business class award availability from Canada, it does give you a good sampling of what we're seeing and how it compares to similar routes from the U.S.
Award availability is always in flux (and seems to come in waves), but if you want more options for putting your hard-earned points and miles to use, here's where to look.
France (or Most of Europe!)
For years, Air France/KLM's Flying Blue program was a surefire way to score cheap business class flights to Europe using points and miles – plus, those miles are incredibly easy to earn by transferring credit card points from all the major banks. But for the past year, saver award availability from the U.S. has all but evaporated.
To make matters worse, Flying Blue rang in the New Year with an unexpected price hike, raising award rates by as much as 25%. At the time, it was billed as a way to open up more of the lowest cost awards to Flying Blue members. Months later, we're still waiting to see the additional space that was promised.
A quick look at Flying Blue's award calendar for business class flights from New York City (JFK) to Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG), shows just one flight available at the lowest cost of 60,000 miles in the month of August. Add in a handful of additional dates in July and that's the best price you'll find over the next seven months – and this is a route Air France flys nonstop up to seven times per day!
But the drought of award space isn't nearly as prevalent North of the border. Looking at nonstop flights from Montreal (YUL) to Paris, you'll find eight dates with business class seats available at 60,000 miles each way … and a handful more at a steeper (though still reasonable) 82,000-mile price point.
You'll find similar peak-summer availability for 60,000 miles one way from other Canadian gateways served by Air France, such as Toronto (YYZ) and Ottawa (YOW).
And these prices get even better with Flying Blue's monthly Promo Rewards. Each month, Flying Blue puts select routes on sale for up to 50% off normal award rates. The discount is valid for booking throughout the month for a specific travel period, typically five or so months in advance. One thing you won't often see is discounts on business class flights departing the U.S. But the same isn't true for Canada…
When the most recent list went live earlier this month, we found (nearly) wide open availability from Ottawa to Paris, with connections elsewhere in Europe, for just 45,000 miles each way. Here's a screenshot of the deal we sent to our Thrifty Traveler Premium subscribers.
Related Reading: A Review of the New Air France A350 Business Class Suites
Taiwan Flying China Airlines
It's not just Europe where Flying Blue miles are more useful for flights departing Canada. We're also seeing increased availability on business class flights to Asia, booked with Flying Blue partners like China Airlines.
After going months without seeing more than one or two China Airlines business class seats bookable from the U.S. to Taipei, we recently tipped Thrifty Traveler Premium members off to gobs of award space from Vancouver (YVR), all bookable for 66,500 miles each way – though some of our members reported that it actually repriced to under 60,000 miles at checkout!
Best of all, Flying Blue miles are some of the easiest airline miles to earn since you can transfer points from all the major transferable points programs.
This means if you're earning Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One Venture Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou® Points, or even Wells Fargo Rewards you can instantly transfer those points to Flying Blue miles at an even 1:1 ratio. Earning points on rent with Bilt Rewards? You can transfer those points to Air France/KLM Flying Blue as well.
Switzerland with SWISS
Points and miles aficionados have long put up with Avianca LifeMiles' shoddy customer service and wonky website due to its low mileage redemption rates and reasonable taxes and fees. But after a couple of recent devaluations – including one just last month – many of our favorite sweet spots have gone sour.
The good news? Flights between Europe and Canada were left untouched in the first price hike – and the same is largely true with the most recent devaluation. But best of all, availability on Star Alliance partners like SWISS and Lufthansa is typically much easier to find when flying to and from Canada.
For example, if you search for business class flights from Chicago-O'Hare (ORD) to Zurich (ZRH) on SWISS, you'll regularly come back empty handed – especially over peak summer months like July and August.
Meanwhile, if you change your search to look for flights between Montreal (YUL) and Zurich (ZRH), you'll find more than a dozen dates (indicated by the small blue line on the calendar) in both July and August going for 63,000 miles in business class – or 30,000 miles in economy.
You'll find similar, increased availability from Canada on other Star Alliance airlines flying to Europe like Lufthansa and Air Canada … go figure.
Turkish Airlines to Istanbul
Turkish Airlines business class availability tends to come in waves, with the airline randomly deciding to make lie-flat seats on its many routes bookable using points. But the same trend holds: Booking business class to and from the U.S. has gotten harder over the last year or two.
You can often find better availability flying Turkish Airlines business class from Vancouver (YVR) to Istanbul (IST) – with connections to pretty much anywhere else in the world – than what you'll see from U.S. gateways. We recently sent our Thrifty Traveler Premium members an alert for this deal, bookable from Vancouver for just 65,000 Turkish miles each way.
You could also book for slightly more through programs like Air Canada and Avianca LifeMiles. Since Avianca partners with pretty much every major bank – including Amex, Capital One, Citi, Wells Fargo, and even Bilt Rewards – you likely have access to the points needed to book this seat.
Germany with Condor
For one final example of how much better business class availability from Canada can be, let's take a look at the German airline, Condor. Condor flies its beach towel-inspired planes from Frankfurt (FRA) to a handful of cities in the U.S. as well as three in Canada.
Looking at business class availability on the nonstop between New York City (JFK) and Frankfurt for August, you'll see just two dates available at the lowest rate of 55,000 Alaska miles and $50 in taxes and fees.
But look from Toronto (YYZ) instead, and you'll find nearly wide-open availability for the entire month at the lowest price of 55,000 miles and $74 in taxes and fees.
Considering flights between New York City and Toronto clock in at just under two hours – and regularly sell for $100 or less each way – positioning to Toronto could be well worth the added cost and hassle for this kind of availability.
Bottom Line
Booking business class flights with airline miles is getting harder as U.S. travelers compete for limited award seats. A smart workaround? Fly from Canada, where saver award availability is often better in cities like Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.
With a cheap positioning flight, you can unlock more options and live the high life on your next big trip abroad.
Very useful. Thanks.