The 10 Best Flight Deals We’ve Found in 2025 (So Far)

We've been searching for cheap flights and hard-to-find award availability for more than 10 years here at Thrifty Traveler, sending more than 1,200 flight deals alerts a year to our Thrifty Traveler Premium members. But less than halfway through, 2025 might already be the best year of deals in our company's history. 

This week, I took on the Herculean task of whittling down the more than 500 flight deals we've sent so far in 2025 to just 10 top candidates. That meant cutting out $76 roundtrip flights to Chicago, nonstop flights to Tokyo in the $700s roundtrip, and peak summer business class flights to Europe from just 26,000 points each way. 

So what cracks the top 10 of flight deals so far this year? There are not one, not two, but three separate mistake fares to Europe with absurdly low fares – including one in business class! There are plenty of points deals like 25,000 Delta SkyMiles to get to Asia and back and roundtrip domestic redemptions for under 2,000 points. And there were Unicorn alerts to fly some of the hardest-to-book flights on the planet, including Qantas First Class to Sydney (SYD) or First Class with either Emirates or Etihad to the Middle East. 

All that is to say: It's been an incredibly year of flight deals so far … and we see no signs of the deals slowing down. So let's take a look back at the best deals our Thrifty Traveler Premium flight deal alert subscribers received in their inboxes so far this year, and rank them 1-10. 

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Honorable Mentions: QSuites & Starlux Biz Class

You know this list is gonna be good when the world's best business class doesn't even crack the top 10.

Peak season availability to book Qatar Airways Qsuites from just 54,000 points each way? Yes, please!

 

 

I already hate my own ranking here, because the value of this deal is insane. Thanks to a 30% transfer bonus from Amex to British Airways, these 70,000 point fares could only cost you 54,000 points each way!

 

 

The list of places you can fly Qsuites is amazing, including to book your safari, your Middle East desert getaway, or a trip all the way to Thailand or elsewhere in Southeast Asia. 

Speaking of Asia, the buzziest new Asian airline is Starlux. Based in Taipei (TPE), this carrier is swinging for the fences with ultra-luxurious digs in the business class cabin. 

But finding a way to book those seats (without spending $7,000) was nearly impossible … until this deal.

 

 

Enter Alaska Airlines and its Alaska Mileage Plan, which allows you to book Starlux business class for 75,000 points each way. 

Well, finally, it became available earlier this year, and we sent out a Unicorn Alert to show our subscribers how rare it truly is. From Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), and Seattle (SEA), you could have found those 75,000-mile rates for a trip this year. 

 

10. JetBlue Mistake Fare to Amsterdam, London, & Paris from $218 RT

At number 10 is a deal so good that it barely lasted an hour.

JetBlue screwed up to start off 2025, leading to fares like this one to Europe that broke our brains. 

 

 

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Less than an hour after we found these fares, they had already disappeared … but not before our fastest members saw the alert and booked roundtrip flights to Europe for less than a flight to Vegas or Chicago.

Honestly, this deal would have easily cracked the top five were it not so short-lived. Still, these fares to Amsterdam (AMS), London-Heathrow (LHR), and Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) were some of the craziest we can remember. 

 

 

A word to the wise: If you see a mistake fare like this, book first and ask questions later. 

 

9. Rare Etihad First Class (& Biz Class) Availability

Etihad – the fancy Abu Dhabi(AUH) -based airline – doesn't offer up a lot of points and miles availability to book its best seats. That's because, for a seat like it's First Class “Apartments” shown below, the airline can easily charge $10,000 or more instead. 

But every once in a great while, Etihad will release a few some seats to be booked with miles … like this. 

 

 

We caught this spontaneous release late last month and sent it to our members within minutes. Better yet: You could book for just 115,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles from Toronto (YYZ) – where they fly those Apartment suites – as well as New York City (JFK). It was the first time we had seen Etihad First Class bookable with AAdvantage miles in years.

But Etihad also did something else unusual just a few days earlier: It released some coveted business class award space, too. 

 

 

The new route from Atlanta (ATL) to Abu Dhabi (AUH) suddenly opened up, giving travelers a way to fly to Cairo (CAI), Johannesburg (JNB), Maldives (MLE), Nairobi (NBO), and more all included for 70,000 American AAdvantage miles (or 75,000 miles to Johannesburg) each way. 

 

8. Delta Premium Select Mistake Fare to Spain from $603

Most airlines will charge $600, $900, or even more for a roundtrip to Europe in basic economy. Delta messed up earlier this year and sold its second-best seats for that price. 

Delta Premium Select is a slick way to fly over the ocean, with wider seats, far more legroom, and better service and meals than you'll get in a standard economy seat. But Delta can be real stingy about how it prices these comfortable seats, selling them at fares that more closely resemble business class than premium economy. 

Unless, that is, they make a mistake and forget an important, expensive surcharge … and offer these seats up for the price of economy instead! 

 

 

This mistake fare turned many a Delta-flyer's heads – offering a stunningly low option to book these fares in the $600s roundtrip from Charlotte (CLT), Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), and Chicago, while also offering near-record-breaking fares in the $800s and $900s from many other Delta cities, too. 

 

 

To fly to Spain, this is one of the best values you'll find. Get this: It was about $2,000 off normal pricing!

 

7. Florida & the Northeast on JetBlue under 2K Points

We double and triple-checked this deal because we couldn't believe what we were seeing: One-way flights for … 700 miles?!

Hundred! Not thousand. Seven. Hundred. Miles. This JetBlue TrueBlue sale was unhinged.

 

 

Roundtrip flights for 1,400 miles to Florida or up to the Northeast changed what I thought was possible for award tickets. Think about it this way: A family of five for less than 10,000 points roundtrip.

That is bananas. 

 

6. Taiwan from 25K Delta SkyMiles

Delta SkyMiles flash sales remain the best way to get the most value for your hard-earned Delta miles. Sometimes they offer fares in the 30,000s to Europe or roundtrips to Australia, New Zealand, or Tokyo in the 50,000s. 

But fares in the 20,000s to Asia? That's not even possible, right? 

Wrong.

 

 

 Thrifty Traveler Premium members get tons of SkyMiles deals like this one – use promo code BDAY for 50% off your first year of alerts!

These 30,000-SkyMile fares (bookable one-way for 15,000, too!) flying through Delta's Seattle (SEA) hub to Taipei (TPE) is maybe the cheapest way we've ever seen to get to and from Asia. With a Delta SkyMiles credit card and its automatic 15% discount when redeeming SkyMiles on Delta flights, it dropped down to just 25,400 miles roundtrip – with only $44 in taxes and fees! 

 

 

And as you can see, almost every Delta city in the country was included on this deal, too. That meant travelers could take advantage from New York City (JFK) to Pasco (PSC) for the same amount of SkyMiles. 

 

5. Ultra-Rare Qantas First (& Biz) Class Awards

No matter how many miles you've got, getting to Australia in a lie-flat seat is tough. The airlines are incredibly stingy with releasing award space – none moreso than Australia's own Qantas.

We were wandering the points and miles to Australia desert for so long that we thought this was a mirage. It wasn't: It was a barrage of Qantas premium cabin flight deals flying down under, highlighted by this sweet Qantas First Class alert just a few weeks ago. 

 

 

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And for the first time in years, you could book these Qantas First Class flights to Sydney (SYD) next January – peak season down under – for just 110,000 American Airlines miles. You could also book with Alaska miles or Qantas's own frequent flyer miles, too. These swanky first class suites were enough to make us giddy, but if you're willing to slum it down in *checks notes* one of the nicest business class seats on earth, you could find even more availability. 

 

 

You could fly lie-flat from New York City (JFK) all the way to Auckland (AKL) in this seat for 127,000 points each way or from Los Angeles (LAX) to Brisbane (BNE) for 109,000 points each way using this deal. 

Qantas didn't stop there, either, offering availability on the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) flights to both Sydney (SYD) and Melbourne (MEL), too for the same rates. This flurry of Qantas availability was ultra-rare, but thanks to our dedicated team of analysts looking for it every day, we caught it as soon as it popped up!

 

4. Biz Class Mistake Fare to Europe on Lufthansa from $1063

Want to fly business class to Europe? You'd better have saved up $4,000 or more, as a that's the going rate for a roundtrip business class ticket. 

But not when the airlines make a mistake!

 

 

Flying in August and next winter, this Lufthansa business class mistake fare was one for the ages. All of these routes listed below featured fares under $1,500 roundtrip – less than half the usual cost to fly lie-flat to Europe. 

 

 

We heard from several travelers who were able to snag these unbelievable rates and make their next Euro-trip the comfiest yet. 

 

3. Cathay Pacific First & Biz Class Combo to SE Asia & Beyond

Booking Cathay Pacific First Class from New York (JFK) to Hong Kong (HKG) will cost you 160,000 miles each way…. but what if I told you that you could add on another flight, connecting in business class to Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, or beyond … and it got cheaper. 

Look, sometimes airfare just doesn't make sense, but that's exactly what we found with this mind-bendingly bougie flight deal earlier this year. 

 

 

Cathay Pacific First Class on the long haul to Hong Kong (HKG) is the stuff of dreams thanks to a beautiful airplane seat, true dedicated service, and access to Cathay's The Pier First Class Lounge. But connecting onward throughout Asia and Oceania for even fewer points is one of the best deals I've ever seen in travel.

 

 

2. A Europe Flight Bonanza, All Under $398 RT!

It started slowly … and then happened all at once: The airlines started slashing fares to Europe down into the $400s to try to poach one another's customers. 

From there, the competition really heated up. How hot, you ask? 

 

 

Roundtrip flights to Rome (FCO), Dublin (DUB), Zurich (ZRH) and more in the $300s are almost unheard of – especially from interior airports like Detroit (DTW), Salt Lake City (SLC), and Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) … not to mention from West Coast cities like Seattle (SEA). 

That was one of several deals that featured fares in the $300s. But then it got even better. Almost all of the most coveted nonstop flights to Europe all fell in to the $400s and $300s, too. No connections required on these sizzling fares! 

 

 

This is just a tiny, tiny sample of the bonanza of Europe flight deals we found last month. For the price of a flight to Florida, you could visit Venice or Naples (the Italian ones) instead. 

And these flights were not on low-cost or budget carriers, either. Almost all of these fares were on American, Delta, and United. 

 

1. Emirates First Class (& Biz Class) to Italy from 102k Points Each Way

Nothing says luxury, or prestige, or fancy, or the number one flight deal of the year quite like Emirates First Class on the A380. 

The crazy first class suites with Dom Perignon, caviar, and evenan onboard bar and shower scream elegance – elegance that could cost you $11,000 or more. Because we're “Thrifty” Traveler and not “Wealthy” Traveler, the only ways we search to book seats like these are using points and miles, so when we finally saw some availability pop up, we issued this Unicorn Alert. 

 

 

Just 102,000 Emirates Skywards miles – transferable from Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, or Citi – were enough to secure one of these seats flying to and from New York (JFK) and Milan (MXP) early next year. And it was great timing, as Emirates began blocking most travelers from booking these outrageous seats just a week later.

But behind that first class cabin is the business class cabin, still offering an unreal flying experience with access to this swanky looking bar in the sky. 

 

 

Plus, when you book roundtrip through Emirates, you only need 108,000 miles to fly business class both ways! And what jumps out at me most about this deal, besides the incredible roundtrip rate, is the availability. Hmmm…what's going on in Italy in February 2026? The Winter Olympics! 

 

 

Maybe I'm just obsessed with this flight deal, or maybe you agree that it's the best deal of 2025 so far. It is my list after all. But it's undeniable that the value of flying Emirates' stacked double-decker A380 is one of the best flying experiences out there. 

 

Bottom Line

So there's our list of the 10 best flight deals of 2025 so far. Do you agree? Is there anything I missed? Let us know in the comments or on social media @thriftytraveler. 

The best part of this stellar list is that it's not over yet. We still have seven more full months of flight deals that will compete to join this list. I can't wait to see which ones can jump into that top spot! 

Get more deals like this with Thrifty Traveler Premium – use promo code BDAY for 50% off your first year before our sale ends this Friday!