Here at Thrifty Traveler, we pride ourselves on finding the cheapest domestic and international airfare. That's what our Thrifty Traveler Premium service is all about: finding fares at $500 off or more. What's better than a cheap flight?
Just one thing: A free flight – or a nearly free one. That's why we also scour the internet for the best ways to use points and miles to travel more for even less. We're the only flight deal alert service on the market that sends our members both cheap cash fares and award alerts to book flights using points and miles – including rare business and first class opportunities!
We've sent Thrifty Traveler Premium+ members alerts for Delta SkyMiles flash sales with massive discounts on flights to Europe, Asia, and beyond; rare award sales on both United and American Airlines; and huge amounts of business and first class award availability to save not hundreds, but thousands, of dollars.
Take a look at some of the absolute best award fares we've sent to Premium+ members.
Thrifty Traveler Premium+ is the only flight deal service that sends both cheap cash fares and award alerts to use points and miles!
- Delta SkyMiles Flash Sales to Europe for 32K RT – Or Less!
- Fly Almost Anywhere in Europe for 30K Miles RT!
- Award Fare Alerts for Tons of Qsuites Seats!
- 10K AAdvantage Miles to Fly Roundtrip … to Australia
- A Summer Trip to Switzerland in Biz Class
- Delta One to Europe for 50K Points
- Worldwide AAdvantage Miles Sale from ALL U.S. Cities
- SkyMiles Flash Sale to Cancun for 11K RT
- A Chance to Fly Emirates' Gamechanger First Class
- ANA First Class to Japan for 43K Points
Delta SkyMiles Flash Sales to Europe for 32K RT – Or Less!
It's only right to start with Delta SkyMiles flash sales.
Delta is notorious for ditching its award chart, the cheat sheet that lays out how many miles it will cost to fly from point A to point B. Instead, Delta uses dynamic pricing: SkyMiles rates vary wildly based on cash price, time of year, demand, and more. And while that's a bummer, there's a massive upside: Huge flash sales with massive discounts. Like this one.
Earlier this year, we unearthed an unpublished SkyMiles flash sale with availability from almost any airport in the U.S. to major European cities from just 32,000 SkyMiles … roundtrip! That's half what most airlines charge for these flights!
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Occasionally, we've seen SkyMiles award fares to Europe even cheaper. And by cheaper, we mean half that already incredible price. A few years ago, Delta slashed rates as low as just 14,000 SkyMiles round-trip to get to London and back.
Delta loves targeting its competitors' hubs with deals like this – and unfortunately, travelers in Delta strongholds like Atlanta (ATL) or Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) often pay higher rates thanks to Delta's Hub Penalty. In this case, flights were still available nationwide for 30,000 SkyMiles or less!
Delta rarely advertises these massive sales, but we always find them. Flash sales like this one are easily the best way to use your Delta SkyMiles. And this one is just the tip of the iceberg.
Fly Almost Anywhere in Europe for 30K Miles RT!
At the end of 2019, we stumbled upon an absolute goldmine.
Delta temporarily cut SkyMiles award rates flying partner airlines like Air France, KLM, or Virgin Atlantic – and with that came some unbelievable value when using SkyMiles. With this deal, you could have flown to most major European cities for just 30,000 SkyMiles round-trip!
Most airlines charge at least 60,000 miles for a round-trip to Europe, and Delta often charges much, much more. Whether you booked flights to western European megahubs like Amsterdam (AMS) or Frankfurt (FRA) or even farther-flung destinations like Athens (ATH) or Kyiv (KBP) in Ukraine, it was still just 30,000 miles.
Roundtrip flights to many European destinations can cost up to $1,000 cash, so the savings by using SkyMiles here were insane.
Unfortunately, Delta has since raised prices for these flights considerably: After a devaluation in late 2020, these same redemptions now cost at least 70,000 miles roundtrip. But there's a great way you can still book almost any roundtrip flight to Europe for 30,000 miles…
Air France and KLM teamed up with Virgin Atlantic in 2020, allowing you to use Virgin Flying Club points to book Air France/KLM flights – or vice versa. Unfortunately, some hefty cash fees make using Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles to fly KLM a bad deal – with one exception.
Flights departing from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) are spared from those exorbitant fees. That means you could book roundtrip flights from Minneapolis to almost anywhere in Western Europe as low as just 30,000 miles and under $100 in fees.
Just book with Virgin Atlantic points instead of Delta SkyMiles. – they're easy to earn, as Virgin is an Amex transfer partner, a Chase transfer partner, a Capital One transfer partner, a Citi ThankYou transfer partner, and even a Bilt Rewards transfer partner.
During peak travel periods like mid-summer, you'll see higher rates of 50,000 points roundtrip. On the plus side, it's easy to find and book these flights. And if you can pair it with a transfer bonus – like a 30% bonus when sending Chase points to Virgin Atlantic, for example – it gets even better.
These fares, available later this fall, through the winter, and into the spring or even summer of 2023, would typically cost over $1,000!
Award Fare Alerts for Tons of Qsuites Seats!
Qatar Airways Qsuites are the best business class seats in the world – and it's not particularly close. So go figure that finding the award availability to book these unbeatable suites can be a challenge – especially lately. We can help.
In 2022 alone, we've sent Thrifty Traveler Premium+ seven email alerts in 2022 for a chance to book Qatar Qsuites to the Middle East and beyond. After a major dry spell, just last week we found a massive amount of seats, with space for two (or more!) passengers to fly from the U.S. to Doha or even continue onward to almost anywhere in Africa.
Read our full review of flying Qatar Airways Qsuites from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) to Doha (DOH)!
This is just one of the latest business class award space alerts for Qsuites we've sent to Thrifty Traveler Premium+ subscribers. In this case, nonstop flights for two (or more!) were available from many U.S. hubs like Los Angeles (LAX), Chicago-O'Hare (ORD), Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), New York City (JFK), and many more.
You could book these seats for just 70,000 American AAdvantage miles each way – or 75,000 to fly all the way down to South Africa. We're always looking for ways to help travelers stretch their points even further by combining credit card transfer bonuses with our award alerts. It doesn't get much better than booking Qsuites for just 50,000 points thanks to a 40% transfer bonus from Amex to British Airways available earlier this year.
Want to fly business and first class? We allow Thrifty Traveler Premium+ members to get alerts for premium cabin fares and award space from all U.S. cities!
10K AAdvantage Miles to Fly Roundtrip … to Australia
This one in 2019 nearly broke the internet.
Whether you're paying cash or using miles, getting to Australia or New Zealand isn't cheap. So jaws hit the floor when American Airlines briefly sold flights from the U.S. to New Zealand and Australia for just 10,000 AAdvantage miles round-trip.
Yes, you read that correctly: 10,000 miles to get to New Zealand and back. Typically, 10,000 miles will hardly get you to a nearby U.S. city. But this was back when American Airlines was just starting to play with variable award fare pricing with their Economy Web Specials. Talk about making a splash!
The sale didn’t last more than an hour or two, but many of our Thrifty Traveler Premium+ members were able to book the deal of a lifetime after we shared it – though credit goes to Spencer from Straight To The Points for being the first to find this gem.
And the savings here were huge: These flights would have cost more than $1,000 each in cash. This was the deal of a lifetime!
A Summer Trip to Switzerland in Biz Class
Travel demand to Europe surges every summer, making it difficult to lock down award space if you want to fly across the pond in business class. As travel demand explodes heading into summer 2022, finding business class seats to Europe is like pulling teeth.
That's what made this next award alert so great. A few months back, we discovered a goldmine of award availability for two (or more) passengers to fly straight into Geneva (GVA) in Switzerland all summer long – almost every day from June through August 2022, to boot! And thanks to a transfer bonus from Amex to Avianca LifeMiles, these hard-to-find seats were bookable for just 52,000 points apiece!
SWISS business class is one of our favorite ways to fly to Europe. Snagging these seats for a summer trip at a discount thanks to one of our award alerts? You can't beat that.
Delta One to Europe for 50K Points
Booking a Delta One business class seat across the pond for just 50,000 points each way is one of the best deals in the world. Not with Delta SkyMiles, though: Delta often charges 120,000 SkyMiles, 250,000 SkyMiles, or even more … each way.
The trick to booking Delta One to Europe for 50,000 points is using Virgin Atlantic points … and it can be hard to find the award availability to make it work. But the tide has turned in 2022: We've given Thrifty Traveler Premium+ the heads-up several times in just the last few months about availability to book from several U.S. cities to Amsterdam (AMS), Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG), Brussels (BRU), Berlin (BER), Zurich (ZRH), and other destinations.
With the help of transfer bonuses to Virgin from banks like Chase or Capital One, it can be even cheaper than 50,000 points!
If you're really lucky, you'll even get a chance to fly to Europe in Delta One suites – Delta flies its Airbus A350-900s or Airbus A330-900neos equipped with these suites on a handful of transatlantic routes.
Worldwide AAdvantage Miles Sale from ALL U.S. Cities
American Airlines isn't nearly as generous with its mileage flash sales, but this one made history: It was the first worldwide flash sale on American Airlines AAdvantage miles!
Fares from every U.S. city were at least 50% off typical award fares to destinations around the world. We're talking:
- Hawaiian islands for 30,000 miles roundtrip
- Caribbean islands, from Aruba to St. Kitts, for 15,000 miles roundtrip
- European hotspots from Barcelona to Zurich for 33,000 miles roundtrip
- South American hubs like Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro for 30,000 miles roundtrip
- All of Central America for 15,000 miles roundtrip
- Asian gateways like Hong Kong and Tokyo for 40,000 miles roundtrip
SkyMiles Flash Sale to Cancun for 11K RT
Need a tropical escape this winter? We had just the ticket.
Delta typically charges 30,000 SkyMiles to 45,000 SkyMiles or more for roundtrip flights to Mexican hotspots like Cancún (CUN), Puerto Vallarta (PVR), and Cabo (SJD). This incredible SkyMiles flash sale we found helped travelers get there this coming winter from just 11,000 SkyMiles total. You can't beat that price.
This deal even included rock-bottom rates on the nonstop Delta flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Cancún, which rarely happens as Delta typically charges Minnesotans more for these prized routes.
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A Chance to Fly Emirates' Gamechanger First Class
There's first class … and then there's this. Emirates' game-changing first class suites cannot be touched. And we gave Thrifty Traveler Premium+ members the heads up on a rare chance to book it from the U.S. earlier this year.
Read our full review of the incredible Emirates first class suites on the 777!
Sadly, Emirates only has a handful of planes equipped with these incredible suites – and they rarely fly to the U.S. So when we noticed that Emirates was flying these jets between its Dubai (DXB) hub and Washington, D.C.-Dulles (IAD), we sent out an award alert with almost daily availability from January through March 2022!
In the months since we first found this deal, Emirates has repeatedly raised cash fees on nearly all of its routes, meaning these fares now cost you $800 plus all those miles. But back then, you could have booked the world's best first class for 136,000 miles and just $181!
ANA First Class to Japan for 43K Points
Just as Japan threw open its borders for the first time in nearly three years, we found the unicorn of all award alerts: ANA First Class to Tokyo in 2023 … for two!
Finding even one first class seat on this top-rated Japanese airline has been nearly impossible for more than a year. Traveling with a companion? Forget about it. So we knew we stumbled upon a literal goldmine with this award alert earlier this month – especially considering you could book using just 43,000 points each way!
This award space is long, long gone. Get the next alert with Thrifty Traveler Premium+!
Availability was limited, and only Los Angeles (LAX) was an option. But we can't blame our members for gobbling up all this award space within just a few hours … especially considering these flights typically cost $20,000.
Booking ANA first class awards via Virgin Atlantic is one of the best deals in the world of points and miles – if not the best, period. A first class ride to Tokyo for just 55,000 points (or less, thanks to transfer bonuses) is unbeatable, and this alert made it a reality.
Bottom Line
This is just the start. Between SkyMiles flash sales, award sales on American and United, mileage sweet spots, and business class availability, we're constantly finding the best ways to make your points and miles stretch even further.
Points and miles are the key to traveling more for less. That's why we send these alerts to Thrifty Traveler Premium+ members along with massive discounts on international and domestic cash fares.