Booking Award Flights 102- Positioning Flights
Now that we’ve gone over the basics of how to book award flights, let’s dive in to the next step in our arsenal- positioning flights. We’ll talk about what they are as well as the potential downsides to them. Also, the ever frustrating married segment logic some airlines have.
What is a Positioning Flight?
A positioning flight is simply booking a flight from your home airport to where your big award flight departs from and/or returns to, if necessary. One of the most frustrating things about award travel is that you won’t always be able to find the perfect flights, especially if you live in a smaller city that doesn’t have many or any international destinations. It’s not always ideal to have multiple itineraries on a big international trip but sometimes you just have to.
Emirates First Class. Well worth positioning home to fly in this seat.
You may find business class award seats to your destination and back from a major international gateway like New York but you might not actually live in New York so you have to position yourself there to take the trip.
Most of the time when I am searching for award flights I start with the ideal trip from my small home airport to the destination we want to visit on the exact dates we want. After doing this for so many years I realize there is a slim chance that this will produce results but it has happened before. Take Our Best Redemption ever to the Maldives where I found business class seats from Charleston all the way to the Maldives for only 70,000 American Airlines miles on one itinerary. This probably won’t happen too often so my next strategy is to search major hubs to see what flights are available with miles to where I want to go. Usually I’ll start with the hubs closest to home and expand my search outward from there. If you can find something closer to home that means your travel time is that much less.
Once you’ve found the long haul outbound flight you can start on the return. Hopefully you get lucky and find the return into the same airport close to home. If not, don’t fret, just keep trying other options to nearby airports. If you have to, change the dates of your search and/or the departure airport from where you would leave after you’ve reached your destination. This is where booking award travel gets frustrating but also turns into a puzzle. “How can I piece together this trip to maximize my points and miles while taking as few flights as possible on the best airlines?”
To me, the most important part of the flight is the long haul portion where you spend the most time on the plane whether that is from the US to Europe, the US to Asia, etc. If I can fly in business or first class on the long haul portion of my trip, I’m not as concerned about flying in coach for the shorter portion of the trip. Now, if I can fly business class the entire flight, I certainly will. You know the saying: “Once you fly lie flat, you never go back.” Whatever the destination is, I obviously want to arrive well rested so that I can maximize my time on the ground. I don’t want to be catching up on sleep in order to try to enjoy my vacation.
With positioning flights, you do have to pay for them so that is another factor to consider when planning a trip. Whether that cost is cash or miles, it’s something that goes in to the total cost. The good thing about booking a positioning flight with miles is that on the off chance that your long haul airline releases award space from your home airport to your international gateway, you can usually call them up and have them add that segment onto your itinerary at no additional cost. If you have to fly on another airline that isn’t a partner or in the same alliance, you’re SOL. However, most airlines will refund your miles if you cancel an award flight. If you pay cash, most will give you a travel credit for the future.
The other reason you may want to add a positioning flight is if your flight to get to the international gateway takes a connection or two even if you can price it all together as one award. For example, if I am taking a flight to Europe that leaves from New York but the only thing available with miles is a 12 hour connection in Atlanta. On the other hand, it might make sense to just pay $150 cash or use miles on another airline to fly nonstop into New York and avoid that long layover and out of the way routing.
Married Segment Logic
Only booking the long haul segment without even checking to see if you can get there entirely on one award from your home airport isn’t always the best thing to do. Most airlines have married segment logic which is easily one of the most frustrating things about the airline industry. A married segment is where the airline will only price your ticket between two cities if you stop in a third on the way. For example, I found a flight from Charleston to Washington, DC (DCA) then Washington Dulles (IAD) to Doha, Qatar (DOH) to Male, Maldives (MLE) all for 70,000 American Airlines Miles. An incredible deal, similar to what we flew last year. While not ideal to have to change airports in Washington, I’d do it for this trip.
Now say I lived in DC and wanted to just book the IAD-DOH-MLE segments? Well that’s not going to happen due to married segment logic. American isn’t even showing that flight as available.
Why do airlines do this to us?
Well, because they can and it unfortunately makes a little bit of sense. Airline tickets are based completely on supply and demand and not one bit on how much it actually costs to operate the flight. If an airline can get away with charging it, they usually will. If there’s a ton of demand from IAD-MLE, they’ll price it accordingly. But if there’s not a lot of demand from CHS-MLE, they’ll lower the price.
Downsides to Positioning Flights
Say we don’t find any availability from our home airport but do find some from an international gateway like Washington Dulles and have to position there. Are there any downsides? Outside of the obvious expenses, there are some serious downsides to positioning flights which can screw up the rest of your trip if you’re not careful.
Since positioning flights are usually on a different carrier if there are any irregular operations, i.e. cancelled or delayed flights, you’ll probably be out of luck. Since you booked with miles you’ll generally need to find a new flight available with miles. That can be tricky especially if you’re already at the airport and their might not be any seats available with miles for a few days or even weeks. Now, if you’re on one itinerary and you miss your flight because of a delay, the airline will put you on the next available flight regardless of if it has award seats.
Because of this, when you’re using positioning flights I always recommend getting there the night before or taking the first flight out to give you plenty of time for your connection. Hopefully you’re flying in business class and will have access to enjoy the nice business class lounge.
Wrapping Up
At the end of the day, positioning flights can be extremely useful. But be sure to evaluate all the potential risks associated with it. Also, don’t forget to search for flights from your home airport before pulling the trigger on that nonstop out of a nearby larger airport as married segment logic may come into play.
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