| | Saving $2,000 on a flight to Japan | | by Brian Kelly | |  | Hunting for cheap flights is not a skill that comes easy; it can take years of practice. Luckily, there are sites like Google Flights that do a great job of helping you visualize and sniff out the cheapest flights. If you're not a Google Flights expert, read our post here — I highly recommend figuring out how to look at its calendar and how to filter. I often find really cheap flights on Google Flights — but just remember, it's not perfect.
Sometimes the fares that you'll find there are not bookable, and it also doesn't include low-cost carriers like Southwest, so it's just one of many resources to use.
If you're flexible about where you're traveling, use the "Explore" map feature on Google Flights. You can input your home airport and then choose "Europe," "the month of May," or "one-week trip," and it will help locate the cheapest airfare. This is a great tool if you don't know where exactly you want to go.
Don't limit yourself by putting in a single city pair if you want to go to Europe; you might be surprised to find something inexpensive.
There's also a free web browser extension — called Points Path — that shows award rates next to cash prices in Google Flights and indicates the better deal for each one-way or round-trip itinerary.
How to purchase airfare and get the cheapest price
On my recent trip to Tokyo, I really wanted to fly the new Japan Airlines A350-1000, and unfortunately, there was no award availability and nothing was opening up, so I had to think differently. I have lots of American Express Membership Rewards points from putting my business expenses on my American Express® Business Gold Card, which earns 4 points per dollar on purchases at U.S. media providers for advertising in select media — in my case, online advertising.
And because I also have the American Express® Business Centurion card, I get a 50% rebate when I use Amex Pay with Points. That means every Amex point is worth 2 cents when I redeem for any airfare through Amex Travel, which is pretty incredible. So, I figured, why not just buy tickets on Japan Airlines for the exact dates and flights that I wanted? The information for the Amex Business Centurion Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
When I looked up the airfare on Google Flights, it was $8,400, which would have been 420,000 Amex points round-trip for business class. When you're using Pay with Points, you're buying the tickets, so you can also earn elite miles. Most people would choose to credit the flights to their American Airlines AAdvantage account. However, since I'm trying to requalify for Air France Platinum elite status, I credited them to Flying Blue.
However, when I went onto Amex Tavel to book the flight, I was met with a really great surprise that the actual flight was about $2,000 cheaper due to the American Express International Airline Program. If you're not familiar with the IAP, it is a discount on certain carriers for international premium economy, business-class and first-class tickets.
So, in summary, with the almost $2,000 discount from the IAP, the cash price of my flight was $6,525. I redeemed 652,530 Amex points for that cash fare, but with the 50% points rebate from my Centurion card, I ended up paying only half of that (326,265 points).
Just note, if you have The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, you get a 35% rebate, so this is a great way to combine the IAP with your 35% Pay with Points rebate. Reminder — always check rates before paying for a flight or using miles because it can be cheaper to use this method versus using miles outright. And remember, when you only redeem miles for a ticket, you don't earn more elite miles.
Upgrading to a first-class suite
Once my business-class ticket was purchased, I upgraded the flight to first class by transferring Marriott Bonvoy points to Japan Airlines directly. It's a rate of 60,000 Bonvoy points to 25,000 JAL miles. It's 45,000 miles to upgrade from business to first one-way on the route from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Tokyo's Haneda Airport (HND), so you'd need to transfer 120,000 Bonvoy points (which I value at about $1,000) — getting to go from business class to a brand new first-class suite for that number of miles is a no-brainer for me.
Additional money-saving tips
Another way that you can save money on flights is with AARP on British Airways. The AARP discount of up to $200 a ticket is great to stack when BA has reasonable business-class fares. It's only $12 a year to join, and you do not have to be over the age of 50!
The Founders card is a members-only card (not a credit card) that can get you significant discounts on multiple airlines.
So overall, those are some of the tips that I use to bring down airfare when I've decided to pay cash, but want to get the cheapest price.
Have a great weekend,
BK
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