I am someone
who likes to plan my life way in advance. Others are quite the opposite. If you
are someone who decides on Thursday night that you want to go somewhere on
Friday, you’re gonna need the right kind of miles to avoid paying exorbitant
last-minute ticketing fees and last-minute fares. Here are some options you may
not have thought of:
British Airways
British Airways
doesn’t charge any last-minute fees for using miles, and they also don’t charge
any fuel surcharges or other fees on flights in the U.S. Since British Airways
is a part of the Oneworld alliance, this means you can use BA miles, called
Avios, to fly on American Airlines. The Avios program is distance-based and
leg-based, which means your miles cost for a trip will be based on how far each
leg of your flight is. Here’s an example of flights available leaving tonight
and coming back Sunday:
As you can see, I can buy flights for later today, and
come back on Sunday. Here’s the price:
20,000 Avios and $5 is not a bad deal at all for
last-minute flights. It’s actually the exact same price you’d pay if you bought
these flights a year in advance. And if you want to cancel you’ll get all
20,000 miles back. You’ll just lose the $5.
Two drawbacks to the BA program. One is that the
website is kind of bad at searching for American Airlines flights if there isn’t
a nonstop flight to your destination. If you’re flying somewhere that isn’t to
or from one of American’s hubs, I recommend using the AA website to search for
SAAver-level space and then calling British Airways to make the reservation by
feeding them the flight numbers of the flights you want. This brings me to the
other drawback, which is that British Airways charges you per segment, not per
one-way. This means if you fly one-stop, you pay for each leg separately. Still,
flying one-stop a short distance on Avios is cheaper than flying nonstop on
another airline. The cheapest one-stop itineraries on Avios cost 18,000
roundtrip versus 25,000 on other airlines.
Credit Cards
that Earn British Airways Avios
Another plug for using Avios last-minute is that there
a ton of ways to earn these miles. Chase has a British Airways credit card, and
Amex Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards also can make immediate
transfers to British Airways.
Chase British Airways
50,000 Avios after $1,000 spend in 90 days
$95 annual fee
1.25 points per dollar spent
Chase Sapphire Preferred
40,000 Ultimate Rewards after $3,000 spend in 90 days
$0 annual fee first year ($95 second year)
1 point per dollar spent (2 points on travel and
dining)
1:1 transfer to British Airways
American Express Premier Rewards Gold
25,000 Membership Rewards after $2,000 spend in 90
days
$0 annual
fee first year ($175 second year)
1 point per
dollar spent (3 points on airfare, 2 points on gas and groceries)
1:1 transfer
to British Airways
Delta Airlines
Delta
SkyMiles are the scourge of the points and miles world. This is not without
reason. The program consistently releases very few low-level award seats,
meaning that you often will pay more miles to fly Delta than with another
airline. That being said, the SkyMiles program does have a couple things going for
it, one of which is last-minute travel.
Delta doesn’t
charge you close-in ticketing fees to book awards at the last minute. That
means if you can find seats on flights you want, you can book them for just a
couple bucks per segment. Here’s a look at heading somewhere for this weekend:
For 40,000 miles and $5, you could go to Atlanta for
the weekend, or a bunch of other places in the country for $5 more. A quick
search revealed no destinations from Boston at the 25,000-mile level, but depending
on the weekend you might find something. I’ve used Delta miles last-minute to
go Saint Louis to Philly for the weekend at the 25,000-mile level, so I can
tell you from personal experience that it’s possible!
SkyMiles are almost as easy to earn as Avios, although
not quite. Delta has a co-branded card with Amex, and also has immediate
transferability from Membership Rewards.
Credit Cards
that Earn Delta SkyMiles
American Express Gold Delta Skymiles
30,000 SkyMiles after $500 spend in 90 days
$0 annual fee first year ($95 starting second year)
1 mile per dollar spent (2 on Delta)
American Express Premier Rewards Gold
25,000 Membership Rewards after $2,000 spend in 90
days
$0 annual
fee first year ($175 second year)
1 point per
dollar spent (3 points on airfare, 2 points on gas and groceries)
1:1 transfer
to Delta
Air Canada
No, you don’t
need to be going to Canada to earn miles or use miles with Air Canada. Air
Canada is part of the Star Alliance, which includes United and US Airways. Any saver
availability that either of these airlines has can be booked with Aeroplan, Air
Canada’s mileage program. And the great part is that Air Canada doesn’t have
close-in booking fees! Take a look at this itinerary I could book now and fly
tonight:
Because United has such amazing low-level award space,
you have a lot of options with Aeroplan within the U.S. The Aeroplan website is
also particularly impressive when it comes to searching for flights on United
and US Air.
Credit Cards
that Earn Aeroplan Miles
One drawback about Aeroplan is that they don’t have an
affiliated credit card that can be applied for as a US citizen. However you can
transfer Amex Membership Rewards to Aeroplan and the transfer is immediate.
American Express Premier Rewards Gold
25,000 Membership Rewards after $2,000 spend in 90
days
$0 annual
fee first year ($175 second year)
1 point per
dollar spent (3 points on airfare, 2 points on gas and groceries)
1:1 transfer
to Aeroplan
Southwest Airlines
Southwest
has no late-ticketing fees, change fees, or cancellation fees. You can buy a
flight with your miles a year in advance and cancel it the day before you leave
and you get all your miles and the $2.50 per leg back. The only problem is that
Southwest doesn’t have miles tiers like the other airlines, their miles are
each worth an exact amount. So if a last-minute fare on Southwest is cheaper,
the miles cost will be cheap too, and vice-versa. This tends to make short-haul
flights cheaper with Southwest versus long-haul flights being cheaper with
other airlines’ miles. Here’s a look at the cost of flights tonight for a short
flight:
This flight to BWI was less than 25,000 miles, and
cost only $5. Longer flights would probably cost more, but at least last-minute
a number of short flights with Southwest are a good deal.
Credit Cards
that Earn Southwest Rapid Rewards Miles
Chase’s partnership with Southwest means there is both
a co-branded credit card and also Ultimate Rewards transferability. Ultimate
Rewards transfer immediately to Southwest miles.
Chase Southwest
25,000 Rapid Rewards miles after $1,000 spend in 90
days
$99 annual fee
1 point per dollar spent (2 on Southwest)
Chase Sapphire Preferred
40,000 Ultimate Rewards after $3,000 spend in 90 days
$0 annual fee first year ($95 second year)
1 point per dollar spent (2 points on travel and
dining)
1:1 transfer to Southwest
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