How to save 50% on award flights

Good morning, friends! Before we get into things, I just want to say… y’all went pretty hard on my scavenger hunt for elite status last Thursday.

Despite the red herrings (I see that many of you got Rick Rolled and learned wayyy too much about Fort Wayne, Indiana), we did have hundreds of you find the secret link… 😏

And I’m pleased to tell you that Sarah W has already claimed the status and is now a SkyTeam Elite! Congrats, Sarah!

Okay, enough shop talk. A lot has happened in the past week, so let’s get into the good stuff:

• 🌎 50% off award flights around the world

• ✈️ Buy JetBlue points with a bonus

• 💳 25% transfer bonus to Jetblue

🌎 50% off Alaska award flights around the world

Alaska is a program that has been making waves in the last year…

One of my favorite aspects of their revamped loyalty program is the introduction of quarterly award sales, which they call Global Getaways.

They’ve just dropped a new batch of excellent Global Getaway awards, this time with a “skiing” theme.

The list includes popular ski spots like Kelowna, Canada, Geneva and Zurich in Switzerland, and even some more obscure destinations like Almaty, Kazakhstan, and Yerevan, Armenia, all with up to a 50% discount on the normal award pricing.

Here are the details you need to know about:

• You must book your travel before the end of the month (December 31st)

• The deals are valid for travel between January 1st and April 30th, 2025

• You must use Alaska miles to book your flights

• You can (obviously) book partner awards in addition to flights on Alaska itself

This is an excellent way to save tons of points if any of these destinations sounds appealing to you.

For example, flying from the U.S. to Europe (Zurich, Geneva, Vienna) for 20,000 miles is great, especially if you fly from a West Coast city like Seattle:

If you’re feeling a bit more adventurous, getting to cities like Yerevan for 30,000 miles is also pretty much as good as it gets for a city with limited award options.

Since there is now a way to transfer MR Points to Alaska (by transferring them to Hawaiian first), these deals are more within reach than previous sales.

So here’s the bottom line:

If you have some MR Points to burn and want to use them for excellent value, Alaska’s Global Getaways are a great way to do just that.

✈️ Buy JetBlue points with a bonus

Buying points and miles is one of those travel tricks that can either be a really good deal or a really bad deal…

Usually, the best deals are with hotel points… but right now, you can actually save some money on flights by buying JetBlue points.

Until the end of the year, you can get a 130% bonus when buying JetBlue TrueBlue points.

I don’t recommend you go buying points for no reason (or for just any JetBlue flight), but there are some ways you could theoretically save some money with this…

For example, this flight from Boston to San Juan costs $212.

Instead of paying cash for the flight, you could also just buy enough points to book the same flight.

Since this flight costs 7,300 JetBlue points, it would only cost you $105 to book the same flights through this method.

Saving over $100 is not bad for a couple of minutes of your time!

This sale is also great for anyone who has a bunch of JetBlue points lying around but not enough to book a specific flight that you want.

Spending $10 or $20 or more to simply top up your balance is a great way to spend a few bucks to unlock an aspirational award.

Of course, the best way to top up a balance would be to simply transfer points from your bank to JetBlue.

Oh, and would you look at that? There’s also a transfer bonus! 👇

💳 25% transfer bonus to Jetblue

Woah… a transfer bonus to Jet-freaking-Blue? That’s not something you see every day.

Until December 31st, you can get a 25% bonus when transferring MR points to JetBlue.

However, this is a little different from most transfer bonuses.

The normal transfer ratio from MR points to JetBlue is 250:200, meaning 1,000 MR points will turn into 800 JetBlue miles.

With this bonus, you simply get a normal 1:1 ratio, where 1,000 transferred points will result in 1,000 JetBlue miles.

Still, there is definitely some value to be had here.

For example, you can fly nonstop from New York to the Bahamas for only 4,600 JetBlue miles.

Getting from the northeast to the Caribbean for 4,600 MR points is actually amazing and certainly a better deal than you’ll find with other programs.

Even if you need to book a long-haul domestic flight like Boston to Los Angeles, you could do so for only 7,000 points/miles with this transfer bonus, which is also a good deal.

Given how easy it is to earn MR points (thanks to some hefty welcome offers) combined with the long window to take advantage of this, I’d highly recommend looking into it and considering JetBlue for your upcoming travel needs.

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That’s all for today, my friends.

I hope you enjoyed this jam-packed Monday. There’s a lot of good stuff coming up, so make sure you tune in tomorrow.

Love,

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