How I Scored A Flight To Europe for $50 And 20,000 Points
We are talking about Avios, the loyalty points program for British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Qatar Airways and Finnair. But it doesn't stop there because these airlines are part of the One World Alliance that also includes partners like American Airlines, LATAM, and Vueling.
The flexible part here is that you can transfer the points between the main four airlines depending on which one offers you the best deal. And you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points and Capital One points to Avios too.
Let's look at the path I took to find this great deal of 20,000 points and $50 on a one way flight from Chicago to Madrid, Spain.
How I Scored A Flight To Europe for $50 And 20,000 Points
1. Start with Google Flights to see your options. We find this American Airlines red eye flight for $464 in economy.
2. Next let's check American Airlines. Now I actually don't have any American Airlines miles and it is not a transfer partner for any flexible points, but let's check anyway. It's being offered for 27,000 miles and $5.60 so that gives us a starting point. We are looking at off peak fares.
3. I always like to check seats.aero to see what other options may be out there. You can see 90 days out with a free account.
4. Then I check the Chase Travel Portal and the Capital One Travel Portal to see if the flight is listed and how many points are needed or the price if I decide to buy it in the portal and earn 5x points.
4. American Airlines is in the One World Alliance with British Airways so we try searching there. The same flight shows up for 20,750 Avios and $213. I like the the number of points, but those taxes, Yikes.
5. So can we do better? Since Madrid is the base for Iberia Airlines and we have a stash of Avios from the Iberia Airlines credit card bonus offer a few years ago, let's see what's happening there.
Wow! 20,750 Avios and $51.70, now that's a deal. Remember when we mentioned that Iberia is part of the One World Alliance with American Airlines? This deal is for the same American Airlines red eye flight from Chicago to Madrid. Crazy, right?
And guess what? We look for the return flight and snag that one for just 16,000 Avios and $100 taxes. That's how we do it here at Almost FREE Family Travel.
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Avios
20,000 $50 Chicago to Madrid
16,000 $131 Madrid to Chicago
Iberia Avios