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Positioning flights are a instrumentality utilized by savvy Miles & Points enthusiasts to entree an grant oregon currency formation that departs distant from your location airport.
When utilized strategically, positioning flights tin prevention you miles, points, oregon cash, and they should decidedly beryllium a portion of your wide strategy to unlock much grant redemption possibilities.
In this guide, we’ll bash a heavy dive into what positioning flights are, however to usage them strategically, and however to navigate the galore complexities associated with them..
What Are Positioning Flights?
Positioning flights are meant to bring you to a destination distant from your location airport, truthful you’re capable to entree your superior onward flights. You whitethorn request them astatine the beginning, middle, oregon extremity of your main formation itinerary, depending connected the booking.
You whitethorn besides request to usage positioning flights to link to different modes of transport, specified arsenic cruises; however, for this guide, we’ll absorption connected positioning flights for connecting to different flights.
When booking grant flights, you mightiness request a positioning formation if you’re not capable to find grant availability from your location airport. Canadians are often faced with this conundrum, arsenic there’s mostly much grant availability and flights successful wide to and from airports successful the US.
There’s mostly much grant availability successful the US than Canada, necessitating positioning flightsMeanwhile, if you’re flying connected a currency ticket, positioning flights are utile for erstwhile you find a cheaper formation originating from an airdrome different than your location airport.
After all, flights are mostly cheaper from large hubs, wherever respective competitors vie for rider traffic. If you’re not surviving adjacent 1 of these cardinal airports, you’ll apt request to usage positioning flights regularly.
Most importantly, positioning flights are indispensable owed to astir airlines’ adherence to the “must alert successful sequence” principle. This means that you indispensable amusement up for the flights connected your tickets successful series arsenic stated successful your itinerary. Otherwise, you tally the hazard of invalidating the unused portions of your trip.
For example, let’s accidental you privation to alert from Toronto to Paris, and you find that a non-stop Toronto–Paris summons costs much successful points than a New York–Toronto–Paris ticket, based connected dynamic pricing.
Looking astatine the 2nd option, you mightiness deliberation that you could prevention immoderate miles oregon points by booking this route, skipping the New York–Toronto flight, and past flying the remaining Toronto–Paris flight.
However, with the “must alert successful sequence” principle, you can’t publication this New York–Toronto–Paris summons and program to no-show for the New York–Toronto leg. If you were to bash this, the hose would cancel your Toronto–Paris formation and adjacent your instrumentality formation if you booked one.
Therefore, to instrumentality vantage of the cheaper fare retired of New York successful the illustration above, you indispensable alert from Toronto to New York connected a positioning flight, adjacent though you request to double-back to Toronto arsenic portion of your main itinerary.
As you delve deeper into Miles & Points, you’ll find a greater request for positioning flights arsenic a instrumentality to prevention miles, points, oregon cash. You’ll besides find you request them to unlock much redemption possibilities, particularly if you person your bosom acceptable connected a peculiar hose oregon product.
With this successful mind, it’s important to beryllium adept astatine booking them and strategizing their utility.
How Are Positioning Flights Useful?
It tin sometimes look illogical and unnecessary to beryllium booking a positioning flight; however, erstwhile availability for an grant formation lone shows up successful Raleigh oregon Minneapolis, you request to get yourself to Raleigh oregon Minneapolis.
Here are immoderate of the galore reasons wherefore you mightiness request a positioning flight.
Flight Pricing and Award Availability
Supply, demand, and marketplace segmentation are a world of the deregulated hose industry. For the astir part, airlines are escaped to terms tickets oregon marque awards disposable based connected commercialized decisions.
In practice, this means that adjacent though an hose flies to your location airport, determination mightiness not beryllium an abundance of grant seats available. If you privation to alert with that peculiar airline, you mightiness request to look elsewhere.
For example, an hose similar Turkish Airlines mightiness marque plentifulness of grant seats disposable to New York, due to the fact that it has 5 flights departing from determination regular and it needs to capable its planes.
Turkish Airlines besides flies to Vancouver, but with a overmuch little frequency, and grant availability mightiness beryllium much hard to travel by than it is departing from oregon arriving successful New York.
Similarly, a Kuala Lumpur–Singapore–Perth summons whitethorn beryllium cheaper successful currency than a nonstop Singapore–Perth summons to amended vie with non-stop Kuala Lumpur–Perth options offered by different airlines.
As agelong arsenic you tin get yourself from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur with a positioning formation that costs little than the quality successful fares, it could beryllium upwind up redeeming you cash.
Airline, Cabin, and Product Availability
Another crushed you mightiness request positioning flights is due to the fact that the airline, cabin, oregon merchandise you privation simply isn’t disposable from wherever you live. An fantabulous illustration of this is Qatar Airways and its coveted QSuites concern people product.
In Canada, Qatar Airways lone flies to Montreal, and not to Toronto, Vancouver, oregon immoderate different cities. Therefore, if you privation to effort QSuites, you indispensable archetypal marque the travel to Montreal with a positioning formation (or train) from your origin.
In Canada, Qatar Airways lone flies retired of MontrealSimilarly, if you privation to alert ANA “The Suite” First Class oregon “The Room” concern class, you indispensable archetypal presumption yourself to a US destination, arsenic these products aren’t offered successful Canada.
Cheaper If Booked Separately
Positioning flights tin besides beryllium utile erstwhile it’s cheaper to publication them separately, alternatively than incorporating them into your afloat itinerary connected a azygous ticket. With distance-based awards, adding a formation conception whitethorn enactment you supra the precocious bounds of a region band, which winds up costing you much successful points.
For example, let’s accidental you person an Aeroplan grant routing of Toronto–Warsaw–Copenhagen connected LOT Polish Airlines, a weeklong stopover, and past onwards to Singapore connected Singapore Airlines, each connected a azygous ticket.
The Great Circle Mapper distance for this full itinerary is 10,930 miles, which puts it conscionable beneath the precocious bounds for the 7,501–11,000 miles “Asia 3” saccharine spot for spouse awards connected Aeroplan’s Between North America and Pacific zones grant chart.
Therefore, successful concern class, this itinerary would terms retired astatine 87,500 points, positive an further 5,000 points for the stopover successful Copenhagen.
However, if your intended destination were really Bangkok, the Singapore–Bangkok formation would adhd an further 876 miles to the route. That azygous abbreviated formation volition marque the full region transverse implicit to the 11,000+ miles grant set connected the Aeroplan chart, meaning the itinerary would present outgo 120,000 points with the stopover.
The quality betwixt the outgo of these 2 itineraries is 32,500 Aeroplan points, which we’d worth astatine $682.50 (CAD) astatine our current valuation of 2.1 cents per point.
Given this, it seems imprudent to walk that galore points to see a abbreviated two-hour flight, erstwhile you could easy conscionable publication a positioning formation with 1 of the low-cost carriers plying the way for $100 instead.
Avoiding Taxes and Fees
In immoderate instances, a positioning formation mightiness assistance you debar hefty taxes and fees. An fantabulous illustration would beryllium erstwhile countries complaint higher duties for premium compartment tickets.
The United Kingdom charges a overmuch higher Air Passenger Duty (APD) connected concern people and First Class tickets, which tin bump up the outgo of a currency fare oregon grant summons significantly.
One mode to circumvent the pesky APD is to publication a abstracted positioning formation successful system to adjacent countries without the APD, specified arsenic Ireland, France, Belgium, oregon the Netherlands, oregon to Inverness, from wherever the APD is importantly reduced.
Even much brutal is Pakistan’s Federal Excise Duty (FED), which tacks 250,000 PKR ($1,235 CAD, $900 USD) connected concern people and First Class tickets to the Americas.
An casual mode to circumvent the FED is to instrumentality an system positioning formation to adjacent India, which besides happens to person much routes and destinations available.
Necessary for Smaller Cities
Positioning flights are a necessity for radical who unrecorded extracurricular of cities with large hub airports. It whitethorn beryllium prohibitively costly to statesman your itinerary from a smaller city, fixed the rules of proviso and demand.
Thus, it usually makes amended economical consciousness to publication a abstracted positioning formation to a large hub, and past instrumentality vantage of that hub’s wider choices and little prices.
In Canada, travellers looking to alert internationally connected a non-stop formation from smaller cities are often retired of luck.
Haligonians are fortunate to person a non-stop Air Canada formation to London, portion Quebec City residents bask seasonal Air France work to Paris.
However, smaller cities similar Winnipeg oregon Charlottetown aren’t arsenic blessed with formation availability, truthful radical surviving successful these areas volition often request to publication a formation to Toronto, Montreal, oregon a US hub to link with their desired itinerary.
Often, booking a abstracted positioning formation ends up being cheaper successful presumption of miles, points, oregon cash, than booking full itineraries starting from these smaller cities.
All successful all, with positioning flights, you’re beating airlines astatine their ain crippled by creating your ain itinerary for little wealth oregon points; however, support successful caput that you indispensable bash truthful efficiently and affordably, different the full constituent would beryllium lost.
How to Book a Positioning Flight
Once you’ve booked your main grant oregon currency tickets, it’s clip for you to robust retired your positioning flights. There are a fig of ways to spell astir booking your positioning flight, based connected your priorities and resources.
When readying positioning flights, your archetypal measurement is to cheque the airlines that alert betwixt your location airdrome and the starting constituent of your main itinerary. You tin usage a website similar FlightConnections to cheque imaginable routings, whether non-stop oregon with connections.
Your adjacent measurement volition beryllium to cheque currency prices utilizing a examination website oregon aggregator specified arsenic Google Flights, Skyscanner, oregon Momondo.
When buying flights successful cash, you whitethorn privation to usage a recognition paper with fixed-value points that tin beryllium redeemed against immoderate question acquisition to publication your positioning flights.
In Canada, the champion programs to usage are CIBC Aventura Points, Scene+ points, BMO Rewards, and TD Rewards Points.
Credit Card
Best Offer
Value
Up to 90,000 BMO Rewards points
$331
Apply Now
Up to 120,000 BMO Rewards points
$74
Apply Now
40,000 Scene+ points
$355
Apply Now
Up to 80,000 CIBC Aventura Points
$420
Apply Now
Flexible rewards
$0
Apply Now
45,000 CIBC Aventura Points†
$600
Apply Now
Up to 100,000 TD Rewards Points†
$550
Apply Now
60,000 Scene+ points
$161
Apply Now
For instance, with Scotiabank Passport® Visa Infinite* Card, you tin redeem Scene+ points against immoderate question acquisition astatine a complaint of 1 cent per point. Plus, with this card, you won’t get deed with a conversion interest if you’re paying for your formation successful a overseas currency.
Alternatively, you tin besides publication positioning flights utilizing a formation redemption strategy of a recognition paper program. In Canada, this is wherever the CIBC Aventura Airline Awards Chart, RBC Air Travel Redemption Schedule, and Amex Fixed Points Travel travel successful peculiarly handy.
Alternatively, if you’d alternatively publication a positioning formation with an hose loyalty program, you tin usage a hunt instrumentality similar AwardTool to assistance find your champion options. This instrumentality tin besides beryllium utilized to way grant prices to assistance you further optimize your redemption.
For short-haul positioning flights, you’ll decidedly privation to cheque retired the hose programs that person them arsenic saccharine spots.
For example, British Airways Executive Club offers short-haul flights for arsenic fewer arsenic 4,000 Avios.
For Aeroplan, short-haul positioning flights with Air Canada, specified arsenic Vancouver to Seattle oregon Toronto to New York, thin to get cheaper arsenic the day of question gets closer.
But if you’d similar to debar Aeroplan’s dynamic grant pricing for Air Canada flights entirely, you tin effort to find availability with a spouse airline, specified arsenic United, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, oregon Asiana Airlines, which connection fixed-rate grant flights.
Lastly, though each US hose programs enforce a dynamic pricing scheme, they bash connection lower-priced redemptions oregon “Saver-level” awards wrong the US and to Canada.
For example, with United MileagePlus, you tin find a transcontinental formation betwixt Toronto and San Francisco for arsenic fewer arsenic 15,000 miles. To easy find these rates, you tin usage United’s calendar relation to assistance you with your search.
Tips & Tricks for Booking Positioning Flights
Booking positioning flights tin beryllium tricky and risky: if you aren’t careful, you mightiness extremity up with some a greater disbursal and a headache.
To assistance you debar this, we’ve outlined immoderate tips and tricks that you tin employment erstwhile strategizing and booking positioning flights.
Plan Connections Carefully
When booking positioning flights, it’s imperative to permission capable clip for connections. After all, booking flights connected abstracted itineraries fundamentally means you’re connected your ain if your plans spell sideways.
In different words, if your positioning formation gets delayed for immoderate reason, the adjacent hose isn’t liable to get you to your last destination. This is known arsenic “reprotection” successful manufacture jargon.
Thus, to mitigate the hazard of missing a connection, it tin sometimes beryllium champion to alert successful a time aboriginal and walk the nighttime successful your layover city.
However, you request to besides see the terms of a night’s enactment astatine a edifice erstwhile calculating your costs. After all, a nighttime astatine an airdrome edifice successful a metropolis similar New York volition acceptable you backmost $200–300 (USD), which unsocial mightiness cancel retired the imaginable savings you would bask by booking abstracted tickets.
Book Flights with Early Departures
Before booking your positioning flight, it’s besides a bully thought to cheque the humanities information of your formation done a website oregon app similar FlightRadar24 oregon FlightStats to spot if your planned positioning formation often gets delayed oregon cancelled.
If you spot that flights connected your chosen way often experiences a delay, see choosing a formation that departs earlier successful the day.
The archetypal formation retired for the time not lone allows a longer transportation time, but besides affords you a prime of consequent flights to autumn backmost connected successful lawsuit of mishaps. Also, the archetypal flights retired person a little accidental of delays, which thin to domino arsenic the time goes on.
As a last enactment connected connections, marque definite to let plentifulness of buffer during tricky question periods, similar outpouring interruption and the wintertime season, erstwhile flights are often delayed oregon cancelled.
Book the Same Airline If Possible
If possible, publication a positioning formation with the aforesaid hose arsenic the 1 you booked with for your main itinerary.
Often, doing truthful volition let you to nexus your tickets oregon rider sanction records (PNRs) astatine check-in oregon successful beforehand by phone. This way, you should beryllium capable to through-check your bags, making your transportation little of a hassle.
The hose mightiness besides beryllium capable to reprotect you if your positioning formation gets delayed oregon cancelled – though there’s nary assurance of this, and you’ll inactive request to trust connected the airline’s goodwill.
Fly with a Carry-on Only (If Possible)
The champion strategy with flights connected abstracted tickets is to alert with a carry-on only.
The foremost crushed for this is it saves you time, since you won’t request to hold to assertion your bags earlier clearing migration and customs.
Travelling with lone carry-on luggage besides lessens the hazard of your container being delayed oregon lost. Losing your bags successful your transportation metropolis tin beryllium complicated, since the hose mightiness not present your bags to your last destination if you’re booked connected a abstracted ticket.
Consider Positioning Flight Prices
As mentioned above, earlier booking your main ticket, marque definite to survey positioning formation prices first. While immoderate flights from Canada to the US are abbreviated successful clip and distance, they tin inactive beryllium expensive.
For example, owed to request from concern travellers, flights from Toronto to Boston, Washington DC, and New York City tin beryllium precise costly contempt being little than 2 hours long.
Conversely, you whitethorn announcement that flying from Canada to leisure destinations, specified arsenic Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Las Vegas, Cancun, and Punta Cana, tin really beryllium rather affordable. This is due to the fact that each the main Canadian carriers, positive overseas ones, contend connected these routes.
Given that flights successful Canada are mostly getting much expensive, readying positioning flights mightiness instrumentality immoderate imagination.
For example, if you’ve recovered a long-haul formation retired of Miami, you tin effort to look for flights to Fort Lauderdale, which often has inexpensive flights from Canada.
Then, from Fort Lauderdale Airport, you tin conveniently instrumentality the Tri-Rail straight into Miami Airport for your onward journey, oregon you tin program to walk a fewer days successful Miami.
Alternative Modes of Transportation
In summation to flights, you should besides research different means of proscription for positioning. As a starting point, the website Rome2Rio is simply a large instrumentality to assistance you research your options.
The astir evident non-flight proscription options are buses and trains, which are peculiarly applicable successful Europe. For one, Flixbus connects hundreds of cities successful the region, galore of which person nonstop connections.
For bid tickets, the Trainline level lets you cheque assorted obstruction options and publication tickets betwixt cities successful Europe. Plus, it allows to you wage successful Canadian oregon US dollars.
Ferries are besides a positioning option, particularly erstwhile they depart oregon get astatine an airport. They tin beryllium peculiarly utile successful the Greater Bay Area, which covers Hong Kong, Macau, and cities successful Mainland China.
Since formation awards to China tin beryllium hard to find these days, you tin effort to find an grant formation to oregon from Hong Kong, which is good served by planetary carriers. Then, straight from Hong Kong Airport’s SkyPier, you tin instrumentality a ferry to a metropolis successful Mainland China, specified arsenic Guangzhou oregon Shenzhen.
Don’t Forget Insurance
When booking abstracted flights and/or modes of transportation, it’s captious that you person travel interruption insurance from an eligible recognition card oregon a standalone policy.
Usually, travel interruption security covers the hold of your formation resulting from the following:
- Mechanical failure
- Traffic accident
- Emergency police-directed roadworthy closure
- Weather conditions
- Grounding owed to information of your aerial transportation
- Grounding of your aerial proscription owed to situations extracurricular the airline’s power including, but not constricted to, a aesculapian emergency, oregon collision with wildlife
If immoderate of the supra causes a misconnection oregon an interruption to your question plans, astir security policies volition reimburse you for the following:
- One-way airfare via the astir cost-effective way to your adjacent destination
- Unused information of your question arrangements purchased anterior to your departure date
- Accommodation, meals, telephone, and different surviving expenses
If you’re taking vantage of your recognition card’s security coverage, beryllium definite to complaint your positioning formation to the aforesaid paper arsenic your main summons oregon itinerary.
If you’re booking an grant ticket, marque definite to wage the taxes and fees connected a card that covers grant bookings. For example, tickets booked with Aeroplan points should beryllium booked connected an Aeroplan co-branded recognition card for security coverage.
Alternatively, usage a recognition paper with much lenient security wording. The National Bank® World Elite® Mastercard® and the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard® screen proscription paid for successful immoderate portion with the card, specified arsenic grant bookings and cruise deposits.
As always, work your card’s security argumentation earlier booking your flights. If you’re confused by the wording, security providers person a hotline that tin reply circumstantial payment questions.
Conclusion
The much you get into Miles & Points, the much you’ll find a request to leverage positioning flights. After all, they’re a instrumentality that tin assistance prevention you miles, points, and money, and they should beryllium a portion of your strategy to unlock much grant redemption possibilities.
Positioning flights are besides an effectual mode to people immoderate of the champion grant flights successful the game, which typically necessitate a spot much legwork than different flights.
While positioning flights tin beryllium tricky and risky, beryllium definite to see them arsenic you go a much savvy traveller.
The station Positioning Flights: What You Need to Know appeared archetypal connected Prince of Travel by Vittorio Salac.
English (US)