Do you consider 2014 to be a good time for travel deals/hacks/ff offers?

[smit0847]

It's struck me already this year the incredible amount of fantastic 'buy miles/points+pay' offers from various airlines (US, AV, AA, UA, AS, MH etc) on at the moment. Yes every program has its unique pros and cons but we are really spoilt for choice by the amount of offers to buy miles and fly J for not much more than Y. There's also constant mistake fares all over the place, special priced fares if originating from a specific random destination etc.

Although we moan that FF programs and offers are being constantly 'enhanced' (I for one am annoyed US is leaving *A and feel a huge sense of urgency to use the USDM deal as many times as I possibly can this year) there are still so many offers it seems like 2014 is a pretty good time to be travelling. I also note many Y fares are cheaper than they have ever been with both domestic and international airlines desperately fighting for our travel dollars. There's also constantly loads of credit card sign-on offers/bonus points, ATO payments etc.

I've only learnt of this site and all the various deals/programs/offers in the last 2 years so there may be have been many more/better deals 5 or 10 years ago but as much as we complain about enhancements, has there ever been a better time to be a member of this site?!

 

[Dave R32]

Not yet, but I will if Virgin bring back the "earn status points on reward seats" deal again

Cheers
Dave.

 

[JohnK]

Not really. Not everyone cares about travel in premium cabins.

I try to maximise SCs earn for status and care about the number of overseas trips I take as opposed to a few hours of perceived comfort. That being said I do like to treat myself to premium cabins occasionally.

Internationally economy airfares are very cheap right now. Especially with the Expedia Brazil loophole.

Domestically airfares are at their highest in 6 years.

 

[Isochronous]

Mistake fares? Where?

 

[burmans]

It's struck me already this year the incredible amount of fantastic 'buy miles/points+pay' offers from various airlines (US, AV, AA, UA, AS, MH etc) on at the moment. Yes every program has its unique pros and cons but we are really spoilt for choice by the amount of offers to buy miles and fly J for not much more than Y. There's also constant mistake fares all over the place, special priced fares if originating from a specific random destination etc.

Although we moan that FF programs and offers are being constantly 'enhanced' (I for one am annoyed US is leaving *A and feel a huge sense of urgency to use the USDM deal as many times as I possibly can this year) there are still so many offers it seems like 2014 is a pretty good time to be travelling. I also note many Y fares are cheaper than they have ever been with both domestic and international airlines desperately fighting for our travel dollars. There's also constantly loads of credit card sign-on offers/bonus points, ATO payments etc.

I've only learnt of this site and all the various deals/programs/offers in the last 2 years so there may be have been many more/better deals 5 or 10 years ago but as much as we complain about enhancements, has there ever been a better time to be a member of this site?!

So far I think 2014 not quite as good as 2013. The benchmark for me was the US share program at 1.1c which we got twice at the end of 2013 so havent actually been tempted yet this calendar year. But certainly if you are prepared to pay somewhat more there are certainly a large variety of offers around.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Thirty years ago airfares SYD/AKL return for AUD599.00/AUD699.00/AUD799.00 return for low, shoulder & high season & we all got paid a lot less back then than we do now.

I can't get over how many teenagers these days head off to NYC for their holidays with friends. Once upon a time you were lucky to go to the Gold Coast ona McCafferty's bus for a holiday. That alone tells me that airfares are cheap.

I've only learnt of this site and all the various deals/programs/offers in the last 2 years so there may be have been many more/better deals 5 or 10 years ago but as much as we complain about enhancements, has there ever been a better time to be a member of this site?!

There's no point dwelling on what may or may not have happened in the past. What's important is embracing what deals there are on offer now & you obviously do.

Meanwhile Mr & Mrs Average still keep going back to their local Flight Centre & paying top dollar to travel economy because "it's all too hard" to do it yourself.

 

[desiredusername]

Once upon a time you were lucky to go to the Gold Coast ona McCafferty's bus for a holiday. That alone tells me that airfares are cheap.

Boy McCafferty's - that brought back memories! ....in between our ol folks' bouts of dementia

Are there deals? I'd say it depends whre you go. My ski place in the US offered $99 a night for a palatial renovated 1 bedroom condo with kitchen, but that'd be $750/night in a Oz resort. (Guess where we ski these days).

 

[smit0847]

Mistake fares? Where?

They're more prominent on FT than here but for example a few weeks ago EY were selling CMB-DOH-DFW in F for US1440 return. These mistake fares usually get shut down/corrected within 6-12 hours of first being published but they randomly pop up all the time.

 

[smit0847]

There's no point dwelling on what may or may not have happened in the past. What's important is embracing what deals there are on offer now & you obviously do.

Meanwhile Mr & Mrs Average still keep going back to their local Flight Centre & paying top dollar to travel economy because "it's all too hard" to do it yourself.

That's very true. I have so many friends who constantly ask me 'how on earth do you afford to travel Business Class all the time?'. I just smile and casually answer 'i just use points' and don't say more. They blindly pay top dollar for QF Y because they are spending 10 years slowly collecting enough points (paying high CC annual fees etc) to go to LAX or LHR in J only to discover after earning points for all that time that there are no J seats 6 months out. In despair and annoyance they give up, waste the points on toasters and gift vouchers and then just buy BFOD.

Meanwhile I go J everytime they go Y for about the same price.

 

[desiredusername]

As a victim of corporate collapses like Pyramid Bdlg Society who nervously transfered Amex ffp to Virgin during the global fin crisis, I'm wondering if I should be worried by Qntas' call for Govt financial backing.


I'm also wondering how this will affect Amex's business offerings as the court case cranks up at a time the US politicians are saying they won't acept "no admit, no deny' payouts: they want scalps I think.