FCF’s New Connection Widget Makes More Deals Doable.
When you see an enticing FCF “Sweet Redeem” deal from, say, New York to Madrid, do you Zone Out because you live in Nashville? Or Dallas? Or Chicago?
We say: Zone In—because very often, the connecting flight to the hub we mention in the report (in this case New York) is free in most cases; minus Hawaii and some other edge cases.
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Sweet Redeems are those routes and airlines we find with low-cost Business and First Class mileage award availability. Sweet redeems = sweet dreams. (For FCF’s January A Freudian Analysis of FCF’s “Sweet Redeems” report go here.)
In other words, what else would you call a mileage award ticket that American wants to charge you 270,000 miles for, normally, that is—for a moment in time—115,000? A sweet redeem, yeah?[/aside]
And very often, too, the same applies on the other side of the Atlantic. So you may want to go to London instead of Madrid. Again, very often, the connection from Madrid to London is free, as long as you’re flying on partners.
This special report is all about those connections, how to know if you can make them happen and how our cool new widget makes it easy to make them happen.
Is This Air Travel’s Best Kept Secret?
If you don’t know about it, YES—as these free connections open up countless opportunities you otherwise don’t realize.
To get the deal, you have to get to the deal. Our new widget’s drop-down menu shows what cities might be compatible with the deal. There are also the lowest mileage amounts you need to pay for the deal and current availability. It’s a one-stop-shop of sweet redeem-ability. Here’s what it looks like below:
WITH NEW FCF WIDGET, SEE BEST DEALS AT A GLANCE:
(See example widget here. And yes, we’d really like your feedback on how it can be much better.)
Quick Case Study #1: See Washington, DC, Think Kansas City
Washington, DC to Brussels in Business Class on United costs 105,000 miles round-trip (57,500 one-way). But you live in Kansas City. End of story? No. For no additional miles you can add a United flight to Washington, DC to hook up with that deal from your departure city.
Quick Case Study #2: See Houston-London, Think Amarillo-Copenhagen
What if you don’t want to go to London, but Copenhagen? And what if you live in Amarillo? You can go there via London at no extra cost because of free airline alliance connections.
In effect you’re getting six flight segments for 115,000 miles (57,500 one-way). Amarillo-Houston-London-Copenhagen-London-Houston- Amarillo. That’s amazing value, considering the original deal is lucrative to start with.
Houston-London screenshot:
It’s because United and Scandinavian Airlines are both part of Star Alliance. The same applies to American and its oneworld friends, and Delta with its SkyTeam alliance buddies.
WITH NEW FCF WIDGET, SEE POSSIBLE
FREE CONNECTING FLIGHTS AT A GLANCE:
(See . And yes, we’d really like your feedback on how it can be much better.)
We wrote a special report about this concept last December called “The Art of Skipping Stones,” right here.
This time we’re going deeper. The chart below shows you how to get those free connecting flights when you see an FCF Sweet Redeem Alert. There are also the connecting airlines with info on which flights can be booked online and which have to be booked by phone plus any relevant reward programs in play.
How to read—decode—FCF headlines for lucrative success
These mileage programs below generally offer of free connection to the hub city and onward travel to final European destination.
How To Leverage Sweet Redeem “Bridge Routes” When You Don’t See Your City: To/From Europe
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DISTANCE PROGRAMS
Airlines not mentioned in the chart above are due to the fact that they charge miles based on flight distance, such as British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, and Japan Airlines—with some calculating each segments separately and others by the total sum of flight miles. Or they’re not part of a major Alliance, such as Virgin Atlantic and Emirates, and, as such, don’t have an alliance partner award chart. Connecting flights for these airlines in the U.S. and for onward travel in Europe are not free, but at an extra cost.
ALLIANCES ARE YOUR ALLIES
Star Alliance: Air Canada, Air India, All Nippon, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines, United, and more.
oneworld: American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Qantas and more.
SkyTeam: Air France, Alitalia, China Airlines, Delta, KLM, Korean Air, and more.
I See Lufthansa in the Headline
But Don’t Have Lufthansa Miles: Bad?
No! And for the same reasons we’ve been talking about: those very handy Alliance Partnerships.
So if you have stacks of Air Canada miles for example, you can use them to fly on Lufthansa because they’re both Star Alliance members. Print out that airline alliance list above and stick it next to your computer. It could save you a lot of money.
Bridge Route Connecting Flights
Note that when using the available discounted long-haul flight as a “bridge,” the connecting flight from the U.S. and/or international hub can be either booked in Business Class or economy, depending on availability.
If only economy is available, don’t let that affect your travel plans as the most important part is getting the long-haul flight in the class you want first.
Coming soon:
We’ll be looking deeper at bridge routes to other parts of the world (including Asia) when it comes to using FCF’s new widget.