That title might seem like an especially snobby statement, but allow me a minute to explain…
I travel from Buenos Aires to the United States at least three times a year. Two of those trips are typically for my own business and one of those trips is a family trip. Each flight is at least 14+ hours with connections. It’s a long way to go – especially in coach – so, I only travel business class. And no, I don’t have a corporate expense account or a wealthy aunt that left me a huge inheritance.
I travel business and I pay the same price as coach. And you can too.
Once again, this is all possible through playing the miles and points game – credit card sign up bonuses, spending promotions, shopping portals, special offers, etc. Over the last few years I have racked up millions of miles by doing things that I would normally do anyhow. I then use those miles to get luxury travel at the same cost I would have paid for standard fares.
I’ve written a number of times on this blog about points and miles deals that you can take advantage of, and one of the best deals for obtaining miles has just become available again. The US Airways Share Miles Bonus is back and allows you to share miles with someone and get up to a 100% bonus.
The best deal is to transfer 50,000 miles to someone for $567.50. This would get them a bonus of 50,000 miles – effectively “buying” those extra 50,000 miles for 1.1 cents per mile. This is a great deal! You could then use these miles to fly on American Airlines from Buenos Aires to the United States for 20,000 to 30,000 miles one way in coach or 50,000 miles one way in business. Who wouldn’t pay that price for a coach ticket?
There are a few restrictions – accounts must be open for at least 12 days, each person can only receive one transfer bonus, and the deal ends April 13, 2014. You’ll also need a base amount of miles to do the transfer or know someone who has them and is willing to transfer them back and forth with you.
My family has four US Airways accounts and we plan to do transfer between each account: Person A -> Person B -> Person C -> Person D -> Person A. This will net us an additional 200,000 US Airways miles for a total cost of $2270. This is a big upfront cost, but will help us to meet minimum spending on one credit card and when you look at it as 2 business class tickets for $1135 each, you can see that’s a great deal and less than a coach ticket would cost.
So, are you going to take part?