Booking with Miles or Cash in the Time of Covid: Risky or Not?
Know what you’re getting yourself into with FCF’s new No-Worries Widget and why we’re recommending booking miles over cash if you’re hesitant
#1: Sure, airlines could go out of business. We assume that they won’t given the volume of stimulus money they are getting already and will likely get in the future.
#2 We’ve all heard nightmare stories of airlines making it hard to get refunds now. This report assumes that, going forward, the new policies, for tickets purchased post-covid, will turn out to be less of a fiasco.
That said, you’ll be covered in both instances if you use miles.
Conventional wisdom: It’s not a good time to be thinking of booking travel right now.
Unconventional wisdom: Or is it?
Even though we’re all grounded, our dreams don’t have to be. We can still plan amazing trips for the future, and believe it or not, you can find some incredible opportunities right now if you do your due diligence on the deal and the airline. Oh wait, we’ve done it for you. More on what we found in a minute…
Time to Dream
An unexpected outcome of Coronavirus is that all of a sudden people have time on their hands. Time to dream. Time to plan. Time to do more research, work out a seamless itinerary, and dive deep into the history and culture of the places to go. At the end of the day, that’ll just make your experience better when you get there.
Opportunity Travelers: This Is Your Time
We all know that the travel bans from the Coronavirus will be lifted at some point soon. Borders will reopen and large machines with wings called “airplanes” will once again dot the sky between continents, shuttling people across the world for exciting getaways or business trips.
At this point you’re probably thinking: “FCF: what are the risks of booking now?!” Glad you asked. Our team has created a definitive search-and-find-by-airline widget—and by miles versus cash tickets—to inform you at a glance the risks.
Summary OF Cash TICKET
Cancellation and Change Policies
Many airlines have new “change fee waiver” policies in place for non-refundable tickets due to the virus. The policy does vary by airline, but in general, the policy waives change fees if you decide not to travel. There’s NO cash refund, but you can apply the value of your unused ticket towards future travel. Keep in mind that you’ll have to pay any fare difference if it applies.
Summary OF Miles TICKETS
Cancellation and Change Policies
With some airlines, the “change fee waiver” policy due to the virus also includes mileage-award tickets. The policy does vary by airline (see our widget here), but in general, the policy waives the redeposit fee for mileage award bookings.
A good example of this is Delta. Its “travel waiver” currently offered for new bookings till May 31 includes award flights, meaning no fees to cancel your ticket.
Normal mileage award booking policies vary by airline, but in general you can redeposit your mileage ticket for as little as $30 to $150, or change your ticket for $25 to $150. Details here.
You can think of the change and/or redeposit fee as an insurance policy. That is, if your plans change and you decide not to travel, you can do so with very little hassle and cost. We think it’s well worth it.
First Class Award Low-Risk Example
We found a cheap flash-mileage deal on American Airlines from New York to London for 114,000 miles round-trip in First Class (to quote our analyst: “I’ve never seen this. Period.”) To give you an idea of the value, just last year it cost 115,000 miles round-trip (if you could ever actually find it) on this same route in Business Class. So you’re able to get First Class tickets for Business Class prices by booking now.
If you change your mind later for whatever reason and want to cancel, you only pay a $150 “redeposit fee” (per account for the first award ticket, additional award tickets reinstated to the same account at the same time will have a $25 charge per ticket) to put your miles back into your account. That’s a small price to pay for a deal that will most likely not be around later, or ever again. Don’t wait: Book now as the risk is low.
With times as uncertain as they are now, it’s no wonder some people are hesitant to book travel, even if they could find great deals—because of the perceived risk factor.
Use FCF’ No-Worries Widget to know what you’re getting yourself into.
