Originally Posted by
jonisflying
There are experts here who can help way more, but two things jump out at me.
- Are you based in ORD? Check prices from other airports close by. In other words, fly through ORD - AAA-ORD-MUC. You'll find fares about $2K less (rough guesstimate) when making a connection. Building on that, you could even book what's called a positioning flight. Fly to TPA or something the day before... then fly TPA-ORD-MUC... check fares like that
- What day of the week are you looking to travel? Avoid Sunday & Monday. Fly Tuesday - Sunday... and see what that does to the fares.
As for upgrades, now you're getting outside my area of expertise when you're looking at Silver status, only 100K miles and credit cards. There are people on here who I'm sure can assist.
Good luck!
Thanks - actually based in STL but with grandkids who live near O'Hare we often fly from there. Retired, so very flexible when we can fly. I'll look at other airports but I avoid connections whenever possible so that limits us.