In the past couple of years I’ve gotten three good deals for D1. I live in Minneapolis, where there are no good deals except sometimes AF buy-ups at the gate for MSP-CDG, so I always check alternative departure cities, especially BOS and JFK.

Last summer I got a round trip Z fare BOS-CDG for $2490. I purchased it three weeks in advance of my travel, with a July 5 departure. I wondered whether it was some sort of error because that fare was only available on the day I bought it, then disappeared.

For travel in December 2023, with departure right after Christmas, I found BOS-CDG-MAD outbound and BCN-AMS-BOS return in D1 for a phenomenal $2150.

In a couple of weeks I will fly ORD-ICN-SIN round trip in Korean Air Prestige for $4900, purchased through Delta. That was about $4K less than the DL fare at the time for MSP-ICN-SIN round trip. Not super low, but quite good considering how high fares to Asia have become.

I’m retired and all my travel is leisure travel. That means I can be flexible about my routes and travel dates, have the time to do a lot of searching and checking fares, and the incentive since I’m paying for it. As long as I can get the long flights in D1 I’m okay with MC for the positioning flights.