Yreal

Lets not get into the eco argument, alright?

So before the whole corona mess, the sweet spot would be sas-plus flights. I'm looking at the prices now, but they have exploded... regardles, cant fly any longhauls, and the most nordics are sealed off...

So whats left? I have an dutch pasport and can basicly go to south europe without hassle. Tap doesnt realy give anything and neither does lufthansa. So now what? Is there still something left that actualy earns milles?

NextWhiteDeath

Without Long haul option around if you want get some flights this summer the option are thine. The best I have seen is still with SK but that is if you can start in OSL.
As I assume your starting in AMS the best you can do is get some OS non-P business class fligths for 2k each segment. Those aren't particularly cheap either. 6 cents a mile. With the OSL SK Y+ fare giving a mile per 4.5 cents but a lot of stopovers with some nights in hotels.
So in short with long haul out of the picture there aren't any cheap options in the near future. SK Y+ fare in long haul are very much the sweet sport but they are off limits right now.

Yreal

Oslo is also closed for non-nordic (right? )

NextWhiteDeath

So currently it is not known. The current stance is that they will open to other EU countries from the 15th of July if the country has an "acceptable" level of infections. Still the advised thing would be routing via CPH and skip ARN as much as possible as Sweden most likely will not be on any list and will create problem if transited though.
An example would be this OSL-CPH-AGP-CPH-OSL. A weekend in Malaga. With the dirrect SAS price it should be around 5 cents per mile. The flight out of Oslo is late enough that it would be possible to skip extra night in a hotel before the flight in OSL. Of course as the fligth from south of spain come back in the late evening a night after the flight would be needed. That is why it would be near to impossible to have an instant turn as SK won't sell the ticket if the connection is less then 1h and there turn times are 50 min.

unusualtravelblog

Aegean airlines business class. There are a few cheap ones around.

Yreal

Has anyone managed to get those cheap c fares to combine like you can with p light fares?

NextWhiteDeath

I have seen those cheap C fares but they often have the problem of only really being worth while from ATH. If you don't live in on of the countries that have the 40% discount currently. The cheap economy fares start after the summer ends aka September.
If there isn't a rush to fly the miles. It can be possible to find a cheap economy to ATH and then fly back in C with 2 tickets. Business ticket between the economy ones. Currently it is a bit problematic to do full on mileage runs as A3 has a limited schedule so there are quite a few over nights here and there. If you don't want to look very mad for doing an instant turn around.

unusualtravelblog

I have looked into the sweet spots with Aegean in business class. Something that never existed before. Business class Aegean prices were uncompetitive in the past, with average prices around €800 in business, while M&M airlines were offering same routes for half the price. Now we see a dramatic decrease in prices. The service might not be the same as it used to be, but we can all pray to see the same service returning post-Covid. Therefore, these fares may be interesting for people who truly believe in Aegean.

The routes and fares I'll list below are all one way, and I have only listed fares for routes that are medium length. Of course there are some great deals to airports close to Greece: OTP, TIA, SOF all for under €100 one way, but they are not listed here as I focus on maximal mileage benefit. They're widely available during Q4, some even Q1-Q2 2021.

From Greece:
ATH-CDG for €99
SKG-CDG for €114
ATH-BOD,LYS,MRS,NCE,NTE for around €110
ATH-HAM,TXL,STR,DUS for around €150
ATH-MAD,BCN for around €100
ATH-LIS for €160
ATH-AMS for €166


To Greece:
DUS-SKG for €137
CDG-SKG for €148
HAM,TXL-ATH for €140-€148
STR-SKG for €129
MAD,BCN-ATH for €90
CDG-ATH for €127
BOD-ATH for €115

Also some nice deals EX-EU, such as TBS, EVN, CAI, TLV and DME prices in the range of €150-€200 one-way.

One of the best in terms of mileage distance is HEL, which starts from €150 one-way and earns you +- 2600 miles.

Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find any great deals with multiple segments. However, the direct flights listed above are rates I have paid in the past for economy fares, so they are pretty nice. For A3 Gold members you'll get another 20% award miles on top. All those tickets hahve unlimited changes and completely refundable and most of them book in booking class A. For non A3 FFP users, you can earn 200% with FFPs of TAP, SAS, LifeMiles, Ethiopian and Air India.

Yreal

Ha, i just saw this somewhere else

NextWhiteDeath

Yeah I noticed that as well. It seems like there is a bit of a focus on discounting only direct flights. That can be seen with these flights as well as there current sale. Connecting itineraries aren't showing up in GF even on logical fares.

Yreal

But, you can actualy get them on the actual aegean site. its a bit of puzzle to know where to look, but you can use matrix for that. For example, jtr-ath-vie on 2 aug prices 200+ on gf, but 76 on aegean.

NextWhiteDeath

The matrix is not always correct when it comes to pricing some airlines. I can't remember which one rn but on all the flight I was looking at Matrix over priced them by a wide margin.
I personally am not the biggest fan of using the aegean site to look for flights it is slow and doesn't allow you to change destination on the fly. What I find the most annoying is that you can't specifically search for business fares. (at least as much I have seen)

giorginho

There are some nice fares apparently for domestic flights now too!



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headingwest

So please tell us where these 80 EUR tickets are!? (They don't exist)

NextWhiteDeath

From the look of it. It is 80 EUR one way and generally towards ATH and such. From ATH everything is going out at 100 or more one way.
So not the best miles earning option as for the same 100 you can fly to Madrid in business class