Ted Striker

I realize that the MR forum is more about maximizing miles or EQMs per buck, however I am more interested in ways to fly premium fares for "cheap", even if it involves hidden cities or strange destinations. Do we have a centralized place for those sorts of fares, or can this thread be such an anchor?

For example, ex-CMB premium fares are notoriously low. Here are some others that I found over the year, and that I hope to use at some point:

BKK-SEA/SFO/LAX in C on DL for around $800- this is good on codeshares operated by CI, NW or KE and books right into C so no hunting for availability

EWR-BKK in Z on CO for around $2600 - connection in HKG (maybe others) - cheapest way to enjoy paid BusinessFirst to Asia

SFO-Florida markets in full Y on CO (free upgrades for elites) - around $360, which allows a connection in EWR. If you're not ashamed to use hidden city, it's a cheap way to catch a transcon in front for cheap.

SEA-EWR on NW in B for around $360. One of the few reasonable one-way NW fares, except some ex-DTW and ex-MSP fares.

FatManInNYC

I too am interested in cheap premium fares. I did the WAS - XXX - AMS - XXX - WAS MR in first and thought it well worth the extra cost for the extra miles and comfort.

Can you share more details about the CO Z fare - I could not find it. Is that RT?

Ted Striker

ZWBKK, one way base fare of $2522 (as are the others listed here; after all a premium fare is hard to use if it requires a roundtrip purchase)
- unlimited stopovers
- refundable
- no xfer restrictions
- valid on CO6/7/8/9 and CO88/89 over the pacific
The odd thing is, it doesn't come up on Travelocity's fare-search function. You have to pick a day and search using expedia or travelocity and hunt for the fare that way.

LAX

This is probably a one-way fare, right? Even if it's one-way, it's still a very good deal for a C ticket. Where did you find them?

LAX

Vulcan

There are NW Y fares from EWR-BKK RT for about $2,600 RT that book into C if you want to use eiter OP or BP miles to upgrade. Availability is generally very good.

themicah

Mileage upgrades from Y on NW book into Z, not C.

DeltaFlyingProf

I too am looking for the same as the OP.
Also found AC has very one way J one way fares to BKK, cheaper than the ones mentioned above.

SFGal

Thanks to OP for the great topic. I'm also searching for "good deal" premium fares.

I've started the AA gold / platinum challenges. I'll have 6,500 EQP after a couple of required trips in Feb/March which are primarily in coach.

Even though it is counter-intuitive to the MR mentality, I'd love to complete the challenge with a single-day transcon MR in "premium" seats.

This is the best "premium" single-day run I've found so far:

SFO-DFW-IAH-LAX-SFO
$726-all in

4193 base miles x 1.5 = 6290 EQP

any ideas / thoughts?

bquinif

Searching on ITA, I kept running across flights like JFK-GRU r/t in business class for around $1000 on JJ (TAM), but when I tried to price them on www.tam.com.br or Travelocity, I go prices around $6000. In the lower price is right, that would be an incredible deal.

Anybody know what's going on?

NHFL9

Yes, this has been discussed before. 'I' fares on TAM are economy class, but some engines show them as business.

smooth

I like business fares to Taipei from the West Coast, using Singapore or United. It is between $1,200 and $1,400, o/w outbound. The return flight is slightly cheaper.
From there, there is a good business fare TPE-BKK, on KLM: it is a bit under $500, r/t.

ranskis

there is an interesting routing BKK ICN HNL SFO... unlimited stopover => prices at 888 USD all in one way. According to ITN, it should be around 9231 miles + C bonus + tier bonus... that could be a good mileage run including some holidays in Hawai, thanks for the tip!

Japhydog

Try SFO ATL should be $757.

TrayflowInUK

I'm very interested in premium mileage running, happy to pay a little more to get relatively cheap premium flights, especially given the EQM bonuses you get. I'm going to have a couple of spare days in BKK and I was thinking about a turnaround. There's another thread on this forum I started a week or so ago; found fares KUL-CGK for $350 and BKK-TPE for $400, in KLM C and Z respectively. But I was really hoping for something long- or mid-haul; each of those flights is only about 2 hr.
For an NW or CO flyer anyway, not sure how useful. CI is not partnered, I can't seem to find any NW codeshares, and KE business only gets you 25% EQM bonus, not 50% like it would on NW, KL, or CO.

On KE, BKK-ICN-LAX and return is pricing at $1716 in unrestricted C. At 125% EQM this yields 20,662 EQMs for 8.1 ¢/EQM. I'm still a rookie at premium mileage runs, but I figure 6 ¢/EQM would be pukka for premium class travel.

Ted Striker

Until about a month ago, I was an International Ticketing Agent with DL at JFK. The toughest part about quitting was giving up the unlimited access to Worldspan for all this kind of stuff.

Anyways, I discovered that with a tight connection you can take advantage of extremely low DL transpacific fares to try some very nice J products. For instance, I reserved for a friend (couldn't go) (* means coded as DL): BKK TG X/HKG CX X/TPE CI* X/SFO UA JFK all in C/D for $1200. I also was able to get BKK KE* X/ICN KE* X/NRT NW* SFO for $850, however it required a 40-minute layover in ICN (technically illegal, so you'd have to get somebody to manually build it).