I hope you all don’t mind a quick Tuesday morning yap session, but there’s something I had to get off of my chest — domestic U.S. travel is expensive!
Let me preface this by saying that I almost never travel domestically. I live in Los Angeles and I’d say 90%+ of my trips are international, with the few domestic trips I take almost exclusively being to Hawaii.
That said, my sister is getting married next fall and so I need to plan a trip to Manhattan. Now I know that New York is an expensive city, but I’ve been shocked by just how expensive this trip is, including:
- I’m looking for first/business class, direct flights from Los Angeles to JFK/LGA/EWR and the lowest I’m finding on United is 80,000 miles one-way. This is a tough pill for me to swallow, since it costs me 88,000 miles to fly LAX to Zurich one-way on Swiss and last year I paid 100,000 miles to fly LAX to Auckland one-way in business class on United.
- Since I have a stash of American Airlines AAdvantage miles thanks to my Bask Bank account that earns AAdvantage miles as interest, I also checked American, where a one-way first class flight is 100,000 miles. This also is a tough pill for me to swallow, since I can fly to Europe in business class for 57,500 AAdvantage miles each way.
- I’ve also looked for award flights with Delta, Alaska, and partner airlines (like Air France/KLM, Air Canada, British Airways, and more), but did not get better results.
- For cash flights, I’d ideally fly United since I already have status with them and could use this trip to help maintain status, but the cash rate is $3,495. I’ve paid significantly less than this for roundtrip business class flights to Europe and South America.
Now before you come at me, I know that Los Angeles to New York is a premium route. All I can say is that I’m very happy that the bulk of my travel is international, where I’m paying about the same about of miles for premium cabins on flights that are twice as long, with better service.
Thank you for attending my yap session.
12 comments
Book with AA on the expensive amount. They just keep checking a few weeks before. Very likely that they’ll drop in price and you can rebook.
Thanks! I’m tempted to do this, or maybe even book United economy as a fallback if other better deals don’t materialize between now and October.
Have you checked B6 Mint class partner booking with QR? Also on the day of travel F on AA flagship is usually open as there are a lot less people going from J to F so you can usually book F at the partner rate of 50k ish. I’ve done it quite a few times you just have to be willing to keep an eye on it starting at T-24. Just book a place holder that does not have cancellation fees and see if you get lucky.
Appreciate the tips! There’s a risk that American Airlines won’t have a first class by the time the flight takes off (I feel like they’ve been threatening to eliminate that cabin for years). Also, I didn’t find any business or first class availability booking through Qatar.
Did you fly coach to NY? Oh, the humanity!
Ha! No, this trip is for next fall — and I just responded in the comment above that I may fly coach. Just to be clear, my issue isn’t with potentially needing to fly coach, it’s with the price of business/first class when compared to the price of business/first class flights on routes that are twice as long with service that is significantly better. But yes, I know this is hardly a “problem” in the scheme of things…I just needed to yap!
You’re right if you’re stuck on flying J/F. As you know, premium leisure demand is at an all-time high, so I’ve also had to adjust my expectations when flying domestically as well. I’ve cut back on flying domestic First quite a bit this year, and have settled for extra legroom/exit row seats available with elite status, since I know upgrades almost never clear. For me, unless it’s a red-eye, I’m fine with extra legroom seats. I expect the pendulum will swing again at some point and hopefully I can get back in the front again.
I think they may have recently invented something called “economy class” that is often $300 or less round trip.
Haha, I walked into that one! Yes, I am well aware and already commented that I’ll likely book economy class. This post was more about the comparison between domestic vs. international travel, particularly in business/first class. But point taken. 🙂
And that’s exactly the reason why United, Delta and American are able to make a profit from their frequent flyer programs. They sell miles to the banks which give you points on your credit card transactions and then the vast majority of users redeem those for domestic flights. The math is clear: this is very disadvantageous for the users, but profitable for the banks and for the airlines. Because otherwise they simply wouldn’t do this!
So all those international premium seats you and I have enjoyed were made possible by those who are getting a very poor value out of those points and miles. I’m not complaining at all.
Oh, absolutely! I’m just used to being on the other side of the equation here.
I’m looking at a business trip from Tennessee to LAS in March and the prices are over $600 round trip which is just nuts. In coach. Just more evidence that the legacy carriers will squeeze you for everything they can whenever possible.