Take Advantage of Airfare Deals No Matter the Departure Airport

Occasionally, you’ll find posts on our site promoting current airfare deals that have caught our attention. Some will be for travel within the U.S., but most highlight significant savings on flights to overseas destinations.

Recent airfare deals have included:

• Chicago to Paris – $409 roundtrip
• San Francisco to Hong Kong – $460 roundtrip
• Dallas to Sydney/Melbourne Australia – $851 roundtrip

  

Don’t get excited, those deals are likely long gone. When an airfare deal’s posted, it’s rare that it lasts more than a few days.

Which means you have to pounce when you see an airfare deal in which you’re interested.

But, you may be thinking, I don’t live in Chicago, San Francisco or Dallas, so why do I care about those deals?

True, to take advantage of these deals, you’ll have to depart from, and return to, a specific location. Which, more times than not, will be an airport some distance from where you live.

And when I say distance, I mean multiple states, not just a few hundred miles.

You see, airfare deals, especially to overseas destinations, are typically tied to airports that are major U.S. entry/exit points such as New York, Los Angeles or Dallas.

Rarely are you going to find airfare deals from Jacksonville, Columbus or Des Moines.

So, again, the question is, if you happen to live in one of those overlooked locations, why even bother checking out those great airfare deals out of San Francisco, Miami or Chicago?

Well, first, because they’re usually really good airfare deals to locations you just might want to visit.

And, second, because there are a number of ways to economically travel to those specific departure airports, to take advantage of those really good airfare deals, to those places you have your heart set on exploring.

Don’t let the fact that you live in El Paso deter you from booking that incredible airfare to the destination of your dreams just because it departs from New York.

Life is way too short.

Here are a few ways to take advantage of those fantastic airfare deals even if you live nowhere near the deal’s departure airport.

Low Cost Carriers

In the U.S., Spirit and Frontier airlines are considered Ultra Low Cost Carriers, offering rock bottom fares to many destinations around the country.

If you could book a positioning flight for less than $100 roundtrip to take advantage of that $500 roundtrip flight to Italy, wouldn’t you?

Especially considering the total price for that trip – positioning flight and airfare deal – would be about half what a typical fare would run.

With Spirit and Frontier, getting to the departure point can be extremely economical.

Of course, there’s always a catch. And with these low-cost carriers, that catch is in the form of extra charges for carry-on and checked baggage – among other things.

Some may be able to get away with no baggage for a quick, weekend trip to Vegas, but for an international trip, you’ll likely be schlepping a bag (or two).

So be sure to factor in that added cost to a positioning flight’s ticket when looking at Spirit or Frontier.

And another thing to consider with the Ultra Low Cost Carriers is that they have fewer aircraft and routes, so when something goes wrong with a flight, there’s less ability to swap out aircraft or transfer passengers to other flights that will arrive in a timely manner.

Additionally, the Ultra Low Cost Carriers do not have agreements with the mainline carriers – United, Delta, American – which would allow for inter-carrier stranded passenger bookings to get them on their way.

All told, it might be safer to go with the next suggestion for a little more peace of mind.

The Major U.S. Carriers

This is pretty basic advice, but simply do a search for flights from your home airport to/from the airfare deal’s departure airport.

You never know, luck just might be on your side that day, and the perfect match will appear for a reasonable price.

You can go to each airline’s website and search, or use Google Flights to find the lowest fares for your desired travel times.

If you’re not familiar with Google Flights, read our post, “5 Tips to Get the Most from Google Flights.” It really is a versatile platform for finding available flights, especially inexpensive flights, when looking to book travel.

Southwest Airlines does not allow online travel agency sites, including Google Flights, access to its flight information, so you’ll need to add Southwest’s site to your search.

Which I highly recommend.

Not so much because Southwest has less expensive flights – they really don’t anymore – but because the airline is much more friendly when it comes to certain aspects of air travel these days.

For example, Southwest lets you bring two checked bags with no additional fees. And if your travel plans change, you can select new flights without any change fees. You will pay the difference in airfare if the ticket price has increased, but paying simply to change your flight – not on Southwest.

If the airfare deal you’re considering is on a mainline U.S. carrier, you may want to give a little more weight to using that same airline for the positioning flight.

Make the departure/arrival times align, and you likely can check your baggage at your home airport all the way through to your airfare-deal-destination.

If the airlines are different, you’ll have to pick up your bag(s) and re-check them for the overseas flight. Not a major deal, you’ll just have to allot enough time when booking your positioning flight to grab your bags, get them re-checked and make it through security.

Of course, another option is to book your positioning flight the day before, stay the night at a hotel near the airport and leisurely make your way to the deal-flight the next day.

Yes, you’ll have to book a hotel room, but that’s what hotel points are for. Simply use your hotel points for a free hotel room and leave the stress of connection times behind.

And speaking of points, this takes me to my favorite way of booking a positioning flight.

Miles and Points

Why worry about finding an inexpensive positioning flight to match that great airfare deal you found, when you can book that flight for nearly free?

For the price of taxes/fees – in the U.S. that amounts to $5.60 per leg – you can book a flight using airline miles (or points in the case of Southwest Airlines).

United and American offer roundtrip, economy class flights within the continental U.S. for 25,000 miles. Trips under 500 miles can be even less.

A caveat regarding American Airlines: award availability has been terrible – to put it nicely – in recent months. I would be hesitant to rely on American miles for any award flights at this point.

Delta usually has economy availability for 25,000 – 35,000 miles roundtrip. Its pricing is variable, so you won’t know the exact number of miles until you check award availability on the Delta site.

And, surprise, surprise, my choice for award positioning flights would be Southwest. Its award pricing is based on the currently advertised fare for a specific flight. And there are no blackout dates to work around or close-in booking fees to worry about. Pretty straight-forward.

Couple all that with the factors I mentioned earlier, free checked bags and no change fees, and you can see why Southwest might be the best option for your airfare-deal positioning flight.

If you’re not familiar with the Miles and Points hobby, you may be asking how you get all these airline miles.

Well, to put it succinctly, the miles are obtained via credit card sign-up bonuses and ongoing spend on those cards.

Check out our Miles and Points posts to get more details, or ask in the comment section – we’ll be glad to get you pointed in the right direction.

Jump on That Deal

Just because an airfare deal we post isn’t departing from your home airport doesn’t mean you’re left out in the cold.

No matter where you live, hopefully we’ve given options that will allow you to take advantage of that next great flight deal.

Couple an airfare deal with an award positioning flight and some free hotel nights and you’ll have a trip of a lifetime for much less than you could ever imagine.

Life is short, so jump on that next great airfare deal and make some life-long memories. We can’t wait to hear your adventures.