2 Travel Tips from the Points Guy to Help You Fly to the Front of the Plane

The airline rewards program expert noted that airlines have cut prices for premium cabins since the pandemic as people increasingly forgo business travel in favor of working from home and holding Zoom meetings.

Cheaper rates attract tourists, who are more sensitive to price increases than people who book their travel on a business credit card.

“Once you get consumers used to paying $4,000 for a round-trip business class ticket all summer long, it’s a lot harder to suddenly convert that to $7,000. Consumers get locked in and say, ‘Well, I’m not going,'” Kelly said.

On the other hand, passengers paid for premium economy or business class to avoid being “packed in like sardines” during the pandemic, he said, especially as fares plummeted during lockdowns as people stayed off planes.

“So consumers got a good taste of life at the front of the plane and realized that … economy sucks,” Kelly said. “Once you fly first class, it’s very hard to go back.”

Beat the system

Kelly shared two travel tips. The first is to collect transferable credit card points that are accepted by multiple airlines. When you fly, you can use them to make a backup reservation with another airline that allows last-minute cancellations without penalties.

“If my original flight doesn’t go, I’ll cancel and get all my miles back in cash, no fees,” Kelly said. “You can use your points as insurance policies to make sure you get to your desired destination.”

Second, you can take advantage of cheaper rewards programs in other countries, for example by exchanging credit card points for Air France points instead of Delta points.

“In France, they don’t have 100,000-point deals, bonanzas like we have here,” Kelly said. As a result, reward flights overseas haven’t gone up in price as quickly as they have in the U.S.

“Because if they did that in France, where their French members can’t earn points like we can, there would be a riot,” Kelly said.