One trick airlines use to monetize the need to travel at the last minute is to impose close-in award

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Travelers who book their flights far in advance generally enjoy the least expensive airline tickets and the most award availability. Nevertheless, there are many reasons why people may want or need to travel at the last minute, ranging from an emergency to a desire to be more spontaneous.
Airlines largely view last minute reservations as business travel, and act as if this inventory is very price-inelastic, meaning they can charge pretty much whatever they want and people will still pay it. For example, a previous employer of mine once spent $1,600 for a same day ticket from Denver to Atlanta, when a flight to Australia would have been less expensive.
If there s some silver lining to this price gouging, it s that award travel enthusiasts will find their points and miles to be the most valuable when it comes to last minute travel, even though award availability may be scarce.
One trick airlines use to monetize the need to travel at the last minute is to impose close-in award booking fees. However, not all airlines do this, so if you re transferring flexible points to airline miles, consider a program that won t charge you extra. For example, awards purchased with British Airways Avios will not have the $75 close-in award booking fee charged by American Airlines washington dc hotels or US Airways to non-elites. Likewise, ANA and Singapore have no close-in award booking fee, while fellow Star Alliance carrier United does.
British Airways: $0, BA is partners with American, so it may make sense to use Avios for last minute AAdvantage awards- especially for short and mid-haul flights, which may require fewer miles (Transfer washington dc hotels partner of Amex, Chase, and SPG)
When your last minute award travel strategy involves transferring points from flexible reward times, you can t risk losing your award seats while waiting for your points to show up. With Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards, the transfers are generally instantaneous (transfers to Singapore Airlines sometimes take a day or two.
With the Starwood Preferred Guest program, transfers always take at least a day, but usually less than five. In fact, most American Airlines washington dc hotels transfers from SPG are taking less than two days now. However, both American and US Airways offer five day holds on award tickets, allowing you to reserve your flights with confidence that the transfer will take place in time to finalize washington dc hotels your ticket. Unfortunately, American only offers a one day hold within washington dc hotels 14 days of departure, and US Airways goes to 24 hours within four days of departure.
Citi s ThankYou Rewards transfer program is so new that there are few reports on transfer washington dc hotels times. What evidence there is indicates that transfers to Singapore (perhaps washington dc hotels their most valuable partner) are taking one to two days.
When you book last minute flights and awards, you often get some pretty poor choices including red-eyes, multiple connections, out of the way flights, and long layovers. While your choices may be limited when you book your flight, there are opportunities on the day of departure to take alternate flights.
For example, there are several ways to stand-by for an alternate flight, including oversell situations, agent discretion (asking nicely), washington dc hotels and irregular operations due to weather, air traffic control, or mechanical problems. In addition, many carriers offer some form of paid standby or same-day confirmed travel, such as the latest version washington dc hotels of Delta s policy . In fact, I found that you can even standby for international flights .
Finally, washington dc hotels there are some airlines that will open up last minute award space. Lufthansa is well known to only open up award space (to award travelers in other frequent flier programs) in their first class cabin within 14 days of departure.
Thankfully, both American and Alaska allow free changes to award reservations, so long as the origin and destination remain the same. Lately, I have even found that US Airways is releasing more international award space within a few days (or even hours) of departure. washington dc hotels Just note that American is unable to ticket a partner award flight within washington dc hotels two hours of departure, even on US Airways.
No one wants to feel like they re wasting washington dc hotels miles on a double price or mid-tier award, but these can still offer value when compared to the exorbitant prices of last minute washington dc hotels cash tickets. For example, a round-trip flight from Atlanta to Maui on American Airlines in first class prices out at $3,550, and is often 135,000 miles at their AAnytime rate. Considering that the total flight washington dc hotels distance is similar to flying from Atlanta to Europe, and the Dallas to Maui leg features an internationally configured business class, 135,000 miles is not that unreasonable. And of course, when you pay for double mileage awards, you end up with a lot more flexibility to book multiple awards to your destination on the most convenient flights.
As a last resort, travelers who must fly at the last minute and can t find an available award seat may need to consider an ultra-discount carrier. These are the carriers that market rock-bottom airfares, yet pile on fees for everything imaginable. This business model is becoming increasingly popular all over the world, especially in Europe (on airlines like Ryan Air ). In America, Spirit is pioneering this strategy, and Frontier has been rapidly working to emulate it, even before being purchased by the same parent company as Spirit.  To some extent, Allegiant may also be considered an ultra-discount carrier.
It s with last minute travel that the ultra-low cost strategy can offer travelers the biggest savings compared to other carriers, even when fees are considered.  For example, at the time of writing I found round-trip flights from Denver to Ft. Lauderdale over Labor Day weekend to be over $1,000 on Delta, United, and even Southwest, yet Spirit was $374 and Frontier was $786. So even if you were to budget another $100 for baggage, seat fees, and a soda, you d still come out far ahead of most other options. Just be sure to familiarize yourself with the  carry-on and checked baggage policies of these carriers to minimize fees.
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