This article is split into 4 parts, exploring how I got into the world of frequent flying, some of the tricks I learnt and some of my more memorable journeys.
How did it all begin?
I used to work as the Global Training Manager for a company that whilst relatively small, was the top of its field. My job was to create training material and teach all our distributors how to use it, which meant going to visit them occasionally. We had over 60 distributors in countries all over the world. This allowed me a certain amount of travel, but it was in 2015 when it really kicked off. That year we launched a brand-new product line, and the company chose a colleague to be “the face” of the new product, his job was to travel the world and launch the product in each country. However, as he was about to embark on this, he had a very unfortunate accident and shattered his knee, meaning no travel for him for many months. The company turned to the only other employee who was well versed on the new product, me. I had a call on a Monday asking if I could be in Warsaw for a demo that coming Wednesday. I booked a last-minute flight with Norwegian Air, flying from London Gatwick to Warsaw the next day. I have to say, I’ve not often had to book a flight last minute, and at the time I was very impressed with Norwegian as their pricing was very low and I had a very pleasant flight with them. Not sure that still applies in the post covid flying era though.
Leaving Blue behind
When I got back from Poland I was presented with the original schedule for the product launch, it included India, South Korea and South Africa as the first three locations. At this point, I was a basic “blue” member of the BA Executive Club and since BA flew to all these locations, I decided to stick with that for the time being. So I booked regular return trips from London to Mumbai and then London to Seoul, and I learned some lessons pretty quickly. First was my employer didn’t really have a formal policy on flying, however they did say “try to fly economy, no business class and if it’s long haul we don’t mind you arriving a day early”. This meant they knew it was cheaper to pay for an extra day in a hotel than it was to fly business, which was completely true. I did work out that they had no objection to me flying Premium Economy, so I generally stuck with that for long haul. On my India trip I was shocked to find that Premium Economy was actually on sale cheaper than Economy! This is a quirk of the algorithms that airlines use to price tickets. The price of a seat usually increases when more seats are sold in that cabin. If they sell lots of seats in Economy and none in Premium Economy, then the first price goes up while the latter stays down. It’s a nice trick if you can find it.
Last minute upgrade
On this particular trip to India, I also discovered another flying offer, the discounted upgrade. About a week before I flew home from Mumbai, my BA app lit up with an offer to upgrade to business for £200. This was an exceptionally good deal, and I took it straight away, paying with my own money. This gave me a lie flat bed for my journey home and of course a large number more tier points and Avios. Having taken the deal online, when I arrived at the airport, they were offering people in the check-in queue an upgrade from Business to First for another £300. I didn’t take it as I’d already spent £200, but with hindsight I wish I had!
The next lesson was the Saturday night trick. If your trip includes a Saturday night, then the return flight prices tend to be lower. Flying Sunday to Saturday is considered to be most popular with business travellers, so is priced higher. With my company’s policy of “we’d rather you stay a day longer than fly business”, I often took a Saturday or a Friday evening flight for a work trip that involved a Monday start. This would both lower the price of the flight and give me a day off in the country I was visiting to do some sightseeing. Using this method, I have been to the Great Wall in China, the Taj Mahal in India and Pyramids of Mexico, all on my extra days in those countries.
Part 2
My third major trip that year was to South Africa, and that’s where I learnt about open jaw tickets, read part 2 to learn more here.
