There's no question that it's gotten more difficult to find great deals when it comes to booking award flights. Business owners can build up an ample supply of points and miles pretty quickly, but it’s only worth the effort if you can redeem them for a worthwhile trip.
And while it’s all too common to find prices as high as 500,000 miles one-way for a business-class ticket, recent experience shows that deals are still out there.
9 business-class awards on the same flight?
One of my closest friends in the business world, Bill, went from making some of the worst mileage redemptions I’d ever seen to becoming an award-booking savant.
He had been talking about a multigenerational family ski trip to Europe. I figured he was using miles to help save money — but I had no idea of the scope. That was until he texted me a picture of himself and eight family members, dressed in matching pajamas, taking over the bar on an Emirates flight from New York to Milan.
This Emirates “fifth-freedom” route has long been a great way to get to Europe in luxurious fashion. Bill took it to the next level by booking nine seats in business class on the same flight. While not all were at rock-bottom rates, he booked most at 108,000 Emirates Skywards miles (transferred from Capital One) and about $400 in taxes per round-trip ticket.
I honestly can’t recall a time when I’ve heard of someone booking that many business-class seats on the same flight. Let’s say he averaged 125,000 miles per round-trip ticket — that’s 1,125,000 miles total.
If he redeemed those miles as statement credits, that would be about $11,125 in value. But even if we value those tickets at a conservative $3,000 apiece, he got about $27,000 in flights.
Even if you’d never pay that much for a flight, it’s hard to argue with the value Bill got on this trip.
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