On this week’s mini episode we’re sharing some important tips and things to know about how to book a business class flight with points.

Points are earned mainly in one or two ways:

1. Being part of the airlines rewards program and earn points based off of past flights you have taken with that airline. 
2. Earn credit card points that are transferred  to participating airline partner point programs.

Tips to book business class flights with points:

1. Sign up for travel newsletter sites that let you know what airline are having great point redemption promos so you can be up to date on the best deals happening now.
2. Sign up to be a member of an airlines reward program in advance.
3. If you are searching for flights and see a great deal, or you are signed up for a point redemption newsletter and see a promo advertised that catches your wanderlust, you have to be ready to jump on the deal to book.
4. When doing your own flight searches for great deals or non-discounted point redemption flights, look at partner airlines that have code sharing agreement with each other to see if one airline has a cheaper point cost for redemption.
5. Know how long it takes for points to transfer from your credit card to your chosen airline.
6. Take the time to study how the point transfers work, how to earn points the best way, if it’s better to book through a partner airlines point portal than the airline I am flying, etc. Knowledge is power in the points game!

See more of our top travel hacks and tips!

Tips for Booking Business Class Flights with Points – Episode Transcript

0:35

Hey Squaddies, Travel Squad Podcast is back with Just The Tip, a new Friday mini episode series where we give you quick travel stories, hacks and recommendations to set you off into the weekend, right?

0:53

Today you have Just me, Jamal, for a solo episode to share some important tips and things to know about how to book business class flights with points.

And we’re just going to dive right into things.

The most important thing to know is one of the most obvious.

1:08

You book flights with airlines by redeeming points.

Points are earned mainly in one or two ways.

One is being part of the airline’s reward program and earning points based off of past flights that you’ve taken with said airline.

1:24

So the more you fly with an airline put in your reward number, you earn points which you can redeem later on for free flights, whether it be economy or business class.

Alternatively, the second option, which is the most popular way of earning and accruing points these days because you can do it with everyday purchases and you can earn a lot more points than just taking one flight at a time, is through credit cards.

1:50

A lot of credit cards.

When you earn points in their point based system, you can then transfer those to preferred airlines that they partner with and you can take all those credit card points and now they are now points of your said airline that you transfer them to.

2:07

As a great example, Brittany and I have been saving up points for a while now to redeem business class flights from the United States to Singapore, which if you know is one of the largest commercial flights in the world at 17 plus hours long depending on departure location within the US.

2:23

And you know I’m not planning on spending 17 plus hours in economy when there’s a way to get free flights these days.

So let’s talk about the basics on what to do to start redeeming flights with points.

But the last thing I want to say before we get started is that these tips are predicated on the assumption that you have a travel credit card that allows you to transfer points earned to partner airlines for redemption.

2:47

If you don’t have a credit card that lets you do that, we highly recommend that you get one.

So tip #1 is to sign up for a newsletter sites that let you know what airlines are having.

Great point redemption promos so that you can be up to date with the very best deals that are happening now.

3:05

We love to use Thrifty Traveler Premium.

We get emails every day letting us know great point deals for economy, business, and even FirstClass travel.

The best part, and why we like Thrifty Travelers so much, is because the majority of the time, these deals that they’re sending your way are not last minute deals.

3:25

They are for flights, three months, six months, sometimes even further out.

So it’s not a great deal last minute.

This actually gives you time to plan and book accordingly into the future. #2 is to sign up to be a member of an airline’s reward program well in advance.

3:43

Even if you don’t fly that airline regularly, you should still sign up for them because one day, depending on where your next adventure takes you, you may.

So as a great example, domestically here in the US or just in general, we don’t fly American Airlines very much, not anything personal against them.

4:01

It’s just we really don’t, because of our home, airport, flights, prices, etcetera.

Better airlines for us to fly in terms of cost, schedule everything like that.

Yet we still have an American Airlines reward program membership.

4:17

You should too.

This goes for any airline.

Even if you don’t fly it, you should go down the list and just sign up for them.

Get your reward number for all those airlines.

It doesn’t cost you anything.

Have it in the bank.

The reason why you’re going to want to do this is 1 just to be prepared, but more importantly is because some airlines do not show you how many points it cost to book a flight unless you’re already signed up and logged into their website searching for flights.

4:45

So in order to see flights and how much they cost in points, a lot of airlines require you to be logged in and the member for that.

Some airlines don’t, which is great, but a majority of them do.

So you’re going to want to go ahead and do that.

A great example of this is our flight to Singapore via Singapore Airlines.

5:02

I was just talking about.

You have to be logged in and have a rewards account with them to see flight point costs.

However, a great example of an airline that lets you look at flight redemption costs via points without being logged in or having an account with them is Delta.

5:18

But you would still need to be part of the rewards program to earn points or transfer points with them to book that flight.

The third tip is if you’re searching for flights and see a great deal, or you’re signed up for a point redemption newsletter as I had mentioned, and you see a promo advertised that catches your wanderlust, you have to be ready to jump on that deal.

5:40

Why?

Airlines only reserve a certain number of available seats with these point promo deals, so you need to be ready to act fast before they all get booked up.

That’s why tip #2 I gave you about already having an account with each airline is important.

5:56

The last thing you want to do is to have to make an account before you can transfer your credit card points to said airline and possibly miss out on that deal.

Tip #4.

When you’re doing your own flight searches for great deals or non discounted point redemption flights, be sure to look at partner airlines that have code sharing agreements with one another to see if one airline has a cheaper point cost redemption.

6:23

What do I mean by this?

We’re all familiar with the terms Sky Team, One World or Star Alliance.

These are the three most well known partner airline groups that have alliances with each other.

For example, Delta Air France, KLM part of Sky Team American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, part of One World, United Singapore Airlines Canada, Eva Air, part of Star Alliance.

6:49

There’s so many more airlines in each of these alliances that I didn’t mention, but you get the idea.

These partner airlines will code share with each other, meaning that if you were to be looking on Delta Airlines for a flight, any one of the other airline partners could potentially be operating your flight even though your ticket was booked through Delta’s website or vice versa.

7:11

So the point of tip #4, a flight from Los Angeles to Paris on Air France may be more expensive to book point wise via Air France and their point program than if you were to book that same flight operated by Air France but booked it through Delta’s website.

And that is another reason why I mentioned before we love Thrifty Traveler Premium for our Point Deal newsletter because they will advise you of this and let you know if it’s better to not book directly with an airline or if it’s best to actually book with a partner that they code share with.

7:43

So again, really love Thrifty Traveler for this and it makes it really beneficial and informative.

But if you’re not signed up for any newsletters like this, just be sure to check that out because you may find a better point redemption with a partner airline than direct with another airline that you may be looking at #5 is knowing how long it takes for points to transfer from your credit card to your chosen airline.

8:07

Just as a reminder, you need specific credit cards to be able to transfer your points to airlines, and even then it is not to any airline.

The credit cards have a specific list of airlines they partner with to accept those transfers.

Two of the most popular cards that allow you to do this is the Capital One, Venture X and the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

8:27

They both let you transfer to a lot of the same airlines, but they also have a handful of airlines that you could only transfer to if you’re with one or the other.

But the point of what I’m saying is that knowing how long it takes to transfer points can vary from card to card, Oregon even airline.

8:44

So it’s best to confirm with the credit card how long it will take to transfer.

The last thing you want to do is transfer points.

It takes two to three days to show up in your airline’s reward program an that flight deal is gone once the points are transferred.

Something to also keep in mind is you cannot transfer them back.

9:01

So that is kind of one of the flaws of it.

But risk versus reward, right?

I mean you can get an amazing first class, business class experience, but this can potentially happen where by the time the points transfer, you’ve missed that opportunity but you are ready for the next one when it comes.

9:18

When I transferred my points from Chase Sapphire Reserve to Singapore Airlines, it took three days for it to arrive in my Singapore Airlines reward account.

I did not have enough points to book business class round trip, so I only booked the leg going from LA to Singapore and Brittany booked the return flight.

9:37

Brittany actually has the Venture X credit card from Capital One and when she did the point transfer from her Venture X to Singapore Airlines account, so we can get those return flights, her points transferred instantaneously.

So again, some credit cards will transfer instantaneously, some not, may not just be the card, it may be the airline, etcetera.

9:58

So lots of things play into that.

But be mindful of that and it’s always a good idea to give your credit card company a call to just get a general idea on how how long it will take for those transfers.

Number six, for you guys, the point game is a really complex topic and not complex topic at the same time.

10:17

You can use your points to redeem amazing business or first class travel that would normally cost thousands of dollars.

You can even make your point stretch further and book Amazing Economy Deals with points too.

That is the simple part.

Where it becomes complex is understanding how the point transfers work, how to earn points the best way, how long it takes for points to transfer.

10:40

Is it better to book through partner airline point portals than the airline I’m flying with, Et cetera.

And that’s why I feel like the tips that I gave you will help ease the complexities.

You’re already going to have the airline rewards memberships in place like I gave you tip #1, kind of starting off the bat to have that.

10:57

You’re going to have the base knowledge on how best to go about navigating booking flights with points.

So be sure to jump in on the point game with the credit cards.

You see it all the time online.

People are doing this on Instagram.

TikTok, you’re seeing it.

11:14

We’re doing it ourselves.

You guys can do it too.

So I really do hope that a lot of these tips gave you a lot of the base knowledge that you need to get the ball rolling and get started so you guys are flying first class on your next adventure.

Thanks for tuning in to just the tip.

11:29

Make sure to subscribe, leave a review and follow us on all the socials at Travel Squad Podcast and have fun traveling this weekend.