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How I flew to Slovenia for Free (and made $80)

No, the free Flight wasn’t a gift.
 
No, the free flight wasn’t for a job.
 
No, it wasn’t a sponsored trip.
 
No, it didn’t even cost me my precious POINTS.
 
 
I got a free one-free flight added on to an existing reward trip.
 
If you don’t know anything about Travel Hacking, STOP. Start HERE, otherwise read on…

 

HOW TO GET A FREE FLIGHT

I used United Miles(transferred from my Chase Ultimate Rewards account) to pay for my flights from LA to London during peak summer time.
 
Those flights cost me 60,000 POINTS and $183 in taxes.
 
But I didn’t stop there.
 
When it comes to booking award flights using frequent flier points, the airlines all have different rules regarding how the actualy flight itinerary can look. The overall cost in miles covers getting you from A to B. However, depending on the particular airlines routing rules, How you get from A to B is up to you. There are 3 main rules to focus on:
 
LAYOVERS
A layover is when you stop somewhere en route to your destination for up to 24 hours at a time. Most airlines allow one layover on your outbound flight and one on your return flight. If you just fancy one night in a city, or an afternoon to meet an old friend for lunch then this rule can be an extremely valuable asset.
 
STOPOVERS
A Stopover is a stop in another city or country that lasts more than 24hrs. Most airlines allow at least one stopover on a return award ticket. Exactly where this stopover can be depends on the airlines particular routing rules. Some airlines allow a free stopover where you can stay for up to a year!
 

OPEN JAW
An open jaw ticket is one where the return flight is from a different city/county than the outbound lands in. For paid tickets, most airlines would price an open jaw as two one-way tickets instead of a retune ticket, i.e EXPENSIVE. However, when using points most airlines allow an open jaw ticket with no extra dent to your frequent flier haul.
 
Whether a free layover, stopover and open jaw in your desired city are allowed depends on the specific airline’s routing rules. Some airlines are fairly strict with what they allow and some are far more lenient, enabling us travel hackers to leverage these rules for incredible flight itineraries, without costing us more points.

BACK TO THE FREE FLIGHT

I booked my LA to London flight using United Miles. 
 
On a single return award ticket United allows you to take advantage of up to two layovers, one stopover and two open-jaw flights.You could potentially visit 6 countries by taking advantage of these routing rules.
 
For my free flight to Slovenia, I took advantage of the stopover rule.
 
United used to be super lenient with it’s routing rules, allowing you to pretty much take a stopover anywhere in the world, even if it wasn’t on the way! I once added a stopover in England on my return ticket from LA to Thailand for no extra cost.
 
Last year United changed its rules and massively restricted what it allows. 
 
In regard to Stopovers, United still allows one stopover but it has to be in the same region as the destination city. United has broken up the world into 17 regions. Luckily Europe is classed as one single region.

 
So on my return flight to London, under United’s stopover routing rules, I could go to any other country in Europe on the way to or from London for the same points price(award availability permitting).
 
So I did.
 
Initial Itinerary:    Los Angeles – London – Los Angeles = 60,000 points
Final Itinerary:   Los Angeles – London – Ljubljana =  60,000 points

WHAT ABOUT THE $80?!

When it comes to booking award flights with frequent flier miles, you still have to pay the taxes on the flights. Depending on which airlines you use and what destination you are traveling to, the taxes can be anywhere from negligible(a few dollars), to hundreds of dollars, almost the price of a normal paid ticket. Choosing the right airline awards programs to use for the right flights thus becomes exceedingly important.
 
Luckily United’s taxes are some of the lowest in the industry. 
 
The taxes on my outbound flight to London were just $5. Yaaaaaas.
 
However, the taxes on my initial return flight from London to LA was priced at $174!
 
One of the factors contributing to this high tax amount is that London imposes one of the most expensive taxes on planes flying out of the airport, especially on flights to other continents. 
 
By adding a stopover in another European Country (Slovenia), I could greatly reduce the taxes out of London.
 
When booking my free stopover, this is how it looks on the United Award booking site:
 
Notice the taxes… $40! For flying within Europe the taxes dropped from $175 to just $40.
 
However, I would still have to pay the taxes on my final flight from Ljubljana(Slovenia) to Los Angeles. 
 
But would you look at that? For various reasons beyond the scope of this article, the taxes applied on airlines leaving Slovenia are a lot less the London. For the same route back to LA they are $119 cheaper.
 
Even on the new itinerary with a stopover in Slovenia the cumulative taxes on all three flights are cheaper than the taxes on a return flight to London. $103 vs $184
 
 

CONCLUSION

When booking points tickets take advantage of a free stopover in your destination’s continent. Even if you don’t want the stopover, or have time, you can do it with the sole purpose of saving money on overall taxes and bringing down your travel costs.



This post first appeared on The Cheeky Traveler, please read the originial post: here

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How I flew to Slovenia for Free (and made $80)

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