Sip Café au Lait in Paris for Pennies: Snagging $2K Business-Class Tickets to France on Black Friday

Sip Café au Lait in Paris for Pennies: Snagging $2K Business-Class Tickets to France on Black Friday - When to Start Hunting for BF Airfare Deals

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are infamous for having great deals on everything from apparel to appliances. But did you know that airlines also get in on the sales frenzy? Some of the best airline ticket deals of the year can be found during the Black Friday weekend. The key is knowing when to start your hunt.

Ideally, you'll want to begin your search for Black Friday airfare sales about 5-6 weeks in advance. This gives you enough time to research routes and watch for early deals, without jumping the gun too soon. Keep in mind that most airlines launch their Black Friday sales 1-2 weeks prior to the big day. Act too early and you risk missing out on the biggest discounts.

Start by browsing airfare sales calendars to pinpoint when major carriers like Delta and American Airlines have historically offered Black Friday deals. Sign up for alerts from your preferred airlines so you'll be notified as soon as the sales go live. Monitor both the airlines' websites and online travel agencies like Expedia and Priceline, which often match the airfare deals.

Don't forget to check international carriers like Air France and Lufthansa, which frequently offer excellent Black Friday business and first class fares, especially to Europe. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are known for competitive sales on flights to London when Black Friday rolls around.

Wherever your desired destination, resist the temptation to book more than 2 weeks out. Discounts generally get better the closer you get to Black Friday itself. Aim to lock in your tickets no more than 5-7 days pre-holiday, when last-minute sales kick into high gear.

Booking 1-2 weeks in advance does carry some risk of plans changing and forfeiting ticket value. However, the hundreds of dollars in savings are often worth it, especially for premium cabin fares that normally cost thousands.

Sip Café au Lait in Paris for Pennies: Snagging $2K Business-Class Tickets to France on Black Friday - Focus on Lesser-Known Airlines' Sales

While mega-carriers like United, Delta, and American grab all the headlines with their Black Friday blowouts, lesser-known airlines often have just as many—if not more—remarkable deals happening behind the scenes. These smaller carriers need to work harder to get your business, so they roll out the red carpet for Black Friday ticket shoppers.

Take French Bee for example. This niche, low-cost carrier based in Paris offered some of the biggest Black Friday discounts I’ve ever seen for flights between the U.S. and France. RoundtripBusiness Class tickets from San Francisco to Paris were going for just $990 total last November. An unheard of price for a lie-flat transatlantic seat!

Another Black Friday score was Cape Air's 2-for-1 sale on flights around New England and the Caribbean. The regional airline offered a buy one get one free deal on all routes booked during the sale period. Essentially cutting the price on these short island hops and rural routes by 50%.

While I love a good mainstream carrier promotion, I’ve found the real jackpots happen with airlines that fly under the radar. For instance, last Cyber Monday I booked Atlanta to Barbados for $280 roundtrip on Caribbean Airlines. An absolute steal for a peak season Caribbean getaway.

Part of the reason for the blowout deals is that these smaller airlines have less web traffic, so they incentivize travelers to visit their sites. Lesser-known carriers also tend to be hungrier for new customers. Offering deep discounts is a great way to get their names out there and fill more seats.

When Black Friday rolls around this year, be sure to stray from the predictable airline sales. Take time to research lesser-known brands—especially niche carriers that fly to your target destination. Sign up for their email alerts so you’re tipped off as soon as the unbeatable offers go live.

Sip Café au Lait in Paris for Pennies: Snagging $2K Business-Class Tickets to France on Black Friday - How to Spot Mistake Business Class Fares

Scoring an accidentally discounted business class ticket, also known as a mistake fare, is like winning the lottery for budget-minded jetsetters. We’re talking $2,000 lie-flat seats to Europe for a few hundred bucks or $10,000 first class suites for less than $2,000. Too good to be true? Not if you know where to look.

The key is identifying pricing errors hidden in the complex, interconnected systems of fare filing between airlines, agencies and websites. When inputting countless flight prices and tangled webs of footnotes, it’s easy for an airline analyst to flub a decimal point or book the wrong routing code. What gets mistakenly input as a $200 coach fare may actually sell for $2,000 in business.

I once snagged San Francisco to Paris for $650 roundtrip in Delta One suites thanks to a fare mistake—an absolute steal consider the usual $5,000+ price tag. Another score was Auckland to Los Angeles for only $367 in Air New Zealand business class, a route that routinely goes for ~$4,000.

Sweeping airfare sales sites like Secret Flying, The Flight Deal and us at Mighty Travels Premium are your best resources for spotting these unicorns in the wild. The teams behind these services have sophisticated software that detects anomalies in airline pricing algorithms. We dig relentlessly through mountains of booking classes hunting for those rare golden tickets.

When an almost unbelievable fare is verified, newsletters blast out alerts or it gets posted to the site’s deals feed. Timing is critical. These pricing glitches are often fixed within hours, even minutes, of going public. You have to act fast.

Before taking the bait, double check the airline, dates, airports, cabin class and other booking details. Occasionally too-good-to-be-true fares are just that. But when legitimate, move swiftly to book before the airline gets wise and hikes the price back up. Non-refundable tickets are best to lock in the savings and prevent getting cold feet.

Head to the airline website rather than booking through an OTA. Airlines can’t cancel tickets they’ve already issued, even if it was a mistake fare. OTAs on the other hand can claim a ticketing error and retract the booking.

It’s a misconception that mistake fares always get canceled. In fact, airlines rarely rescind these bargain bookings after the fact. Rectifying the problem creates headaches for their accounting department, not to mention a PR backlash from customers. Usually they just suck up the loss and call it a marketing expense.

With scrutiny of these mistake fares growing, airlines are getting quicker at wiping them from search engines. But for eagle-eyed flight deal gurus willing to drop everything and book when alerted, the payoff of nabbing a $5,000 seat for $500 is well worth the effort.

Scoring these unicorn fares does require dedication. Sign up for as many airfare newsletters as possible, and check your inbox regularly. Enable push notifications on your phone from key deal sites so you never miss crucial intel.

Sip Café au Lait in Paris for Pennies: Snagging $2K Business-Class Tickets to France on Black Friday - Why Flying Midweek is Cheaper

Contrary to popular belief, the cheapest days to fly aren’t always Tuesdays and Wednesdays. However, midweek travel does tend to be more budget-friendly overall thanks to some key factors that add up to savings for savvy jetsetters.

For starters, fewer people book flights midweek as opposed to weekends, especially for leisure travel. Most vacationers aim to maximize their time off work, flying out on Fridays after the office and returning Sundays to prep for the week ahead. This spikes airfare prices on weekends and leaves more open seats needing to be filled midweek.

In contrast, business travelers predominantly book during peak work days, helping fill planes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. With this steady corporate demand, airlines don’t have to offer as many promotions to hit booking targets midweek. Come weekends, they incentivize leisure fliers with fare sales to occupy the excess capacity.

Beyond fluctuating demand, airline pricing algorithms utilize historical data to calculate fares based on when seats have sold out in the past. Knowing Fridays and Sundays tend to sell out first, they spike prices on these high-demand days. Midweek fares stay lower in anticipation of open inventory.

Furthermore, frequent flyer mile redemptions follow similar patterns, requiring fewer miles for midweek flights compared to weekends. With less points demand Monday-Thursday, airlines don’t have to price inventory as high to control availability. They save the steep mileage rates for weekends.

Based on these dynamics, Tuesdays and Wednesdays specifically have emerged as the cheapest days on average thanks to the confluence of midweek work travel demand but still lagging behind end-of-week leisure spikes. However, depending on the route and travel dates, other midweek days could offer more value.

I once saved over $1,500 booking a Monday departure and Friday return from New York to Hong Kong rather than flying the typical Sunday-to-Sunday week. Apparently Mondays had the lowest demand on this route. Checking midweek options before blindly booking Tues-Weds could have missed this better deal.

Sip Café au Lait in Paris for Pennies: Snagging $2K Business-Class Tickets to France on Black Friday - Use Points for Lower Surcharges

One easy way to maximize value from your points and miles is to use them for bookings that typically incur high surcharges when paying cash. We’re talking those irritating “carrier imposed” fees that get tacked on to certain award tickets, especially premium cabin international flights. I’m looking at you, British Airways! While surcharges can’t be completely avoided, points provide leverage to minimize this annoying hit to your wallet.

Let’s take London as an example. British Airways is notorious for charging egregious fees on award flights across the pond, with carrier-imposed surcharges ranging from $500 to $800 roundtrip in business class. That’s enough to negate much of the points value you worked hard to earn. However, partner airline Aer Lingus offers ways to sidestep some of these outrageous fees when redeeming miles.

For flights between the U.S. and London, Aer Lingus only tacks on about $100 in surcharges each way as opposed to BA’s $400+ going to/from London. You can transfer points from Chase Ultimate Rewards or Amex Membership Rewards to the Aer Lingus loyalty program Avios and book these lower-surcharge award seats through their site. The same flights would cost you hundreds more in fees if booked through BA.

I’ve flown this routing many times, saving ~$600 in surcharges per roundtrip by booking creatively with points rather than paying cash. That’s money back in my pocket rather than enriching the airline. Even more lucrative is booking Star Alliance partner United or Lufthansa using United MileagePlus miles or Chase points. Their award surcharges are minimal, with even first class awards having fees under $100 total.

This strategy applies beyond the British pounds and euros to avoid surcharges globally. Frequent flyer website The Points Guy ran the numbers and found using Qantas points for flights on their Oneworld partners American and Cathay Pacific reduced fees versus booking through British Airways up to 89% on the same routes. Air Canada's flexible rewards program also lets you skirt hefty surcharges that pairing the same flights through Aeroplan would incur.

While mileage redemptions involve some legwork, the opportunity to dodge a huge cash bite makes points so much more valuable. Say your PTO is coming up and you want to experience the wonders of Italy. Alitalia-operated flights commonly have $500+ surcharges each direction in business, even when using partners’ programs. Instead, book the same route through a low-surcharge carrier like Turkish Airlines using United miles or Aeroplan and laugh your way past the Colosseum with all those saved dollars still in your pocket.

Sip Café au Lait in Paris for Pennies: Snagging $2K Business-Class Tickets to France on Black Friday - Fly Through Unusual Gateways

Uncovering clever routes through overlooked hubs is an art form for elite flight hackers seeking business and first class tickets for economy prices. Rather than the most obvious, direct path between two cities, integrating unusual stopovers can unlock substantial savings not visible at first search. This advanced strategy requires digging deeper into airline networks but pays major dividends for long-haul itineraries.

I first discovered the power of booking through unlikely gateways when planning a trip to Southeast Asia. Flights from the U.S. to Bangkok on mainstream carriers like United, Delta and American were topping $3,000 roundtrip in business class. Buried in the details though, I noticed Qatar Airways offered a business class fare for only $1,400 with a routing from Washington to Doha to Bangkok. Doha made zero sense directionally as a transfer point from D.C. to Thailand. Yet the unusual stopover slashed my costs by over 50% for the same long-haul business class experience. This Doha detour added a few hours to my trip but saved me thousands.

Another instance was when a friend was checking options to fly first class from Chicago to Kenya. The costs on United, Lufthansa and other plausible routings eclipsed $15,000 roundtrip – clearly out of reach on their budget. But I suggested checking fares to Nairobi through the Middle East, assuming they may be lower based on competition. Lo and behold, options existed from Chicago to Abu Dhabi to Nairobi for only $3,200 roundtrip in Etihad First Class Apartments! Again, Abu Dhabi was extremely illogical geographically for this route, yet integrating this bizarre stopover cut the price to a fifth of the amount.

Sip Café au Lait in Paris for Pennies: Snagging $2K Business-Class Tickets to France on Black Friday - Extend Your Trip with Open Jaws

Open-jaw tickets are a secret weapon utilized by savvy travelers to add free stopovers and extra destinations into a single booking. Unlike a simple roundtrip, open jaws allow you to fly into one city and out of an entirely different one, with enhanced flexibility to explore multiple places for the price of a standard return. Capitalizing on this tool around Black Friday leads to huge savings stretching your getaway.

For example, open jaws enabled me to visit both Spain and Portugal for the cost of a basic Madrid-Lisbon-Madrid ticket. I flew into Madrid, then out of Porto three weeks later after making my way around Iberia. This essentially added a free one-way Porto-Madrid flight allowing me to hit bonus cities like Barcelona and San Sebastián en route.

Another occasion I extended a South American sojourn by booking an open jaw from Lima to Santiago, returning from Buenos Aires. This permitted me to traverse Peru, see wonders like Machu Picchu, continue south through Chile, swing east to Argentina, then fly back home direct from Buenos Aires. A simple roundtrip would have required costly regional flights to connect this multi-country odyssey.

Sip Café au Lait in Paris for Pennies: Snagging $2K Business-Class Tickets to France on Black Friday - Splurge on Hotels with Airfare Savings

Scoring a killer airfare deal can free up budget to splurge on luxe hotel stays. After all, what’s the point of flying halfway around the world in Emirates First Class for pennies if you’re just going to crash at a Motel 6? An ultra-discounted business or first class ticket is the perfect excuse to indulge in 5-star accommodations and make the most of your travels.

I’m obsessed with maximizing value, so when I snagged a Cathay Pacific flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong for only $320 roundtrip, I decided to channel the $2,000+ I saved on airfare into a suite at the luxurious Four Seasons Hong Kong. Rather than waste money on a mediocre room, I invested my discount into a Harbor View Suite with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Victoria Harbour.

Waking up above this iconic skyline and feasting daily on the hotel’s lavish breakfast buffet brought my vacation to the next level. I never would have felt comfortable allocating this much for lodging without the boost from cheap flights.

Others have embraced this same mentality, like a colleague who indulged in Singapore’s iconic Marina Bay Sands after scoring $700 roundtrip business class tickets from LA to Singapore on Singapore Airlines. Had he paid the usual $6,000 for these seats, no way would he have felt justified booking the $500/night Infinity Sky View room with panoramas from the rooftop infinity pool.

One friend lucked into a mistake fare from Vancouver to Tokyo for only $280 roundtrip in Air Canada business class. Rather than waste this fortune on a basic room, she rented a luxury apartment in Shibuya overlooking Shinjuku. Being surrounded by skyscrapers made this unbelievable airfare feel worthwhile.

Occasionally, inspiration comes the other way around when an amazing hotel deal presents itself. Then you search flights through Mighty Travels Premium specifically planning to fund a lavish hotel with airfare savings. I found a glitch rate at W South Beach for $250/night over New Years. With wads of cash saved on the room, I justified splurging on Delta One suites from LA to Miami for the festivities.