In my recent post Business Class To Amsterdam, I wrote: 

For my upcoming barge trip, I need to be in Paris on or around May 12 and fly home end of May. Google Flights shows me business class fares all in excess of $5,000 roundtrip. I’ve reserved a seat on Delta using points, which can be redeposited with no fee. But I’m not happy about parting with 442,000 points when last year I used 167,000 on equivalent flights for my Burgundy barge trips. I’ll continue my quest and report back.

Well, I continued my quest, and, as promised, I am reporting back. Happily, I cut the price of points in half. It was basically a repeat performance of how I halved the price of business class for my barge trips last April. See Saving A Fortune On Business Class Air & Other Tips For New Adventures

By modifying my 2024 dates and flying into Paris a few days early, I was able to reduce the points required for business class, roundtrip, to 212,500 miles. I redeposited nearly 230,000 miles simply by researching  dates. 

That said, one tip for spending as few points as possible is to check fares a few times before your departure date. As you can see in the screenshot below, had I logged on the day after booking my seat for 212,500 points, I would have needed to spend 535,000 points for the same flight. Ouch! Was I just lucky? Or would rates go down again?

In fact, rates did go down again, the next day, as you can see in the screenshot below. Still, I scored a better deal having to spend only 212,500 points.

There are several lessons in this for me: 1) Points are valuable currency because they can be used or redeposited with no fees. I acquire as many as I can through new credit card offers. 2) Airline pricing is like the airlines themselves, all over the place. It pays to check frequently. 3) It can pay to be flexible, either by modifying dates or departure and arrival cities. 

One other tip: I find value in American Express’s Delta SkyMiles® Gold Card. For the $150 annual fee (waived for the first year), it reduces the points required on Delta flights by 15 percent. Plus, it gives you 70,000 points for spending $3,000 in the first six months of opening your account.

One other thing that needs to be addressed. My original booking was using 442,000 points to fly to Paris on May 11. My new booking requires that I fly to Paris on May 7. While I save on points, I’ll need to budget for hotel and meals. That will eat into my savings, but do I mind having to come in to Paris a few days early? Not. At. All.

Booking affordable business class air isn’t easy or straightforward, but I hope my tips help. They’ve worked for me for more than a decade now. 

For my Dream Cruise in October, I reached out to Brian Cohen at Award Magic. For a fee, Brian will do all the legwork for you, using your bank of points to find optimal routings and fares. He’s come up with some clever ideas about getting two of us to Amsterdam and back from Zurich for my Dream Cruise. I’ll share those strategies in my next post.