We have countless requests from readers to show how we find business-class seats. I need to find one for my husband to get to Norway this summer, so buckle up: I’m showing you from start to finish how I do it. Suffice it to say, now that he has traveled business class, he won’t go back.🤦‍♀️

We are going to Norway this summer, and I have our return tickets. He is meeting me in Norway or London after I complete a trip to Greece with my London-based daughter.

 

Step One 

I always use a search engine to get me started. My first choice is always to check pointsyeah.com. It is a free search engine and my favorite right now. I like to use the Daydream Explorer feature so I can enter both destinations and filter by the taxes and fees I’m willing to pay. I’ve spoiled my husband with business-class seats, so that is what I hope to find.

 

 

I get several options, especially to London. All are pretty spendy in terms of miles, though. I wasn’t expecting bargains during the summertime, but I had been hoping to find something under 100K points.

 

 

Step Two

I checked another search engine, seats.aero, a service I pay for. I enter my information under the search tab.

Here are the results, and there are some cheaper deals, which shows why I like to use two search engines—you can get different results. I am particularly interested in the American Airlines flights, as they cost only 57.5K miles. But what I see in the seats.aero search results is just the beginning—I’ll need to confirm these results with the airlines’ websites. Will I find availability on the American Airlines site, and will it be for a flight that has decent connections and flight times?

 

 

Step Three

The next step is to visit the airline sites that look promising and check whether the flights are actually there. The flight I saw from Denver is there, which would be great, but the taxes and fees are a little over $700, which is kind of steep. Still, I don’t mind paying that for one person when I am using so few miles. The only problem is that the connection in DFW is a long: nine hours.  Not sure he would like that itinerary!

 

I think it would be better for him to fly United from Denver to DFW on a cash fare and then book this flight to London from DFW.

 

 

Step Four

I waited a few hours, mulled it all over, and decided he isn’t very good at traveling on his own if things go wrong. I’ll be in Greece and won’t be able to troubleshoot changes or connections, so I decided to pay more and have him fly out of Denver. He’ll have a horrible connection, though. (I offered him premium economy and better connections instead, but he declined. 😂) The good thing is, it’s all booked with points. If something better becomes available later, I can cancel this flight and rebook another. Thank goodness for a healthy stockpile of points and miles!

 

Bottom Line

Booking award flights, particularly business-class flights often takes some flexibility and juggling. Sometimes I pay more in miles and less in taxes and fees. Sometimes it is just the opposite. And sometimes, I find the perfect mix of a cheap ticket with low taxes and fees. I hope this post has helped you understand this process better.

 

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