Travel Buzz
Not a few of you have been asking how I get to travel in style (business class seats, 3-5 star hotel accomodations, dining out, the whole shebang) particularly now that you’ve seen me in my newly opened Instagram account (columbusbee.gram). As I’ve mentioned in my previous post (Deconstructing A Myth: Travel Is Only For The Rich?), you don’t have to be wealthy to get to travel and you don’t have to be Crazy Rich Asian to travel in style. Truth be told, there are ways to travel in style without breaking the bank. So I’ll let you in to some of my ‘secrets’ so that you too can be stylish jetsetter.
In the last 9 years or so, there has been an advent of promo fares here in Manila and I’m not even referring to a local airline’s one peso fare. These are promotional fares from highly rated airlines, either thru travel expos, tie ups with major credit card companies or their very own flash sale. Looking for good buys is just like shopping for bargains and anticipating mall sale. My first venture into this airfare bargain hunting was going to travel expos. Every year, there is a travel expo around the 2nd weekend of February organized by travel agents association. Multiple airlines would offer marked down prices, especially for business class fares. I remember getting business class fares for $999 to Europe (exclusive of taxes), or something like less than $1100 net. That’s a pretty good deal given that it only costs as much as a regular economy ticket. Of course nowadays, you can’t find that kind of price points anymore. where the good buys would be between $1,600 to $1900 to Europe or US. Anything more than that would already be a rip off in my book (unless you’re flying Emirates or Qatar Airways where a little premium will go a long way).
The second path to a successful hunt is thru airlines tie up with major credit card companies. It is essential then to have a very good credit card for this purpose (you’ll need a credit card anyway when you travel). Personally, there are only two credit cards that in my experience offer the best airline tie ups: Citi and American Express (where the latter is issued by BDO locally). I’ve seen promos from BPI (usually tie ups with Singapore Airlines), Metrobank, Security Bank, etc. but nothing beats these two when it comes to the depth (prices) and breadth (participating airlines). Travel sale for these airlines gives the public the option to get it from their onsite travel sale (similar to travel expos but exclusively for their credit card holders), thru their airline offices, or online. For BDO cards, there are times that there would be pre-sale (usually a day before the actual sale) exclusively for their elite cardholders (ie Amex Platinum, BDO Titanium, etc.) where they can have first dibs on promotional fares. Sorry to say that not all credit cards are created equal. There is a caste system among credit cards but don’t fret, having the right credit card would already get you into this world of low airfares. For example, you don’t need to be an Amex Platinum or a BDO Titanium cardholder. All you need to do is just to have any Amex or BDO card. There’s this Blue Amex that I heard is being widely marketed nowadays (compared to the more exclusive Amex Platinum) and of course your regular BDO credit card. You just need to ensure that you are in their email list where they send announcements of their forthcoming fare sale.
This is how I got my latest promo fare. Oman Air has a promo last April for BDO cardholders (I’m an Amex cardholder). Though the flights to Europe on promo are limited to certain destinations only, Oman Air also launched its maiden flight to Athens starting June, so I decided to make Athens as my port of entry to Europe and booked the promo business class fare for $1,760 inclusive of taxes (so the airfare was about $1,600+). This is a good buy compared to regular business fare of about $2,600 (or about 33% discount) and regular economy fare of about $1,200 for the same airline.
The third path is thru airlines’ flash sale. Here, as long as you have a credit card, you can already purchase promo fares online. Airlines would normally have these flash sales on special occasions (such as airline anniversary, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, or any holiday or season that these airlines are celebrating). You just have to watch out for these special occasions during certain times of the year or to regularly check out the websites of your favorite airlines.
Once you have started flying, you can join the airlines frequent flyer programs. I’m currently a member of five (5) programs: Krisflyer (Singapore Airlines), Asia Miles, Miles & More (Lufthansa), Enrich (Malaysia Airlines), and Mabuhay Miles (Philippine Airlines). I’ve flown other airlines as well, but since they are part of airlines’ global alliances (for example, Thai Airways is in the same alliance with Singapore Airlines under Star Alliance) I don’t need to enroll in their own loyalty programs. The miles that I would be entitled to will just be credited to my existing loyalty program (so the miles that I will get from a Thai Airways ticket I will just have it credited to my Krisflyer account). What’s special with frequent flyer program is that aside from getting notified of the airline’s forthcoming promotional fares, they also offer miles sale (where you get free airfare at marked down miles compared to regular miles required to redeem a free flight). I find Krisflyer to be very good at this in terms of depth (miles discount) and breadth (you can have the option to redeem your miles thru another airline that is a member of the global alliance). For example, last December, when I went on vacation to Bangkok and Pattaya, I have an expiring 25,00 miles in my Krisflyer account. I tried checking for the required miles for a business class ticket and there was a business saver promo for 40,000 miles (compared to the regular 80,000 miles). So I transferred 20,000 miles from my Citi Premier Miles (that’s the credit card I would recommend among Citi cards if you like travelling) to meet the required Krisflyer miles for redemption. My business class redemption was confirmed for the Manila – Bangkok leg of the Singapore Airline flight (with layover in Singapore) but was waitlisted for the return flight. So I clicked the Star Alliance button on their website and found that Thai Airways business class was available for my return date. So I flew back (Bangkok – Manila) direct on Thai Airways flight business class for free (ok, not totally free coz only the airfare is free and you still have to pay a minimal amount for the taxes/surcharges). So I got to compare business class experience between these two airlines from these two short haul trips.
(Up next: Accomodations and Incidentals)
columbusbee 