Here are a few dates we spotted in business class for a fraction of the cash price, thanks to amazing airline points. This is to give you a teaser of a new feature on the Flytrippers website that we can’t wait to unveil to you: flight deals with points, to complement the cash deals we’ve been spotting for you every day for over 8 years.
Apologies, as this quick post is just to give a teaser and only includes dates from Toronto and Montreal. Our new feature will have all cities! It’s still good for you to see and understand the basics right away if you live elsewhere.
Here are a few deals if you want to travel in luxury.
Basics of business class flights
You can skip these basics if you’re a pro who already knows how this works.
Luxurious lie-flat pod seats in business class are absolutely amazing!
The most important thing to understand is that business class flights with airline points are literally the best deal in the entire world of travel.
They’re worth thousands of dollars, and you can get them for about a single credit card welcome bonus (if you time it right, when the offer is increased)!
So… that means seats go very fast when they’re available at the guaranteed fixed price. Book these deals quickly if you think you might want them.
With some programs, you have a lot of flexibility to get a refund:
- Air Canada Aeroplan program:
- Refund for free within 24 hours of booking
- Qatar Airways Privilege Club program:
- Refund for US$25 (if the flight is more than 24 hours away)
- Or US$100 (if the flight is between 3 and 24 hours away)
So book and you can easily cancel if you change your mind or can’t find a return flight that suits you!
Other things to understand are:
- Business class flights almost always need to be one-ways
- You’ll easily be able to return if you don’t mind flying economy class
- The return flight is during the day, not overnight
- If you’re even slightly flexible, you’ll find seats easily
- Economy seats with points are not as hard to find
- If you’re flexible, you might even find business class if you want
- The priority is to get the long flight in business class
- You’ll be able to easily get from where the flight lands to where you want to go
- Short-distance flights don’t cost much in cash in Europe
- You’ll find seats more easily if you can position to another city in North America, too
- You have to be flexible like this to get flights worth thousands of dollars
Business class flights are by far the best redemption of travel rewards if you want to maximize the value you get! The beauty of points of the more lucrative type, like these wonderful airline points, is that the price in points is NOT tied to the price in cash!
So it’s necessarily a little less simple. We’ll have lots of new content with our new section coming soon!
If you haven’t read our detailed guide on how to travel in business class yet, that’s the first step (after booking, because that’s what’s urgent… we just sent the dates a little in advance to the 50,000+ savvy travelers who receive our free newsletter specifically about travel rewards).
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Lufthansa business class in May and June (Aeroplan/Amex points)
Lufthansa business class is the best example of why it’s important to check what type of aircraft is operating the route (one of the vital tips mentioned in our guide to business class), because some of their long-distance business classes are very inferior.
The Montreal-Munich route is on the A350 with a good business class, while the Toronto-Munich route is on an A350 that’s not so good! Unless my girlfriend changes her mind in the next 24 hours, I’ll be able to share my experience on the good one with you very soon.
Dates
Here are the last-minute dates we spotted:
- Montreal-Munich on May 28
- Montreal-Munich on June 8
- Montreal-Munich on June 11
- Toronto-Munich on June 9
Price
You can book the Montreal route at the guaranteed fixed price of 60,000 Aeroplan points, as is always the case when there are available seats. That’s what I just booked myself. From Toronto, it’s 70,000 points (I’ll use Montreal for the value calculations below for simplicity).
You can transfer Amex points to Aeroplan points at a 1-to-1 ratio, and it’s almost instantaneous if you followed our recommendation to link your accounts in advance! Then you book on the Air Canada website as always, since it’s Air Canada’s program.
Taxes/fees are only $120 (a few dollars less in Toronto).
If you’re short on points, Aeroplan points are the easiest to earn for Canadians!
Value obtained
This redemption gives you a phenomenal value of 14.1¢/pt, because this flight costs exactly $8553 in cash.
In cash, a long-distance business class flight costs much less when you book a roundtrip, in this case $5055 ($10,110 divided by 2). So the more realistic value is a just-as-excellent 8.2¢/pt.
Not bad compared to getting 1.1¢/pt by redeeming for Air Canada flights, right?
SWISS business class in July (Aeroplan/Amex points)
SWISS business class is certainly not among the best available, at least not on the A330 operating the routes from Zürich to Toronto and Montreal. But it’s far from terrible, and if it’s your first time in business class, you’ll still love it.
It’s a lie-flat pod seat, but unfortunately, not every seat has direct aisle access (the baseline for being considered a good business class). But if you’re traveling as a couple, it’s less of a problem. And if you’re traveling solo, some seats are good (just not all of them). But there are several seats available per date, so I’m sharing it anyway.
Dates
Here are the summer dates we spotted:
- Toronto-Zürich on June 7
- Toronto-Zürich on July 3
- Toronto-Zürich on July 5
- Toronto-Zürich on July 10
- Toronto-Zürich on July 11
- Toronto-Zürich on July 13
- Montreal-Zürich on July 6
- Montreal-Zürich on July 11
- Montreal-Zürich on July 12
- Montreal-Zürich on July 14
- Montreal-Zürich on July 15
Price
You can book the Montreal route at the guaranteed fixed price of 60,000 Aeroplan points, as is always the case when there are available seats. From Toronto, it’s 70,000 points (I’ll use Montreal for the value calculations below for simplicity).
You can transfer Amex points to Aeroplan points at a 1-to-1 ratio, and it’s almost instantaneous if you followed our recommendation to link your accounts in advance! Then you book on the Air Canada website as always, since it’s Air Canada’s program.
Taxes/fees are only $120 (a few dollars less in Toronto).
If you’re short on points, Aeroplan points are the easiest to earn for Canadians!
Value obtained
This redemption gives you a phenomenal value of 14.5¢/pt, because this flight costs exactly $8812 in cash.
In cash, a long-distance business class flight costs much less when you book a roundtrip, in this case $4005 ($8009 divided by 2). So the more realistic value is a just-as-excellent 6.5¢/pt.
Not bad compared to getting 1.1¢/pt by redeeming for Air Canada flights, right?
Qatar Airways business class in June (Avios/RBC Avion/Amex points)
The Qsuite is regularly voted the best business class in the world, and I absolutely loved the experience. With a closed door, the level of privacy is the best I’ve ever experienced in business class.
You can read my detailed testimonial. It’s truly the pinnacle of luxury in flight!
Dates
Here are the last-minute dates spotted:
- Montreal-Doha on June 4
- Montreal-Doha on June 5
- Toronto-Doha on June 5
Price
You can book both routes at the guaranteed fixed price of 70,000 Avios points, as is always the case when there are available seats (when there are no more available, they offer some at twice the price). I paid 70,000 Avios points in 2023, too; no change there (but there’s one in a second).
You can transfer RBC Avion points to British Airways Avios points at a 1-to-1 ratio (it’s even better if you already have some if you followed our advice during the last transfer bonus that gave 30% more points)! Avios points are special because you can then transfer them from British Airways to Qatar Airways (both airlines use the same rewards currency).
You can also transfer Amex points, but it’s recommended to keep those to transfer to Aeroplan as much as possible.
You then book on the Qatar Airways website, since it’s the Qatar Airways program (the flight is available through the British Airways program as well, but the cancellation fee is higher).
Taxes/fees are $361, which is a relatively recent devaluation (it was $161 in 2023). It’s still a great deal, though, since this business class is much better than almost all others!
If you’re short on points, RBC Avion points are pretty easy to get for Canadians!
Especially until June 11, because the record-high offer on the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card gives you 60,000 RBC Avion points (55,000 bonus plus 5,000 by unlocking the bonus). That’s almost enough for a Qsuite flight. But with the 30% transfer bonus offered every year, it’s more than enough!
Value obtained
This redemption gives you a phenomenal value of 5.7¢/pt, because this flight costs exactly $4366 in cash (or even more value per RBC Avion point if you took advantage of the transfer bonus).
In cash, a long-distance business class flight costs much less when you book a roundtrip, in this case $3320 ($6641 divided by 2). So the more realistic value is a just-as-excellent 4.2¢/pt.
Not bad compared to getting 1¢/pt when redeeming on the RBC Avion website, right?
Want to get more content to learn how to earn free travel?
Summary
These deals won’t last long! Stay tuned for a lot more!
What would you like to know about these business class deals? Tell us in the comments below.
See the flight deals we spot: Cheap flights
Explore awesome destinations: Travel inspiration
Learn pro tricks: Travel tips
Discover free travel: Travel rewards
Featured image: Qsuite (photo credit: Andrew D’Amours/Flytrippers)
