Is Award Travel Actually Getting … Easier?

It’s the news every points and miles aficionado has been waiting for: After years of pain, award travel is, in fact, getting easier. Alongside an undeniable trend in red-hot cheap airfare, outstanding deals keep popping up to redeem your points - whether you’re on the hunt for a discounted economy deal or a notoriously hard-to-book lie-flat award ticket.So Gunnar and Kyle dig into what’s driving this lovely new trend and, most importantly, the dozen or so deals that have us thinking that award travel has finally turned a corner. We’re calling it (working title) “Hot Flight Summer.”Come for Hot Flight Summer and stay for Gunnar’s hot fireworks take, a revelation about Kyle’s reality TV viewing habits, and why Virgin Atlantic really ticked us off this week.Watch us on YouTube!00:00 - Introducing … “Hot Flight Summer”03:16 - Something Hot: Cash airfare continues to drop (think sub-$300 roundtrip flights to Europe!)08:45 - Something Cold: Virgin doubled taxes and fees on biz class awards13:50 - A word from our sponsor (us, and our Thrifty Traveler Premium service that’s finding more deals than ever!)15:43 - The Extra Mile: Hot Flight Summer, or why we think award travel is (finally) getting easier21:00 - The rise of the elusive “Unicorn Alert” (even if Emirates hates us)24:30 - Business class award deals to Australia and across the Pacific are back!29:15 - Gunnar gushes about the Cathay’s The Pier First Class Lounge34:45 - Booking partner awards – including the rare Delta One redemptions36:00 - And don’t forget about economy flights, too! 40:15 - The exceptions: Star Alliance ,Iberia’s biz class devaluation, and Amex transfers to Emirates43:15 - Listener Questions: How to fly to Australia/New Zealand using points and miles, in biz class or economy48:45 - On the Spot: A listener checks in from Kyle’s favorite hotel in the world while Kyle taps into his Love Island fandom to couple up with – and dump from the island – two recent dealsProduced by Gunnar Olson & Jackson NewmanEdited by David StruttShow music: “All That” by Benjamin Tissot Support the show by leaving us a rating and a review wherever you get your podcasts! Have a question you want answered on-air or an idea for the show? Let us know at [email protected] 20% off your first year of cheap flights and points and miles deals with Thrifty Traveler Premium - use promo code TTPOD to save even more!See what we’re all about at https://thriftytraveler.com - or subscribe to our free weekly points and miles newsletter, The Extra Mile!Follow us on…InstagramYouTubeFacebookBluesky Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.