Kate's on a Plane

The term “positioning flight” typically refers to a short domestic flight you take to get “into position” for a big international flight. I live in Raleigh, but if I’m trying to get to Europe, I’m going to have a lot more options out of a major hub like IAD, JFK, or BOS (although I actually am flying to Europe directly from RDU in a few months, but that’s neither here nor there). While the big international flights are often where the best point redemptions are, positioning flights are usually not terribly glamorous and often booked with cash. 

Here are three ways that I’ve made the most of the positioning flights I’ve booked this year.

Lounges

A positioning flight often means a long layover, because no one wants to risk missing their international flight due to a delayed arrival on a positioning flight. Having a nice airport lounge to pass the time in can make this wait a lot more pleasant. There are two parts to setting yourself up for success here. First, consider adding a card with lounge access to your collection; I’m a big fan of the Venture X because I think it provides the best value in lounge access. 

Second, if possible, book your international flight out of an airport that has lounges you can access with whatever card(s) you have. IAD is lounge heaven; I once went to six lounges there in a single day. LAX, on the other hand, is a lounge desert; there’s not a single lounge there I can get into. Obviously this isn’t always possible, and if I was able to make a great redemption on a flight out of LAX, of course I would do it. But it’s one of the factors I consider when choosing flights. If your international flight is in a premium cabin, then you probably get lounge access with your ticket, in which case this consideration is moot.

Premium cabins

Some of the positioning flights I’ve booked this year actually have been booked with points rather than cash. One of the things that points allow me to do is splash out on more comfortable seats, even on short domestic flights. Although domestic first class doesn’t hold a candle to international business or first, it’s still more comfortable than coach. I’ve been able to book short-haul American Airlines flights in first class via Alaska. In some cases, it was a bit more than some of my other alternatives, but not much! For example, next spring my partner and I are positioning from JFK to Boston to catch a flight to Portugal on Iberia, and we’re going in first on American to have a nice start to a long travel day. A positioning flight is more pleasant when it’s, well, more pleasant.

Layovers

Sometimes a long layover means you get to see a whole new destination! Our flight home from that same trip to Spain and Portugal departs out of Frankfurt, we need to position from Barcelona to Frankfurt at the end of our trip. The direct flights were surprisingly expensive, so I began looking at flights with connections. I found a flight with an eight-hour layover in Amsterdam–long enough for us to actually leave the airport and spend a bit of time exploring Amsterdam! This is only long enough for us to get a taste of the city, but I was delighted to add a bonus destination to our trip.