Book flights for 0 points

Good morning from Damascus — the stunning, vibrant capital city in Syria.

I was going to write about some Syria stuff today, but honestly? I have so much to say… so stay tuned for more content on that.

For now, let’s get into the good stuff (and some bad stuff 😭):

• 🏃🏼‍♂️ Mike on the Move: Tell me where to travel next

• ✈️ Southwest overhauls its fares

• 😮 How to book flights for 0 points

🏃🏼‍♂️ Mike on the Move: Tell me where to travel next

Alright… so today I’m flying out of Damascus. I initially had plans to do some more adventurous travel, but I’m just exhausted…

So I decided to destroy my plans (classic Mike, eh?) and book a flight back to my happy place, Indonesia, for some rest and relaxation.

But here’s the deal…

I booked this one flight and a few nights at a hotel. From there, my life is wide open. I have no plans. No flights, no events, no place to be.

So I thought it’d be fun to let YOU decide where I go next week. In the poll below, I’ll list out a few places, some old and some new, that I’d be down to travel to.

Whichever place you decide on, I’ll go there next week — and I’ll use points and miles tactics to get there, then share those tactics with you to apply to your own travels.

So what do you say? Want to play a game? 🤡

✈️ Southwest overhauls its fares

Welp. Southwest has done it again. Yesterday, it announced some specific details around its upcoming changes to fare classes, elite benefits, and more.

The big change to be aware of is the new basic economy fare… and it’s not pretty.

So let’s talk about it.

Here is a chart that Southwest published outlining the new fare types, including new names, earning rates, restrictions, and more:

As you can see, the most basic of the fare types (aptly named “basic”) is quite restrictive…

For starters, you’ll only earn two points per dollar, which is basically meaningless.

The other big changes are as follows:

• You cannot select a seat. You’ll be assigned one in the back of the plane only upon check-in.

• You cannot refund your flight for cash — only for a travel credit valid for six months

• No checked bags (RIP 🪦)

For reference, Southwest currently offers travel credits that never expire, and two free checked bags for EVERYONE… so there’s no way to sugarcoat this change.

But here’s the good news:

These changes will take effect starting in Q3 of this year, and only for flights starting in Q1 of next year…

So, as I told you a couple of months ago, NOW is the time to book those Southwest flights to get the current benefits and fare types — plus, Southwest’s 30% off flash sale is going on through May 1!

In the same announcement, Southwest gave us some more details about the new seating types they plan to introduce:

This change could be really appealing to some.

Instead of the old “cattle call” method of boarding, many people would be happy to pay a bit extra to guarantee a seat with some extra legroom or near the front of the plane.

Plus, A-List and A-List Preferred members will have the option to select these new premium seats at booking, which is also nice:

Finally, those of you who have one of the airline’s co-branded cards will also get some benefits.

You can see some of the details on this page, but some details also have yet to be announced on that front.

Anyway, here’s the bottom line… For most people, Southwest’s massive overhaul doesn’t look pretty.

But for elite members and cardholders, many things won’t change much, and some things might be a marginal improvement.

For those of you who are salty about all of this Southwest news, the following airlines are offering status matches to try and steal your business:

• Frontier

• Delta

• American

• JetBlue

😮 How to book flights for 0 points

Sweet spots are great. We’ve been highlighting some of the best ones recently here in the newsletter.

But they all have one problem: They cost points and miles.

I know that sounds obvious, but what if I told you that there was a way for ANYONE to get a free flight on any continent without spending a single point or mile?

As it turns out, such a thing is entirely possible. And it’s actually quite easy to do… 😏

I’m talking about the United Excursionist Perk.

Here is a very short summary of this perk:

When you book an itinerary of at least three segments using United miles, you can get the middle segment for zero miles — as long as you follow a few loose rules:

• Your itinerary must start and end in the same “region” (but does not have to be the same airport/city)

• The middle segment must be WITHIN the same region, which cannot be the same region you started in

• You must book your flight with United miles, NOT cash

• The “free” middle leg is in the same class of service as the first segment (i.e., economy, business, etc.)

Okay… now that we’ve covered the fine print, let me explain this in a much easier way by using some examples.

Here is how this perk is intended to be used…

Let’s say you fly this itinerary — Chicago (ORD) to London (LHR) to Madrid (MAD) to Chicago:

Let’s compare this scenario to the rules I mentioned above to see if the Excursionist Perk would apply:

• ✅ Start/end in the same region (North America)

• ✅ The middle segment is within a single other region (Europe)

• ✅ Booked with miles instead of cash

Looks like we nailed it. So, let’s run an actual search on United to see if it adds up the right way.

First, log into your United MileagePlus account and navigate to the advanced search page, which looks like this. 👇

Next, let’s make sure we select a search with miles (not cash) and input all of the correct segments shown above.

Sure enough, when we get to selecting the second segment, we see something that looks like this:

Well, HOW ‘BOUT THAT? ZERO MILES.

In all, we’re saving 16,500 miles thanks to this unique perk.

But that’s not the exciting part…

As I mentioned earlier, this is how the perk is INTENDED to be used… But you can stretch it much further if you want to. 😉

Last year, I used this perk to book three flights, including a long three-segment flight in Africa, for a grand total of just 11,450 United miles:

The free flight that I got from the booking above would’ve normally cost over 20,000 miles on its own, so the savings can really be massive when you get strategic with this perk.

One important thing to keep in mind is that you still need to pay the taxes and fees for your “free” middle flight.

And, of course, the only way to use this perk is to have a balance of United miles in the first place…

Thankfully, you can easily rack up some miles by transferring points from a credit card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.

As a reminder, that the Sapphire Preferred currently has the craziest welcome offer we’ve ever seen… so hop on it now to combine it with this epic United trick.

That’s gonna do it for today, friends!

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news on the Southwest stuff… but at least we balanced it out with an EPIC points and miles trick, right?

Anyway, take care and see you bright and early tomorrow ❤️

33.5132° N, 36.2768° E