Cheap Lay Flat Seat

Just booked a trip to fly in to Vegas 1/25 - 1/30. I will be down in Sarasota for a few days prior so I booked my fight from SRQ. Just for shits and giggles I looked up AA award pricing as I had about 25K miles left from a few years ago before switching my weekly work flying to Delta. I hoped to burn them on this one way leg out as I had already bought some FC tickets back on Delta.

Figuring I wouldn’t have enough for even a cattle class ticket, I didn’t have my hopes set too high but after doing the search noticed they showed on the calendar tab 18k for First class the day before I planned to head out there. To my amazement, after clicking there indeed was a flight in First Class for 18k miles. SRQ to CLT to LAS and the timing wasn’t bad. Leave SRQ at 5ish arrive LAS at 10. I figured what the hell an extra day in Vegas, I can handle that. Then my jaw dropped, I noticed it was operated on an A330-300, a wide body usually reserved for international flights. This means better seats. Much better seats.

So my first win of the trip is snagging a lay flat seat for the 5+ hour flight from CLT to LAS at the insanely low price of 18k miles. Anyway thought I’d share. Maybe someone else can find the same deal on or around those dates. I guess AA is flying that route with that aircraft until mid February when the international schedule to Europe picks back up in full force.

 

They fly some widebodys seasonally on interesting domestic routes.

Just got back from a RT flight MIA to LAS in first class both ways in a 767 lay flat. It was exceptional for domestic. Unfortunately for my July trip it’s back to narrow body options.

A few months back I got a RT first on 767 MIA to PHL as well.

I much prefer Delta but when it’s a lie flat seat, I will switch to the dark side.

 

That is a great deal on 1st specially on a lay flat seat. The use of some wide body aircraft is also due to the 737 max issue. AA made a change on their award ticket booking this week. They eliminated the $75 dollar surcharge on flights booked with less than 21 days. It’s definitely a win if booking with miles.

 

Great deal on FC with old miles. Sarasota has many more options for junkets to Biloxi than any other Florida city too. When I was flying much more often commercial I used this site which I am sure many know about.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/usercp.php?

 

From a flying/travel nerd... Congrats on a great find.

1 - Ticket price - basically free
2 - First class
3 - Lay Flat
4 - Extra day in Vegas

 

Congrats on an awesome find.

 

18k miles from SRQ-LAS is a steal ... especially given the type of aircraft. Take the lie flat when you can get it! FYI, they have lie flat on the 757s. Was upgraded this week from Vail to DFW ... not a long flight, but still nice to strech out.

Your trip is going to start off great! Nice work!!!

 

Same here. I love the game. It’s like winning a jackpot when you score a great deal. My wife always teases me about my planning and trying to find premium tickets for as little as possible. She says I remind her or this picture when I’m trying to put a trip together with points and miles and good fares.



As someone who is accustomed to getting upgraded quite a bit, I’m incredibly spoiled now and loathe the thought of more than an hour in coach. I know it sounds stuck up, but as a tall guy with broad shoulders it’s just nice not to worry about who will be in the seat next to me and if I’ll be uncomfortable the whole flight.

 

You'll find a ton of widebodies around CES time. Lately what I've started doing is flying the opposite leg of all of the CES traffic (ie fly to Vegas when everyone is leaving). Since I'm an airline employee I just take the empty seats but I imagine you could find some very cheap deals doing that for the good seats. If I recall the Paris to Vegas flight I took a week ago had something like 100+ seats open with most of first class open. The same was true for a lot of the larger domestic routes as well. A few years back my parents scored lie flats from Seattle at the end of CES and that never happens at their standby priority so they were thrilled.