We spend all day, every day looking for flight deals for our Thrifty Traveler Premium members and 2024 has been a banner year of amazing deals.
In fact, narrowing down this list to just 10 of our best flight deals was a brutal exercise. In 2024, we sent more than 1,200 deal alerts to tens of thousands of subscribers all over the U.S. and Canada. The ones on this list are the deals that caused alarm bells at Thrifty Traveler HQ and the ones that our members are still raving about.
We found roundtrip fares to Ireland for $135 roundtrip, we found Delta SkyMiles sales to Asia from 34,000 miles each way in economy or 146,000 roundtrip in Delta One, and we found business class flights to London from just 21,000 points each way, too! And that's just scratching the surface.
Without further ado, here are the best Thrifty Traveler Premium flight deals of this year. More deals are on the way next year, too – don't miss alerts like these in 2024!
10. Nonstop Flights to Boston, Florida, and New York from $56 RT!
It's hard to dethrone Southwest's legendary flash sales. We've seen Southwest shear roundtrip flights down to in the $70s, $60s, and even as low as $58 roundtrip. But we've never seen flight prices hit the $56 roundtrip threshold until JetBlue launched this unhinged (in a good way) sale earlier this year.
This flight prices out at just under $57 roundtrip at checkout on JetBlue's website – an insane fare that really caught our attention at Thrifty Traveler Premium this year.
All of these JetBlue routes, including some coveted nonstops to Florida, were put on sale by 100% or more. For travelers looking for a quick trip to Florida, Boston, or New York this fall, we sent them the very best way to get it done.
9: Delta One to Europe for 196K SkyMiles RT
Our team of flight deal analysts search for Delta One SkyMiles fares to Europe every single day of the year, and twice on most days. That process is tedious, because fares are usually in the 400,000s or 500,000s roundtrip…gross.
But our searching paid off in the week before Christmas when we sent this alert about a “Unicorn Fare” for our members, allowing them to book Delta's fanciest seats to Europe for less than half the miles they typically cost!
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Many of Delta's nonstop routes to European cities like Dublin (DUB), Lisbon (LIS), London (LHR), Paris (CDG), and Frankfurt (FRA) were all on sale this week, and that's music to our ears!
Travelers with a Delta co-branded credit card in their wallets could book these flights for as few as 167,000 SkyMiles roundtrip with the 15% discount on award tickets!
8: Nonstop Flights to Japan from $435 RT
We spend all day, every day looking for cheap flights for our Thrifty Traveler Premium members, and Japan is always near the top of the list. Wait for the right deal to come around and you can get to Tokyo for $900 or less roundtrip – and sometimes half that sum!
You'll often find the lowest prices departing from the West Coast – particularly Los Angeles (LAX), where a dozen or more flights take off for Tokyo every day. That makes it ripe for Japan flight deals, none better than this recent fare we found.
That's a real, bookable, nonstop flight on United Airlines between Southern California and Tokyo. We couldn't send this one to our members fast enough, and we heard from many of them who were able to book it. too!
7: Delta One Suites to Taipei for 196K RT
Delta started flying a new nonstop route from Seattle (SEA) to Taipei (TPE) this year, which was an exciting announcement for travelers with designs on flying to Asia. But it was way more exciting than we even thought!
This deal got all of our members buzzing, and for good reason! Among a recent slew of deeply discounted Delta One deals, this remains one of the best.
These deals were a huge boon for our members, especially considering how hard it is to secure a Delta One seat for cheap. Your SkyMiles can take you there if you know where to look. Again, Delta cardholders could book this for even less – just 146,000 SkyMiles roundtrip with the TakeOff 15 discount!
6: Nonstop Flights to Barcelona, Spain from $213 RT
Before you buy a $350 flight to Florida this year, just see what the airline LEVEL has to offer instead…because you can fly to Spain for way less than that!
We found these fares to Barcelona (BCN) a few months ago and couldn't believe what we were seeing.
From the East Coast, you only needed $213 roundtrip to make these roundtrip flights yours. From the West Coast, it's only $100 more. There's no way LEVEL is making money selling these fares, but that's not our problem!
5: Tokyo, Japan from 34K SkyMiles RT
Here's a cocktail that our Thrifty Traveler Premium subscribers love: Japan, Delta and … 70% off SkyMiles fares.
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Flights to Tokyo-Haneda (HND) will typically run you close to 100,000 SkyMiles roundtrip or more. But not for our members: We found rates nationwide for half that – and sometimes even less!
From Allentown (ABE) in Pennsylvania to San Francisco (SFO) and countless cities in between, this was one of the cheapest Delta deals to Tokyo we've seen in years. Scope out the full list of just how widespread this Delta SkyMiles deal was.
4. Delta One to Europe for 50K Points Each Way
When it comes to lie-flat business class, our Thrifty Traveler Premium subscribers are always clamoring for Delta One business class. So when we found a ton of Delta One seats bookable through Virgin Atlantic earlier this year, we sent our subscribers a Unicorn Alert – a text message alert for the rarest, most time-sensitive flight deals – so they could be the first to book.
The Minneapolis (MSP) to Dublin (DUB) route and the New York (JFK) to Munich (MUC) routes were outstanding because they featured Delta's new closed-door suites. But Delta's old business class offers plenty of comfort, especially for just 50,000 points each way. That's what we found on these routes.
This deal was so good, in fact, that it's been killed off: Virgin Atlantic scrapped these dirt-cheap Delta One deals earlier this year … but not before our Thrifty Traveler Premium members locked in a lie-flat Delta flight to Europe for 50,000 points.
3: Qatar Qsuites (Plus, Qatar First Class for Price of Biz Class)
There can only be one best business class in the world, and it's Qatar Airways Qsuites. So go figure it's become nearly impossible to book using points and miles.
That's why we search for availability day, day out, sending alerts to our Thrifty Traveler Premium members any time we find some. And as tough as it is, we've sent nearly a dozen such alerts so far this year. But one stands out.
Something different happened: While searching for that vaunted Qsuites award space you could book with points, we found that you could fly business class to Doha (DOH) … then connect onward to destinations like the Maldives (MLE), Thailand, or even Australia in Qatar Airways first class … for the same rate as flying business class the whole way!
Think of it as a free upgrade to first class after a Qsuites journey across the Atlantic to destinations like Bangkok (BKK), Hong Kong (HKG), the Maldives (MLE), and Perth (PER). Best of all, that gets you access to the Qatar Al Safwa Lounge – widely considered the finest airport lounge on earth.
This deal was so good we dubbed it a Unicorn Fare and sent a text message alert to our subscribers so they could run – not walk – to book this bucket list air travel experience.
2. Virgin Business Class to London from 21K Points Each Way
We've found a lot of rare deals this year, the latest of which was some brand-new – and shockingly cheap – pricing flying Virgin Atlantic's fancy new A330-900 business class.
How cheap? How about just 21,000 points and $250 for a lie-flat seat across the pond?!
When Virgin Atlantic announced it would shift its own award flights (flights you can book with points and miles) to dynamic pricing, we all groaned. We expected rates to start skyrocketing, but that's not what happened at all! Instead, rates went down to as low as 29,000 points each way! Throw in an excellent 40% transfer bonus from Chase, and it got even cheaper!
In fact, nearly every members of our team booked this deal right when we sent it to our subscribers.
1. Mistake Fare to Dublin from $135 RT!
We love it when airlines screw up, leading to shockingly cheap flight prices. And boy did Air France screw up with this peak summer mistake fare we sent to our members this year.
In this case, Air France forgot to tack on a fuel surcharge to these fares from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) and Chicago-O'Hare (ORD) to Dublin (DUB). The end result was some peak summer flights to Dublin (DUB) at mesmerizing prices.
The math just doesn't math on these deals, which is why we designated it as a mistake fare. But dozens of our members (and a few colleagues) booked this sweet deal and spent a week in Dublin this June for less than the price of a flight to Chicago!
Bottom Line
Of the more than 1,200 Thrifty Traveler Premium flight deal alerts we sent to subscribers in 2024, these 10 were the deals we just can't stop thinking about.
Thanks to our alerts, Thrifty Traveler Premium members went to Europe for $135, are flying business class to London for 21,000 points, booked $56 roundtrip flights to Florida, and will fly to Tokyo from 34,000 Delta SkyMiles roundtrip!
Lead photo courtesy of Delta Air Lines