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Perhaps this is just me, but it seems like there are a LOT of posts talking about airfare “deals”.  And I know that I’m probably guilty of this as well to some degree.  What one person might think is a great deal, another might not.  Different people have different places they’re interested in visiting, and different price thresholds.  That’s why one of my 5 steps to get you ready for the next fare sale includes figuring out what is a deal for YOU, so that when it shows up, you don’t have to decide in the moment.  Delay can cost you, as some people found to their dismay when they waited too long on the recent Amex Platinum 100K offer

I do post some fare deals (mistake or otherwise), but generally tend to go on the side of really cheap deals.  Most recently I posted about a $99 fare sale to Europe, and here’s a variety of some of the other posts I’ve written about over the past few months (all of these deals are dead, and shared just for comparison)

But is this REALLY a deal?british-airways-plane

Within the past few days, there have been several posts about a fare sale for paid business (or first) class travel to Europe in the ~$2000 range

I don’t mean to necessarily pick on these guys, as generally I enjoy reading their blogs, but it just seems like these are not deals under 99% of people’s definition of deals?

And it’s not just these particular deals though they are what sparked my memory – over on the Points With a Crew Slack channel, we have a channel that posts occasional deals from The Flight Deal and some of those recently have seemed pretty weak (in the $600 or $800 range for economy travel)

I mean, I get that these may be very good prices for business and first class travel (I don’t pretend to know the market for transatlantic first and business class flights, so I assume that these guys know what they’re talking about).  But $2000 is a LOT of money!

I was reminded of an excellent post over on Money Metagame, wondering if travel hacking was really a smart financial move, or do you just end up spending the money you’ve “saved” on more travel.  I know for myself at least, I’ve been guilty of that, and I think you do find as you travel more, and in higher cabins of service, you become “accustomed” to that and thus do it more (spending more money than you might otherwise have done)

What do you think?

Maybe I’m just being overly dramatic.  It’s certainly possible. I did look through the comments of those posts and did find 2 people that said they booked flights.  And I don’t mean to judge anyone’s manner of travel – I’m a firm believer in you travel how you want to travel, and let me travel how I want to travel.  So if these “deals” are really deals for you, then I tip my cap and hope you enjoy your flights!

I just was wondering if other people feel the same way as me?  Or do most people agree that these flights are not quite “deals”?

So what do you think?  Are these fares “deals”?


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