Once again, I recently found myself on the brink of missing a positioning flight.  Cue the adrenaline rush! There’s nothing worse than that panicked, sinking feeling that your hard-earned business-class redemption, booked with precious points and miles, might slip through your fingers. Or worse—that your trip itself might be at risk.  So when you’re scheduling your flights, how can you plan your positioning flight so you won’t miss the award flight you’re planning to catch? Let’s start with what I did on this most recent trip and I’ll explain what I’ll do differently in the future!  

We were recently heading to Thailand, but our Singapore Airlines award flight began in San Francisco. We fly out of Denver International, and our flight was supposed to leave DEN at 1:10, arriving in San Francisco at 3:30.  Our flight to Thailand wasn’t leaving until 9:00 pm, so that should have been plenty of time, right? Giving myself a six-hour window seemed very substantial. But then our 1:10 flight was delayed due to air-traffic-control issues in San Francisco. Being familiar with San Francisco airport logistics from flying through SFO all the time when we lived in Northern California, I knew this could be a bad sign. Let’s just say that my heart started racing!

That got me thinking about what to do if we missed our positioning flight. As I jumped into backup-plan mode, I thought some of these ideas would be helpful to share so you can plan your positioning flights with less stress!

 

Book a Backup Flight

I’ve done this in the past, and it was the first thing I looked into doing. My favorite way to do this is to book a Southwest® flight that leaves an hour or two later than my scheduled flight, just in case of a flight delay with the positioning flight. Unfortunately, I hadn’t done it in this instance, and no Southwest flights left at times that would work. 

But I saw a United flight leaving Denver at 4:00 p.m. and arriving at 6:00 p.m. There were very few seats left on that flight, so I hurriedly booked with cash in case I needed a backup plan. I knew I could at least get a credit when I canceled the backup flight, which helped me calm down a little.

 

Start Thinking About Other Ways to Get to Your Destination

If we missed our flight on Singapore Airlines to Bangkok, I still needed to get there to meet our daughter and son-in-law. I wouldn’t want to cancel this trip altogether. I would not have wanted to travel in economy for that long of a flight. Luckily, there is often better availability at the last minute in business class, so I felt optimistic that I could cancel my Singapore business flight and, since I have a healthy stockpile of points and miles, find another flight.  Maybe not to Bangkok specifically, but at least a flight that would get me to Asia.

Here’s what I found on pointsyeah.com, using their Daydream Explorer tool. Eight different options were leaving the next day that could have let me book two business class seats and get to Thailand from another city in Asia. Sure, I would miss a night, but that is better than missing the whole trip!

 

 

Forget the Stress

I thought the six-hour buffer would work perfectly as I had watched Denver’s weather, which was great. What I hadn’t counted on was the weather in my destination for the positioning flight.

This confirmed that what I’ve been doing lately is the best practice:  forget the stress and arrive the night before. Using points to stay at an airport hotel and then relaxing all day is much better than that pit-in-your-stomach feeling when you start worrying that you might not make that award flight worth over $7,000! Guess what Pam will be doing in the future?🤔

 

Final Results of Missing a Positioning Flight

We made it! Our flight was delayed by about an hour, but we finally took off. When we pulled away from the gate, I canceled the backup flight and breathed a huge sigh of relief. Since I was still within the 24-hour booking window, the refund hit my card instantly—no dealing with credits, thankfully!

 

 

Being sure to plan your positioning flights with enough time to ensure you’ll catch the second flight is key!  I’ve never missed an award flight, but I’ve had a few close calls that have stressed me out. If you’re anything like me, you might consider getting to your award flight’s departure city the night before. Trust me, it’s worth it for the peace of mind—and it’s a great way to use a free-night certificate from your favorite hotel program.

Now, your turn! Have you ever missed an award flight or had a close call? Any tips for avoiding the last-minute scramble?

 

 

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