Last year, we had Delta with the day after Christmas cheap fares all over the US. This year, it appears as if it is Etihad Airways with unbelievably cheap fares all over the world from multiple cities in the US!
HT: The Flight Deal
Many of the destination cities appear to be good for travel from January – April with Hong Kong coming up in the fall. When booking these flights, you will have 24 hours to cancel using Orbitz or Priceline. This way, you can book now and always change your mind later for no charge! I suggest booking through one of those sites from the links on The Flight Deal’s page so they will earn a small commission for their great work with these fares.
Note:If booking on Orbitz, the prices will show much higher than the actual price. Select your dates and the price should drop at the trip page (before paying – do not pay if the price has not dropped!).
Sample Cities
I have friends that are flying to South Africa and found 6 tickets from JFK – Johannesburg roundtrip for only $293 per person!
The cheapest route is coming up as JFK – AUH (Abu Dhabi), which is Etihad’s hub. This can be had for as cheap as $187 roundtrip!
There are many other options as well which The Flight Deal has expertly laid out. Check out their page with all of the information. The best prices are coming up for departures between Monday – Thursday and for the winter months (except for Hong Kong which is coming up in the fall).
Reasons To Buy
Be aware that Etihad may well not honor this. But, if you are issued a ticket number, you will be fine. So do not book any non-refundable hotels or other flights until you get that ticket e-mail.
Even if it is honored, you will only receive miles credited to Etihad (if they desire to allow the miles to be earned on these tickets – they have not in the past). So, it is not a great mileage trip to earn miles.
BUT, this could be a great way to get to Abu Dhabi cheap and then use 40,000 AA miles to fly Etihad’s new Apartment class on the A380 to London!
