Delta and United are going at each other by attacking the other’s hubs around the US. The winner in such wars is the traveler – us! That is because the airlines are competing for our business out of their competitor’s hub airports and trying to draw some of the business. We are just fine with that!
Cheap Airfare From Hub Cities – Great Deal!
Per the amazing Flight Deal, there are great deals from Delta/United hubs in the US to Europe with prices climbing a bit as you get into the Middle East and African destinations. But, even with the higher prices, the tickets are still much cheaper than a normal ticket to those locations.
US Departure Cities
The cheap tickets have been found from the following US airports:
- Chicago (ORD)
- Washington, DC (WAS)
- Atlanta (ATL)
- Detroit (DTW)
- Cleveland (CLE)
- Minneapolis (MSP)
- Salt Lake City (SLC)
- San Francisco (SFO)
- Houston (IAH)
- Memphis (MEM)
The funny thing about that list is that Cleveland (a former United/Continental hub) and Memphis (a former Delta hub) are actually attracting the attention from the other airline in this little hub war. That is fine with residents in those cities! It is nice that they get a little attention again after being slowly abandoned by their hometown airlines.
Sample Destination Cities and Prices
- St. Petersburg, Russia – $340
- Moscow, Russia – $340
- Dublin, Ireland – $380
- Istanbul, Turkey – $400+
- and many, many more cities!
- Check out The Flight Deal for more destination ideas / Check this post for United fares
Chicago to Dublin for under $400!
Chicago to Istanbul for $400!
San Francisco to Moscow for under $350!
Booking The Tickets
Go to Orbitz or your other favorite online travel website to book these tickets (they are bookable from the airline as well). I would suggest you go to the Flight Deal’s webpage to start your search from there as they will get a small commission for it and it will help them continue to find such incredible deals!
The dates you should be searching for are:
- January 12 – February 12
- April 20 – May 14
- Departure days must be Sunday – Thursday
- Minimum stay is 7 days
- Must purchase at least 7 days in advance
When booking these tickets, consider using your Amex Premier Rewards Gold card if you are booking directly from the airline’s website as you will earn 3x Membership Reward points. For other sites, consider using your Chase Sapphire Preferred card to earn 2x Ultimate Reward points.
Another little quirk with the new Delta system is that you can use your miles to pay for these tickets and still earn elite miles as a result! So, if you use 30,000 miles and about $80, you could be getting a ticket that is a roundtrip to Europe and only using half of the miles that an award ticket would cost to the same destination – while earning miles!
Remember, you have 24 hours from booking (some OTAs offer a slightly longer time frame, check with their policy) to cancel these tickets after purchasing them. So, by all means, book now and plan later. These fares will not last long!
If you are purchasing tickets to Russia or some other country that requires a visa, consider using Allied Passport for your visa needs. By using this link, you will get a $5 discount and I will get a small referral as well.
Have fun and book some travel this year to some new, fascinating place!
A lot of bloggers have mentioned this deal but not many really talked about which program to credit the miles to. Given Delta has switched to revenue based earning, do you think it’s better to credit these miles to Delta or another skyteam frequent flyer program like Flying Blue or Alitalia MilleMiglia?
I would actually credit to Alaska’s Mileage Plan program since V fare tickets will earn 50% of the distance flown while Flying Blue will only give you 25%. I personally don’t like to mess with Alitalia’s program since they reset their whole program every few years and the miles disappear.
For Alaska’s elite members, it is even more lucrative. Their top tier members will earn 125% of the 50% mileage flown. So, a 10,000 mile trip will allow 75K MVP members to earn 12,500 award miles and 5,000 elite miles. Not bad!