There is lots of advice out there about how to get the cheapest plane ticket possible. Often, people confuse the concept of booking on a Tuesday or Wednesday with actually flying on a Tuesday or Wednesday (spoiler alert: the latter is the more consistently cheaper option). Most of that advice is tailored to those who would want to buy plane tickets with money directly instead of spending well-earned miles or points to book the same flight. Well, to be honest, the best time to pay for one of those plane tickets would be when it’s the cheapest you’ve seen in recent history. I find it best to monitor or track a plane ticket if I plan on buying it with cash – and I usually use Google Flights for that purpose. With a few minor exceptions (Southwest being the notable one) it will track all the airline prices you’d want.
That being said, award tickets are similar in this respect: the best time to book is when they are the cheapest and tracking it can help. Sometimes people ask me if a business class ticket to Japan for 120k American miles is a ‘good deal’ – it is, but it could be better.
The best advice I can offer is to make sure you know what a given route should cost and then try to set yourself up to find the tickets at that price. Services like ExpertFlyer and AwardLogic can be used to track these prices and send you a message when lower prices come available. Here are two notable examples that people often ask about.
Japan: The best time to book flights to/from this amazing archipelago is either 12-ish months in advance or 1-2 weeks in advance. You can get award tickets anytime for 200-400k miles per person one-way on US-based carriers, but if you are looking for saver level options under 100k miles per person one-way, you should look at the Japanese carriers like All Nippon Airlines (ANA) or Japan Airlines (JAL). They consistently release award seats for prices like 89k Cathay Pacific miles per person one-way, 60k American miles per person one-way, or if you can get it, 55k Virgin Atlantic miles per person one-way.
Australia/New Zealand: This is similar to traveling to Japan but notably harder in that there are fewer planes flying to/from these island nations. Your best bet is to be consistently paying attention to award tickets on all major airlines on Southern Pacific routes (including Fiji Airlines via Nadi Airport – that might be your best bet at 89k Cathay Pacific miles per person one-way. Even with the stop, it is a great deal). You are more likely to find last minute availability on these routes as well.
For much of the rest of the world, it is truly variable but I’d suggest giving yourself 6-9 months of lead time when trying to find award tickets. Our staff can often do their ‘magic’ with that much time before departure. it may involve creative routing (like a positioning flight elsewhere in the US or getting you to a country nearby your destination country) but we can often find business class tickets for less than 80k miles/points per person one-way. If you are attempting to go somewhere very desirable (like Asian countries or island nations like the Maldives or the Seychelles), give yourself even more lead time as there are various routes to get there but they often book up early.
