It may be Dry January for some travelers, but an unprecedented flurry of mistake fares and business class deals already in 2025 makes me think the airlines might be drunk.
Just a few weeks into 2025, our Thrifty Traveler Premium flight deal alert subscribers have already been sent roundtrip economy flights to Europe from $218, roundtrip premium economy flights to Europe from $602, and roundtrip business class flights to Europe for $984! Plus, we found extremely rare business class points and miles availability flying one of the fanciest airlines in Asia, as well as roundtrip flights to Japan flights as low as $588, and South America flights in the $300s roundtrip!
Now, it’s not that unusual for airlines to offer low fares early in the year. In January, the airlines can usually tell if they’re going to be able to fill their off-season and shoulder season (April-May) flights. When they can’t fill those planes, they start dropping fares to entice you to come aboard.
But this? This is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. When it comes to flight deals, 2025 is off to a blazing start. Here’s what you may have missed.
Mistake Fare: Delta Premium Select from $602 RT
Virgin Atlantic, a close partner of Delta, forgot to add a crucial, expensive fee to its fares when selling Delta Premium Select premium economy seats flying to Madrid (MAD). Oops!
That means that these flights that typically would cost over $2,000 roundtrip, fell to unthinkable lows.
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While the fare from Charlotte (CLT) lucked out with the lowest fare in the $600s, nearly all of these fares are at least 50% off the usual rates thanks to the pricing error from Virgin Atlantic.
Even from small, regional airports like Cedar Rapids (CID) and Charlottesville (CHO), you could take advantage of this weird pricing quirk to fly in Premium Select for as cheap as we’ve ever seen.
Mistake Fare: JetBlue to Europe from $218 RT
Mistake fares are exceedingly rare…yet we found two of them in one week!
In a matter of eight days, our team sent our subscribers those Delta Premium Select mistake fares to Madrid (MAD) and these insanely cheap JetBlue economy flights to Europe. Apparently JetBlue did not learn from Virgin Atlantic’s mistake…
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This Boston (BOS) to Paris (CDG) fare was the cheapest example at just $218, but you could book several of JetBlue’s nonstops to Europe that all lacked a fee that brought the rates down into the $200s roundtrip.
This deal disappeared within minutes, as often happens with mistake fares. That’s why we always encourage our subscribers to book the flight first – then figure out whether or not you can make it work. You always have 24 hours to cancel for a full refund. Any waffling and you’d have missed out on this one!
Unicorn Fare: Rare Starlux Biz Class to Taipei for 75K Alaska Miles
Do you think you could make one of these business class suites home for 13-plus hours on your next trip to Asia I think I probably could.
Taiwanese carrier Starlux has a business class product we can’t stop thinking about, but can almost never book using points and miles. And unless you have $3,500 or more to shell out for these seats each way, points and miles are really the only way you’ll be able to fly them.
Even that’s difficult though. You can book these flights with Alaska Airlines miles, but Starlux has been pretty stingy about releasing any availability to Alaska. Until, one day in January, when they released hundreds of seats for dozens of dates all at once!
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When we found dozens of dates featuring availability with Alaska Airlines to book these seats, it set off alarm bells at Thrifty Traveler HQ.
This deal was so good we flagged it as a Unicorn Fare, sending out a text message alert to our members so they could get a jump on it.
Nonstop to Tokyo for $588 RT
If you’ve been planning a trip to Tokyo over the past three years…well…so has everyone else. And that means demand was outpacing supply across the Pacific Ocean, creating a miserable airfare environment.
Fares in the $1,000s or $2,000s roundtrip were the norm. But right now might be the best Japan airfare environment we’ve seen since the pandemic. Here’s proof:
This fare from Washington-Reagan (DCA) is just one example from this roundup of Delta fares in the $500s roundtrip to Tokyo (HND) this winter and spring.
Just days before this, we thought the best you could do flying to Tokyo was in the $800s roundtrip. This Delta sale blew us away instead.
United Polaris Business Class to Bolivia from $848 RT
These fares to Bolivia wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for economy class, but for a lie-flat business class fare to South America, $848 roundtrip is mind-blowing.
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United Polaris Business Class seats fly on the long-haul legs of these routes to Santa Cruz de la Sierra from Washington, D.C. (IAD and DCA) on these routes, and United slashed its rates flying in its up-front seats on these routes.
While the connections are a little weird, they are well, well worth it to fly lie-flat on these long-haul flights to South America.
The Caribbean from 19K Delta SkyMiles RT
The value of your Delta SkyMiles fluctuates constantly. That’s why you might look one day at see flights down to St. Kitts for 85,000 SkyMiles roundtrip and then check again the next day and see those same fares for 19,000 roundtrip thanks to a flash sale like this!
We tipped off our Thrifty Traveler Premium members to this unadvertised flash sale to the Caribbean this winter just a few days ago, giving all of our subscribers a crack at getting these low, low nonstop fares to paradise during the cold winter months.
Our Thrifty Traveler Premium members get cheap flight deals and award alerts to use their points and miles.
The deal included destinations like the Bahamas (NAS), Aruba (AUA), San Juan (SJU), Turks & Caicos (PLS), St. Kitts (SKB), St. Maarten (SXM), and more!
There aren’t a lot of better values for your SkyMiles out there, but if you waited until the last minute to book a getaway this winter, your efforts paid off!
Brazil from $331, New Zealand from $520, & More Honorable Mentions
In any other month, these deals would have made anyone’s best-of list. But in January 2025, we’re playing a whole new game, relegating these (still incredible) deals to the Honorable Mention pile.
But I promise you that anyone who bought a roundtrip Main Cabin ticket to Brazil under $396 roundtrip certainly doesn’t feel like they settled!
For even less, you could have purchased basic economy, too!
For this head-scratching fare, you don’t even get the choice to book basic economy. American Airlines is desperate enough to only sell Main Cabin tickets on its flight between Los Angeles (LAX) and Auckland (AKL) right now.
How desperate, you ask?
Usually, flight prices soar in the days leading up because they know travelers will pay a premium for last-minute fares. But in this case, these planes are so empty that you can buy this fare and fly to New Zealand just a week or so from now!
This is certainly not the case for Iberia Business Class. The popular Spanish carrier flies its business class seats to and from several U.S. hub airports, but to book its lie-flat seats using points and miles, you need to be ready to book months in advance.
But if you do, Iberia usually rewards you with rates like this!
Speaking of business class flights to Europe, the funky low-cost cost airline French Bee just started flying lie-flat seats to and from its Paris-Orly (ORY) hub.
And thanks to a pricing quirk that sells them at premium economy rates (with free seat selection when you book using their U.S. website instead of the French website), you can book these for $984 roundtrip – including during peak summer!
Read our review of French Bee Premium Economy!
Bottom Line
Whether they’re not participating in Dry January, they’re offloading empty seats for historically cheap rates, or the airlines have simply lost their minds, the first few weeks of 2025 have been historically good for travelers looking for a cheap flight.
From mistake fares to Europe for $984 roundtrip in business class or $218 roundtrip in economy, or a rare points and miles opportunity to fly business class to Asia, January is your time to book flights.
