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In the past, I’ve written about Dublin being a sweet spot business class hub not just for award tickets ( because you’ll avoid a ton of surcharges), but also for paid fares. The idea is this: Instead of paying a premium to fly out of London, Paris, etc – book yourself a quick flight to Dublin, and route yourself from Dublin and save a ton of money. I was searching ways to get back from a wedding I’m attending and came across some super competitive deals to fly roundtrip from Dublin to a variety of cities. The fares I’ve found start around $1500, and offer many ways to route, even open jawing routing is avail ( Fly into Chicago, out of LA for instance.) You can do your own google flight search here, or the links I provide take you straight to Aer Lingus where most of the fares our sourcing from. I picked select flights to illustrate the deal, but there is a wide net of deals ranging from very short trips to months long trips, just play around with them.
Here’s a video review from the Independent that features the product you’d fly.
Here’s a google flights sample to Philly for 7 days and 12 days for around $1530. . You can book here
These are just sample dates. When playing around with it I found rates starting in the $1500s for 4 day turns, 7 days, a couple weeks, even months out – meaning there are a wide variety of trips that could be planned.
Here’s Chicago over New Years for $1600s – other dates are cheaper. Can book here.
As I mentioned above, there is a wide variety of
Or you could fly into Chicago in December, and back from LA in January. Roughly $1600s. Could search/book here
Personally, I picked up a multi-destination ticket into Toronto and out of Chicago. Haven’t reviewed Aer Lingus, and am looking forward to the Aer Lingus THRONE!
As you can see, and reference the video above, or this photo, not all Aer Lingus business class seats are created equal.
Here’s a look at the seating chart. You can see where I’m seated which is the absolute best for individuals. On my other flight I’ll be with my girlfriend and we chose the bulkhead in the middle.
I’ll be crediting my flights to Alaska – luckily they’re offering a nice promotional bonus.
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Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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