When I get the itch to book an award, I generally tend to get pretty obsessive about it. Since my family’s schedule doesn’t allow us to book tickets a few weeks before we travel or less, I’m often stuck booking tickets 11 months in advance (right before travel or super far out are the two best times for award availability, more on that later this week in Part II of my DIY Award Booking guide). Well, my obsession for the last two weeks has been getting my wife, daughter, and myself to Asia and back next Christmas holiday. And that obsession has paid off – in spades!
Using ITA Matrix to find flights: Newark to Istanbul RT for <$500
By the time I get this post up, this deal will probably be dead. But as of 2:21 PM EST on Thursday 1/31, you can fly round trip from Newark to Istanbul for $494 per person during President’s Week. There are sub 500 flights from Dulles and O’Hare as well, though not during President’s Week. I’m going to use this great flight deal for a tutorial on how to use ITA Matrix, my favorite flight search tool.