Are Rewards Flights to Spain Just Overpriced Today?

By Robert McGarvey

Or is it just that the cash price for the flight is inflated in the first instance?

I am planning a trip to the Iberian Peninsula in early fall.  It had started as mainly Portugal but Portugal has been imposing lockdowns, etc. as it wrestles with an outbreak of the delta variant of Covid-19 – probably all to the good in the long term – and now my focus has shifted to a trip to Madrid and points north in Spain (Leon, Santiago de Compostela, etc.).

So I look on Expedia and, shut my mouth, a Delta flight from Phoenix connecting through ATL is priced at $2296 for premium economy for two fliers, and that is as good a fare as I see except for Condor which flies a milk run with multiple stops (including one in Frankfurt). The Condor flight may be cheap but no…I am not prepared for that long a flight.

But I have a stash of Amex miles.

So I go to the Amex rewards page, plug in details, and a rewards flight is 229,690 points.

Ouch. That is a penny a point.

But I do not see much better deals for any flights to Madrid.

Here’s the other mystery: Is it better to lock in that fare now and part with the miles (I’ll probably plunk down the points, rather than pay cash, because I got ‘em and there’s no value in holding the things since they generally just lose value)?

You may be thinking, there are better deals to other places in Europe? You are right.  But they do not have the Prado, nor do they have the jamon and the short beers that always seem like a 3-star lunch wherever I have eaten and drunk in Madrid.

No, Spain it is, Madrid it must be, and points will be my currency.

One more thing I ponder – is it worth my time to transfer points from Amex to Delta and buy the flight from the airline? I have done that before, for instance when Amex and Delta had a bonus deal going (my memory is that I got a 50% bonus, so 100,000 miles became 150,000).  But I don’t see a similar deal at Amex now  that involves European carriage.

When booking at Delta, miles for two is 240,000 plus $115.50 in cash. A bit dearer than via Amex.

Choices, choices, choices.

Why fly Delta anyway? The flights and prices are comparable to American Airlines from Phoenix and, in this town, those look to be the best to Spain, at least for now. More flights, on more airlines, will be scheduled in the coming month (assuming Covid remains tamped down in Europe and the US) and I do not plan to make a commitment for at least two weeks. So the options may change but, right now, it’s American versus Delta and Delta has a narrow lead because the club in Phoenix is good as is the one in Atlanta.

But I remain gobsmacked at the mileage costs for such flights and in the early fall.  Not prime summer (although who knows that summer will be peak this year for European travel, probably not).

Am I just stuck in a past era?

Or have flight costs been bumped up right now simply because jet fuel is pricey and airplane capacity remains limited, as carriers scramble to get planes and crew and supporting infrastructure in sync?

And who am I to complain? Essentially free flights to Spain. In autumn.  

It’s a good, if dear, life.