Quick Points: How to use married flight segments for more award availability

If you’re trying to find award availability for your next flight, here’s a trick to solving the problem.

A growing number of airlines are using the concept of “married flights” when releasing and pricing award seats. As for the cost of money, airlines believe that passengers will pay a premium for non-stop flights compared to non-stop flights. Therefore, a nonstop flight from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) may be more expensive than a stopover on the east coast.

If airlines don’t believe they can sell travel at a reasonable price, the carrier may open up more award availability. Given the popularity and price premium often found on non-stop flights, connecting itineraries are becoming more available to book using points and miles.

Related: The best points and miles to use on last-minute award flights

For example, if you search for a non-stop Lufthansa flight from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Frankfurt Airport (FRA) in March, you may find that there are no seats available in business class on a partner program such as Air Canada Aeroplan.

However, if you search from SFO to Zurich Airport (ZRH) in nearby Switzerland, you’ll suddenly find business class seats at a great price of only 70,000 Aeroplan points. The first leg is on the same Lufthansa flight that could have been booked separately.

Here, Lufthansa may believe that there will be less demand for a connecting flight via Frankfurt than for a non-stop flight in Frankfurt. So, by marrying the segments from San Francisco to Frankfurt and then Frankfurt to Munich, the airline freed up more seats to book with points and miles.

Related: 7 fun destinations for the best airlines

How to use partner airline shares to get more award seats

If you can’t find award availability on non-stop services in your desired destination, consider broadening your search for destinations. You can use an external tool like Seats.aero which can search for seats on all continents. In the Lufthansa example above, you can filter the results for flights from San Francisco on a specific date to anywhere in Europe rather than searching every major European city airport imaginable on the Aeroplan site.

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If you’ve lost hope of booking a lie-flat seat across the Atlantic, consider moving on to another city. It may open up opportunities for you that you did not consider before.

Understandably, if you widen your search, it may include flying into airports you didn’t intend to. It’s important to note that since the airline assumes you will fly to your destination when you purchase a non-direct fare, there is a similar assumption for award redemption.

Airlines are looking for travelers to drop their legs to try and save money, and while doing it once may not pay off, if you do it repeatedly, you risk having your loyalty account closed and your points and miles stripped if you don’t fly. any leg of the journey, or the first or last flight. The entire itinerary will also be cancelled.

Using the Lufthansa example above, if the flight to Zurich is as close as you can get to Frankfurt using points and miles, you can book a separate flight or train ticket to get to Frankfurt from Zurich.

Related: Your ultimate guide to how to search for award availability on major airlines

Bottom line

Airline revenue management departments use sophisticated algorithms to ensure they can get the highest fare for anyone traveling between two destinations. The concept of the couples segment is that there is less need to connect itineraries than non-stops, so additional award seats can be released to connect “couples” options.

If you’re struggling to find seats to use points and miles, especially on long-haul flights in premium cabins, consider expanding your destination options. You may find that more availability appears, including the exact flights you were looking for.

Make sure you play by the rules to avoid your favorite loyalty program from serving divorce papers.