What Is a Positioning Flight?

A positioning flight is a strategic move in the world of air travel, often used by savvy travelers to connect to an exceptional award flight that may not be directly available from their home airport. This type of flight is essentially a short, separate flight taken to reach a major airport where the primary, long-haul award flight departs or has availability. By utilizing a positioning flight, travelers can take advantage of significant savings or better availability on award flights, making it a smart choice for those looking to maximize their travel rewards. It's a clever way to bridge the gap between your location and the ideal departure point for your dream destination.

Real World Example

Recently we flew Qatar Airways famous Qsuites and it was FANTASTIC. But booking Qsuites from the US to Asia can be a challenge and they don’t fly out of all airports. So if you really want to fly Qsuites, you may likely need to position yourself at a bigger airport

• Flight redemption I was looking to book: Qatar Airways Qsuites

  • Booking for my family of 4

  • Qatar airways doesn’t fly out of our home airport

  • I found 2 seats available on a Qsuite flight out of JFK and 2 seats available on a Qsuite flight out of ORD a few days apart.

So my oldest and I positioned to JFK and my youngest and husband positioned to ORD a few days later. All that means is that we flew to JFK/ ORD on a separate booking. Depending on your home airport, award you are booking, and the program you are booking through, you may be able to add on a positioning flight. I believe for United this is possible, but haven’t done this personally. For us, it wasn’t possible. So, I booked my oldest and I on an American Airlines flight to JFK because I have Platinum Pro status thanks to a AA promotion and status match! This gave us 2 free checked bags each! Eliminating a major cost of positioning flights.

I booked my husband and youngest on a United flight to ORD because he has United silver status (thank you Marriott Titanium Status), and they will each get 1 free checked bag. Again, reducing checked luggage fees.

Important things to take into account

• You always want to position yourself with adequate time for yourself and your bags to make it to your destination.

• You should also make sure there are several other flights leaving after yours that would get you to your destination on time for the redemption flight because if not, you could miss your award redemption flight which would be such a bummer and you’d also forfeit the points and fees.

So always position early enough to account for delays! We got to JFK 12 hrs prior to our flight, but I did that intentionally and also knowing there were quite a few flights we could take after ours if it was cancelled or severely delayed. Even 12 hrs could be risky if there is a significant weather event so I’d recommend to position the day before if possible! For my husband and son I scheduled their positioning flight to arrive a full 24 hrs prior to their redemption award flight. This is more comfortable in my opinion.

Of course, everything went well with our positioning flight to JFK and we ended up sitting in the JFK airport for 7 hours before we could even check in with Qatar, but IF anything had gone wrong or been delayed, I would’ve been so thankful for that cushion. I would’ve have been so severely disappointed to miss our Qsuites flight and losing the points would’ve been a major hit. Not to mention we’d have had to buy a last minute ticket to Asia which wouldn’t have been cheap and certainly would’ve been economy and not anywhere close to Qsuites comfort!

I’d have the same cushion if not more in the future! One takeaway for me, as this was our first time using positioning flights for an award flight, is to just go ahead and position the day before and then stay comfortably in a hotel until your check in time the next day! Takes away the worry of anything going wrong that day and eliminates a 7 hour sit-on-the-floor-in-the-terminal situation!

Other considerations: Is the flight award redemption worth the positioning cost?

Our Qsuites flight was a whopping 10.6 cents per point redemption value which is insanely good! So yes—it was 100% worth positioning for. Not to mention, it was a bucket list flight for us!

But if you are positioning for a mediocre or even low value redemption, maybe it isn’t worth it. For example, I wouldn’t have positioned to JFK to take an award flight in economy to Europe because I could easily have found that from my home airport. Additionally, you need to factor the positioning flight cost in dollars or points and any hotel stay you might need into your trip planning.

I hope that answers some of your questions about positioning flights. Send me your questions below! Happy flying!