United Airlines/Black Friday Deals

[quiltymama]

Does United usually have Black Friday sales?  Anyone know when the info will be released?

[sumiandkage]

When looking for those kinds of sales, the best thing to do is just monitor the Flyertalk message boards and Boarding Area blogs for about the week surrounding Thanksgiving and be ready to book quickly (remember that you have 24 hours under DOT to cancel for a full refund essentially if the plane's wheels kiss US soil as part of the ticket) if you see something that works for you since any sale fares are typically limited to specific fare codes, and only a certain number of seats on each flight are assigned each fare code. 

[waterbug123]

An airline might have a so-called "sale" but it's not like all fares to all destinations on all dates will be slashed by 40%, like you'd see at a store in the mall.   Airline tickets aren't the kind of thing that people buy a lot of for Christmas presents so marketing efforts are different and much more targeted.  Any time you see a "sale" on airline tickets, it's usually for a very select list of cities with very specific travel dates for which the airline wants to increase sales. 

[FlyerTalker]

3 hours ago, waterbug123 said:

An airline might have a so-called "sale" but it's not like all fares to all destinations on all dates will be slashed by 40%, like you'd see at a store in the mall.   Airline tickets aren't the kind of thing that people buy a lot of for Christmas presents so marketing efforts are different and much more targeted.  Any time you see a "sale" on airline tickets, it's usually for a very select list of cities with very specific travel dates for which the airline wants to increase sales. 

 

Agree, and to amplify -- if you are looking for tickets to a popular destination at a popular time, you most likely won't find that combination during a "sale".  Why should an airline sell something for cheap if there's already strong demand for the ticket?

 

For example, AA has put some coach award seats on sale for as little as 5000 FF miles.  Wanna go from Dallas to Wichita Falls?

[sumiandkage]

2 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

For example, AA has put some coach award seats on sale for as little as 5000 FF miles.  Wanna go from Dallas to Wichita Falls?

 

Make the cost barrier low enough, whether in miles or cash, and I just might because some places end up being pleasant surprises. But then I'm the kind of person who would do a 100 mile detour to see the world's largest ball of twine. 

 

Which is kind of the attitude you have to take with those kinds of sales- a sense of adventure and whimsy and lots of flexibility. And you never know- Delta had some good sale prices for Thanksgiving 2016 that covered a lot of European destinations, even if you were starting from an outstation. It was pretty much every V fare bucket on sale. 

[waterbug123]

16 minutes ago, sumiandkage said:

 

And you never know- Delta had some good sale prices for Thanksgiving 2016 that covered a lot of European destinations, even if you were starting from an outstation. It was pretty much every V fare bucket on sale. 

 

What were the travel dates the European deals applied to?

[sumiandkage]

21 minutes ago, waterbug123 said:

 

What were the travel dates the European deals applied to?

 

I don't remember the details- might have been January-May or January-June 2107 and for some destinations like Dublin, some availability laster a week or two, IIRC.

[buggins0402]

I remember that sale.  We picked up R/T tickets to Poland for $400 for an August flight. It was very widespread.  I tested a number of city/country options for the trip and had cheap trip hits...including Venice and Nice. I also tested other DL hubs and had good hits.  On Flyer talk,  there were people booking multiple trips, with amazing deals. AA matched.