• I book “positioning” flights instead of direct flights to save money on flights when I can.
• To do this, I take a flight to an intermediate airport and then begin my journey to my final destination.
• Doing this helped me find cheaper business class flights, but that doesn’t save me time.

I have traveled over 1.5 million miles, and one of my favorite ways to save money on plane tickets (and getting into business class on a limited budget) is done with “positioning” flights.

In this context, a positioning flight is when you purchase a flight to an intermediate airport and from there you actually begin your journey to your final destination.

When choosing an intermediate airport, I look for those known to offer significantly better services. flight dealswhether in economy class or business class. Naturally, spending too much money on positioning flight would defeat the purpose.

Unlike the norm connecting flightsyour entire trip is not combined into one ticket. If your flight to your intermediate airport is delayed and you miss your second flight to your final destination, you could find yourself in a difficult situation.

And unlike jump — that is, buy a cheaper ticket that takes you through the desired destination – this is not against the rules.

For years IWe use positioning to take advantage of lower business class fares from countries like Egypt, Tunisia, Greeceand the Philippines. I have found that these countries often have many daily flights but low demand for business class.

Here’s how these flights work and why they’re not suitable for all types of travelers.

Booking these flights can take quite a bit of research

Searching through so many flight combinations can be overwhelming, and there isn’t always a good deal to be found.

Ultimately, you need to do some experimenting to see if a positioning flight (plus the round trip from the intermediate stopover) will be worth your time and money.

For example, let’s say I’m looking to go from London to Jakarta for a 10-day trip in early January.

At the time of writing, the lowest round-trip business class fares for a 10-day trip from London to Jakarta that I found were between $2,600 and $3,500.

Seeing this, I started connecting to neighboring towns. And if instead of London, I left Paris, which is only for a short while, low-cost flight or by train? No, then my flight would cost over $3,500 round trip.

So I started thinking about where else I could position myself, prioritizing cities with lots of flights to and from London and places with convenient connections to my final destination.

What if I depart from a place like Tunis and start my business class experience to Indonesia from there? I was able to find a business class seat from Tunis to Jakarta for around $1,230 round trip.

But when positioning flights, you need to check how much it will cost to get to your intermediate airport.. So I then checked the cost of a positioning flight from London to Tunis. I found round-trip flights available for less than $220.

If I add up the $1,230 round trip business class between Tunis and Jakarta and the $220 round trip between London and Tunis, I’m still saving over $1,000 compared to the original flights I found from London to Jakarta.

I wouldn’t save time, but I would be save money.

Positioning flights aren’t for everyone, but they can pay off if you have some free time

Since I often had a flexible work schedule, positioning flights helped me log tons of miles and explore places I might never have thought of.

In this regard, travelers looking to book a positioning flight should remember that more flights mean more chances of hiccups, such as delays or cancellations. As you add other countries to the mix, you may also want to double-check visa conditions and have a screenshot of your connecting ticket available to show immigration at your intermediate airport.

Finally, if you’re short on time and/or feel more risk-averse when it comes to travel, you may just want to stick to more practical itineraries.