How to Fly Business Class Without Paying Business Class Prices

In this episode of Banking Without Borders, Jan breaks down how to actually fly business class without spending business class money.  

• Why flexibility is the single biggest lever you have — and what that really means beyond just changing your travel day
• How airlines price seats based on local purchasing power, and how to use that to your advantage
• Why booking business class directly is often the wrong move — and what to do instead
• The upgrade bidding strategy, and why you should never bid the minimum
• How to build Avios points without changing your spending habits
• Why you should pick your airline before your credit card, not the other way around
• The one tool Jan actually trusts for finding cheap flights (and why he thinks AI tools are useless for this)

Check out our website DepositScout.com for the latest savings rates. 

Connect with us (via LinkedIn)

Jan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-watermann/

Jonny: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonny-pease

Got a question or topic you want us to cover? Drop us a message at jonny@technicallymoney.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If you've ever Googled cheap business class tickets, you probably found someone reclining in a lounge chair sipping champagne with the secret to success. Sign up for a credit card using their affiliate link. Jan, on the other hand, has flown on over 50 airlines and been on more than 250 flights, and most importantly, he has a biological allergy to overpaying for pretty much anything. He's managed to book Life Lab business class seats for, and I'm not joking, less than the economy fare. So Jan. As someone who's practically lived in the air for the last few years, if someone wants that premium experience without the premium price tag, what is the number one thing they have to keep in mind?

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Johnny, so most people have to stick to some schedule. Maybe their kid is going to school, maybe they they can't take a leave all the time from their job. So they have to, they they they can't be as flexible as they might want to be. That's exactly why they have to overpay for flights. Airlines obviously know this. Um they know that um that people have to stick to schedule. So during certain certain periods of time, mostly school holidays, but also other events, flight prices they rise. Um airline pricing is incredibly dynamic. To fully take advantage of that, you have to have as much flexibility as possible. Um, and that doesn't mean you know flying Tuesday instead of Monday, typically not. It's literally in order to get the cheapest deals in business class and first class, you have to look for, you have to change your mindset. You have to become someone who looks for value, right? A value hunter mindset, having the most flexibility um that you could possibly have. And let's look at an example to visualize that. I actually looked up a flight from London to Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires is an amazing city, great steak, which I don't eat, but uh some people might. And if you want to fly there, let's say on June 21st, business class one-way flight with Avianca, which is a good airline by the way, uh Colombian-based airline, via Bogota, um, would cost about uh 2,600 pounds. You know, that's quite a lot. But let's say you can fly on Sunday, May 17th instead. Um, you'd be only paying £1,277. To really figure out when you can fly for cheap, you gotta look calendar view on Google Flights, and then you can literally pick the dates that are the cheapest. What I recommend is literally looking this up at the beginning of the year, um, then maybe once again in the middle of the year, if you cannot find a cheap flight in the beginning of the year, and then look which periods of times are cheap. Let's say the destination you want to go to, or maybe the area you want to go to, if you want to travel to South America, maybe you can be flexible. Um, if you find a cheap flight going to to Rio de Janeiro, for example, instead of Buenos Aires, pick that city over over the other. And then once you have that flight in mind, you know, maybe you you you figure out that March is a good time to go, or May, um, to come back to our example, then you know you can you can literally plan your your vacation around that. Maybe then just uh you know ask for a leave of your employer after you've figured out which flight dates are cheap. Um and that's how you maximize the value.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

You have to be flexible, that's the the big thing here. But that's gonna be really challenging for people with children who are constrained by school holidays. It's also gonna be difficult for people that are constrained by a preference on weather, yeah. Right? The more popular times to travel will be when the weather is better.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Yeah, kind of. Obviously, there's some destinations where weather makes a huge difference, but then there are also some destinations where weather is not as important. Uh let's say around the equator, where you might have a rainy season and then you have a dry season. They will not have spring, um, summer, autumn, winter. They don't have that. Um, it's literally just two seasons. You still have a discount uh when traveling in the rainy season. And to be honest, I mean here being being in Panama right now, but having traveled to many other um uh countries around the equator, I can say that I prefer the rainy season because there are less people there. Um the weather is typically a little bit nicer, so it's it's it's a little cooler, let's say two to three degrees Celsius less um every single day. And yeah, flight prices are insanely a lot cheaper, a lot cheaper. Actually, dry season is not a time you want to go anywhere uh around the equator. And that that goes for for Panama, that goes for Thailand, that goes for you know many other tourist destinations.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

That's true. But then how do you speak to the people with children? Like I my daughter's currently in nursery, that means that she's really still not of an age where we have to like stick to the school schedule, but within a couple of years she will be. So children from the age of five. How do parents deal with this, Jan? Doesn't sound to me like there's a solution.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

No, there really isn't. For 18 years, you probably have to bite the bullet and uh pay a lot for flights. Yeah, it's what it is, right? And airlines know that. And uh, you know, they would be they'd be stupid if they wouldn't um try to charge the most from you.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

It is, and even when you're trying to collect Avios points and you're having to then look to redeem those points or any air mile program point system, you're looking to redeem them for three business class tickets. It's more challenging as well.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Well, one thing I can also recommend is being flexible with your departure and arrival destination. So in London, yeah. You know, I'd I'd not if I was living in London, I'd probably um not look specifically from uh for flights from Heathrow, I'd be very, very flexible and also consider other airports. Stanstead, for example, which is yeah, um not good for long haul, I believe, but there's some, you know, there's there's some flights within uh within Central Europe from there. Um Luton as well, um then you probably have another airport, I think, London City Airport or so. Um so be very flexible when it comes to airports and maybe even consider going to a different city if the flight is cheaper. Um obviously if the whole calculation makes sense, but let's say you can save 200 um or let's say you can save 500 pounds on a flight on a long haul flight, you know, why not traveling um traveling an hour by car or two um in order to get to a different departure destination? And the same same goes with arrival destinations within Central Europe. Um, many cases what you could do is um fly to I've done that in the past actually. I found uh as an example, I was um I'm originally from northern Germany and I had it a few times that flights to Amsterdam were actually a lot cheaper. And Amsterdam is about four hours by uh by bus from uh where I used to live. And I I I got a cheap flight there, um even in business class, saving probably two thousand pounds compared to flying directly to my um my arrival destinations, and then I took a five-hour bus trip, you know, in order to get there. And you know, that might sound that might turn people off, that might not sound luxurious, but if you're really trying to get make the most out of your your travel experience, and I mean, you know, drinking drinking great champagne instead of sitting in a in the economy class seat, and then maybe sleeping five hours on the bus, you gotta do it.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

I don't I you it's kind of funny though, isn't it? Like to think that okay, so say your business class flight lasts three hours, you accept that you accept that five-hour coach journey for the three-hour business flight. I mean, there's got to be some logic to your decision, to your choice. I like the idea of seeking out like um a quieter airport or um a a different departure location, but it has to be you know it has to make sense, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01 6:58

It has to make sense. And in general, within within Europe, do not fly business class at all. It's not worth it most of the time. Yeah, you're gonna get these.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

Yeah, that's that's a good point. Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. I mean, but you did mention airports like Stanstad and Luton, for example. Those probably aren't the best examples because they're pr yeah, like I'm flying to Portugal uh from Stanstad, in fact, in September. Um and my wife and I, even with our daughter, we would we would happily get business class tickets for long haul, but when it comes to like short haul yarn, uh it's just not really a priority because British Airways, for example, the the the business class or club Europe really isn't worth it anyway.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Yeah, all of them.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

That's but you know, when you're seeking out the life cabins, the really luxurious beds, the comfort that you get from those, then it then it becomes really worthwhile.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Yeah, that's also something um I adhere to. I I would not fly within within Europe. I would not fly short haul business class. I think it's not worth it at all. It's just expensive and it's yes, it's kind of yeah, it's kind of a joke, right? Because you're gonna have the same leg room than you would have in a in an economy class ticket. Better food. Maybe this the middle seat stays free.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Yeah, and they provide they provide some food, and obviously you get the lounge access prior and you know maybe some fast track.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Johnny, that's that's something for for fancy people. I mean, I I get it, you know, lying on a long haul flight, that makes a difference for my spine. That really makes a difference. So adding a stopover can really make a difference. Um in many cases, that's not only that's not only cheaper, um, or no, that's not only uh free, but it's also cheaper. Um good example. I was um I was in Osaka last year, flying down to flying to Madrid actually, um, via Qatar Airways and Qatar Airways. You know, they the country of Qatar, it seems like they want to attract tourism, right? They wanna wanna make tourism an economy because they see how well that's working in the UAE. Um, you know, Dubai is a tourist destination now, so they want to make Doha a tourist destination. And on the website you can actually um book a free stopover, and what happens is is that they get you get you an incredible discount um on hotels. So I was literally um I was literally flying from Osaka to Doha, which is a 10-hour flight or something, and then I stayed four nights in the Hyatt Hotel, excellent hotel, you know, really nice. Um I believe a five-star hotel, even Grand Hyatt. And then I was flying from there to Madrid afterwards, and uh I paid less than I would have paid flying directly from Osaka to Madrid um without a stopover. So that can really make a difference. And I honestly I had a great time in Qatar in Doha, yeah, which is a hot point.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

That's specifically that's specifically Doha and the the the government or or whatever offering a benefit like that, right? The idea of adding a stopover, which is probably gonna be uncomfortable. If you can get the grand height, that's gonna be good, but it's gonna add further time to your trip, making being flexible even harder.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

No, honestly, Johnny, I think they've got to be a little bit more than a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Okay, well then does it does it then does it then wait, wait, wait, then does it chip away then at the trip that you were gonna have in Madrid or the eventual destination you were gonna go to? You just flexible. The sacrifices that you're making in order to try and get cheaper business class tickets seem illogical. If you're gonna have like a a layover which could potentially be more uncomfortable anyway. I mean, I appreciate you went to Doha and the the government or the country, they're offering these benefits because they want to encourage people to stay there and spend money in their in their economies. Can you not see the irony in trying to save money to have a luxurious experience in business class where but at the same time adding things like more friction or more discomfort to your life in the the layover time or the bus to your departure airport?

SPEAKER_01 10:51

Yeah, if this was you know, if this was uncomfortable, I would have obviously not done it. I think there was if this was one thing, it was it was very, very comfortable because I I got to break up a long journey, right? I I had a great night of sleep, actually, four nights of sleep, got to experience that um that country, you know, which is also an interesting place if you've never been. I've been I've been before, but uh I still found it really, really nice, had a good time there with my girlfriend. We've we've traveled around a bit, um, was excellent, and you know, I had an amazing, amazing total experience. I would have would have done that again. I would have even paid for it now looking back, but uh yeah, thankfully it was almost free. I believe the nights in the in the five star hotel cost me $30 uh a night or something with their stopover program, which is wow, it was ridiculously that's great, but that's quite unique, Jan.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

You know, you're not gonna get that all over the world. So the idea of adding a layover or a stopover, it's not always gonna be that same experience. In fact, it's probably going to be worse by significant margin, right? No one enjoys layovers, do they?

SPEAKER_01 11:51

I believe TAP Portugal offers something like that. I believe Turkish Airlines offers something like that, and I believe also um Copa Airlines offers something like that. Several several airlines offer that. I mean, that's not a unique thing. Doha, um or the country of Qatar, was unique in the sense that they kind of subsidized it to some point. Um, but you know, with a lot with a stopover, let's say, um, especially if you're flying around busy dates, um, you can you can still save some money by just uh you know just picking the next day or a day afterwards um when when selecting a flight out of the country. You know, let's say you're you're flying in today is the uh is the 5th of March. Uh no, sorry, the 5th of May. Um let's say I'd be flying to um, you know, uh a bad example, but let's say I was flying to Germany um via Turkey from where I am right now, and that's actually, you know, it sounds a bit ridiculous if you look at the globe, but um that's actually a sensible route. That's what a lot of people do. Turkish Airlines flying from from Panama to Istanbul every single day. Let's say the the 6th of May is a day where many Turks travel from Istanbul to Germany and therefore the prices are high, you know, and Turkish Island knows that, so they want to maximize their revenue. I'll have a layover, you know, I'll be flying out let's say the the 7th of May or the 8th of May instead, you know, enjoy one or two days in in Istanbul, um, probably save some money in the whole journey and get to experience a nice city, plus break up the journey and arrive more relaxed. And I think that's actually really clever. And that's something that people can do with all of these stopover programs, right? Um, some are better than others, but I definitely recommend you look into that. And, you know, it's also nice to experience a new place. If you've never been, you know, a few days in Istanbul is gonna be gonna be a great time, most likely. A few days in Qatar is gonna be great. Um, a few days in in Lisbon or something is gonna be really nice. Why not?

SPEAKER_00 13:36

That's available. Condé Nasty an article about this that I'm looking at right now. Six airlines that are offering layover, stopover programs, Turkish Airlines, as you mentioned, TAP Portugal, Iberia, Iceland Air, Qatar Airways. I can see it, I can see the benefit. Um, it's just interesting to imagine that you know the idea of adding a layover to your journey, which I I've traditionally felt like is something being really stressful and annoying and a nuisance, is actually can actually be really quite a good experience because it gives you an opportunity to explore new places while potentially saving money on business class tickets. This episode is sponsored by us, specifically depositscout.com, which is a site that Jan and I built with our fingers. Savings rates in the UK are changing constantly, and most people have no idea whether the account they're still using is competitive. The rate that topped the market six months ago might be in the bottom half of the table today, and your bank is certainly not going to tell you. Deposit Scout tracks every major savings account and cash ice in one place, so you've got easy access, fixed rates, and they're all updated daily, and you can set up rate alerts so you're never caught out. We've also just added rate history graphs, and this is where it gets interesting. Take Plum, for example. You can see they've changed their advertised rate repeatedly over the past few months. So that tells you that if you like the look of one of their rates, you're probably better off locking in sooner rather than later before they move it again. All of that and much more is available at depositscalp.com. We'll put the link in the description box below.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

While we're talking about countries to travel to, um you know, if you have the the maximum amount of flexibility um and you really just want to go into a onto a premium flight, one thing I can recommend, which I've I've taken advantage of a few times in the past, is to look at developing countries as a departure destination. Um, this might sound incredibly abstract uh to you, but you can literally save thousands of pounds when you do that. Let's say a good example here, you want to go on a first-class flight from London Heathrow to New York. That's a destination where a lot of business travel happens. Um, uh a route, sorry, uh route where a lot of business travel happens, which means that the premium cabins are gonna be insanely expensive. Uh, to be exact, first class flight, London Heathrow to New York, in our example here, 11,000 pounds. That's a fortune, right? And that's per person. It's insane. But if you start that exact journey in in Cairo, as an example, the capital of Egypt, you know, which is an interesting place to go to. They have pyramids, right? Um it will only cost 2,400 pounds, and you'd be flying with um with British Airways. Cairo to Heathrow to New York. Exactly. So you're adding a flight, right? Another business class flight. Um, you're flying from Cairo to London on business class, British Airways, which is you know, it's it's not gonna be super luxurious, but it's gonna be nice. Um, British Airways has a good business class, which uh I can personally recommend, it's pretty nice. Um, also of the you know, flight attendants, very polite, um, very English.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

Sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

So you're adding that um to your journey, and then you're on the exact same flight that you'd be booking from from London Heathrow to New York, the exact times, the exact flight in first class, and you'll only be paying £2,400. And if you want to try first class once in your life, that's the way to go. Have a look at North Africa, have a look at South America, have a look at other developing regions. I'm trying to understand this. Premium flights from there.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Has that person flown to Cairo on holiday from New York and they're now looking to come home?

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Could be, but it could also mean that um let's say, let's say you literally, you're in London right now, Johnny, you want to fly to New York, you want to test British Airways first class. Why? Probably not because you have to get there really fast, but you because you want to have a luxurious experience without spending too much money and you have a lot of time, right? But you really want to go into that first-class flight and experience it. Which is, to be honest, if as someone who has um if you've never been on a first-class flight, I believe everyone should try this once in their life. You could be flying, Johnny, instead of flying from London Heathrow over to JFK, you could depart let's let's say two days earlier, fly down to Cairo for you know, I don't know, 200 pounds, let's say. Um that's probably a lot. 200 pounds in economy. Get out of the economy. Let's say 300 pounds in business class. That's realistic if you book it clever. Then you're down in Cairo, you're gonna have a look at the permits.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

I think that sounds like a stretch. 300 pounds, sorry to interrupt you, but 300 pounds from London Heathrow to Cairo in business classes.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

One way, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

But let's say 400. How many how many pounds, Johnny? It doesn't matter, right? Because you'd be saving 8,600 pounds, it's not gonna be 8,600 pounds. Okay, so whatever you pay, it doesn't matter, right? Fly down to Cairo, spend a few days looking at the pyramids. Um, maybe even flying economy because who cares? It's literally the same seat pitch. You're a tall man, right? Um you care about your knees, right? It would not make a difference if you fly in in business or economy when you fly British Airways short hole or mid-hole, you know. Um it is what it is, right? Then spend some time looking at the pyramids and fly down, fly, fly out from Cairo um to London, then to JFK, save £8,600 and enjoy British Airways first class. But they know that people in London, right, are more wealthy than people in Cairo, and there's more premium cabin demand from London to North America than there is from Cairo to North America. So they they price flights out of Cairo for cheaper. Another way to save, um, don't book business class directly if you have the choice, right? If if economy, you know, if you're if you're like Johnny, it's probably a bad idea because Johnny is a tall man, as we've mentioned before. Um he probably doesn't fit well into economy flights, and under no circumstances he wants to fly economy long haul because his knees are gonna hurt. But if you are like me, maybe a little shorter, you you fit in right fine, but you you like the experience. You like the experience, and you're okay with going economy potentially, can be worth just booking economy, then speculating that you can upgrade afterwards, and you're gonna save lots of money through that.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

This yeah, and this works. This works. My wife and I rolled the dice on this. We booked um for our honeymoon to Mauritius. We consciously booked we were travelling in June. It was I think that's around winter cold season in Mauritius. We knew the flight was pretty empty well, not empty necessarily, but had a relatively low occupation for Heathrow to Mauritius, or was it Gatwick to Mauritius? Whatever. We consciously booked premium economy yan, uh knowing that we would then if it was available upgrade to business. And we did. And it was successful for both legs. I couldn't tell you how much we saved, but I know it was significantly less than booking business direct.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

This works on low demand routes, but if you're thinking of doing um doing let's say London to Singapore on Monday morning, um it's not gonna work. You're gonna have every single business class seat sold out.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

You might not necessarily be able to get like your seats together as well if you're traveling as a pair, business class, and BA. They've got the nice cabin where you sit in the middle together as a pair, and on the outside you're kind of like um offset with one another, so you're not it's not as snug and nice. That was a bit of a downside. But we save thousands doing that.

SPEAKER_01 20:51

Yeah, okay, it's worth it, right? Um, a few hours of of peace of mind is relatively, right? No, isn't it? Let's hope she's not listening to this. Um yeah, it's what it is. One thing I can say also is um you know, you know, when you book economy class, they're different different booking classes that might not even be visible to you. Yeah, um, but within the airline system, what they do is they they know what price they give you, right? And the cheapest fl price would be a certain class, and then the most expensive economy class price would be a certain class, um, different booking class. And if you if you're unlucky and you literally get the very cheapest economy class fare, can be that you're in a in a in a class that the system won't allow you to upgrade from to business class. That happened to me a few times actually, where I had to uh then bite the bullet and then uh take the economy class. So take a look, make sure that you you know if you have the choice, don't book economy light, for example, but go ahead and book economy classic if you're uh if you're speculating on doing this upgrade afterwards. Um, and then also one thing to say the airlines uh typically airlines they they have two different ways of offering upgrades. One would be a direct upgrade, and the other thing would be a bidding strategy. When they use a bidding strategy, they typically work with different providers. Certain third parties are uh specialized on that. Plus grade is I I think one. Don't bid the cheapest. Everyone is gonna bid the cheapest. Try to bid at least 100 pounds above the minimum. Um plus grade is gonna tell you how good your bid is compared to others. Um you don't have to put bid the the best bit, you know, that's that's often not necessary, but try to do a um a medium, you know, medium value bit. Um and then yeah, take advantage of that.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Everything is so gamified.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

It is, it is unfortunately, it is.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

Honestly, and it's all probably rigged.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

Yeah, rigged in in what sense? What do you mean?

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Well, I mean they they're probably when they tell you like what how your bid compares to other people's, you know, that could just be rigged to encourage people to bid more and more. Ultimately, you should probably just bid what you think you can afford.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And you to be honest, I I don't have to fly every business every flight I do on business class. I don't, absolutely not. I'm I'm a normal-sized person, not a giant like Johnny. Um, I fit into seats perfectly fine. I might be a little uncomfortable, um, but it's it's okay for me. I can do it. And uh if I if I can save a few thousand pounds or euros or dollars or whatever, um I'll do it. I'll be fine. But I do like to fly business class once in a while. So uh also one way to fly business class for cheap is is points, and we've we've teased it in the in the beginning of the episode. A lot of people they would approach these kind of these kind of videos in a way where they would tell you, hey, you gotta gotta sign up for this MX, you gotta collect this many points, and then you can you can fly a business class for $50 or 50 pounds, right? We all know these videos, and I think it's kind of uh it's kind of uh it's not as easy, right? Unfortunately.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

Spend X, save X. It's also like encouraging people to spend maybe money that they wouldn't have in order to get a a flight that doesn't even exist or hasn't even been booked yet.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Exactly, Johnny, exactly. Um so it's it's yeah, I mean does that mean that credit cards uh that collect points are bad? No, they're not. No. But you have to make sure that the card that you pick fits your unique situation. Um and I I mean that by let's say you're you're living in you're living in the UK, right? You're flying British Airways. Sometimes maybe you fly to to Spain uh for vacations often. You you choose Iberia then, um, and sometimes let's say you want to go to to Asia, right? And you use Qatar Airways. All of these are Avios airlines. Um they use the Avios point program. Um they're part of the Avios ecosystem. So you want to get a card that collects these kind of points. What you should not do is get a card that collects a certain certain point, you know, and then and then figure out which airline you can fly with. That that that would be a waste, right? Um a lot of people do that literally. They they see these videos and then hey, wow, that's a great uh miles and more credit card, let's go. And then they they get that credit card and then figure out oh, it's really difficult to uh redeem miles and more points from where they are based. And that's it's it's not good, okay? Not good at all. Yeah, and then you know try to earn as much as you can, to be honest. And that doesn't mean I mean I don't mean triggering extra expenses, um, spending on things you don't need, but I believe if you have such a credit card, let's say the the Barclay card Avios Plus that collects 1.5 Avios points per per pound spent, that's pretty good. It's a pretty good credit card.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

Yeah, and there's also opportunities with the Barclay card Avios Plus, for example, to get the cabin upgrade voucher. I think you just have to spend £10,000 annually to get that. That could be an easy way to get business class. You know, you could get two premium economy flights. One you could use your cabin upgrade voucher for to get into business, and the other you might get lucky and be offered an upgrade for a discount. Exactly. So that could be part of a wider strategy.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

Or you just have your partner sit in economy while you sit in business. Nah, better don't do that. Don't do that. No, it's got not gonna end well in many cases.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

You're obviously not married with a child.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

No, no, all good. Don't Johnny.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

When it comes to finding the prices of multiple different destinations and routes, Jan, what are the best resources to use?

SPEAKER_01 26:00

Yeah, just use Google Flights. That's probably the best way to find that up. Have you tried any uh LLMs? Oh no, don't use them at all. Don't use them at all. I've literally tried that, and there's a lot of bullshit in there. Um and ChatGPT, to be honest, in many cases just doesn't know what's going on. Exactly. Um but it it tells you so confidently uh that you might think it's the case. Yeah. It's oh I'm getting angry. Uh just thinking about that. Um not a fan of it at all. Not a fan of LLMs. Just have a look at on LinkedIn. Oh, this is how you find the cheapest flights. Type this into ChatGPT, type do this, do that, and then you get the best output, right? And then uh then use Claude for this and I'm sick of it. I'm sick of it. Literally. In many cases, using these LLMs, um, I get bullshit out of it. It doesn't mean that they are not good for efficiency.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

Yeah, maybe once you booked your flight and you know where you're going, then the you know, ChatGPT might be able to provide you with a travel itinerary that could be interesting that you should obviously Yeah, it's good for that. Yeah, you should obviously check over, but when it comes to seeking out the best deal with flights, Google Flight sounds like the best place to look. This has been very insightful, mate. I must admit, it's difficult for someone who's you know, who has a family and flexibility is a lot more challenging for us. But we do have a large amount of AVIS points that we've accepted that in order to redeem that we are gonna have to be flexible. Hard to accept the idea, Jan, of adding greater friction in order to save money and have a better overall experience. Yeah. Um but I do see the benefits.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Yeah, and if you're flexible, just have an open mind and explore the world. You know, get to see a new country for free, you know, or even even get paid for it. Why not? You know, why not do it? So everyone, I I hope you had a good time listening. Um please write your qu questions into the comments. Um let us know if you're unsure about anything what we just said, um, and what your what your general take is on these things. And yeah, it's been a pleasure as always. Johnny, do you have anything to say?

SPEAKER_00 27:44

We'll see you in the next episode.

SPEAKER_01 27:45

Well said. Goodbye.