Travel Talk: Positioning Flights

What is a positioning flight? Depending on where you live and where you’re hoping to go, positioning flights can help you maximize your points and miles.

What is a positioning flight?

A positioning flight is a flight you buy to get to another airport to start your main trip. This could be for a lower cost, better redemption, or a preferred airline. Positioning flights are typically done when you live near a smaller airport, and you would take a positioning flight to a major airport that likely has more options.

Why take a positioning flight?

As mentioned above, the motivations are often financial. Many of the high-value points redemptions for international flights start and end at major airports. You can take a budget flight from your home airport to one of these larger airports to maximize your points. Or, you could be paying cash – but for the same reasons, a larger airport makes more sense for the major flight. The third reason is the airline. Certain airlines only fly out of select locations, so you may need to take a positioning flight to get to one of those airports.

Where can you take a positioning flight to?

Realistically, you can take a positioning flight to any airport. If you’re based in the United States, we would recommend looking large hub airports that have many long-haul flight options. Just a few to add to your list for consideration are Chicago (ORD), New York (JFK), Los Angeles (LAX), and Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW).

What’s important to remember:

Positioning flights are not a layover, they are two separate flights so your trips won’t be connected. You will have to gather your luggage from baggage claim if you checked a bag. And, depending on the airport and/or airline, this may require you go through security again.