Every week, I get a litany of “last minute” weekend getaway fare emails. Usually these discounted fares are routes with excess inventory so the airlines discount the last minute fares in order to generate some revenue for otherwise unsold seats.I thought to myself the other day “Why aren’t there last minute AWARD ticket emails?”. And from that point on, the concept of Points Guy Hump Day Getaways was created. Every Wednesday at 10am EST, I will post routes on the three major alliances that have at lest two low level awards available for the upcoming weekend in that class of service. Generally travel is for Wed/Thurs/Fri departures and Sun/Mon/Tues returns, with some exceptions.I can’t guarantee award space will be available by the time you go to book, but it’ll be a good start and hopefully themes will emerge each week.Before you get ready to book the routes listed below for a cheap getaway weekend with your plus one, make sure you understand your airlines last minute award booking fees- some are more expensive than others.American- $100 (waived for elite members)Continental- $75/ticket (less depending on elite level)Delta- No last minute booking fees.United- No last minute booking fees.US Airways- $75 (waived for Chairman’s PreferredAlso, flights are non-stop unless otherwise noted.So let’s get started.. please feel free to leave comments on how you’d like to see Hump Day Getaways improve. And if you are also a diligent award surfer and find a cache of last minute availability, feel free to post below, of course after you book yourself at the low level :-).Themes this week: tons of United premium transcontinental availability, generous US Airways space to Hawaii and Caribbean, ample American premium space JFK-LHR, TONS of Air France JFK/IAD- Paris (which Delta can be redeemed for at the low level)Star AllianceContinental- Domestic- 25,000EWR-MIA (Thurs-Sun/Mon)EWR-BDA, Bermuda (lots of availability)Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.First- 50,000 US, 60,000 CaribbeanEWR-PHX (Thurs-Mon)EWR-SJU, San Juan, PR (Fri-Sun)EWR-BDA (lots of availability)International: Europe 55,000Coach:EWR-Amsterdam (Thurs-Tues)Business: 105,000EWR-LHR (Fri-Tues)EWR-Lisbon (Thurs-Tues, home thru Madrid)EWR-ARN (Stockhold) Thurs-TuesUnited:Coach-25,000PIT-LAX, Fri-Mon (return thru San Fran)ORD-HNL Thurs-Business-50,000JFK-LAX, Fri-Sun/Mon- lots of availabilityFirst- 70,000IAD-LAX- Sat-TuesJFK-SFO- Thurs/Fri-Sun/Mon/Tues- lots of availability- 32 seats total on SundayInternationalCoach- 65,000IAD-NRT (Tokyo)ORD-NRTORD-PVG (Shanghai)Business- 105,000 Europe, 125,000 AsiaORD-LHR, (Thurs-Tues home thru Boston)ORD-NRT, Tokyo (Thurs-Mon, home thru LAX)LAX-NRT, Wednesday/Friday-Tues, 5 seatsUS-DomesticCoach-PHL-SFO Thurs/Fri-Sun/Mon/TuesFirst-PHL-SFO- Thurs/Fri-Sun/Mon/LAXPHL-LAX Thurs/Fri-Sun/Mon/TuesPHX-OGG, Maui, Thurs/Fri-Sun (thru Santa Ana), Tues directCLT-MEX Thurs- Sun/Mon/TuesCLT-SJU Thurs-Mon/TuesCLT-AUA, Aruba Sat-WednesdayAmerican-Domestic-25,000ORD-YVR, Vancouver Thurs-Tues 7 seatsInternational-Coach-DFW-SCL Santiago Chile, Wed/Thurs/Fri-Sun/Mon/Tues/Wed- 7 seats on most daysBusiness-100,000 Europe/Japan/Brazil, 60,000 Central AmericaJFK-LHR Thurs/Fri- Sun/MonORD-LHR Thurs/Fri- MonORD-NRT Thurs-SunMIA-GIG, Rio de Janeiro Wed-Sun/MonMIA-PTY, Panama City Fri-Mon/TuesFirst-125,000 Europe/South AmericaJFK-LHR Thurs/Fri- Sun/Mon/TuesORD-LHR Thurs/Fri- Sun/Mon/TuesDFW-GRU, Sao Paulo, Brazil Thurs/Fri-Sun/MonDelta- Their award calendar is broken- this time I kept getting a new error after each search that took me back to the homepage. When it does function, it does not price awards correctly (uses unknown variables of the 3 tiers), so the best I could find was partner award availability on Air France, which is at the low level. Alitalia and Aeroflot were also checked.International (Bolded is Air France)Business: 100,000 to EuropeJFK-AMS Thurs- Mon (Either KLM flight on outbound, DL 81 return- book using multi city or else calendar sometimes returns 150,000 miles)DTW-FRA Thurs-MonJFK-CDG- Wed/Thurs/Fri/Sat-Mon/Wed (including new Airbus A380)IAD-CDG- Wed/Thurs/Fri- Sun/Mon[card card-name=‘Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express’ card-id=‘22034414’ type=‘javascript’ bullet-id=‘1’]
