🎧 Always Turn Left: Book Cheap December Flights | Award Engineering Blueprint

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December is the most misunderstood month in award travel. Everyone thinks it’s “too late,” “too expensive,” or “already picked over.”

They’re wrong.

The real story is this: December has three micro-seasons, and each one behaves differently in award engines, revenue patterns, partner space, and hotel yield. If you know how these micro-seasons breathe, you can fly almost anywhere (domestic, international, or middle-of-nowhere-beautiful) for a fraction of what the person next to you paid.

This article will teach you exactly how to steal December with points and miles even if Thanksgiving is already here, and even if they think they “waited too long.”

December is a psychological month.
It tricks people.

You’ve got holiday pressure. Year-end fatigue. PTO guilt. Weather creeping in like an unpaid bill. Half the country is trying to get to family; the other half is trying to get away from them. And every airline, hotel, and algorithm is licking their chops, ready to extract every last cent from whoever blinks first.

But December isn’t actually expensive. It’s predictable.
Predictably mispriced when you understand where the openings are.

Most people book December travel emotionally.
Smart travelers (our people) book December travel tactically.

Our guide shows you exactly how... 👇🏻

The Three Micro-Seasons of December

Understanding December means understanding that it’s not one month - it’s three markets wearing a trench coat.

Micro-Season 1: Dec 1-12 (The Golden Window)

This is the most undervalued period in U.S. travel. It's the calm before the storm. Kids are still in school. No one has PTO left. Business travel collapses.
Airlines panic when they don’t see demand.

Translation:
Award space opens up in weird places, at weird times, on weird routes.
This is when you strike.

Best Plays:

• Transatlantic biz on off-peak carriers
• Hawaii for pennies
• Mexico and Caribbean with wide-open partners
• Vegas, Miami, Chicago - revenue cheap, points cheaper
• Premium cabins on Tuesdays and Wednesdays
• Short domestic hops for as low as 4-7K points

If you ever wanted to try a “weird route” (JFK-LAX-HNL-GUM-TPE for $34 and a prayer), this is the time.

Micro-Season 2: Dec 13-23 (The Squeeze)

This is when normal people start traveling.
Cue the price spikes. Cue the “we regret to inform you” award pricing. Cue the 3am panic searches.

But it’s also when mixed-cabin pricing, partner quirks, and married segment logic save the day.

This is the era of the surgical strike:

• Book long-haul biz with short-haul economy mixed in (massive savings)
• Use partner programs that ignore U.S. holiday premiums
• Leverage foreign carriers that still think it’s September
• Fly out Dec 19 or 20-the hidden dip inside the squeeze

There are always anomalies. Your job is to hunt them.

Micro-Season 3: Dec 24-31 (The Great Release Valve)

Everyone who wanted to travel already left.
Everyone who didn’t is staying home.
Airlines misfire their yields. Hotels overshoot demand. And partner programs open space because they’d rather fill a seat than eat it.

This is where you see:

• Dec 24/25 deals
• New Year’s Eve anomalies
• Last-minute international space
• Hotels dropping from 60,000 to 24,000 points overnight
• Off-brand destinations being stupidly cheap (Oslo, Bogotá, Panama City, Seoul)

December ends with a sigh of relief-and a window of opportunity.

The PTO Blueprint: How to Maximize Time Off Without Burning Your Year

Most people think December is a PTO black hole.
It’s not. It’s actually the highest leverage PTO month of the year if you understand stacking.

Here’s the math:

The 2-for-1 PTO Rule (December Edition)

A single PTO day in December is worth two:

1. Because your company is already half shut down.
2. Because weekends + federally observed holidays create natural travel corridors.

Example plays:

• Leave Dec 20 (Friday) → Back Dec 26 → 2 PTO days = 7 days of vacation
• Leave Dec 24 (Tuesday) → Back Jan 2 → 3 PTO days = 10 days of vacation
• Leave Dec 14 (Saturday) → Back Dec 18 → Zero PTO if remote-ish

The world is built badly and beautifully for those who game the calendar.

Domestic December: Where the Real Deals Hide

Everyone thinks December means “go somewhere warm.”
Wrong.

December is when domestic flights break the algorithm because demand is lumpy:

• Certain airports overflow
• Others empty out
• Business routes become ghost towns
• Leisure routes become irrational

The Best Domestic Plays You Aren’t Thinking About

1. Denver, Salt Lake, Bozeman, Jackson Hole:
Ski opens early, cash fares are insane, but partner-space quietly unlocks because international priority eats the revenue team’s attention.

2. Savannah, Charleston, New Orleans:
Perfect weather. Weirdly cheap redemptions. Award space for days.

3. Chicago, Boston, Washington DC:
The tourist crowds are gone. Revenue travel is dead. Hotels practically beg you to use points.

4. Alaska (yes, really):
Northern Lights, wide-open space, pennies on points.

5. Austin + Nashville:
Everyone assumes high demand. Nope - everyone goes home.

International: The Places December Undervalues

This is where December gets fun.
Airlines spend 11 months closing faucets. December forces them to open them.

1. Panama City (PTY)

Your new winter cheat code. Underpriced. Undercrowded. Award space everywhere. (not to be confused with Panama City, Florida... Please)

2. Scandinavia

The world thinks it’s “too cold.”
Good.
Let them think that.
You’ll fly roundtrip for the price of an Uber to LaGuardia.

3. Bogotá / Medellín

Peak weather. Underpriced carriers. Easy partner access.

4. Japan (the December Mirage)

People think it’s impossible. It’s not.
Space opens 7-14 days before departure, especially on non-U.S. carriers.

5. Portugal / Spain

Shoulder season pricing. Mild weather. Great food. Hotels that don’t know they should charge more.

6. Middle East (for the bold)

If you’ve ever wanted to fly QSuite for cheap, December late-window is a treasure chest.

The Award Engineering Principles That Matter in December

December is where the casual points player gets wrecked.
These are the rules that save you.

Rule 1: Search backwards, not forwards

Start with:

• Destination → partners → calendars → then dates
  Not dates → “I hope something exists.”

Rule 2: Always check foreign websites first

BA, Qantas, Air Canada, Avianca, Etihad - they’re the canaries.
When they move, the U.S. programs catch up days later.

Rule 3: Mixed cabin is a feature, not a failure

Half the time, you’re paying 40% less for 90% of the premium cabin experience.

Rule 4: Don’t search for roundtrip

Roundtrip award searches are where hope goes to die.
Search one-way. Stitch later.

Rule 5: Book now, optimize later

Most December trips improve closer to the date.
Lock something.
Then engineer the upgrade.

Rule 6: Airlines misprice December nights

Especially Dec 24, 25, 31.
These are your cheat codes.

Hotels: The Hidden December Hack No One Talks About

Hotels are schizophrenic in December.

You get:

• Corporate demand collapse
• Holiday demand surge
• But only in very specific markets
• And only on very specific dates

Your opportunities:

• Resort overcorrection → cheap points
• Business district emptiness → luxury for pennies
• Big cities dropping 25-60% in award costs
• Brands releasing standard rooms because they overprojected cash occupancy

Watch Hilton and Hyatt early December. Watch Marriott post-Christmas. Watch boutique hotels like a hawk.

The December “Crazy Routes” Section
(required by law in an UpNonStop article)

Here are the routes that punch way above their weight in December:

• JFK-LAX-HNL-PPT
  A round-the-world feeling without actually going around the world.
• YYZ-BOG-PTY-LIM
  LATAM and Copa unlock odd pockets of December space.
• EWR-OSL-BCN
  Two stops, premium cabin, 40–50% cheaper.
• DFW-ANC-SEA
  Long routing, low pricing.
• MIA-SAL-LAX-Asia
  Star Alliance madness.
• IAH-IST-Central Europe
  Turkish never met a December it didn’t accidentally underprice.

This is where UpNonStop shines: not in earning, not in bragging rights, but in pure, tactical route craftsmanship.

A Realistic 7-Day December Trip Blueprint
(Pick Your Lane)

Lane 1: Domestic Warm Weather

• Fly early window
• Use AA sweet spots
• Book Wed/Wed for the drop
• Expect 7-12K flights each way

Lane 2: Europe (Value Play)

• Fly Dec 3-10
• TAP, SAS, Iberia are your friends
• Biz availability surprisingly open
• Hotels cheap

Lane 3: Scandinavia (Adventure Play)

• 20-35K each way
• Hotels 40-60% cheaper
• A+ winter vibes

Lane 4: Latin America (Guaranteed Space)

• Copa/AV for the win
• Low season for award partners
• Weather amazing

Lane 5: Asia (Long Shot, High Reward)

• Mixed cabin
• Partner space last-minute
• Great if you’re flexible

December Optimization Checklist

A simple, brutal truth-filled checklist:

• Did you search partners before U.S. carriers?
• Did you check Dec 24/25?
• Did you check post-New Year return routes?
• Did you break roundtrips into one-ways?
• Did you set alerts for your must-get routes?
• Did you search from alternate airports?
• Did you check positioning flights?
• Did you check for mixed cabin savings?
• Did you lock something in before optimizing?
• Did you leave your ego out of it?

Good. Then you’re ready.

The Real Lesson of December Travel

December isn’t a month.
It’s a map of human behavior - and algorithmic overcorrections reacting to that behavior.

People assume December is expensive.
People assume they waited too long.
People assume they can’t go anywhere interesting.
People assume PTO is a prison.
People assume it’s “family month only.”

The people who win December travel are the ones who stop assuming and start engineering.

If you know how the calendar breathes, where the award space spills, how partners behave, and which days secretly crack open, you can go anywhere in December: warm, cold, far, close, cheap, luxurious, spontaneous.

And when everyone at the office asks, “How did you pull that off so last-minute?”
You’ll just smile.

Because you know something they don’t:

December is not the hardest month to book.
It’s the most mispriced one.

And mispriced months are where UpNonStop travelers thrive.