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I need to travel round trip every weekend (out Friday night and return Sunday night) to the same destination for many weeks in a row.

I will try to concentrate as much on one airline so as to maximize points and miles.

Other than booking flights for many weekends when there are low fares available, is there any way to book many trips and get some sort of volume discount from an airline?

Any other ideas would be great.

Thanks!

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    Country and the distance between destinations would be useful (and time of travel, e.g. Christmas, summer, winter etc.). There are some airlines that sell flight passes but they can be more expensive or have restrictions.
    – xngtng
    Commented May 4, 2020 at 19:43
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    A friend of mine that does this for business trips, make sure he intertwines the bookings. Some flights are way cheaper when there is a weekend between the in and outbound flight.
    – Bernhard
    Commented May 4, 2020 at 19:55
  • I've been doing that as my weekly commute to work across the EU since 2017. It's hard to say what's the "best" approach because that depends a lot on your preferences (price/comfort balance, scheduling flexibility etc.). Also, where in the world are you? Judging from your mention of points and miles, I'd guess the US, is that right?
    – TooTea
    Commented May 5, 2020 at 14:07

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Besides the fact of getting the weekend (or a lot of times the Sunday night) in the flights, it might also be cheaper just because of the reverse of direction (e.g. if you need to commute between cities A and B, instead of buying A-B-A, try looking for prices B-A-B, with a one-way-flight at the beginning). Often times, because of different flight patterns, prices in the reverse direction are a lot cheaper (good example would be Frankfurt-New York. If you start in Frankfurt, you pay a lot less than if you start in New York).

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There are a few airlines that will do ten return trips as a kind of carnet. Some airlines sell these directly, but I think most go through a reseller like OptionTown.com. Unfortunately the pricing isn't very good*, it's essentially the average price that you'd expect over the week, with a bit of a discount. Worse, although the tickets are supposed to be flexible, changing them is typically a pain that requires calling a travel agent at least a day before.

Regrettably, your business is just not that interesting to most airlines. The very smallest airlines may offer you a discount if you are buying a few seats per day every day. A network airline won't be interested in distorting its price-demand analysis until you are offering to buy dozens of seats per day.

In normal circumstances your best bet is to buy about eight to four weeks ahead on whatever looks the best price.

* In the current situation you may find less orthodox ticket purchases do offer a good deal because airlines have forgotten to update prices there. Demand at the moment is soft, but most people who are travelling have to travel, and supply has become restricted, so paradoxically some airlines are in a strong position to charge high prices to those who must travel. Shop around.

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Aside from the ideas mentioned in other answers, you can try to book longer but overlapping trips:
You book A - B - A, with the return trip a week out. Then you book B - A - B, where the first leg is your return trip for the first leg of the first ticket, and the second leg is the start of the second trip, which you return with the second leg of the first ticket.

You can play this game with many tickets over many weeks, and optimize for the best price point.

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