Travelore Tips: How To Find First-Class Airfare For Under $1,000

Courtesy of Cathay Pacific

Cathay Pacific's first-class cabin.

Until recently, if you wanted to travel in first or business class you needed to have a stash of frequent flier miles, pay three to five times the coach fare, or deal with opaque consolidators who buy cheap fares in bulk.

But these days, the number of discounted first- and business-class fares is on the rise, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report. But how do you find them? It takes some planning ahead—and some creative searching—but it’s possible to uncover round-trip premium-cabin fares for less than $1,000 for domestic flights and less than $2,000 for international trips.

Here are seven strategies that can help you find these well-priced premium seats.

Try one-way searches
There are often only a few cheap first-class fares per flight. Instead of flying round trip on a single airline, you may find better prices by flying one way with one airline and returning with another. (On domestic flights, it’s now rare that one-way trips cost more than half of a round trip.) On some domestic routes, first-class fares can be as little as $100 more than coach seats.

Get alerts
The best deals to international destinations are often short lived, so alerts can get you in on the action.FirstClassFlyer.com has a monthly newsletter and curated fare alerts for paying subscribers. The Twitter feed of TheFlightDeal has nothing but low fare alerts, though most are for coach fares. And, if you want to do it yourself, the "Premium Fare Deals" forum on FlyerTalk is often the first source of some great offers.

Don’t scoff at a smaller airline
While you may balk at first, smaller carriers have upped their game in recent years. LOT Polish and Hainan Airlines, to take two examples, often offer very low prices from Europe and Asia to the U.S., and all of their international service is on brand-new aircraft with lie-flat seating. You'll need to shop carefully: Some airlines like Norwegian, Condor, and Air Transat offer a business-class fare, but the actual onboard amenities are not comparable to what you'll find on more established international carriers.

Get the right card
British Airways offers a $400 discount on many business- and first-class fares purchased via its websiteif you are an AARP member. If you have a World Elite MasterCard you can get up to 15% off all but the very cheapest fares on Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, and Brussels Airlines; up to 30% off fares to South America on LAN and TAM; and up to 20% off Cathay Pacific flights to Asia.

Keep checking after you book
Some airlines, including United, will offer discounted first-class upgrades after you book your ticket. To find them, you need to login to your reservation online before you check in for your flight. (These offers might also pop up as you check in.) Delta will let you switch to a first-class fare on the same itinerary with no change fee, so if you see a good first-class fare open up after you book, call and lock it in.

Combine miles and the strong dollar
All of the major U.S. frequent flier programs now let you book one-way tickets with your miles for half the price of a round trip. If you have a stash of miles, consider using them one way and buying a return ticket that originates outside the U.S. Thanks to the strong dollar, there are many fares below $2,000 round tripto the U.S. this summer, like Copenhagen to New York for less than $1,400 and Dublin to Chicago for less than $1,600.

Fly the short legs in coach
For international trips, book a cheap coach ticket to a gateway before spending more for international business class. For example, fares to Europe from the Midwest or East Coast can be as much as $1,000 cheaper than similar itineraries from the West Coast. New York tends to have the most frequent discounted business- and first-class fares to Europe, so if you can get there economically, you can then fly the rest of the way up front.

Written by Brian Karimzad

 www.cntraveler.com

Travelore Tips: There's An Easy Way To Get An Upgrade On Your Next Flight

As airlines change their frequent-flier policies, making it more difficult for travelers to vault into first class, we asked experts for their tips on beating the system and getting the upgrade.

Courtesy British Airways

Getting a better seat on an airline may get even more difficult, if you’re not a road warrior: Recent changes to some frequent-flier programs skew the odds even more in favor of big spenders. To wit: United and Delta are both switching from a formula that, for many years, awarded miles based on distance flown, to one based on how much money you spend on your travels. Fare class and status in your loyalty program can up the ante even more. (At this writing, American hasn’t said if it will make any changes to its program.)

So what’s the bottom line? “General”—i.e. low-status—travelers rack up five “miles” per dollar on air fare; the highest status travelers get 11 miles per dollar. That’s a sizable gap, but it’s not the end of racking up miles for the infrequent traveler. “It’s not all doomsday,” says Brian Kelly, who blogs as the Points Guy. “It’s easy to assume that it’s another case of the ‘rich get richer,’ but actually, a lot of the business fliers are getting shafted too”—all except for the top 10 percent, he says.

That’s because airlines increasingly are making it possible for fliers to buy their way into the upper classes for not that high a cost. If there are empty seats close to departure, they may be willing to sell them off at a discount. “The 90 percent of fliers who don’t have elite status and aren’t playing the game should wait for those deals,” says Kelly. Plus, for consumers who aren’t very frequent fliers, credit card earning remains a great way to get ahead.

Gary Leff, a mileage program expert and Condé Nast Traveler specialist, says that while it is still an uphill battle for those trying to vault their way into the upper classes, you can avail yourself of these tactics to try to escape coach.

First, don’t think only in terms of upgrading from coach to business class. In recent years, dozens of airlines have added premium economy cabins to their long-haul fleets, giving fliers a good shot at getting into business. On some airlines (including British Airways, whose Club Cabin is pictured above) there are several separate classes of service, increasing your chances of trading up. Leff’s advice: Buy a premium economy ticket and then upgrade to the next level.

But what about those real distance marathons—say, Los Angeles to Sydney, or New York to Tokyo—where that fully flat bed can really make a difference? Leff advises seeking out routes that may be less in demand, and hence may have more premium seats available. Instead of flying out of New York, look for international flights out of Philadelphia or Washington, D.C. You can also try seeking out airlines that aren’t members of a major alliance like Star or Oneworld; those groups promote their shared loyalty benefits to their members, so there’s more demand.

Another trend that’s picking up steam is giving customers a chance to bid on upgrades. Some airlines are selling empty business class seats to the highest bidder, but that’s usually closer to departure. Some carriers like Austrian are even auctioning these seats off at the departure gate for a combination of miles and money. But that means you have to resign yourself to a coach seat if you lose your bid.

Finally, the best tactic is one of the oldest. “Fly when the business travelers aren’t,” says Leff. Try off-peak days and times, like leaving for London at noon on a Wednesday—business travelers likely will leave on a Monday or Tuesday since they won’t want to spend the weekend away from home. Upgrading during the holidays may be easier than at other times of the year, but you’ll still have to buy a coach ticket (typically more expensive at those times of year). Ultimately, the time you invest in gaming the system can pay off.

Written by Barbara Peterson