Business Class Airfare tips and tricks?

[PaunchyPirate]

Background: I am a big guy. 6 foot, 4 inches tall and about 350 pounds. Sitting in economy seats on a plane just about kills me after a couple hours. My knees are usually jammed into the seat in front of me in pure economy. Even in the more expensive "enhanced" economy seats, I'm just too big and tall to comfortably sit and I'm also an annoyance to those sitting next to me. Since I'm single, I often fly solo. So it's an unlucky stranger who gets to sit beside me. I always try to get an aisle seat so that I can lean my body out into the aisle a little to help the stranger sitting next to me. This contributes to my discomfort on longer flights.

I love to do international travel when I can (usually Europe) and have usually scratched together enough frequent flyer miles or credit card reward points to reserve business class seats for my previous trips. The larger seats helps every one involved.

I just used my last American Airline miles (mostly from their Citi Credit card bonus reward) to book business class seats for a May 2022 trip to Ireland. I'm also working on accumulating 100,000 Chase Sapphire Rewards points right now, which might be enough to get me another business class trip or close to it. I will continue to try and maximize these perks. But I don't want to become a full-time reward chaser either.

Once Covid settles down and Europe opens up fully again, I'd like to take a few more trips over the pond in the next year or so. Switzerland, Mediterranean/Iceland/Baltic Cruises, Budapest, Spain/Portugal, and others are all calling my name.

I'm starting to accept that I may need to just pay for my business class airfare. While expensive, I can probably afford a trip or 2 or 3 a year within my non-existent spending "budget". But I have a real mental block agreeing to spend $2000-$3000 for these tickets. Maybe I just need to loosen up a bit.

I guess my question is... do many of you just pay for business class because you want it bad enough and can? Are there any tips or tricks you have found to getting better deals on business class seating? What is the best time to buy business class seating for a trip (how far in advance)? Any other thoughts?

 

[athena53]

I'm also a solo traveler, nowhere near your size (female, 5'7", 125 lbs.) but I do fly Business Class on long hauls. My late husband was 6'2" and had a creaky back and other health issues and I just got spoiled. So yeah, I suck it up and redeem miles or pay for it. I've crossed some destinations such as Australia and NZ off my list because the prices for Business are extortionate and reward flights also require a pound of flesh- my brother went to Australia for a business trip and he had to redeem 450,000 points to bring my SIL with him in Business Class.

I've tried sites that claim to find bargain fares but they all want to know when/where I want to fly and my contact information. No, thanks. Just give me a list. I'm also picky about airlines, connecting airports and layover times and want to make sure I'm not dealing with a place that brokers reward flights between strangers in violation of the programs' rules.

Do shop around so you know what the going rate is. I once got a flight to Edinburgh off Orbitz that was $300 less than buying directly from Delta. I usually avoid Orbitz and other agencies and book directly with the airline because something always seems to go wrong but this time it worked out.

I typically buy pretty far in advance (maybe 6 months) because the timing of the flights drives all my other plans.

 

[sengsational]

Canada, eh?

I found that flying across the pond, business or first, from Toronto was way cheaper. You need to collect your bags, go through immigration, and check-in again, but the price was less than half for my one example. Maybe even closer to 1/3. But you take the risk of the missed connection, not the airline (see below).

The bad news with that example was that our originating flight had a safety sheet that hadn't been signed, so we all sat there for long enough that the connecting flight in DC left just as we were walking up. The next flight to Toronto got us there "in time"... we walked up to the counter 55 minutes before the flight, but the counter wasn't staffed (they all move to the gate 1 hour before departure). We stayed over night and got on the next day. They credited me what I paid, and sold me new, but only slightly more expensive seats. Still way cheaper than anything I could put together from the US.

You can put your destination in as the originating point in Kayak.com and select "explore", and you get a good idea of prices to various North American cities. The same round trip, going the other way, isn't necessarily priced the same, but you can use that as a starting point.

 

[gamboolman]

Paunchy,

We flew International from Africa to/from Texas for about 18 years as I was living there working for megaoilcorp.

We spent ~$2K to $3K each for Comfort Plus and Business was ~$7K to $10K each.

We went thru Europe and also direct to the USA. We did them all....

Maybe it was just us being in West Africa but based on our costs over all those years we never were able to get Business Class for less than the numbers reported.

If you can get Business for $3K - that is helluva deal and i would have gladly pay that.

Having said all that - now that ms gamboolgal and I retired as 1-Feb-21, we hope to never ever get another Stamp in our Passports again !

We had to travel for the job. To voluntarily subject ourselves to the hassles and long transit times of up to 40 hours and jet lag and putting up with crowds.....

All those years of commuting International ruined the desire for any International travel - but that's just us.

All the best - at least request Exit Row in Advance with Comfort Plus... You have my sympathy

gamboolman....

 

[Vacation4us]

Economy sucks.

My DH calls me the hurt magnet. If someone is going to get stepped on or hurt by another person it’s me. We just landed in LAX 2 nights ago. Flew economy. I had a 3-4 yo kicking the back of my seat through 50% of the flight and the gal in front of me dropped her cell phone right on my bare toes ( was wearing sandals) mid flight. He swears he is buying only me business class in the future . He knows how I feel about flying without him next to me.

Usually I sit in the window seat and DH is my buffer zone. Every single time I sit in the aisle I get clobbered.

Very interested in any tips for getting sale BC will be following this thread!

 

[Scrapr]

$2-3k sounds great. @sengsational has the right idea. Look for a hub airport that will get you over the pond to another hub. Then you can mix & match from there. ATL, JFK, ORD. In Europe Amsterdam has a lot of flights, Heathrow, Frankfurt. Some airlines have a grid of fares on different dates. I think Google flights does as well. If you are flexible that helps a lot.

BTD

 

[RunningBum]

You can often look the day of the flight or at check-in i there are any better class upgrades available. I'm not sure those are any cheaper than buying that class in the first place. I do remember one cross country flight where I got the upgrade, and we sat on the ground for 2 hours. I was SO grateful I was not in the middle row coach seat I had before, and I barely noticed the downtime in first class.

Now I've come to realize that I was avoiding some travel because I didn't want to deal with coach, so I've just reset my mind to realize that I can afford to fly in a better class, and that's simply the price to pay as part of a vacation, rather than looking at coach class and fretting about an upgrade.

 

[sengsational]

The big airlines have sky-high prices that don't budge, no matter what you try (for business and first), but non-US airlines sometimes have less extreme prices. I've used Norwegian Air and Egypt Air, but I'm sure there are more. With the smaller airlines, you have less flexibility (one flight per day, or sometimes not even daily). But as someone who's not 'burning vacation days', it's not a big deal to wait if things go south.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Paunchy,

We flew International from Africa to/from Texas for about 18 years as I was living there working for megaoilcorp.

We spent ~$2K to $3K each for Comfort Plus and Business was ~$7K to $10K each.

We went thru Europe and also direct to the USA. We did them all....

Maybe it was just us being in West Africa but based on our costs over all those years we never were able to get Business Class for less than the numbers reported.

If you can get Business for $3K - that is helluva deal and i would have gladly pay that.

Having said all that - now that ms gamboolgal and I retired as 1-Feb-21, we hope to never ever get another Stamp in our Passports again !

We had to travel for the job. To voluntarily subject ourselves to the hassles and long transit times of up to 40 hours and jet lag and putting up with crowds.....

All those years of commuting International ruined the desire for any International travel - but that's just us.

All the best - at least request Exit Row in Advance with Comfort Plus... You have my sympathy

gamboolman....

I hear ya, man! I traveled domestically a LOT for work. And I truly hated it in the last half of my career. I can only imagine if I did your kind of international trips. However, I have learned to separate my mind from that now that I'm retired. However, I don't currently have much desire to explore areas that are more than a 9 hour direct flight.

As for Exit Row comfort, when you get to be my size, you often (not always) need to request a seat belt extender. And you are not permitted to sit in an exit row if you are using one. I assume they figure I won't be all that nimble to move if an accident happens due to my size. I can't risk getting an exit row seat and finding I need a seat belt extender. Because they will then have to move me to an available seat, which likely will be a middle seat. So the best I can do is try for bulkhead seats if in coach.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

You can often look the day of the flight or at check-in i there are any better class upgrades available. I'm not sure those are any cheaper than buying that class in the first place. I do remember one cross country flight where I got the upgrade, and we sat on the ground for 2 hours. I was SO grateful I was not in the middle row coach seat I had before, and I barely noticed the downtime in first class.

Now I've come to realize that I was avoiding some travel because I didn't want to deal with coach, so I've just reset my mind to realize that I can afford to fly in a better class, and that's simply the price to pay as part of a vacation, rather than looking at coach class and fretting about an upgrade.

This is exactly what I'm starting to convince myself, I think. If I'm in coach at check-in, I always ask the agent (with a sad, pathetic looking face) if there are any options for upgrading at a reasonable cost. They are usually all full due to airlines automatic upgrade programs these days. One day, when I started my check-in, the self-serve American Airlines kiosk asked if I wished to purchase an upgrade to Business Class for $500 (one way). I was on that faster than you can say "Yes!". But alas, I didn't get the same offer on the return trip.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

$2-3k sounds great. @sengsational has the right idea. Look for a hub airport that will get you over the pond to another hub. Then you can mix & match from there. ATL, JFK, ORD. In Europe Amsterdam has a lot of flights, Heathrow, Frankfurt. Some airlines have a grid of fares on different dates. I think Google flights does as well. If you are flexible that helps a lot.

BTD

I definitely start by using the hubs in my searches. Since I fly out of Cleveland or Pittsburgh, I always have to connect thru a hub anyway. Most of the time, adding in CLE or PIT as the origin doesn't increase the price. In fact, I've had it be less than directly flying from a hub now and then. Airline pricing is so strange some times.

 

[GreenEggs]

If you have the time you can get cheap tickets on the Queen Mary, which takes 7 days from New York to London. It looks like tickets range between $1000-$2000 depending on the date.

I've never done it, but it sure sounds better than riding economy.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

If you have the time you can get cheap tickets on the Queen Mary, which takes 7 days from New York to London. It looks like tickets range between $1000-$2000 depending on the date.

I've never done it, but it sure sounds better than riding economy.

I will eventually do a transatlantic cruise that I will tie into a longer trip on land. It's just a matter of time. I'm constantly looking at those. However, I'm not sure I'd want to commit 14 days at sea to the round trip portion of the itinerary by going both directions on a ship.

 

[Jerry1]

Have you ever tried buying two seats in economy? Tell them your size dictates the need for two seats. I know it won’t change the legroom much, but it will at least give you some room to shift around and not have someone right on top of you.

 

[GreenEggs]

I will eventually do a transatlantic cruise that I will tie into a longer trip on land. It's just a matter of time. I'm constantly looking at those. However, I'm not sure I'd want to commit 14 days at sea to the round trip portion of the itinerary by going both directions on a ship.

You could try it on the way over, then decide whether or not you liked it. You could look at it as 7 days of "free food".

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Have you ever tried buying two seats in economy? Tell them your size dictates the need for two seats. I know it won’t change the legroom much, but it will at least give you some room to shift around and not have someone right on top of you.

Interesting. While not ideal, that might be worth looking at. Sitting "side saddle" a bit into the second seat would probably help.

 

[pacergal]

If you don't already, consider using a credit card attached to airline miles. We have an Alaskan Arlines visa, currently have enough miles for two free roundtrip first class to Hawaii--planning a trip for 2022! We have used the accumulated miles several times in the past for first class upgrades and free flights.

 

[SD-455]

this is how my wife and I look at it. We flew coach or main cabin extra all our lives and were fine but the seats/legroom kept getting smaller so a few years ago, we decided for any flight over 3-4 hours, we now fly business/first unless it's rediculously high cost. Our new philosophy is, do we really think we are going to go broke based on the difference in the cost of sitting in the front of the plane over the next possible 25-30 years of travel? The answer is "no" so we just consider it a well spent reduction in our kids inheritance.

 

[Aerides]

Interesting. While not ideal, that might be worth looking at. Sitting "side saddle" a bit into the second seat would probably help.

It depends on the airline, but I've read this is no guarantee. Passengers can get asked to move and give up the extra (paid) seat if the airline deems a need. I wouldn't try this on an airline I didn't have some status on. I'm sure we've all checked in and found our carefully selected assigned seats got swapped before we boarded.

I don't think there's any real trick other than stalking prices. But it would help to put all your eggs into one airline, to accrue status faster rather than spread it around.

 

[Sunset]

If you have the time you can get cheap tickets on the Queen Mary, which takes 7 days from New York to London. It looks like tickets range between $1000-$2000 depending on the date.

I've never done it, but it sure sounds better than riding economy.

Yes, it's much better.

We did a Trans-Atlantic from Europe to USA, it wasn't the direct QM one, but one that made some stops along the way, which was great.

I would do it both ways just to avoid the flying.

A big advantage of doing the Europe to USA cruise is that there is zero jet lag when you dock, as they adjust the clock 1 hour over many days during the trip.

We didn't even fly once we got into the USA at NY. We took an overnight train to Chicago in a sleeper car just for fun.

 

[Car-Guy]

Not sure how you can deal with coach seating... I'm a bigger guy too, although you have me by a few inches and ~100 lbs and I can't (or won't) deal with it.... The last several years before I retired, I told my boss that I refuse to fly coach (anywhere) anymore. At that point, I honestly think I would have quit if they tried to send me anywhere internationally via coach... Anyway, now that I'm retired, I just don't fly (been there and done that internationally and I drive if domestic) but if I did, I'd pay for the upgrade without thinking about it.

I remember my first trip to Singapore from the US on a 747 (many years ago). Once we landed and began de-boarding (we got off the plane first since we were in business class) I took a quick look at a full plane of coach passengers, still sitting in their seats, and I don't think I saw a single smiling face... Looked like a bunch of zombies... I think there is more room for cows on a cattle truck... And the cattle truck probably smells better too.

 

[Freedom56]

I have been flying business/first class since 1989. Our corporate policy was any flight over 4 hours qualified for upgrade. For leisure travel, we didn't want to fly coach so I always booked discount business/first class tickets and during retirement we do the same. The way I look at it, injuring your back or knees sitting in coach is just not worth any savings. Domestic business class flights that feature lie-flat seating will be more expensive than the regular wider seats. For international business class, premium international airlines (i.e. Lufthansa, Virgin Atlantic, Swiss, Singapore, Cathay Pacific, Emirates) are far better than the domestic carriers.

Domestic business class is not created equal. You will find lie-flat seats on airlines like JetBlue and on other airlines on some routes (usually coast to coast) where some airlines fly larger planes such as the 787 and 777 with lie flat pod seating. Some airlines don't even have business class. Here are my rankings for domestic business class:

best:

1- JetBlue Mint
2- American Airlines 787, 777, A321T
3- Alaska Air (on former Virgin America A321 neo planes and routes)
4- Hawaiian Airlines A330 first class

Average:

1- American A319, A321
2- Alaska B737

Terrible:
1- Delta airlines
2- United airlines

To get the best deals:

1- Keep your travel dates flexible
2- Book in advance and directly with the airline (don't use third party sites)
3- Use forums like premium fare deals to find business class deals.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/premium-fare-deals-740/
4- Use Google flights calendar search to scan for deals.

It obviously helps if you live near a major hub airport like LAX, JFK, ATL, ORD, MIA, and DFW to get the best deals.

One trend that I have observed over the past 25 years of business/first class travel is that business class fares continue to decline. International business class use to cost us about $4000-$4800 for return tickets to Europe back in the late 90's. Today I have seen them as low as $1925 on premium carriers with full lie flat seats that they did not offer in the 90's. Our last pre-COVID international business class flight cost us $2924 (return) to Europe. Domestic business class fares have also declined. Our last flight from LAX to FLL (just over a month ago) on American Business/First Class cost us $598 each (return). It's normally double that and the lowest fare we have ever paid for that route.

 

[Retired Expat]

Background: I am a big guy. 6 foot, 4 inches tall and about 350 pounds. Sitting in economy seats on a plane just about kills me after a couple hours. My knees are usually jammed into the seat in front of me in pure economy. Even in the more expensive "enhanced" economy seats, I'm just too big and tall to comfortably sit and I'm also an annoyance to those sitting next to me. Since I'm single, I often fly solo. So it's an unlucky stranger who gets to sit beside me. I always try to get an aisle seat so that I can lean my body out into the aisle a little to help the stranger sitting next to me. This contributes to my discomfort on longer flights.

I love to do international travel when I can (usually Europe) and have usually scratched together enough frequent flyer miles or credit card reward points to reserve business class seats for my previous trips. The larger seats helps every one involved.

I just used my last American Airline miles (mostly from their Citi Credit card bonus reward) to book business class seats for a May 2022 trip to Ireland. I'm also working on accumulating 100,000 Chase Sapphire Rewards points right now, which might be enough to get me another business class trip or close to it. I will continue to try and maximize these perks. But I don't want to become a full-time reward chaser either.

Once Covid settles down and Europe opens up fully again, I'd like to take a few more trips over the pond in the next year or so. Switzerland, Mediterranean/Iceland/Baltic Cruises, Budapest, Spain/Portugal, and others are all calling my name.

I'm starting to accept that I may need to just pay for my business class airfare. While expensive, I can probably afford a trip or 2 or 3 a year within my non-existent spending "budget". But I have a real mental block agreeing to spend $2000-$3000 for these tickets. Maybe I just need to loosen up a bit.

I guess my question is... do many of you just pay for business class because you want it bad enough and can? Are there any tips or tricks you have found to getting better deals on business class seating? What is the best time to buy business class seating for a trip (how far in advance)? Any other thoughts?

While I never found a time of day or any of the so called business tickets at 80% off providers that could deliver, have found some options that make it easier on the body or wallet

If going somewhere where you fly overnight and then have limited vacation time on arrival, I spring for business. But coming home where I can recuperate I will fly coach. I try to stick with American which offers more legroom for free to elite flyers

If long flights with long layovers or connections I try to find an overnight connection where I can go to a nearby airport hotel sleep in a real bed, go to the gym, a good meal etc recently did that on a flight to S America with 2 stops and small planes. It really wasn’t bad. Sure like 35 hours door to door but not all at once. Or if there are short haul flights take them in coach snd upgrade the long haul legs. Go through airports with an express Spa and get massage after flying coach helps too

 

[CardsFan]

I remember my first trip to Singapore from the US on a 747 (many years ago). Once we landed and began de-boarding (we got off the plane first since we were in business class) I took a quick look at a full plane of coach passengers, still sitting in their seats, and I don't think I saw a single smiling face... Looked like a bunch of zombies... I think there is more room for cows on a cattle truck... And the cattle truck probably smells better too.

I might have been one of those zombies! At least 10 trips to/from Singapore, early 2000's, I think, all in coach. Connected STL/MSP/NRT/SIN. 24 hours travel time airport to airport. Later, MC finally decided Business class was OK to use. I would arrive to the hotel between 1 and 2 am, and was expected to meet clients at 9am.

 

[Unpaintedhuffhines]

A lot of good advice here. I also use Google flights as it will show some good alternatives if you are not firm on dates (and if you want a deal, you will need to be flexible). And be willing to take 3 flights instead of direct or just one stop.

$2K-$3K for round trip international business class is a steal. I'd jump all over that.

In the before times, I traveled domestically 3X/month, and internationally probably 7-8 times a year. About 5 years ago I vowed to never fly coach again, and I have stuck to that. About 20 years ago I flew coach DFW-LHR, and that is when I decided no international coach ever again. Premium economy is better (slightly better than domestic first), but no way I'd do that either. I probably won't pay $10K to go to Asia like I've done pre-Covid, but now I see I can get those same flights for about half of that.

And the problem with flying now is that it is almost all non-business travelers. That makes coach even more unbearable.

I also use expertflyer (it costs like $10/month). It shows seat loads on flights, so I can see if there are a lot of open business class seats or not. Helps me prioritize flights.