Business Class Fare Sale to Europe 2019 Going on Now!

[45th Birthday]

Thanks for the information. These are first class tickets, not business class. This is a trip in May. We love Swiss first class service and TAP doesn't come close to measuring up. I'm still trying to wrap my head around why they let you book these fares through a third party site but do not offer them directly. At any rate, your suggestion will completely change how we go about searching for fares!

[charais]

I'm trying to get business class from Dulles (or any DC airport) to Catania, Italy (Sicily) but prices are $6K for or more for dates in May. We're completely flexible on the dates I thought maybe splitting the trip and going to Rome then hopping a flight to Catania would be better but that's even higher. Every search seems to have higher and higher fares. Am I missing something on how to do this?

[Freedom56]

Quote:

Originally Posted by charais I'm trying to get business class from Dulles (or any DC airport) to Catania, Italy (Sicily) but prices are $6K for or more for dates in May. We're completely flexible on the dates I thought maybe splitting the trip and going to Rome then hopping a flight to Catania would be better but that's even higher. Every search seems to have higher and higher fares. Am I missing something on how to do this?

The best deals are going to be from the busiest airports here (ATL, ORD, LAX, DFW, JFK, LAS etc...) to popular destination hubs in Europe (London, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome). Business class seat sales start in October/November for the following spring travel season and then again in January/February for the summer travel season. This has been going on for over 10-15 years. Right now, Virgin Atlantic and Air Lingus started their sales. The other airlines will join in a few weeks.
In your case, I would break the ticket. Fly business class to London, Paris, Geneva, or Milan on business class and then fly Easyjet from that hub in Europe to Catania.

A good idea is to monitor the following Flyertalk premium fare deal page for business class ticket sales:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/premium-fare-deals-740/

You should be able to get some good deals. Flights to/from Europe (at least from LAX) are flying half empty these days, although business class is normally full.

[charais]

Thanks! I will watch the web site, break up the trip and try again!

[NoiseBoy]

It doesn't look like Virgin Atlantic flies to/from ORD

https://www.bizjournals.com/chicago/...ce-ending.html

Any tips on searching for one these business class deals from Chicago to Florence?

[athena53]

Quote:

Originally Posted by check6 The more of you that purchase business class tickets, the less chance we have to non-rev in the same class. :-)

I've read that that's one of the reasons for Business Class fare sales! The airlines would rather get some cash for the seats, even if it's less than businesses are willing to pay, rather than give the seat to someone as Award Travel or a free upgrade.

I just returned from Edinburgh and Paris, with the flights between my home airport and EDI in Business Class. Airfare was nearly 2/3 the cost of my trip (used Airbnb, avoided a lot of the expensive tourist traps because I'd been there/done that, enjoyed just wandering) and I'm OK with that. It's SO much more civilized- and the Polaris Lounge at ORD was enough to make me want to change airline loyalties. A shower on arriving back at ORD during my 5- hour layover: priceless. (I'd booked UA/CO because they had nonstops from ORD, rather than changing at LRH, which is how AA typically goes.)

[Freedom56]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoiseBoy It doesn't look like Virgin Atlantic flies to/from ORD https://www.bizjournals.com/chicago/...ce-ending.html Any tips on searching for one these business class deals from Chicago to Florence?

Too bad you are losing a really cool airline at ORD. It's almost as bad as Alaska Air taking over Virgin America. Delta Owns most of Virgin Atlantic followed by Air France and then Branson.

Check the flyer talk forums for deals from ORD. The US carriers should start dropping prices soon.

[Freedom56]

Agree that flying business is far more civilized. We need to travel to Europe on a regular basis because of aging parents over there, our 3rd home, weddings, seeing friends and other family, and other social events. Getting there in comfort is more important to us. At this point who cares about costs and why fly coach during retirement if you spent your working life travelling in business/first class. What's the point of retiring early if you have to sacrifice comfort to save money. We avoid the tourist traps and just go back to the places we enjoy for the food and lifestyle. The smaller cities/towns in France, Switzerland, and Italy are far nicer than the larger tourist traps.

[imnontrad]

It does not have the budget airlines in it but to search for flights, use matrix.itasoftware.com . You can put in one or more departing airports plus multiple arriving airports (or all airports within a radius from an airport). IN addition you can do a search for rates a month at a time to identify less expensive dates to fly.

[Scuba]

We just flew from AMS TO LAX on WOW Airlines yesterday. We booked WOW Comfy class which included priority boarding, baggage, and seats with XL legroom. It was VERY comfortable and only cost $600 pp. We’d definitely fly them again considering that it cost a small fraction of business class fare.

[Fedup]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scuba We just flew from AMS TO LAX on WOW Airlines yesterday. We booked WOW Comfy class which included priority boarding, baggage, and seats with XL legroom. It was VERY comfortable and only cost $600 pp. We’d definitely fly them again considering that it cost a small fraction of business class fare.

Thanks for the info, I’m going to research into this.

[Freedom56]

You can't really compare WOW airlines to a premium business class service. We are talking about two extremes. People who fly business class know that they are paying much more. But you get what you pay for. My wife would be pissed if we booked economy on a trans ocean flight or even trans continental. Really pissed. At some point its not about the money but overall comfort. Our goal is not to over-pay for business class or buy tickets with extra stops and extended layovers just to fly business class. For a 10-12 hour flight I want a bed and a nice meal and access to the lounge and travel the same way we have been doing while working or for pleasure for the last 30 years. Early retirement shouldn't derail those basic comforts.

[Scuba]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freedom56 You can't really compare WOW airlines to a premium business class service. We are talking about two extremes. People who fly business class know that they are paying much more. But you get what you pay for. My wife would be pissed if we booked economy on a trans ocean flight or even trans continental. Really pissed. At some point its not about the money but overall comfort. Our goal is not to over-pay for business class or buy tickets with extra stops and extended layovers just to fly business class. For a 10-12 hour flight I want a bed and a nice meal and access to the lounge and travel the same way we have been doing while working or for pleasure for the last 30 years. Early retirement shouldn't derail those basic comforts.

It’s a personal choice whether one finds enough value in flying business or first to be happy with paying the extra cost. I used to have a global job and flew business or occasionally first when traveling to Europe or Asia. However the only time I’ve ever personally paid for first class tickets was for our honeymoon.

While it’s true that we did not have lay flat seats on our recent WOW flight, and we had to pay for food and drinks consumed on the flight, we saved thousands of dollars and were quite comfortable. DH who is 6 ft tall felt the leg room was as much or more than he ever got on the business class flights we used to take. And we saved enough buying these tickets to fund another trip somewhere.

We are very comfortable in ER and we like to “blow our dough,” but we just don’t find the additional value we would get from flying business or first class to be worth the cost to us. I realize many others feel differently.

Either way, happy travels!