How to find best deals for flying business class

[GoodWishes]

A couple friends invited us to join them for a Europe trip late September/early October. We are thinking of flying business class. Someone once said if we don't fly business class, our kids will. We wouldn't want that


We are pretty flexible on the dates and places flying in and out of. Any idea on how to find the best deals?


Thanks!

[Blue Collar Guy]

ididnt know they discounted business/first class i am excited to read these tips. and i like the quote about the kids flying in ur placehahaha

[TrophyWife]

My favorite group for travel help is travel miles 101. The guy who started the facebook group will also book you for a very small fee...i think it's $40

I've also use this booking service where they used my miles and booked it all for me. One Mile at a Time - TIPS, TRICKS, AND TRAVEL WITH LUCKY It was $100 a ticket and they used all my miles and some cash

[Bamaman]

I always fly steerage--in the back of the plane. And I can afford two trips instead of one with the difference in price. My flight takes the same time as theirs. Note: I flew home from Budapest earlier this week for $238 one way.

You don't say where you're flying from and to. With a little more info, we could possibly help you know which airports to fly into. They're not all priced the same.

[Dash man]

I booked economy plus for an upcoming trip for a cruise leaving from Southampton. But splurged for cross country first class seats to Seattle from Philly later this summer to see our grandson (and his parents). I just book through the airline's website after researching through other travel sites.

[cathy63]

I like momondo.com because when you search, it has a bar chart of fares by date so it's pretty easy to click on the shortest bar and switch the search to cheaper dates. Also, it groups results by cheapest, quickest and best, which I like. When I was booking flights for our trip later this summer, I started at momondo and then went to the individual airline sites to fine tune the search and actually book the one that had the best route at the best price.

I've also found that on some routes I can save a nice amount by getting myself to a hub airport and flying from there. For example, round-trip SAN to ARN this summer is $979 and you have to go through EWR (an airport I detest), but SFO to ARN via AMS on the same days is only $432.50. It happens that we have enough miles on Southwest to get to SF for free the day before and a place to stay with family that night, but even if we didn't, we could certainly do it for a fraction of the $1093 we're saving on two tickets.

I think the best thing you can do is just do a lot of searches from any airports you're willing to fly from/to, set fare alerts through Google or Kayak and buy when you think they've gone as low as they're going to.

[Souschef]

I have a BA credit card, and amassed enough miles and credits to get a companion ticket for DW. That made the miles for business class the same as for coach for both of us.
Our absolute LAST European trip was on BA from LAX to Moscow, returning from St. Petersburg.

[GoodWishes]

DH and I did some searching today. There are a lot of choices. We saw many cities/countries that we are interested in flying in and out of. We will have to do some narrowing down. On one hand it is good to have so much flexibility. On the other hand need to make some choices. When we were working, our date and place of vacation are more well defined. Now more like we can go anywhere anytime.

Thanks for all the tips.

[clobber]

The best way to find routine good prices is using Google Flights. Just head there, put in your departure airport as your home one and then for destination put in Europe. Make sure at the top right you choose business class. You don't have to put in dates or anything. Under all of that stuff (dates and whatnot) will be a "discover destinations." Just pick your month and duration. It will give you a lot of choices with the price. For example, I'm currently seeing LAX to London or Paris in September for around $3K. But hey, Barcelona or Madrid are about $2K. There are lots more choices by choosing business class and then clicking on the map to explore as well.

If you want to stumble across the true deals, they are here on flyer talk. You better be ready to pull the trigger and purchase as the deals disappear relatively quickly.

[GoodWishes]

@clobber
Looking at Google flight now. Exactly what I am looking for. ~2k to Spain sounds pretty good. Thanks.

[clobber]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoodWishes @clobber Looking at Google flight now. Exactly what I am looking for. ~2k to Spain sounds pretty good. Thanks.

I dont understand what you mean. If you follow the steps I outlined, you should see it all. Do you?

[GoodWishes]

@clobber
Sorry I wasn't clear. I did see lots of cities with prices on the map. I was just commenting on a couple of them, that ~2k to Madrid and Barcelona seem good to me. I need to spend more time and look through the many choices on the map. Time I have

[Red Badger]

Another option - an all biz class airline. Prices not that much higher that legacy coach...


https://www.lacompagnie.com/en/la-co...r-and-services

[clobber]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoodWishes @clobber Sorry I wasn't clear. I did see lots of cities with prices on the map. I was just commenting on a couple of them, that ~2k to Madrid and Barcelona seem good to me. I need to spend more time and look through the many choices on the map. Time I have

Ahh - I re-read what you said and it makes sense now!

[2K1N1K]

Has anyone used asaptickets.com or alphaflightguru.com ? I've looked at them in the past, but haven't pulled the trigger.