First Class Air For Less
Ways to Save Money While Upgrading Your Flight Experience
When traveling on a budget, price often wins over comfort, but it doesn't have to. Here are some tips for upgrading your flying experience without spending a lot.
Nobody likes to fly in economy coach, but a full-fare first class ticket is often way out of reach for most budget travelers. There are ways to fly first class without paying a first class price, though, and there are also alternate ways to upgrade your flying experience without going first class.
- Sign Up For Frequent Flier Programs. Just about every airline has some kind of frequent flier program and they are almost always free to join. Even better, you can usually do so from the comfort of home at the airline’s website. When you fly, use your program number for every reservation to accumulate miles or points (depending on the program) that you can cash in later for free upgrades or even free tickets. Keep in mind it may be difficult to cash in miles/points on some flights during peak or holiday seasons, but since it costs you nothing to join, these miles/points could get you a first class seat for free.
- Be Loyal to One or Two Airlines. It’s tempting sometimes to go with whatever airline offers the cheapest seat, but if you spread your flights over too many, you lose the effectiveness of an airline’s frequent flier program. Additionally, if you fly a lot (for business or just a lot of mini-vacations), you may sometimes receive free upgrades based upon space available for a certain flight, just for being a loyal and frequent customer.
- Buy Y-Class or Q-Class Coach Fares. These are considered full fare coach tickets and while they may cost more than whatever the current sale fare is, they are also easier to upgrade from than the sale fare seats. Farecompare.com has a useful search feature that will find the cheapest Y-class fares for any U.S. route.
- Purchase Upgrades. Some air carriers, like American Airlines, allow members of their frequent flier program, called AAdvantage, to buy miles good for upgrades. With this program, it costs a mere $30 per 500 miles of a flight for an upgrade. So on a 1,500 mile flight, it would only cost $90 for the upgrade, vs. potentially hundreds more for buying a full fare ticket to get the American Airlines first class flying experience. Of course there are terms, like regular AAdvantage members must have a full fare coach ticket, while “Gold,” “Premium” and “Executive Premium” can upgrade from any published fare – another reason it pays to be loyal to one or two airlines when accumulating frequent flier miles. AirTran is another carrier that allows coach fare ticket holders to upgrade for a fee of $50-$80 on average (depending on the length of the flight), based upon space available at check-in, to their business class, which offers wider 2x2 seating and complimentary alcoholic beverages and snacks.
- Ask at the Gate. Sometimes, after all of the regular first class ticket holders and all pre-paid and award mile upgrades have been given seats, there may still be first class seats available. They’ll upgrade from business class first, but it never hurts to ask - and be pleasant about it. If you don’t get it, it’s not worth getting rude about it, but there is a small chance there might just be an extra seat available for you. Now sometimes this may be a free upgrade and sometimes you may have to pay a little extra, but it’s worth asking.
- Fly a Discount Airline With Perks. Sure some budget and discount airlines are no frills, but there are a few that offer a first class-like flying experience to go along with the low fares. JetBlue offers in-seat satellite TV and complimentary snack boxes, among other perks. AirTran offers complimentary XM satellite radio to all seats. So yes, you’re still sitting three across in coach class, but at least you’re getting a little more out of the experience than just a cramped seat.
Do you have any tips for getting a first class flying experience for less? Please leave us a message in our discussion forums.
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