Not Just for CEOs: Finding Affordable Business Class Tickets

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Flying business class can transform your journey. But the price tag can transform your bank account — in the wrong way. Try these tips to save. 

Even a glimpse of a long-haul business class seat can be envy-inducing. I mean, if you have to spend hours and hours on a plane, it may as well have lie-flat seats and chef-curated meals, right?

Except there’s that small — alright, very large — problem of the price tag. Who is paying $3,000 and up for a one-way ticket?! Happily, enjoying a business class flight doesn’t have to mean forking over a mortgage payment (or three). Here are just a few tips for finding affordable business class flights.

Points and miles redemptions

If you’re of the mind to pay as little cash as possible for a seat in business class, points and miles are the way to go. Every business class flight I’ve been on was purchased with rewards. And yes, the bulk of those rewards came from a credit card. Specifically, credit card welcome bonuses, which are the best (read: fastest) way to accumulate a lot of points.

I’ll admit that earning those points is always easier than putting them to use, however. Booking award travel can be a bit of a process, especially if you’re trying to travel during a popular time and/or to popular locations. That said, it’s absolutely doable with some planning and patience.

Many of the methods we’ll discuss to find deals on cash tickets will also apply to finding award space. So, let’s dive in.

Web specials and seasonal deals

Some amount of finding deals on flights is luck of the draw. You just happen to catch that sale, or see an article touting a limited-time deal. Most airlines offer web specials and seasonal deals when they need to fill space on undersold flights.

While it’s impossible to predict when these offers will become available, you can up your odds of finding a deal by:

Looking for deals in off-season periods or locationsBookmarking and visiting airline deal pages regularlyFollowing websites and/or social media accounts that post deals

Changing your departure/arrival location

If you’re one of the millions of travelers whose home airport can count its terminals on one hand, you’re going to struggle to find affordable business class itineraries no matter how you pay. The smaller the airport, the more you’ll probably pay to include it in your travels.

You’ll often find much better award availability and lower prices if you can fly out of and into a major hub. This might mean taking a train ride, or driving and parking, to get to the new airport, but if you can save a few hundred bucks or find a better award flight, it could be well worth the hassle.

Using the price calendars

When you’re booking your trip will have a huge impact on both availability and price, be it in cash or points. You can typically start booking about six months out.

Since most airlines limit the number of award seats per flight, booking as soon as possible can help you find the best availability. It won’t necessarily guarantee you the best price, however.

To find your lowest ticket price, make use of the pricing calendars most airline websites offer. (Marking the box indicating “flexible dates” can trigger the calendar.) These will show you the cost of travel for a variety of dates, and you can page between months to see when might be the best time to travel.

Take advantage of mixed itineraries

One gotcha that I warn people about on award flights is the mixed itinerary. This is basically when an itinerary has multiple flights — i.e., a layover — but not every segment is in upper class.

I see this most often with positioning flights, which are flights that take you from a smaller airport to a larger hub. For example, if you’re flying from Buffalo, New York, to Paris, France, you’ll likely have a layover in a New York City area airport. On a mixed itinerary, the flight from Buffalo to New York City may be in economy, while the flight from NYC to Paris would be in business class.

While not ideal, if you don’t mind spending an hour in economy before your layover, you could save a few bucks (or points) by booking a mixed itinerary. This is especially tolerable if you know you’ll visit an airport lounge during your layover to enjoy the perks you missed out on while you saved money in coach.

Be careful when booking third-party discount flights

A lot of people are quick to suggest using a third-party discount travel website to find cheap flights. And it’s certainly true that you can find some enviable deals on these sites.

But — and this is a big “but” — you may be in trouble if anything goes wrong. If your flight is cancelled, for instance, you’ll likely need to sit on hold with Expedia or Kayak (or whichever service you used) to get yourself rebooked, rather than the helpful airline agents at your gate.

Additionally, you could miss out on other perks, like earning miles on your flight. Travel rewards card perks, like free checked bags, may also only apply if you book directly through the airline.

Other perks, like checking in through the app and getting prompt notification of changes, may require extra steps. In particular, you’ll still need to download the airline’s mobile app and manually add your itinerary so you can get your boarding pass, as well as any updates about your flights.

There are a lot of ways to make flying business class more affordable, though they’re all going to take a little time investment. For me, the experience and benefits have been worth it so far, but as with anything, your mileage may vary.

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