Business travel is one of the easiest targets for corporate accountants to aim at when trimming expenses, and as belts get tighter, more and more companies are instituting strict coach-only flight rules—particularly on costly overseas trips. Your friends at the airlines think that’s really unfair, so they’re putting a global spin on what was, until now, strictly a U.S. phenomenon: The Y-Up fare.
For years, airlines have offered the Y-Up fare for domestic travel. The Y-Up is, essentially, a First Class fare dressed down as economy by using a “Y” prefix.
Our first sighting of the new international Y-Up was back in mid-January, when United first offered it to London from several U.S. gateways. Other U.S. majors (with the exception of Northwest) soon joined in, also offering the fare to London.
The most common Y-Up fares are seven-day, or no-advance, they’re fully refundable, and require no minimum stay. The most popular feature of Y-Ups is that they’re often priced similar to the coach Y fares they outwardly resemble. Thus far, however, Y-Ups to London are often far pricier than full Y-fare economy. American’s 7-day advance, round-trip Los Angeles-London Y-Up is $6,458, compared to $5,308 for Y coach. On the other hand, Delta’s New York-London Y-Up, at $7,021, is nearly double its Y coach fare of $3,444.
Forecast: At press time, the new Y-Up fare is being tested only on routes to London. If it’s a success, you’ll soon see them to other destinations in Europe and also for Asia and South America. How will these fares benefit the leisure traveler? More to come in the months ahead as our research team monitors these fares.