A look at one route to show 17 different ways to book that are largely applicable to innumerable other origins and destinations the world over
There are so many ways to skin the upgrade cat. This article will demonstrate how one traveler might go about thinking through many of the best ways to book a ticket using a specific route as an example. The concepts, however, can be understood beyond theory.
I chose New York-London, as it is one of the most trafficked and has upgrade concepts that are applicable to many other routes worldwide, which can be exercised by most anyone.
All the ways to upgrade the class of service or cost or both can’t possibly be included. To keep the scope of this report manageable for both me to report and for you to digest, non-stops will largely be the focus. For convenience, Business and First Class are separated as well as paying in cash versus using miles for free awards or upgrades. (If you’re not a frequent flyer or don’t play mileage games, please consider reading all sections as you need not be either to take advantage of the best loyalty-program-related deals.)
While this text may feel like it’s running long or repetitive in places, the idea is to “break the concepts down,” which inevitably adds to the length. Complicated concepts are much easier to understand one element at a time. This piece isn’t about speed—it’s about your understanding the opportunity landscape so you can put the ideas to work for significant comfort- or cost-gains or both.
In other words, read through this piece and you’ll have buckets of ideas on how to get free upgrades (or cheaper-than-free upgrades) for not much effort on your part.
Top Concepts When Paying in Cash for Business Class
Plan Around Special Seasonal Seat Dumps: History shows that there are four times of the year to get unusually low fares from the U.S. to Europe: Thanksgiving (the lowest), Christmas, spring, and summer. (Seasonal Seat Dumps can be found to many cities across Europe and, at times, to Asia.)
Seasonal Seat Dump Samples for Business Class
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Wait for EasyUp and Flash Fares to Surface: Most of these fares are only several months old and started as low as $1,222 (see FCF’s December 2012 issue for the exposé, and FCF’s newsroom for updated developments). While they haven’t surfaced on the NYC-London route as much as on others, I have seen fares as low as $2,230 on this route. These types of fares are volatile so you have to be ready to book when you find them. The kicker is that they’re not very often available to London; but they are such a bargain that it’s worth it for many less-demanding travelers to make a connection in Europe, such as Dublin or Madrid, routes on which the fares have been prevalent (also a way to get free stop-overs). EasyUp and Flash Fares are frequently available to Asia and South America, too.
Booking Partner Airline Deals: On NYC-London, United’s 7-day advance Business Class fare is $5,900, while its partner, Scandinavian Airlines, offers a fare of $3,470, a difference of $2,430 (41% less). Yes, you have to connect in Stockholm, but if you can afford the time you can save a lot. (A similar example for Asia: American’s oneworld partner Malaysia Airlines frequently offers fares much lower than AA.)
Top Concept When Paying in Cash for First Class
Planning Around Special Seasonal Seat Dumps: First Class Dumps have escaped mainstream awareness and are one of the premium air travel industry’s best-kept secrets, and yet, as with Business Class the fares, can be shockingly low at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and summer. New lower fares came out last year starting at $2,000 round-trip. Yes, that’s for First Class, not Business. In fact, last year’s First Class Thanksgiving fares dropped to the lowest level I’ve seen in the last 18 years of following premium fares constantly.
Seasonal Seat Dump Samples for First Class
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Top Concepts When Using Miles for Business Class
Compare Mileage Upgrade Availability Versus Free Ticket Availability: Too many premium travelers only think about free awards. When, in fact, upgrade space is more plentiful than free space—a premium air travel industry secret for the most part. (See FCF October 2012 for more on this topic and how American delivers as much as 300% more upgrade mileage seats than it does free seats on NYC-London.) Don’t be blinded by “free”.
Unusually Low Mileage-Upgrade Cost from Premium Economy: On NYC-London, BA requires an unusually low 20,000 miles for the round-trip; and in low season PE upgradeable fares start at $1,350. Get a return on miles of 10¢ or more with this one.
Unusually Low Mileage-Upgrade Cost from Premium Economy Combined with Super Currency Games: Don’t have BA miles? No problem if you work the Super Currency Strategies, which gives you access to 40+ airline programs so you can use whichever of them works best for each scenario you have. Super Currencies like Amex Rewards points, Chase Ultimate Rewards points, Starwood Starpoints and Diners Club points can be used with BA’s amazing upgrade.
This upgrade concept combination is a solid idea when you can’t use off-season deals, or are an American- or oneworld-focused traveler and need to earn miles (which you don’t on free tickets), or need better award availability.
Unusually Low Mileage-Upgrade Cost from Premium Economy Combined with Easy Mileage Acquisitions: Don’t have BA miles or Super Currency points? No problem. Just buy miles from the airline directly (here) for just $575 or from Amex Rewards for $375. This Upgrade Concept Combo can easily save anyone (who has a BA account or doesn’t have one yet) 58% to 62% off Business Class travel.
Lower-Cost Partner Award Programs (oneworld): You can travel on American Airlines from New York to London by booking a mileage award with its partner’s loyalty program, in this case Japan Airlines, for much less than you can fly on AA through AA’s own mileage program. The Japan Airline’s award for this route is 63,000 miles (plus a modest $218 in taxes). That’s 37,000 fewer miles than AA charges.
Lower-Cost Partner Award Programs (oneworld) Combined with The Super Currency Strategy: Transfer 55,000 Starpoints to Japan Airlines loyalty program (JAL Mileage Bank) to ticket the American-operated NYC-London flights—at a rate that’s 5,000 miles less than many airlines charge for economy. This upgrade is cheaper-than-free (CTF) because if the cost is the same for a higher class it would be a free upgrade, right? In this case, however, the upgrade strategy not only gets you into a higher class but ALSO at a rate that is less than the lesser class costs—hence a cheaper-than-free upgrade strategy—something subscribers of the Upgrade Mindset enjoy thinking about.
Lower-Cost Partner Award Programs (Star Alliance): Get a United award on NYC-London via All Nippon Airways for 63,000 miles (plus $302 in taxes)—37,000 fewer miles than United charges. Transfer 55,000 Starwood points to ANA—5,000 less than many airlines charge for economy (another CTF upgrade)—or 63,000 points from Amex Rewards.
Lower-Cost Partner Award Programs (SkyTeam): A Delta award ticket via Korean Air’s loyalty program costs 80,000 miles, plus about $500 in taxes—20,000 fewer miles than Delta charges on the NYC-London route. Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Korean.
Top Concepts When Using Miles for First Class
Use Low-Cost Business-to-First Class Mileage Upgrades: BA charges only 40,000 miles round-trip for an upgrade to First—and the upgrade is valid with BA’s lowest Business Class fares—as compared to Lufthansa, which wants 100,000 miles to upgrade and is not even usable with the lowest fares! Super Currencies offering BA point transfers: Amex, Chase, Starwood and Diners. American and United also offer upgrade awards, but charge a co-pay.
[aside headline="Upgrade Mindset 101: Build a Super Currency Portfolio" alignment="alignright" width="half" headline_size="default"]The four majors: Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Diners Club Rewards, and Starwood Starpoints. See FCF’s August 2012 issue, page 2, for more on “Super Airline Currency Transfer Time” and related issues.[/aside]
Use Low-Cost Business-to-First Class Mileage Upgrades Combined with Seasonal Seat Dumps: Using the prior concept with Easter-season fares, which started at about $2,800 this year (see Feb. 13 alert) on British Airways (plus 40,000 miles round-trip for the upgrade).
Use Low-Cost Business-to-First Class Mileage Upgrades Combined with Seasonal Seat Dumps Combined with Instant Mileage Acquisitions: Don’t have any miles or don’t want to play mileage games day-in and day-out? You don’t have to in order to reap the benefits since anyone can buy 40,000 miles directly from Amex Rewards for $1,000 and be all-in at just $3,800 for a First Class ticket that costs $11,000 on British Airways. Add this idea to the prior approach to reap much easier.
Use Low-Cost Business-to-First Class Mileage Upgrades Combined with Seasonal Seat Dumps Combined with Instant Mileage Acquisitions Combined with Using Partner Upgrade Awards That Don’t Have Cash Surcharges: Adding to the approach above, you can book American-operated flights to London through its partner Cathay Pacific’s loyalty program (Asia Miles), which charges 60,000 miles round-trip for an upgrade on discounted Business Class (I) fares—and thus avoid having to pay American’s $1,100 upgrade surcharge imposed on its own loyalty program members (though the mileage cost with Cathay is a piddly 10,000 miles more). You can transfer Starwood Starpoints to Cathay’s program, or you can buy ALL the miles from Amex rewards for $1,500.
Lower-Cost First Class Partner Awards: Book an American award ticket via Japan Airlines for 100,000 miles—25,000 fewer miles than AA charges on NYC-London. Transfer 80,000 Starwood points to JAL—20,000 less than many airlines charge for Business Class—amounting to yet another upgrade approach that is cheaper-than-free, given that it nets you a higher class of service while costing less than Business Class.
Fascinating stuff.