Flights may be filling up because of low 150-day advance-purchase fares, so airlines have no need to slash prices—so time to adjust our Upgrade Mindset.
No time like the present. He who hesitates is lost. If you see a highly discounted published fare, whether it's for holiday travel or not, book it.
[aside headline="Most Recent Business Class Fare Deal" alignment="alignright" width="half" headline_size="default"]On European routes airlines now discount Business Class fares less and less for holiday travel, so your best bet is to search for a very good short-term fare deal, such as the recent one for travel during winter and summer months, which had Business Class fares to Europe starting as low as $1,535.[/aside]
When it came to great low Business Class fares to Europe in past years, the holiday season was often the hot ticket on major airlines—as low as $1,300. You could almost set your watch by them. The reason was because during the holidays, business travelers tended to stay home, and when business travelers don’t fly, airlines often have excess inventory of Business Class seats to dump, sometimes at prices that are less than many coach fares, which are usually high during the holidays.
This year, however, we have only seen a handful of low Business Class holiday fares, and some were only offered to one destination or only on one airline. More details here, here, here, and here.
So what happened this year?
Well, it seems airlines have figured out that the introduction of 150-day advance-purchase Business Class fares, discovered by FCF back in August 2015, means they can sell discount tickets to Europe year-round and still make a profit. That makes holiday premium fare deals a thing of the past, or so it seems to FCF—and double-edged.
Don't get me wrong: We don’t think that holiday fares are going away completely, but they will become much less predictable and the savings will be less than in the past, if this year and the new structural changes to premium fares are any indication.