Your ticket to a quick getaway or an elite-status accelerator
This article has no intricate strategies to impart or mileage-partner backflips to recommend—just low fares and easy upgrade math. It’s simply about jumping on the lowest published fares right now while they last.
Sample Premium Fares Under $913 R/T From Major U.S Cities
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How to Calculate Free and Low-Cost Upgrades
When Business Class fares are this low, it’s interesting to figure out which fares offer the most for your money. Just do “a cost-per-flight-mile comparison.” Simply divide the fare by the flight distance to find out how many miles you get per dollar. The lower the cost-per-flight-mile, the better the deal, especially for miles and elite credit earned. At times, the difference between economy and Business Class is only 3¢ per mile.
Take Denver-San Juan, Puerto Rico on American, which is about 5,564 flight miles (connecting in Miami or Dallas) and has a Business Class fare of just $775. That yields a cost-per-flight-mile of about 14¢. A low-cost economy fare (L class) on that same route is $623, and has a cost-per-flight-mile of about 11¢. That is only 3¢ more for Business Class, or in this case, only $152 more round-trip—that’s just $76 one-way or about $11 per-flight-hour to upgrade to Business Class.
Wait! After you figure in all the extra fees economy class travel can involve (checked bags, meals, and preferred seating) the cost to upgrade can often be close to zilch. That gives you an idea of just how many low domestic First Class fares there are now.
Cost-per-Flight-Mile Comparison on American: Denver-San Juan*
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Forget About Using Free or Upgrade Awards
Why Not Free Awards: Because the value is only about 1¢ per mile—American charges 60,000 miles round-trip for a Business Class award to the Caribbean. You get much more value by using miles for higher-priced destinations, such as Africa or the South Pacific.
Why Not Upgrade Awards: Because buying an economy ticket plus paying a co-pay can be more than a published premium fare on many Caribbean routes, especially once you add in the replacement value of the miles used for the upgrade.
Low Premium Fares are Elite Status Seeker’s Fast Track
You don’t have to wait till the end of the year to do an elite status run. You can use your quick summer getaway to reach your elite status goal—if you’re part of an elite status program. (I’m not suggesting elite status programs are advisable for many of you, as you know, if you’ve been reading FCF for long.)
American Example: Denver-San Juan, Puerto Rico goes for $775 round-trip and earns 150% Elite Qualifying Points (EQPs); that equals 8,346 EQPs, and is about 30% of the elite miles needed to get entry-level status or move up to mid-tier status.
Delta Example: Atlanta-Aruba goes for $913 round-trip and earns 150% Medallion Qualifying Miles (MQMs); that equals 5,160 MQMs and is about 26% of the elite miles needed to get entry-level status or move up to mid-tier status.
United Example: Houston-Santo Domingo goes for $864 round-trip and earns 150% Premier Qualifying Miles (PQMs); that equals 8,925 PQMs, about 28% of the elite miles needed to get entry-level status or move up to mid-tier status.