Amazingly Low, Long-Haul, Premium Published Fares

March 2013
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Don’t Even Consider Monkeying Around With Miles

It’s counter-intuitive that long-haul premium fares should drop. Of course, you think that the farther you fly the more it costs. But for the past four months—FCF first reported on this new fare revolution in December—long-haul premium fares have been falling because airlines need to dump unsold premium seats. This is the hottest deal in the premium travel world right now.

The caveat is that the fares come and go. Airlines are using flash sales more and more to sell premium seats, so timing is everything (and persistence). Here today, gone tomorrow, but back in a week.

Europe: Round-trip EasyUp flash fares have been as low as $1,440 from Boston, Las Vegas, and Miami to Madrid last month, and $1,319 Las Vegas-Dublin. So, yes, there’s a connecting flight, but this is a lot less expensive than spending 100,000 miles and $1,155 in taxes on BA for an award ticket, or for a United upgrade, which requires $700 for the coach fare, $1,100 for the co-pay, and 40,000 miles.

Save up to 49% on Lufthansa’s First Class

Asia: Last month we saw New York-Tokyo Business Class fares starting at $2,546 and Los Angeles-Osaka could be had for just $2,662.

South America: Last month Business Class fares started at $1,922 from Atlanta, Detroit, Miami, and Minneapolis to Buenos Aires.

The EasyUp and Flash Sale Fare Trend

  1. Amazingly low EasyUp and flash sale fares occur often.
  2. But they lack shelf-life—meaning the purchase deadline is often very short.
  3. And they have a lot of volatility—changing daily and even hourly—with alliances and airlines undercutting each other.
  4. Very low EasyUp and flash fares are not usually offered for a region but rather to single destinations. Tokyo may have a fare sale, but Bangkok won’t. But anyone can take advantage of a deal by buying separate tickets to piece together what’s needed.
  5. Very low EasyUp and flash fares are not always offered from all U.S. departure cities. United recently offered a $2,100 round-trip fare to London from Seattle but not Portland, where the lowest fare on United started at $5,000.

How to Play the Wait-and-Grab EasyUp Fare Game

Don’t Be Too Decisive: Don’t be too quick on the trigger. This is a great time for the premium traveler who can hang loose, stay tuned, then jump on a deal. (We get emails daily from readers who have scored big.)

[aside headline="New Holiday & Summer Fare Trend:" alignment="alignright" width="half" headline_size="default"]In addition to EasyUp and flash-sale fares, don’t forget about seasonal fares. These are offered during Easter, summer, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, when business travel decreases. On many routes they are now nearly as low as flash-sale and EasyUp fares—something new.[/aside]

Take Advantage of the Trend: EasyUp and flash sale fares are spreading—South America has seen an influx and Asian airlines are also getting on board.

Don’t Get Locked Into Your Departure City: Look for other cities and you can score big. A good example of this plan is San Francisco-Madrid, on which Lufthansa and United charge $5,000; but Los Angeles-Madrid was $1,800 for the same dates.

Think Miles Second: That is unless you have miles to burn, or miss the advance purchase requirement, or can’t manage the minimum stay requirement. There, of course, will still be a time and place to use miles but it will vary a lot based on fares available going forward.

Save 49% on American’s First Class

Work With or Around the Advance Purchase Required: On Asian carriers it varies by airline and country (14 to 50 days), whereas most European deals require a 60-day advance.American and Iberia, at times, only require a 28-day advance purchase for Europe. South America also varies by airline and country.

Here are the top 19 deals from February, which is a harbinger.

Round-trip Business Class including all taxes:

  • Dallas-Lima $1,299
  • Las Vegas-Madrid $1,426
  • New York-Manchester $1,426
  • Boston-Madrid $1,440
  • Dallas-Paris $1,690
  • Los Angeles-Madrid $1,765
  • Atlanta-Paris $1,793
  • Phoenix-London $1,875
  • Seattle-London $1,912
  • Miami-Buenos Aires $2,198
  • Los Angeles or San Francisco-Sao Paulo $2,213
  • Los Angeles-Tokyo $2,457
  • New York-Tokyo $2,546
  • Toronto-Barcelona CA$2,600

Round-trip First Class including all taxes:

  • Philadelphia-London $3,702 (normally $7,000+)
  • Miami-Beijing $4,105 (normally $8,000+)
  • New York-São Paulo $4,197 ($20,000 only a few years ago)
  • Miami-Buenos Aires $4,515 (formerly $15,000+)
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