Check Business Class Prices Before Booking Your Economy Class Ticket
My typical in-flight business class experience is a very short walk down the aisles as I walk to the back. Beautiful, is not it? Seats that turn into beds. Plenty of legroom. And hot nuts! Hot nuts are everywhere.
Well, as it turns out, using the basic Economy Class fare doesn’t always save you money. According to the points specialist, in fact, you might be better off booking business class tickets for the flight.
According to TPG , a number of travelers reported that flying in business class is often cheaper and requires fewer bonus points than booking a basic economy class fare. “This is how I first flew to Hawaii,” wrote Dan Jensen on Facebook TPG . “The economy class AA miles were 50,000 miles. The first class was 40k. You couldn’t defeat it with a stick. “
Why? Well, this is pretty tricky, as you will soon find out. Here’s what Ben Schlappig of OneMileAtATime.com said about the situation:
“The airlines are trying to do everything in their power to increase the willingness of each consumer to pay, and sometimes this leads to this kind of weirdness. I have had several domestic flights over the years where I booked first class at a lower price than economy class, most often when economy class was almost completely sold out and first class was wide open. ”
In other words, we don’t really know why this is happening because the airline fare algorithms are a complete mystery, but the best guess is that since we all compete for economy class seats, sometimes they are given higher value (and cost travel). …
So what do you do when you book your next flight? Be sure to compare the fares of Economy, Business, and First Class when using your points (you may find that one requires a lot less than the other).
Also consider where you are flying. If it’s a popular tourist destination, you might get a better spot when other travelers (like families) take what’s left of the savings.