5 Tips How To Get Cheap Business Class Tickets in 2021
We all like priority check-in, lounge access, lie-flat seats and champagne in the sky. We show you how to get cheap business class tickets.
But when travelers hear the words “business class ticket” they do not only associate all the nice things you get but also non-affordable tickets. Business class tickets and cheap rarely go together, but that doesn’t mean it has to be unaffordable.
We will show you that a business class ticket can be affordable. You don’t have to pay a lot of money to fly in business class. We will explain you as well why business class is worth it, even if it costs more than an economy class ticket.
Cheap Business Class Tickets
Mistakenly a lot of people think that they already know how to get cheap business class tickets, we’ve already heard it so often… Skyscanner [icon name=”smile-o” class=”” unprefixed_class=””] [icon name=”smile-o” class=”” unprefixed_class=””]
Don’t get us wrong Skyscanner is good, we sometimes redirect our readers in our deals to Skyscanner as well. But it is nothing more than a metasearch engine that compares prices for flights, hotels and car hire. Airlines do cheap or expensive prices, not Skyscanner. However, you can often find cheaper prices at this place from different online travel agencies (OTA’s) than with the airline itself.
To get cheap business class flights, you have to watch out for a few things. We will show you with 5 tips how to get cheap business class tickets in 2021.
1. Airlines regularly offer Business Class sales.
With regularly, we don’t mean that on a certain date airlines publish a sale, such as a summer or a winter sale.
Many people ask when these sales are. The answer is that different airlines offer sales on different routes throughout the whole year, but there’s no way to predict on what date they do that.
These sale fares are actually the deals we are posting here on Premium-Flights. We check on a daily basis to find those fares, and we post them here for you.
These “sale fares” have an expiration date as well. This date can be found in our posts under Fare Rules – Sales restrictions. Sometimes this expiration date will be extended when an airline wants to sell a few more tickets :). But it can also happen that they pull back the fare before the date shown in the sales restrictions.
From time to time, airlines offer also flash sales. Flash sales are often available for 24hours only, or even less, and ticket prices are extra low.
Subscribe to our newsletter or download our app, and you will be sent an email or push notification to benefit from these prices.
2. Be flexible, maybe the most important tip.
Business and first class fares vary significantly depending on the date you travel and in which country or city the itinerary originates.
Instead of departing on a Friday, you could depart on a Saturday. By changing the date to a single day, the ticket price could suddenly drop by 500 €/$/£.
Tickets may as well become much cheaper if you choose the right airport to depart from. It might be possible that you will find a business class ticket for half the price from a different airport than your home airport. That sounds like a lot of money, but this really occurs very often.
In such a case, it would perfectly make sense to depart from that airport, even if you have to drive 2 or 3 hours by car to reach that airport. You could as well buy a cheap economy class ticket from your home airport to the airport that offers the cheap business class flight.
Sometimes it makes even sense to depart from an airport in another country and buy a separate cheap ticket to that airport.
You can use our search function to find your desired destination, and it will show you all fares available from different airports.
3. Some routes are often cheap in Business Class.
There are some flight routes on which you may often find cheap business class tickets, even for transatlantic flights. We will provide you with two examples to show you that Business Class doesn’t have to be expensive.
Business class tickets are usually more expensive than an economy ticket, but after adding all the benefits you get in business class, the difference in price isn’t always that big as it appears on the first sight.
London to New York with TAP
A business class Round Trip would cost you £995, at the time of writing this article.
Seat selection is for free, and meanwhile, TAP has excellent lie flat seats on all their long haul airplanes. If you credit the miles to SAS you will even earn 150%-200% in miles.
You may check in 2 bags for free. Furthermore, you would have lounge access and a dedicated business class counter at the airport.
At the time of writing the cost for the same flight in economy class is £380. That is a lot cheaper than in business class. But let’s not forget, you will get so much less than in business class, like lounge access, a lie flat seat, priority check-inn…
If you travel, for example as a couple, you will have to add the price for at least 1 bag. And most probably you want to sit next to each other. This will increase the price to about £530.
London to Vienna with British Airways
At the time of writing, this route cost you £170 Round Trip in business class. You would earn 80 Tier Points and a bit less than 2,500 Avios, with your British Airways Executive Club card.
The next time you make a booking, you can use your gained Avios to make the price drop. On short haul flights, you can save £10 when using 1,000 Avios and £20 when using 2,800 Avios.
If you booked the same flight in economy class, it would cost you £70 for the Round Trip. You would only earn 10 Tier Points and roughly around 500 Avios.
In economy class you have to pay extra for your baggage. Adding 1 bag to the booking would increase the ticket to £98 already. In business class, 2 bags are included.
Choosing your seats will cost money as well, in business class from £16 up to £20 and in economy class £12 up to £36. Of course, you don’t have to choose a seat in advance, but only in Business Class you will be sure to have no one sitting next to you if you don’t choose a seat, as the middle seats are blocked.
Let’s do the math:
Economy Class with 1 bag: Will cost you £98, and you can’t be sure to have no one sitting next to you.
Business class with 2 bags: Will cost you £178, that’s a difference of £80 (plus £10 off your next flight redeeming 1,000 Avios or even £20 off redeeming 2,800 Avios).
On top of that, you will have lounge access in London and in Vienna. Food and drinks aren’t cheap at the airport, and in the lounge you can eat and drink for free.
Let’s not forget, you will also get something to eat and drink for free during your flight.
At the airport, you will have your dedicated business class counter. Furthermore, you will be among the first who may enter and leave the aircraft. This could save you a lot of time if you have to clear immigration, for example.
There are a few more routes that usually are cheap in business class.
4. Book in advance.
With most airlines, you can book flight tickets up to 1 year in advance. If you plan to visit a destination next year, you should already start looking for cheap fares.
It might be possible that an airline has started a sale right now and selling cheap business class tickets to your desired destination and maybe even from your home airport with the exact date you are looking for.
If that’s the case, we suggest not to wait any longer. We’ve made that experience already by ourselves. We saw a good price, and we thought that the fare would surely come back or would even become cheaper over the next months, but finally it didn’t.
At the end, we paid much more than necessary.
5. Upgrade or book your flight with miles.
Some people still believe that what you’re wearing at check-in increase your chances for an upgrade, dress to impress won’t work.
What gets you an upgrade are miles/points. You should always collect miles for every single flight or credit card purchase you make.
If you know how to use your points and miles, you can book cheap business or even first class flights.
However, this takes time. Don’t expect to fly from Europe to Hawaii in business class when you haven’t started collecting miles or points yet.
Read our tutorials, all about AVIOS, all about MILES AND MORE, to get started with the points and miles game.
Frequently Asked Question
When are business class sales?
Airlines publish sales throughout the year on different routes. However, there is no fix date like a summer or winter sale. There’s no way to predict on what date airlines publish their sale.
When is business class cheap?
To believe that on a certain date, flights are cheaper than on another is false. Airlines publish sales throughout the year, in the fare rules you will find for which days this sale is valid. However, Black Friday is usually a good day to find cheap fares.
Which business class is the cheapest?
It’s difficult to tell which airline sells the cheapest business class tickets. TAP often sells cheap business class tickets from Europe to the US. But when sales have started, there will be cheaper tickets by other airlines.
If you enjoy our blog and would like to support us, you can buy us a coffee 😉