Buying discounted Business Class airfares- not cruises

[A Tucson Guy]

I tried doing a search regarding this company on this website but did not find any results. With Business Class airfares going through the roof, I have been trying to find other options. Even the upgrade to Business Air with SS is really getting up there. If you want to upgrade on a cruise to Asia or Australia/New Zealand the add on above coach is $7,000 each person or $14,000 for us. I ran across a website called airbusinessclass.com and their prices are way less. I also found good reviews. Has anybody out there used this company and they are NOT a travel agent so this request should not break the rules. They only sell business-class airfares. Any help would really be appreciated. Thanks.

Edited May 23, 2023 by A Tucson Guy

[gcornell]

I’ve look into this extensively for years with no luck.  I’m also a member on a very popular forum for airlines (no names allowed I think) and there are so many really good experts on there.  In my opinion, it’s not worth the risk.  There are so many horror stories about every business class discounter.  Very few positive ones.  I understand many will quote you one fare then say it’s not available and try to upsell you.  Some buy others ff miles and resell the award ticket with is against airline rules and can be cancelled. Finally, customer service is non existent after the sale.  It’s painful these days and I need to buy 4 tickets for each trip. Ouch. 

[A Tucson Guy]

4 minutes ago, gcornell said:

I’ve look into this extensively for years with no luck.  I’m also a member on a very popular forum for airlines (no names allowed I think) and there are so many really good experts on there.  In my opinion, it’s not worth the risk.  There are so many horror stories about every business class discounter.  Very few positive ones.  I understand many will quote you one fare then say it’s not available and try to upsell you.  Some buy others ff miles and resell the award ticket with is against airline rules and can be cancelled. Finally, customer service is non existent after the sale.  It’s painful these days and I need to buy 4 tickets for each trip. Ouch. 

Thank you for the input as I am not surprised. If it is too good to be true, it probably is not true.

[drron29]

Though my search revealed these complaints.

https://www.bbb.org/us/fl/saint-petersburg/profile/travel-agency/airbusinessclass-llc-0653-90357117/complaints

 

As well as this saying it is legit but be careful.

https://www.scam-detector.com/validator/airbusinessclass-com-review/

 

As they say if it sounds too good to be true it often isn't.

[WesW]

When Silver Air does not offer BC Upgrade (e.g. on our Male to Darwin voyages (Kimberley region)).  Have found using the Chase and American Express Travel portal sometimes has better prices for BC than the airlines.  Also, use miles on occassion; last week used BA miles for Qatar Q Suites/BC to Male for $417.40 plus 85,000 Avois pp for a near $7000 ticket.

 

Edited May 23, 2023 by WesW

[jpalbny]

5 minutes ago, A Tucson Guy said:

Thank you for the input as I am not surprised. If it is too good to be true, it probably is not true.

 

One place that I've found consistently OK fares is AMEX. They have an International Airline Program that sells modestly discounted airfares. Think on the order of 10-20% off what you'll find on the airlines' websites. And add in 5x points on airline purchases, which you can then use for $ off future flights.

 

But prices are still eye-watering. I was happy to get ALB-JNB this fall for $7500 PP (one stop in ATL). When it got that "low" I pounced. It had been running $9500 PP on AMEX and $11K PP on DL...

[gcornell]

1 minute ago, WesW said:

When Silver Air does not offer BC Upgrade (e.g. on our Male to Darwin voyages (Kimberley region)).  Have found using the Chase and American Express Travel portal sometimes has better prices for BC than the airlines.  Also, use miles on occassion; last week used BA miles for Qatar

BC to Male for $417.40 plus 85,000 Avois pp for a near $7000 ticke.

 

Great deal.  Wish I was so lucky.  I recently purchased 4 Qatar BC flights from JFK to Male.  Still stings  to talk about it. 

[taxatty]

We travel on AA a great deal (MIA is a major AA hub airport) and do what we can to rack up AA miles and "Loyalty Points." There are still excellent AA award deals if you take the time (or use a service) to find them, especially on AA partner airlines. After flying to Australia and New Zealand in Economy years ago we said never again.  Through cancelling/rebooking (with no penalty) when a better deal appears, we're flying to Australia for 90K miles each in AA First (which will disappear shortly from its 777s) and 80K each in Qantas Business returning, along with a minimal $ amount. Qantas flights within Australia to get us to Darwin for our SS cruise are only 10K AA miles Economy (fine for the short flights) and 20K for Business. Booking AA award flights is the only realistic way we could fly international "up front." Finally, on other international flights, we've had success upgrading to AA Business a day or two before the flight in question as upgrade space is often then released--one example being a couple of years ago getting last-minute AA upgrades to and from Santiago, Chile. 

Edited May 23, 2023 by taxatty

[Stumblefoot]

1 hour ago, WesW said:

... last week used BA miles for Qatar Q Suites/BC to Male for $417.40 plus 85,000 Avois pp for a near $7000 ticket.

Great use of miles.

 

18 minutes ago, taxatty said:

There are still excellent AA award deals if you take the time to find them...

Agree.  Just booked the AA daytime flight LIM-MIA-STL in J for 42,500 over Easter break, which isn't the cheapest time to fly that route.  UA wanted 90,000 and DL was proud of their 160,000 offer. 

[canderson]

Whatever became of consolidators and consolidator fares?  Are the airlines so flush with customers that they have stopped selling blocks of seats?  Used to be the way to buy international business or first class.

[Stumblefoot]

28 minutes ago, canderson said:

Are the airlines so flush with customers that they have stopped selling blocks of seats?

Yes. Have you seen the load factors in their earnings reports?

[canderson]

13 minutes ago, Stumblefoot said:

Yes. Have you seen the load factors in their earnings reports?

Yeah.  An unoccupied seat means someone collapsed during the boarding process and there wasn't anyone waiting at the gate on standby.

 

In retrospect, I'm glad we took the business air option with SS.  Compared to when we booked our next cruise, we'd be looking at about 50% more than the credit and the business class upgrade with SS cost us.  Got a decent itinerary and while it's not the 787 Polaris Class that I'd prefer, can't knock Polaris on a 757, either... at least not compared to the alternatives for a long overseas flight. I don't sleep for diddly sitting up, and traveling eastbound, it's pretty important to at least give it a try.

 

I wonder how SS manages this.  The trend has been clear for a while now, so you'd think they'd go ahead and actually book the seats.

[FlyerTalker]

In general, the sites offering significantly discounted business class tickets are dodgy at best.

 

That being said, airlines do have discounted biz ticket fares.  They tend to have the following differences from "regular" business tickets:

 

1) They are generally made available with long lead-time advance purchase requirements.  These are often in the 60+ days out or longer time frame. Some are 90+ day AP.

 

2) They are not refundable like standard biz tickets, but are more in the old style of discounted coach tickets where you could not get a refund in any form.

 

3) They often have big restrictions on changes.  So you definitely need to be firm in your plans.

 

4) They are VERY capacity controlled, and tend to show up for periods of slack biz class demand.

 

5) They are offered by the airlines directly, but not on most routes and/or most dates.

 

Is there any special way for finding these?  Nope.  They are a function of the yield management algorithms at each individual airline, and only diligent searching will find them.  One tool CAN be helpful, and that is ExpertFlyer, which will show you the full list of published fares for each route on an airline (that is part of their coverage).  Now, just because a fare is published does NOT mean that there is inventory in that fare category, or that tickets are being sold at that fare category.  But it does show where there are significantly discounted biz tickets available on routes.

 

 

[6rugrats]

11 hours ago, canderson said:

Are the airlines so flush with customers that they have stopped selling blocks of seats?  

Yes, no need to.  Any “discounted fares” are being sold by ticket brokers and these are aggressively audited and canceled by airlines.  Fasten your seatbelts for travel this summer, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Edited May 24, 2023 by 6rugrats

[Gardyloo]

Most of the non-airline sites offering deeply discounted business- or first-class fares are "mileage brokers."  These companies purchase frequent flyer miles from individuals and use them to book premium-cabin award seats, which they then sell to customers through their website gateways.  

 

While not illegal, this practice is counter to every airline's terms and conditions regarding redemption of miles or points.  When discovered, the airline can and will cancel the tickets, or close the seller's mileage account.  This is VERY risky behavior on the part of buyers of these "discounted" tickets.

 

A few years ago I had a laptop stolen and almost instantly the thief managed to crack my password for my American Airlines frequent flyer account, in which I had a balance of almost half a million miles.  When I discovered the breach, I contacted AA and they went to see if the miles had been redeemed for flights.  Yep, my miles had been redeemed and the award tickets sold to purchasers for a round trip and two one-way business class flights between North America (one LAX, two Toronto) and Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific.  The laptop thief (or a middleman) had sold the miles to the broker.

 

Although they weren't supposed to tell me, when I called a few days later for an update, the AA agent volunteered that one of the one-way tickets had already been used, but the others had been canceled, one apparently at the gate as the purchaser of the ticket was about to board the flight.  

 

My miles eventually got restored.  Whether the purchasers of the tickets from the mileage broker ever got their money back is unknown.  I suspect they were out thousands of dollars.  The broker is still in business.  

 

In my experience the best place to learn about deals in premium cabins is the "premium fare deals" board on Flyertalk - Premium Fare Deals - FlyerTalk Forums .  You'll need to bone up on your airline and airport codes but it's worth the effort.  

 

I'll also point to a (typically wordy) post I made in another thread about the use of round-the-world tickets to fly in the pointy end at reasonable cost, provided you're willing to do the work.  It starts in post no 11 on this thread: Head East or Head West? - Cruise Air - Cruise Critic Community

 

Edited May 24, 2023 by Gardyloo