Business-class travel, with its lie-flat seats and elevated food service, is the epitome of luxury and comfort when it comes to commercial air travel.
The price tag can often be well into the thousands, but savvy travelers have discovered numerous strategies for securing business-class seats without paying full price. From strategic booking methods to maximizing points and miles, here are some ways you can fly business class for less.
Bid on an upgrade
More than 50 airlines worldwide—including Air Canada, Fiji Airways, LATAM, Lufthansa, Qantas, and Virgin Atlantic, to name a few—offer bidding programs, where guests who already have an economy ticket can try to score heavily discounted business-class seats by bidding for them.
Airlines with bidding programs typically work with a third-party travel technology company called Plusgrade. Travelers can visit the airline’s bidding page, enter their confirmation number, and place their bid.
Airlines will set a certain sum, usually around $300, as the bidding floor, so you’ll have to offer at least that amount to be in the running. When you bid, you’ll be asked to provide your credit card information. You’ll find out by the day of departure at the latest if your bid has been accepted; the cost will then automatically be paid using the credit card you provided, and your ticket will be updated. It’s worth noting that bids need to be made separately for each leg; the bidding doesn’t apply to the entire round-trip ticket.
Use credit card points and miles
One of the most effective ways to score a business-class seat for less is by leveraging credit card points and airline miles. Many travel rewards credit cards offer generous sign-up bonuses and allow you to accumulate points through everyday spending, not just on flights.
“Using points and miles is by far the most accessible way for non-millionaires to fly in the front of the plane,” Katy Nastro, a travel expert at Going, tells Afar. “It may seem that you need an awful lot of points to be able to redeem for business-class flights, [but] that often isn’t the case. For example, Going’s flight experts found a business-class deal to Spain for only 54,000 points round-trip plus tax (compared to the normal price of more than 150,000 points for the business-class seat). That same flight paid in cash? Well over $3,000.”
Kyle Potter, executive editor at travel and flight deals site Thrifty Traveler, echoed that sentiment, saying, “Business-class seats might regularly cost five or six times as much as economy, but this is where airline miles can really shine. . . . Some of the best mileage redemptions out there are for business-class seats at what you might pay for economy seats through other airlines. And transferable credit card points from banks like Chase, Amex, and Capital One can make it relatively easy for even infrequent travelers to get the miles they need to pull these deals off.”
Some recent deals Potter noted include:
- Flying Iberia business class from Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., or Chicago to Madrid for as low as 34,000 miles each way
- Booking a one-way flight from New York’s JFK to Lisbon in TAP Air Portugal’s business class for 35,000 miles (but only when redeeming and booking through Avianca LifeMiles)
It’s worth mentioning that reward redemptions for business-class seats are getting harder to come by as airlines are prioritizing cash-paying customers over those using miles. Similarly, dynamic pricing models have replaced fixed redemption charts, making it harder to predict how many miles a flight will cost. Plus, peak travel times now demand significantly more points. As a result, frequent fliers are finding that their hard-earned points don’t stretch as far as they used to. To maximize your rewards, stay flexible with your travel dates and book award flights as early as possible.
Get upgraded through airline status
Angel Trinh is the founder of Pennywise Traveler, which teaches people how to best use their points and miles. She says that on a recent flight from Miami to the Bahamas, she got an upgrade from basic economy to business class, thanks to her American Airlines Platinum Pro status.
To get status with an airline, enroll in its loyalty program and then start earning miles or points. These are the currencies of loyalty programs, and you accumulate them every time you fly with the airline or its partners. Typically, you earn miles based on the base rate of the ticket or distance you travel and your fare class (higher-fare classes usually earn more miles). Some programs also allow users to earn points and miles by using a cobranded credit card, booking stays at partner hotels, renting a car with an affiliated partner, and using an airline’s shopping portal, where you can earn points by making purchases through its links.
After you’ve earned a certain number of miles, which varies by airline, and/or have flown a set number of segments within a calendar year, you’ll unlock status with the airline. Airlines often have different tiers of status, each requiring a higher threshold of miles and segments to reach. Those with the top status on a given flight are the most likely to score a free upgrade to business class when space is available.
However, many airlines, including United and Delta, have raised the spending and mileage requirements needed to reach elite tiers, making it more challenging for travelers to unlock upgrade perks. And because more travelers are willing to pay for business seats, there are fewer opportunities for upgrades.
Try business class–lite
While you won’t mistake these seats for the luxurious, lie-flat cubicles in some airlines’ business classes, Potter suggests looking at budget-friendly airlines such as Icelandair Saga Class and Norse Atlantic Premium.
“Icelandair Saga Class definitely isn’t business class, but the seats are much wider with far more legroom (think domestic first-class seats), and they even have a lounge in Reykjavík for passengers to use,” Potter says, adding that “Norse Atlantic Premium seats are a massive bargain for travelers who just want some more recline and space to stretch out without any of the extras.”
Similarly, German low-cost carrier Condor offers transatlantic business-class fares starting at around $2,000 round-trip—and those do lie flat.
Some airlines offer service classes that are higher than premium economy but don’t have quite all the perks of business class. One example is KLM’s Premium Comfort cabin, which has larger seats with more recline and an adjustable leg rest, the same blanket and pillow set provided to business-class passengers, and meals from a dedicated menu served on real dishware.
Take a repositioning flight, aka get yourself to a bigger airport
If you don’t live near a large airport, you can still get cheap business-class flights by playing with the concept of repositioning flights, which is when an aircraft needs to move to a new location for logistical, as opposed to revenue, purposes.
For example, say you want to fly from Pittsburgh to London at the end of October, but the flights are $3,600. If you catch a flight from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., and then onto London, you could save over a thousand dollars, even with an extra flight added to the cost. That’s because the flight from D.C. to London will likely be considerably cheaper than the flight from Pittsburgh to London.
“Don’t just limit your search to the closest airport,” Nastro says. “Bigger airports offer more competition, which puts downward pressure on flight prices and offers a wider range of options. By taking a short cheap flight, or alternative means of transport, to get to that larger hub, you’ll have more choices when it comes to business-class tickets and more chances at finding a better deal.”
Volunteer to take a later flight
Airlines sometimes sell more tickets than there are seats on the plane. When this happens and all the ticketed passengers arrive at the gate as planned (or the airline needs to fly crew to another airport on a plane that’s sold out), the airline needs to find volunteers to depart on a later flight. If they can’t find anyone to volunteer, gate agents are required to bump passengers at random. It’s something they would rather not do, so they’re authorized to provide incentives to travelers who volunteer, including travel vouchers, in-terminal restaurant vouchers, cash, miles, hotel stays, and other perks.
If your travel plans are flexible, you might be able to use the volunteer program to your advantage. If gate agents are having trouble finding volunteers, you might be able to request a premium seat on the next flight. Granted, for that to work, there needs to be a premium seat available. So before you speak to the agent, check the airline’s website for later flights to see if there are any business-class seats available. When you ask, be polite and understand that the agent is juggling a lot at that moment and might not entertain brokering that kind of deal.
Sign up for a flight deal tracking service
Going is a newsletter that delivers cheap domestic and international flight deals to your inbox as they’re found. Going has three membership tiers, but the best one for those looking to fly at the pointy end of the plane is the Elite tier. With that membership, you’ll receive alerts to first- and business-class deals from an unlimited number of airports in the United States.
“Some of the best deals we’ve found in the past few months in business are Boston to the Netherlands for $1,999 and Los Angeles to Tokyo for $1,809 round trip,” Nastro says. “This is a good option for folks who don’t want to spend hours upon hours searching but who also want to be sure they don’t miss out on the deal of a lifetime from their home airport.”
Trinh also suggests signing up for a subscription to Ashley Gets Around, a newsletter that alerts subscribers to business-class deals and mistake fares around the world. Mistake fares occur when an airline accidentally publishes the wrong dollar amount for a ticket. They are the holy grail of flight deals and one of the best ways to score business-class tickets at a bargain. These errors often occur when airlines miscalculate currency conversions, leave off fuel surcharges, or input incorrect pricing. The key to snagging one is speed and vigilance—airlines often correct the error quickly. Websites like Secret Flying and Airfare Watchdog publish mistake airfares on their channels, while newsletters like Going and Dollar Flight Club send email blasts.
Potter says that, in 2018, he and a friend flew from Los Angeles to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in business class for around $600 each on a mistake fare. This year, he found a mistake fare flying United Polaris business class from the United States to London for $899.
Fly on an all-business-class airline
In recent years, there has been a growing crop of all-business-class airlines that sell seats at a cheaper rate than larger carriers. One is La Compagnie, a French boutique airline that offers transatlantic seats at roughly half the price of other carriers. Beond, a Maldivian airline headquartered in Dubai, is another option.
This article was originally published on August 23, 2023, and was updated with new information on March 19, 2025.
