The GF and I want to go on a 2-3 week trip in late Sept. and/or Oct. - dates are completely flexible, as is the destination. Could go literally anywhere. Just trying to let the best deal decide.

Only requirement is it has to be business or first class. Would prefer to fly out of DFW or IAH, but even that is flexible if the deal is great.

Anyone know how to find that sort of thing?

Thanks in advance.

Try this firm:

skyluxtravel.com

I asked for some quotes a few weeks ago, with flexible dates, for a trip to South Africa. I was very surprised when they came back with some good prices and decent connections.

Good luck!

82 Ag said:

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Try this firm:

skyluxtravel.com

I asked for some quotes a few weeks ago, with flexible dates, for a trip to South Africa. I was very surprised when they came back with some good prices and decent connections.

Good luck!

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Did you purchase with them and get a referral code?

Looks promising.

I am happy to price it out for you on my international consolidator. I am a travel agent but I make zero commission on flights. I have found that I can save anywhere from $200-$700 on regular flights and recently saved over $1200 on a business class flight to Rome. Note this isn't always the case, but I'm happy to at least run the numbers for you.

I tend to use my AA miles to hunt for the best J class fares I can find.

I will tell you that in my experience, a typical fare structure will look something like (give or take)

International
Y/Economy - 1X
PE w/ just legroom - 1.2-1.5X
PE w/ legroom & wider seats - 2X
J - 4X
F - 6X-8X

So, if you find an economy ticket that is $1000 and business is $3000...that isn't a terrible trade-off, but you also have to pay attention and geek out over the seat configuration details. Airlines are constantly trying to offer a better product, but still maximize profits and business on Condor would be like PE on Cathay Pacific or whatever.

I'll look at all sorts of ways to snag a good award ticket, including departing from a different city than where you originally arrived, even if that means you had to spend $400 flying to another town or maybe taking a countryside drive.

Just some quick looking, they didn't appear as fruitful as I hoped:

DFW to Paris - $2362 pp ($2652 pp on website)
DFW to Amsterdam about $2550 (only about $200 savings)
DFW to Iceland - $2330 ($335ish savings)
DFW to Stockholm - $2338 ($300ish savings)
DFW to Helsinki - $2710 (just under $400 savings)

What airlines are you getting J for that?

evan_aggie said:

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What airlines are you getting J for that?

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Iceland Air.

I was finding quite a bit of stuff in the $2600-$2800 range, some Turkish airlines (which I don't usually recommend), AeroMexico and some others. I know nothing about Iceland air, never had anyone fly them before.

I did not buy anything yet. I was just checking fares. So I don't have a code.

What's your issue with Turkish Airlines? Other than having to go through IST which may not be convenient if going to Western Europe, I've always had a good experience with them. Besides, the Turkish Airlines lounge in IST is amazing.

HeightsAg said:

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What's your issue with Turkish Airlines? Other than having to go through IST which may not be convenient if going to Western Europe, I've always had a good experience with them. Besides, the Turkish Airlines lounge in IST is amazing.

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Nothing against them, more that they stop in IST and most of my clients don't want to stop there because of the violence/unrest over there.

Use the date matrix on https://www.google.com/flights after selecting Business or First Class.

Enter Origin/Destination, select Bidness, then when you go to select a date it will show you prices for all dates.

You can also buy a economy ticket in a fare class that is eligible for upgrades. Then go buy an upgrade on ebay for a few hundred dollars

Aggie1391 said:

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You can also buy a economy ticket in a fare class that is eligible for upgrades. Then go buy an upgrade on ebay for a few hundred dollars

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How does this work?

drumboy said:

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Use the date matrix on https://www.google.com/flights after selecting Business or First Class.

Enter Origin/Destination, select Bidness, then when you go to select a date it will show you prices for all dates.

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I know how to do this, but I'm very flexible on dates, departing airport, and destinations. It's tedious to have to input each one in. I'd like to be able to view a map with prices overlayed.

Got some quotes from skyluxe - nothing too fantastic. $2650 on Turkish to Belgium or Athens. I had a not-great experience with them last year and so I'd like to not use them. $2700 to Hong Kong on Air Eva is intriguing though.

Use https://matrix.itasoftware.com/
You can input multiple airports for departure and multiple possible destinations.

I think Istanbul is an amazing City to visit. Plus the people are ridiculously nice. But I could see why some people would avoid it, plus the 12 hours to IAH.

You can buy a economy ticket with a fare class that allows upgrades (so no basic economy). Then you, can buy something like this

https://www.ebay.com/itm/United-Airlines-UA-Global-PREMIER-Upgrade-GPU-EXPIRES-1-31-19/153066305172?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D44040%26meid%3D65b412a255e9491eb5a159b66a3a80e5%26pid%3D100011%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D9%26mehot%3Dlo%26sd%3D112087980322%26itm%3D153066305172&_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850

Considering they are a few hundred dollars, I normally find it to be much cheaper than buying a business class ticket

JMac07 said:

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Aggie1391 said:

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You can also buy a economy ticket in a fare class that is eligible for upgrades. Then go buy an upgrade on ebay for a few hundred dollars

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How does this work?

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Be careful when buying upgrades from unknown people. Some airlines (United, for example) expressly prohibit the sale of upgrades. Now, it may be difficult for the airlines to determine if you bought the upgrade, but just be aware that you may show up at the airport and the airline may render your upgrade invalid.

jjeffers1 said:

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drumboy said:

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Use the date matrix on https://www.google.com/flights after selecting Business or First Class.

Enter Origin/Destination, select Bidness, then when you go to select a date it will show you prices for all dates.

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I know how to do this, but I'm very flexible on dates, departing airport, and destinations. It's tedious to have to input each one in. I'd like to be able to view a map with prices overlayed.

Got some quotes from skyluxe - nothing too fantastic. $2650 on Turkish to Belgium or Athens. I had a not-great experience with them last year and so I'd like to not use them. $2700 to Hong Kong on Air Eva is intriguing though.

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I found $2830-$2850 on Delta or United/Lufthansa (not best return flight times) to Athens. I found $2686 on Turkish.

$2791 for Air China to HK but its 3 legs each way. I've booked Eva Air for clients, but they don't fly it until 2019. Looks promising though.

$2521 to Frankfurt on American

Aggie1391 said:

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You can buy a economy ticket with a fare class that allows upgrades (so no basic economy). Then you, can buy something like this

Considering they are a few hundred dollars, I normally find it to be much cheaper than buying a business class ticket

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If only it was this easy. Buying the upgrade is simple and low risk but airlines make it ridiculously difficult to actually use them. First off, you have to buy a flexible fare ticket which is often times at least $500 more than the lowest available ticket. Then, the flight you want to upgrade has to has "R" seats available and that is becoming increasingly rare these days.

I've been unable to use all of my global upgrades the last few years because of these stupid restrictions. Basically you have to pay $500 extra upfront to hope that first/business class seats will be available for upgrade 24 hours before departure for this to work out if there aren't "R" seats at the time of booking.

I didn't want to rain on their parade, but thanks for pointing that out. Upgrades like that are hilariously difficult to use.

HeightsAg said:

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Aggie1391 said:

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You can buy a economy ticket with a fare class that allows upgrades (so no basic economy). Then you, can buy something like this

Considering they are a few hundred dollars, I normally find it to be much cheaper than buying a business class ticket

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If only it was this easy. Buying the upgrade is simple and low risk but airlines make it ridiculously difficult to actually use them. First off, you have to buy a flexible fare ticket which is often times at least $500 more than the lowest available ticket. Then, the flight you want to upgrade has to has "R" seats available and that is becoming increasingly rare these days.

I've been unable to use all of my global upgrades the last few years because of these stupid restrictions. Basically you have to pay $500 extra upfront to hope that first/business class seats will be available for upgrade 24 hours before departure for this to work out if there aren't "R" seats at the time of booking.

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The Global Upgrades can be difficult to use, but I basically look for R class seats and then decide if I want to go there. Of course, this is for personal (non-business) travel where I have schedule flexibility.