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Reader Julie writes:

I’m looking to buy tickets from Newark to San Francisco for the holidays, and Expedia has the lowest price for tickets on United. (Even lower than united.com) Can I upgrade these tickets if I buy them from Expedia? Thanks!

You’re in luck! For travel within the United States, most every airline allows upgrades if the tickets were purchased from online agencies like Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, CheapTickets, etc. As long as the booking class is legally upgradable, it doesn’t matter where you buy it.

(The exception: If you bought “opaque” tickets from Hotwire or Priceline, i.e., you didn’t select the airline and/or flight times when you made your purchase, then you can’t upgrade.)

For international tickets, upgrades are generally a little more complicated. Not all booking classes are upgradable, either with miles or certificates. But again, as long as the ticket you buy conforms to the upgrade rules of the airline, then it shouldn’t matter where you buy the ticket. As long as you are buying a “published” fare, you should be fine. (And even then: I’ve upgraded a ticket purchased from a consolidator. But it’s up to each airline to set such rules.)

Buy the ticket from Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, or wherever it’s cheapest. And good luck getting the upgrade!

P.S. In theory, you could buy the ticket from United and invoke their low fare guarantee by pointing to the lower fare on Expedia to get $50 in credit, but it’s probably not worth the trouble…
(image)

Singapore Airlines is rolling out new seats in all three cabins — first, business, and economy. The economy seat improvements are nice, but the premium cabin improvements, especially in business, are game-changing.

The photo above shows the forthcoming seating in business class on a Boeing 777. This isn’t a private jet. It’s a 1-2-1 configuration with 30-inch wide seats, WAY more generous than anything else out there. On other airlines’ comparable aircraft, you’re lucky if you get 2-2-2 seating. (2-3-2 is more common.) And a 30-inch wide seat is a huge leap from the 20 to 22 inches that most business class seats offer.

This isn’t just raising the bar, it’s grabbing the bar and throwing it like a javelin. (I guess that makes the other airlines the equivalent of the track-and-field judge who “caught” a javelin with her foot.)

Part of me wonders (however briefly) who really needs that much width in the seat. It’s nice, sure, but are we all getting that fat and wide that we need 30 inch-wide seat? (Oh, wait, we ARE getting that wide.) The new first class is even wider: 35 inches wide. Practically a meter wide!

The revisions to the Krisworld inflight entertainment system are also impressive, though I’m not sure why it’s necessary to have a word processor and spreadsheet. Won’t people who need to create a spreadsheet be firing up their laptop? And how do you transfer a file from the onboard system to your own system, especially since Boeing’s Connexion isn’t operational after January 1? (And why the heck is it called Krisworld anyway? I’ve never understood that.)

This comes after a slew of business-class news. It’s been a big couple of weeks: Delta announced it was installing flat beds by 2008. Upstart Silverjet made it official and announced it would start flying all-business class Boeing 767s between London-Luton and Newark on January 25, 2007. Similarly, all-biz French newcomer Elysair announced that it was planning to fly between Paris-Orly and Newark beginning in December. And Fortune Magazine ran through their favorite business class seats.

But Singapore’s news blows all that out of the water. Delta going lie-flat by 2008? Puh-leeze. I mean, sure, it’s nice to go lie-flat, and it’s great that Delta is doing it, but Singapore is basically a decade ahead of anyone else. It reminds you how pathetic the premium offerings of U.S.-based carriers really are right now.

Hats off to Singapore. I’m left wondering what this will cost. And if any seats in the improved business class cabin will ever be available for frequent flyer mile redemptions…

Related:
- Singapore Airlines (aff)

When is a free ticket not free? When it’s in India.

The government of India has started bilking first class and business class passengers, INCLUDING those who upgrade or buy a ticket with miles, on all flights departing their country.

The finance ministry has now decided to levy 12.25% service tax from all passengers who occupy the Business and First Class seats in international airlines. And these would also include Economy Class ticket holders who are upgraded to the upper class free of charge. […] Roughly, travellers need to pay a extra Rs 15,000-20,000 for travelling in Business Class, and around Rs 25,000-40,000 more for First Class to Europe. For US, such upgrades to Business Class would cost Rs 33,000-40,000, and Rs 60,000-80,000 for upgrades to First Class.

How do you tax a free ticket, you ask? By assuming the full fare were paid. Like charging rack rate taxes on a free hotel room (which is also done). Terrific.

That comes to anywhere between $300 and $1700 in taxes, payable at the check-in counter.

(image)
tags: travel | India

There’s escalation in the Discounted First Class War.

Yesterday’s post about Y-UP and Q-UP fares brought in a few e-mails. Including this one:

Have you seen that United now goes beyond Y-UP and Q-UP and now features M-UP and B-UP fares?

It’s true. Confirmed. Whoo.

Pulling up a list of fares (on Travelocity’s fare tool) between, say, Washington and Los Angeles on the arbitrary date of October 28, I see these “discounted” premium fares:

Delta USD 983.00+ F06C booking code F
American USD 1159.00+ YUPP7ZN booking code P
United USD 1159.00+ QUA7UPN booking code A
United USD 1159.00+ QUA7UP4Z booking code A
American USD 1533.00+ YUPPMZ booking code P
United USD 1533.00+ QUAUP4Z booking code Z
United USD 1533.00+ QUAUP booking code A
American USD 1933.00+ YUPMZ booking code A
United USD 2433.00+ MUAUP booking code P
United USD 2433.00+ MUAUP4D booking code D

Notice that the Delta fare that doesn’t play these -UP games is actually the cheapest of the discounted premium fares. Go figure. (FYI, the fares with booking code D or Z are business class fares on 3-class planes… hope you’re keeping score.) And none of these fares come close to the discounted economy class prices that most people look for. -UP fares shine when you’re traveling at the last minute and all fares are sky high.

This is getting silly. We have Yuppie and Quppie fares, and now Muppies and Buppies. It’s getting too hard to keep track of all these options. My brain is going to explode.

Flying in first class for the price of coach is a beloved subject with this blog’s readers. But reader Alan F. correctly points out via e-mail that I duplicated the Wall Street Journal’s mistake in my two earlier posts on the subject of Y-UP and Q-UP fares (here and here). I erroneously called these fares coach fares with an automatic upgrade to first. They’re not. They are first class fares, period.

The confusion arises because they have a fare code (e.g., “QUAUP”) that starts with an economy-fare letter, “Q.” But the booking code for these fares — the single-letter category the fares fall into — is actually a first-class code, such as “F” or “A.”

So who on earth, beside Alan F., cares?? Why would this matter? At least two important reasons:

1) Some travelers are reporting that they’re not getting seats in first on these fares. They get to the gate and are handed an economy boarding pass, with the comment that their upgrade didn’t clear. What upgrade? They bought a first-class ticket, so an economy boarding pass is a downgrade.

2) Miles, miles, miles. If you buy a first-class ticket, you earn more miles, both redeemable miles and elite-qualifying miles. Make sure you get what you paid for.

This business of the fare code vs. the booking code is silly. It confuses passengers and staff alike. I don’t know if it’s done this way by design or neglect. Or maybe there are travelers who like it this way. I could imagine a company’s accountants, whose job it is to enforce a “no first class travel” policy, not recognizing a Q-UP fare as a first class fare. Anyone?

tags: travel | upgrades | first class

You’ve flown over it, now see it on the ground
Confirmed: Air Greenland to begin nonstop service from Baltimore to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland in May 2007.
Unconfirmed: Discounts for correct pronunciation of “Kangerlussuaq.”

Too many miles
Me, I get tense when I have too many miles in my account. Not only do the miles not earn interest, but I have the creeping feeling that airlines will devalue them. So my first thoughts, when I read that someone has amassed 31 million Delta SkyMiles: “This guy must be nuts.” Or lazy. Or maybe he really has been trying to cash ‘em in, calling and calling, trying to get those first class tickets to LAX… Saving for an award may make sense, but hoarding is foolish. Spend faster!

Synergy!
Airlines have been turning to NASCAR, and hotels have been training their staff with improv actors, so let’s turn it around: Car dealerships are taking service lessons from hotel chains like Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons.

More upgrades to premium cabins
Star Alliance member LOT Polish Airlines is upgrading their transatlantic business class seats.

More upgrade opportunities
Star Alliance is slowly rolling out mileage-based upgrade options across the entire alliance. United just joined the program, and you can now use United miles to upgrade flights on some Star Alliance members: ANA, Asiana, Austrian, LOT Polish, Lufthansa, TAP Portugal, and Thai. (Some airlines are joining within the week.) The catch: Your economy ticket has to be in Y or B booking classes — the most expensive, full-fare tickets. Business class tickets can be upgraded to first from C or D booking classes (not the discounted Z.) Still, a new option, and a new benefit.

Separate, not equal
Delta Airlines is moving check-in for BusinessElite ticketholders at JFK to a different terminal: Terminal 2. Economy-class riff-raff customers can continue to check-in at Terminal 3. The scoffing sound you hear is coming from Germany: Those seeking (or offended by) separation of the traveling classes should really get their pulse racing with Lufthansa’s dedicated First Class Terminal in Frankfurt, which features a chauffeured ride to the plane. Jetways are apparently for suckers.

tags: travel | airlines | hotels | Greenland

Update:
The usairways.com discount below expired at the end of 2006. So the list of promotional codes for American Airlines and other carriers, linked below, is down. However, there IS a 5% discount codes for US Airways Vacations, as well as a discount for American Airlines, in the 2008 edition of the Entertainment book, which may be a worthwhile investment.

The original post lives on below for posterity.

——————————————————-
If flying US Airways, and booking on usairways.com, try entering the promotional code RR506FS to receive a 10% discount on purchased first class tickets, or promotional code RR506CU for 5% off economy class tickets. On the flight booking page, enter these codes in the “e-certificate” box located below the “return date” field.

Travel by November 15. Up to 4 passengers can receive the discount on the same itinerary. No codeshares. It doesn’t appear to have any advance purchase or geographic restrictions — you can seemingly use it for any destination on US Airways. I also don’t see any reason why the codes can’t be used again and again, so have at it.

Main offer page here; full terms/conditions, and (important!) blackout dates here.

Taking a cue from the introduction of all-business class airlines like Maxjet and Eos, and supplementing that concept with some addiction-enabling, German entrepreneur Alexander Schoppmann is starting up an all-smoking luxury airline.

The BBC reports that Smintair, short for Smoker’s International Airline, hopes to launch flights between Dusseldorf and Tokyo using leased 747s configured with only 30 first class seats and 108 business class seats. No economy seats.

Trying to emulate a “grand hotel” atmosphere from the 1960s, smoking will be allowed throughout the plane, with the upper deck turned into a lounge.

While smokers might value the opportunity to light up on a long flight, the airline is bizarrely pitching itself to non-smokers as well:

Non-smokers will find the cabin air more refreshing than on any other flight with any other airline, as SMINTAIR adds fresh outside air to the conditioning system! This is more expensive, as it burns more fuel, but it is seen as an additional service to our guests.

Yeah, sure, nonsmokers will really love that tiny bit of outside air that’s mixed with 138 chain-smoking travelers. Hilarious!

A deceptively simple question, without a simple answer. For starters, not all upgrades are the same. There are the “unlimited free domestic upgrades” for elites at Continental, but good luck getting them on a popular route, especially if you’re not an ultra top-tier frequent flyer. There are the electronic certificates (e.g., at United Airlines), which improve your chances if you’re a low-rung elite, but you still need to sweat it out, often at the gate. Then there’s the option of using miles. But how successful are travelers at actually GETTING the upgrade?

To really answer the question, we need empirical data, which the airlines are not about to volunteer. A few websites are stepping up to the plate, but they all have a way to go:

UpgradeSuccess.com is building a searchable database of upgrade requests and their successes and failures for the major US airlines. The data are still pretty thin (Northwest has the most data, with just under 1000 flight segments) but the site has an option for sorting the results by elite status. If there were more flights entered into the system, it might be nice to sort by flight route, too.

Looking more globally, WebFlyer maintains an index for both award tickets and upgrades, ranking the airlines in both aggregate and monthly terms. But they don’t tell us how many segments have actually been entered. (n=??) Looking at Webflyer’s May upgrade data, there are only three airlines listed, with Air Canada showing 0% and American showing 100%. I’m pretty sure that Air Canada’s flyers are doing better than that, and American’s are doing worse. The site also collapses domestic and international flights, so you’re comparing domestic U.S. upgrades to first class with, say, trans-Pacific upgrades from coach to business class. (The latter is much more desirable than an upgrade from Chicago to Detroit.)

Both of these sites can only function with your help. So go, enter your segments! Tell them when you tried to upgrade, when you failed, and when you succeeded. Improve the data. It’ll be doing everyone a public service, and maybe in a year or so we can empirically say which airline is best for upgrades. At least for that year.

tags: travel | air travel | upgrades | first class | business class

Airbus, undaunted by the costly production delays on their double-decker A380 jet, revealed a model of what first class could look like on board.

The forward upper deck features three completely enclosed suites down each side, with a large aisle that is occupied by two sofas and tables (pictured …). Each suite contains a reclining chair and sofa – the latter doubling up as a bed.

The suites have a sliding doors and are large enough to accommodate several people. They are sized so that the could be installed in a three abreast configuration on the upper deck of an A380 or the main deck of other Airbus widebodies.

Of course, no real-world planes seem to ever end up like the mock-ups. Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner was shown with wide, spacious seats when the models were built. Lo and behold, most airlines are ordering them with narrower seats, with an extra seat jammed in.

The mega-ultra-first class looks swank — check out the photoset here, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

(image: Airbus)

(Updated August 6, 2006; original text is crossed out, corrections follow in text. Reason for update is here.)

Last week we discussed coach tickets that automatically upgrade actually book into first class (usually Q-UP or Y-UP fares; Z fares book into business class on three-class or international flights). (Updated August 6, 2006: Q-UP and Y-UP fares are first class fares, NOT economy fares with an upgrade. A minor distinction, but an important one in case your flight gets overbooked, or if a gate agent tries to tell you your “upgrade” was denied. See here.)

The folks at FareCompare have come up with two useful tools for finding discounted first class fares. First, they offer a Q-UP and Y-UP fare list for U.S. cities. This link will take you to the y-up (or equivalent) fares for Chicago; change the departure city at the top of the page.

Even better, they offer a handy guide (PDF) for booking Q-UP and Y-UP fares on the airlines’ websites. (Citing problems with the airlines’ homepages, they refer you to Expedia.com instead for USAirways and Delta.)

I’d add a caveat: Some of the discounted first class fares their methods find are nonrefundable first class. For example, a United QUAUPN fare is nonrefundable; a QUAUP fare can usually be refunded.) The fare without the N at the end might just cost a few dollars more (single digits) but it offers much more flexibility. You may need to pick up the phone to buy the refundable version.

(Updated August 6, 2006; original text is crossed out, corrections follow in text. Reason for update is here.)

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal (republished here) advises travelers to look for discounted first class fares: Q-UP, Y-UP, and Z fares. Some of these are technically coach fares, with an automatic upgrade. Though these fares often look like a coach fare, based on the booking codes, they actually book into first (or business, on three-class planes). This is a subject we’ve addressed before, with regard to international travel.

A few observations:

Finding a coach-with-automatic-upgrade discounted first class fare is nice, but it’s not generally rockbottom cheap, so don’t plan on paying $225 for a first class ticket from New York to San Francisco. These tickets are cheaper than last-minute full-fare economy fare, and certainly cheaper than full-fare first class, so undoubtedly preferable, but not cheaper than long-term advance economy purchases.

For example: Chicago-Los Angeles and back, May 16-23 on United. A search for first class fares on united.com automatically yields an itinerary with fare basis code QUAUP. This is one of the fares the WSJ is talking about. The price? $1418.59 round trip. The cheapest upgradable coach fare? $280.60. Sure, that doesn’t mean that the upgrade is guaranteed, but that’s still a big spread between “discounted” first and coach.

The lesson: See if you can upgrade a cheaper fare before you buy one of these fares. They may be less than full-fare first, but if you have upgrades, and the spots are available, use ‘em on a cheap fare. Call your airline first to check upgrade availability.

The article is also a bit glib on how to find these fares. They’re not available for every route, for every date, or every airline. Searching for first class tickets should bring them up, if they’re available. Otherwise, try using this tool from Travelocity, which lists all available fare classes for selected airlines on your chosen date. You’ll see the list of fares, ranked by price. Some of them may read Q***UP or Q***UPN, for example. These are your auto-upgrade discounted first class fares. Once you’ve found the fare you want, (try to) book wherever you like.

Finally, not all Q-UPs, etc. are created equal, and these fares are more restricted than full-fare first (”F” fares). F or A fares are most likely refundable; Q-UPs, etc., may not be. For example, on United, if there is an “N” at the end of the fare basis code, it’s not refundable. Read the rules before you buy.