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(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.

Priceline’s latest US-based promotion/sweepstakes may be of interest to the Upgrade: Travel Better crowd. The “Ultimate Upgrade” offers free private jet travel, or, more likely, upgrades on American or USAirways. (The catch: If you win an upgrade, you have to buy the ticket you wish to upgrade from Priceline; presumably the name-your-own-price tickets are not eligible.)

Entry is automatic for air or air+hotel purchases. “No purchase necessary” — mail in a card. See here for the full rules.

The private jet services are offered through OneSky, which is notable for offering discounted private jet travel for repositioning flights. Let’s say someone books a plane to fly from New York to Miami, and someone else books the same plane to fly from Washington to Chicago. The aircraft has to get from Miami to Washington, but it has no one to carry. Enter OneSky, which purports to offer access to such flights at a discount to normal private jet rates. Still not cheap, to be sure, but cheaper than retail.

tags: travel | air travel | priceline | private jet

Ahh, the Onion…

Air India Now Offers Business Caste Seating

April 12, 2006 | Issue 42:15

MUMBAI : Air India, the subcontinent’s largest airline, announced it will offer upgraded Business Caste seating on all flights starting in July. “More legroom, wider seats, and no need to associate with the manual laborers,” a spokesman for the airline said Tuesday. “Our business travelers must have lived good past lives to deserve this.” Air India still ranks at the bottom of the airline industry in customer satisfaction, with a high volume of complaints about cooking fires in the climate-uncontrolled cabins, wandering cows that flight attendants refuse to remove, and the “Untouchable” Coach Caste, which is towed behind Air India jetliners in a giant burlap sack.

tags: travel | air travel | The Onion

Of course, everyone wants something for free, or something worth more than what you paid for it. Yet somehow, urban legends of the free airline upgrade are more widespread than, say, stories of paying for a Kia Rio and driving off with a Porsche Cayenne instead… or buying a bottle of Yellow Tail and drinking Chateau Petrus instead… or… you get the point.

This past weekend proved it’s still okay to perpetuate the myth that anyone, including the person who buys rock bottom coach fares and travels once a year, has the chance — nay, the right! — to a free upgrade to business or first class. We have the BBC to thank for perpetuating the myth.

Granted, it also throws in some pretty funny ideas (that didn’t work) for how to get that free upgrade:

Attempts include baking check-in staff a cake and wearing a plaster cast to fake a broken leg, according to one travel survey.

Staff at Virgin Atlantic even reportedly had one man turn up wearing a fake beard and claiming to be the brother of the airline’s chairman, Richard Branson.

Cute. The cake is a nice touch. (Would you eat a stranger’s cake?) And the beard and cast are classy. Some might even call that fraud.

To be fair, the article suggests you’re unlikely to get that upgrade, but they don’t make it seem as unlikely as it really is, and they don’t take the time to explain how most upgraders actually do it: by spending miles, elite upgrade certificates, or (increasingly commonly) cash.

The only time passengers who aren’t elite-level members of the airline’s frequent flyer program are even remotely likely to get a free upgrade is when flights are oversold. If the airline has more economy class passengers waiting to fly than they have economy class seats, then it’s cheaper for them to either bribe a few people into taking a later flight (with vouchers for future travel or cash, depending on the route) or upgrading a lucky handful. This is known as an “operational upgrade” or “op-up.”

So how do you get an op-up? Don’t count on one. Ever. If you get one, you’re really, really lucky. The airlines generally know in advance that they’re oversold, so they’ll upgrade their highest elites even before check-in.

Of course, it can’t hurt to ask, and if you do, ask nicely. Volunteering to be bumped (for compensation, naturally) might be the next best thing.

I’d leave the fake beard at home, though.

tags: travel | upgrades | air travel | frequent flyer