The Airlines With The Cheapest Business Class Fares
Buying business or first class tickets are expensive. Usually. That’s why there’s the world of miles and points so you can score business class for cheap. But sometimes, you don’t have enough miles and points for an itinerary, but still, you want to fly business. Most airlines charge extraordinary amounts for premium cabins – just a roundtrip ticket on the 6-hour flight from New York to London often sells for $6000 or more! One-way tickets are even worse – airlines such as United, British Airways, or Delta often charge the same or more for a one-way ticket than for a roundtrip ticket, which adds up in business class.
In this article, I’ll explore some airlines which consistently offer cheap fares in premium economy and business class. And I’m not just talking about American offering cheap fares in premium economy on one route, or another airline offering cheap business class flights but only out of Colombo. What I mean are the airlines that consistently offer prices in true premium economy products and business class that are reasonably lower than other airlines – that may put premium cabins within some people’s price range.
TAP Portugal Business Class
- Routes: Europe to North/South America; One-Way & Roundtrip
- Cabin Class: Business Class
- Seat Type: Fully Lie-Flat
- Lowest Prices: Transatlantic Business Class; $690 One-Way, $1,300 Roundtrip
TAP Portugal is the airline that has the best fares on transatlantic flights – both roundtrip and one-way – from major destinations both in North and South America to major destinations in Europe. No, TAP’s fares aren’t extraordinary in the sense that they are as cheap as economy class on most other airlines, but TAP has reasonable business class fares on almost all of their routes, which is something you can’t say for many other airlines. Also, TAP has flatbed seats on most of their long-haul aircraft, so it isn’t that TAP just has an awful business class product which is why they charge so little for it. For example, it’s common to see sub-$1,000 one-way flights or $1,400 roundtrip flights from Europe to North America.
TAP’s best business class fares are on one-way or roundtrip flights from Europe to North America. Generally, the prices are a bit higher but still reasonable on one-way or roundtrip flights from North America to Europe. On average, the best fares on TAP are from Dublin and London to North America. For example, you can score (consistently on many dates) a $690 one-way flight from Dublin to Chicago on TAP Portugal via Lisbon or a $725 flight from Dublin to San Francisco, both of which are amazing deals. This can especially come in handy if you are doing a multi destination trip in Europe and want to come home from a different destination than where you go to. Or take this $1,400 roundtrip ticket from London to New York via Porto, which can represent a good deal (well, unless time is your #1 priority).
TAP also has pretty good fares from Europe to South America including destinations such as Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo that often go for less than $1000. However, the prices for one-way and especially roundtrip flights from North America to Europe become comparable to other airlines and often are in the $2,000s-$3,000s for roundtrip flights. Being part of the Star Alliance, you can accredit TAP flights to United MileagePlus, which is probably most useful for US flyers. Overall, TAP generally has the best fares (better than most other airlines) in business class both for one-way and roundtrip flights from Europe to the Americas.
Condor Business Class
- Routes: Europe to North/South America, Asia, Africa; One-Way & Roundtrip
- Cabin Class: Business Class
- Seat Type: Angle-Flat
- Lowest Prices: Flights to North America $900 one-way, $1,500 roundtrip
For those of you who don’t know, Condor is a leisure airline based in Germany that flies to mostly holiday destinations around the world, mostly out of Frankfurt. Their long-haul fleet consists only of Boeing 767-300s, all of which are business class equipped. Condor features a mediocre business class product with angle flat (with a pretty significant angle) seats in a 2-2-2 configuration and also has standard business class service, amenities, and meals. So it’s by no means an industry leading hard product and in fact is very much below industry standard now, but its lower prices make up for the worse seat.
Condor’s business class prices usually are pretty good on almost all of its long-haul routes. Like TAP, Condor doesn’t raise its prices that much for one-way flights when compared to roundtrip flights. While Condor’s route network doesn’t go that much beyond leisure destinations, Condor does serve some other destinations in Europe such as London or Paris using its partner Lufthansa or other destinations in the United States such as New York or San Francisco using its partners WestJet and Alaska, although you’ll be put in economy on the non-Condor segment. So essentially, you can fly almost anywhere from Europe around the world booking with Condor, the only problem is that you’ll probably have to single or double connect. Condor’s business class fares are generally a bit higher than TAP’s although there are some good deals such as this $870 nonstop flight from Frankfurt to New Orleans:
Or this $1,700 roundtrip ticket from Frankfurt to Singapore in business class:
Overall, you can find one-way business class prices from Europe to almost anywhere in North America for about or even less than $1,000, which isn’t amazing, although is better than most other airlines. Again, this is great if you’re doing a multi-city trip in Europe and want to get home in business class using money. Another upside about this is that Condor partners with Alaska Airlines, so you can earn tons of Alaska miles which are worth more than most other airlines’ miles through flying Condor business class. However, Condor’s business class is reasonably priced, but unlike TAP, it deserves to be. Angle-flat seats in business class simply doesn’t cut it unless you charge less than most other airlines, which Condor does.
Norwegian Premium Economy
- Routes: North/South America
- Cabin Class: Premium Economy
- Seat Type: Recliner
- Lowest Prices: Flights to North America $900 one-way, $1,500 roundtrip
Norwegian doesn’t have a true business class product, but they do have a pretty good and reasonably priced premium economy product. Norwegian uses 787s on all of their transatlantic routes (besides a couple that they use 737s for that will soon be discontinued due to the 737 MAX crisis) which are in a two-class configuration with economy class and premium economy. Norwegian’s premium economy has deep reclining seats which have leg rests, footrests, and headrests. The seats are better than most other airlines’ premium economy products and overall are some of the best premium economy seats on the market. I would roughly compare them to the cradle seats that many other airlines used to use on long-haul business class 15-20 years ago. It’s worthwhile to note that Norwegian doesn’t serve premium meals in
Norwegian flies to many destinations in the US, including New York JFK, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Orlando, Chicago, and other destinations. From many of those destinations, they fly to cities in Europe such as London (Gatwick), Paris CDG, Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Rome, Amsterdam, Athens, Madrid, or Barcelona. Like Condor and TAP, Norwegian also doesn’t add much to the price for one-way flights compared to half of what a roundtrip flight would cost. That means that on one-way flights from North America and Europe in premium economy are generally a good deal because legacy airlines generally charge outrageous amounts for transatlantic one-way flights. This leads to some good deals, such as a one-way flight from New York to Madrid for $450 in premium economy:
Or this $844 roundtrip ticket in premium economy from Madrid to New York:
What makes this even better is that sometimes, because of aircraft shortages, Norwegian leases planes from other airlines for their long-haul flights. Now, those planes that they lease usually don’t have a premium economy, but have business class seats. So sometimes, you end up with an angle-flat or even sometimes fully flat business class seat on Norwegian with premium economy service when you only book premium economy, which is an amazing deal. Now, unfortunately, Norwegian doesn’t have a very valuable loyalty program, so you won’t be earning many valuable miles from flying them. However, their fares are generally better than most other airlines in premium economy and their seats generally better, making it one of the best deals for flying transatlantically.
Spirit Airlines Big Front Seats
- Routes: North/Central America
- Cabin Class: Economy/First Class Hybrid
- Seat Type: Recliner
- Lowest Prices: On average $20-$80 fee
I wrote an entire post about Spirit’s Big Front Seats last year, so I’ll try and keep this section relatively brief. As many of you may know, Spirit Airlines is an ultra-low-cost carrier, which means no in-flight service, you have to pay for everything, and the seats in economy class are extremely tight. To lure people away from their awfulness that is their awful economy class seats, at the front of the plane, they have what they call Big Front Seats. Big Front Seats are (in a 2-2 configuration) basically the same as domestic first-class seats, except they have a little less legroom, are a bit harder, and don’t recline. However, they have a ton more space than economy class and actually, are actually kind of comfortable, and are a lot better than economy class. They are on all Spirit Airlines aircraft and therefore are available on all of their routes. The best part is that they don’t cost that much more than economy class.
You can upgrade to Big Front Seats for as little as $20 per flight and sometimes they offer upgrades for even less at check-in or onboard. Now, unfortunately, you don’t get better in-flight service, free checked baggage, or anything else included besides the seat – hence the low fees. That’s an unbelievable price for a much better seat that won’t kill your knees and your back. On average, the price to upgrade to it is about the same per flight as it would cost to upgrade to Economy Plus on United or Main Cabin Extra on American, which makes this an even better deal, as a
Within North America, there simply isn’t a better deal than the Big Front Seat. No, you don’t get better in-flight service, but that’s actually one of the things I love about it. Not giving extra services allows you to charge less for it – for someone like me where the seat is the most important part of the flight, I love that you can select the Big Front Seat for cheap, which allows you to get comfortable, despite flying Spirit Airlines. If I were to classify Spirit Airlines’ Big Front Seats, I would probably call it a premium economy product, because the seats aren’t economy class and the service most certainly isn’t business or first class.
La Compagnie
- Routes: Paris/Nice to Newark
- Cabin Class: Business Class
- Seat Type: Angle-Flat (757), Lie-Flat (A321)
- Lowest Prices: About $650 One-Way Paris – New York, $1,300 Roundtrip
La Compagnie is a small French boutique airline that has a tiny fleet of three A321s and 757s that flies from Paris Orly and Nice to Newark. Their aircraft are in an all-business class configuration, giving their aircraft a very intimate feel with only 74-76 seats onboard. Their older 757-200s only have angle-flat seats onboard, although their A321LRs that they recently acquired have B/E Aerospace Diamond seats in a 2-2 configuration which are fully flat in business class. The seats aren’t that amazing nowadays, although at least they are fully flat. La Compagnie offers full in-flight services in business class that include amenities, premium food, and bedding.
What makes La Compagnie so special are its low fares. They consistently offer $650 one-way flights in business class from Paris Orly to Newark or for $1,300 roundtrip, which is an amazing deal. Flights from Newark to Paris aren’t that much more expensive, with prices at $1,000 one-way or $1,400 roundtrip. La Compagnie also seasonally flies from Newark to Nice, with prices as low as $800 one-way. La Compagnie’s fares are consistently lower than its competitors on the Newark to Paris route, which often charge $3,500 roundtrip on the same route.
Now, La Compagnie is a very small and specialized airline. They used to fly from London to Newark, although that flight has since been discontinued. They only fly two routes, which makes La Compagnie not a very practical option unless you are flying exclusively between Nice or Paris to Newark. They also have little to no airline partners, which makes connections virtually impossible unless you book separate tickets. La Compagnie also doesn’t have any valuable mileage program, so don’t expect to earn valuable miles flying with them. Besides that, La Compagnie does represent a great deal flying between New York and France in business class, especially if you fly on their A321s, which have flatbed seats in business class.
Conclusion
Obviously, you can come across premium flights a lot better if you book it with miles. However, sometimes using money is just more practical, and some airlines do offer premium fares that overall are cheaper than their competitors. From TAP and La Compagnie which offer full-on business class products which are just cheaper than all of their competitors without being that much worse, to Condor which sacrifices seat comfort for price, to Norwegian, which has the cheapest and best premium economy product transatlantically, to Spirit with its Big Front Seats, there are tons of premium options which aren’t outrageously priced.
Are there any other airlines that offer premium cabin fares that are cheaper than most other airlines that you fly?
