daisyatl

Hi - I have flown business a few times internationally before but never actually purchased a business class ticket. I fly personal and cannot justify it. I am flying from SFO-NBO and saw that it would cost me $1500 to fly business one way. I am thinking of doing so in order to get the PQMs. For some reason, I want to keep my platinum status. I had planned to do a big mileage run or a few small ones but this seems like the better option as those would cost me almost the same and herr I get 10K more miles and get to fly business one way.

My questions. Is $1500 ish more kind of the average difference between the classes? I know it varies but just wondering if I am getting a deal or being stupid. Second, if I do this, I can possibly fly Lufthansa or Swiss for part or much of the way. How do they compare in business? If one is better, any particular aircraft that is better then the other?

I know these are silly questions but if I am going to do it, may as well do it right. Thank you!

mduell

$1500 for your nearly 10k mile one-way is about a 15 cpm premium for J, which is pretty much in line with longhaul Y at 10 cents and longhaul J at 25 cpm.

aacharya

What's the delta between the economy and business fare? Any reason to not book the RT?

daisyatl

Thank you but I don't understand the cpm stuff so well. Is that good? It will cost me about $2700 RT (with OW in business) and I would earn about 31K miles. Alternative is RT in coach for about $1200 and I would earn about 20K miles.

I could go to Singapore or something on a mileage run for probably $1K but seems a bit silly when I look at this. Here, I pay slightly more, get business class and do not have to fly two more long haul flights. I would not even stay in Singapore or wherever.

I guess I have sort of answered my own question. It just is hard for me to justify so I am hoping I also got a good deal not just based on miles but for a biz class seat.

It would cost me a few thousand more and I will not need any additional miles to qualify for Platinum so hard for me to justify the extra money just to sit in business. One way seemed to make sense.

I fly a lot (well, I have 600K lifetime miles on UA so not so much compared to many here) and 95% is personal and while I am clearly not poor, I cannot justify business either. Meaning, it is my own money and gets expensive even for coach.

SEA1K4EVR

Where are you originating? And the answer is yes, a lot of the time you can fly your trans Atlantic flight on LH or LX for the same fare... also Air Canada.

I checked a random city pairing for the US to NBO on UA and found the rules for the cheapest business class fares.. I'm pretty sure I found the P fare you're talking about that's around $3k round trip... if I were you I wouldn't bat an eye at paying that to go all the way to Nairobi! Here is who you can fly transatlantic..... it says the flights must be UA code shares, however Lufthansa also publishes the same fare so you'd be able to get any Lufthansa flight no matter if it were a code share or not as long as there was room in P class.

THE FARE COMPONENT MUST INCLUDE TRAVEL VIA
TRANSATLANTIC SECTORS ON
ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING
ANY UA FLIGHT OPERATED BY UA
ANY UA FLIGHT OPERATED BY AC
ANY UA FLIGHT OPERATED BY LH
ANY UA FLIGHT OPERATED BY LX
ANY UA FLIGHT OPERATED BY OS
ANY UA FLIGHT OPERATED BY SN
ANY UA FLIGHT OPERATED BY VO
ANY UA FLIGHT OPERATED BY WK.

I don't think you're being stupid at all... I've found some great paid business class fares... last year I paid $2,421 to fly YVR-SIN for a P fare round trip on a combination of United and ANA in paid business.. and used miles+copay to upgrade part of it to 3-class first on United (SIN-NRT..15,000 miles+$75 copay..a near 7 hour flight). Don't forget you also earn 200% Premier Qualifying miles.. it's a long ways to NBO.

I would probably focus on flying to Zurich if you can..LX flies ZRH-NBO with better 3 class planes than LH does out of FRA (where they use the LH Cityline A340 2 class planes and service is not as frequent) ...

At the $3k round trip price..for heaven's sake fly it round trip and enjoy yourself! You can even try out all 3 carriers.. perhaps fly UA one way over the Atlantic to ZRH, Swiss ZRH-NBO-ZRH, then connect back to the US via FRA or MUC and take Lufthansa on board a 747-800 in business (you might google some reviews to choose). Or, if you haven't been on a 787 yet... Air Canada flies Toronto to Zurich nonstop on a 787-900 daily.. that would be eligible for the P fare.

Endless possibilites..

catocony

What's the connecting airline, since UA obviously doesn't fly to NOB? Triple check the fare bucket you're buying to make sure you get what you think you'll get for the business flight.

SEA1K4EVR

If it was $thousands more there was something that was keeping you from getting that P fare on the other half of your journey... mind providing your dates? I would love to take a peek and see what else there might be..

rmadisonwi

If you can justify spending $1,000 on a mileage run, you can justify spending $1500 to upgrade to J on a trip you're already taking. You get the mileage benefits, and much better comfort.

daisyatl

I would be flying from SFO. I was looking at a two sets of dates. First option was departing between September 7 - 14 and staying for a week. Second option was departing between October 11-13 or so and staying for a week.

Thanks

mduell

It's a pretty normal price for business, not a cheap sale, but not a brutal expense. If it avoids a MR for about the same price, may as well do it.

daisyatl

That is what I was thinking. It just somehow feels indulgent but I guess no more so (and maybe even less so) than flying somewhere and turning around. Just this mental block I have. Maybe I am worried it will be this slippery slope.

WineCountryUA

Premium Fare Deals forum might provide some useful benchmarks to use for your decision.

findark

$1,500 for that distance is a good price, more so if you were going to pay that for the miles anyway. An obvious no-brainer to earn extra miles in J than by making an extra trip unless it's a destination you want.

It's true though, the more you fly up front the harder it is to book Y again

txaggiemiles

This x1000!

aphoward13

So so true! I just booked a trip to India, where I'm going to need to do a BOM-DEL-BOM nested trip during it, and am actually debating burning 70k miles to fly J on AI, instead of just paying $114 to sit in Y....for 2 hours....