My googlin' has let me down, but is there a comprehensive list of airlines that provide only 3 classes, namely eco, biz and first, with no eco+ basically? Assuming it's not based on the actual plane they use.

It's not that simple. Do you have any specific routes or airline comparisons in mind?

Agreed. What about Virgin Australia from the US to "down under?" They have economy, premium economy (a separate class with its own cabin, genuinely different from economy class, not economy with a few more inches of leg room as on some U.S. airlines) and business classes. Does that count?

Not sure you can find it already compiled. First you would need to either be more precise about what you look for (excluding Y+ as on UA with just a few more inches of pitch, or as on say AF where it's a totaly different style of seat, half way between Y and J) or accept what criteria you will find..
Anyway if I were you, I would build my own list, starting with seatmaps on seatguru, and then maybe double checking airlines' website as seatguru info might be out of date.

Plus, it's not just airline, but route also.

For example, many airlines have routes that use planes wIth First/biz/economy cabins, while others on the same carrier that only have biz/economy. This is in fact becoming more common where airlines are really targeting this to the type of pax that fly one route vs. another.

It can be based on the plane too - e.g. on some Air Canada routes, you can be on a 3 class plane (economy, PE and executive first) or two (economy and executive first) between the same two cities depending on which flight you take. They may also offer 3 classes to one destination, and only two to a destination of a similar distance.

Ok, that all explains why I can't just find a canonical list. I figured it wouldn't be as easy as 'Emirates has 3 classes', but more like 'Emirates has 3 classes on EK001 flying the DXB-LHR route during the summer except at weekends'.

For context, for my last trip, I found that eco+ on Qantas was comparable in price to eco/bus on Emirates. I wouldn't have been able to do eco/bus on Qantas because of that eco+ class, but it was pure accident that I came across the Emirates price because they wouldn't have been an airline with which I'm familiar.

I just need to be more aware of these options when booking long haul

Seatguru is my suggestion, too. Presumably you have a short list of airlines you'd consider, so it should be fairly easy to build.

You can see breakdown of Aer Lingus's cabins here: http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Aer...nformation.php

These comparison charts will show you side-by-side details for all of the airlines offering a particular class of service on either short- or long-haul flights: http://www.seatguru.com/charts/generalcharts.php

Here is a list of airlines with long-haul first class. Many of them have 4 classes, though.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...rst-class.html

A while back AA flew BOS-MAN (Manchester, England) as a seasonal service. They used aircraft configured for domestic U.S. travel. Since domestic U.S. F isn't up to the standards of international business class, they sold it as single-class economy service. However, those in the know (thanks, FT!) could reserve seats in what would have been the F section of a domestic U.S. flight. If one was on an economy ticket, it was worth traveling from London to Manchester to be able to do that.

So, to the topic of this thread: was that one class, as AA sold those flights, or two?

BA's longhaul fleet is largely 3-class ( J, PE and E ), but some routes have 4-class planes, adding First Class. Virgin, by contrast, is entirely 3-class.

I don't really understand your logic. Qantas offers premium economy which is a separate class of service between economy and business and these aircraft are 4 class.

Airlines price their fares for each cabin for each route, with the price determined by many factors including other airline competition and prices.

The fact that Emirates economy/business (I'm assuming that is economy one way and business return) is a similar price to Qantas premium economy return, but that economy/business return on Qantas was higher isn't specifically because Qantas offers premium economy, but more that most Qantas longhaul discounted fares do not allow you to combine economy with business.

Airlines with premium economy don't price their business class higher just because they offer premium economy.

He is probably trying to game a corporate travel policy (they'll pay for business class if there is no economy-plus). I would do the same thing.

Hopefully this will explain. I can book eco on both legs on Emirates, and then upgrade one of those (incoming) to business. In order to get business on one leg on Qantas, I would've had to book eco+ on both legs, then upgrade.

I realise now while typing it that this may not be the case, as the only time I've ever tried to upgrade before this was on BA when I was told explicitly that you cannot upgrade by more than 1 class change on a booking, so eco to eco+ only (on 4 class flights), eco+ to bus only, etc etc. I don't actually know if this is the policy with all airlines.

Upgrade how? Do you mean using miles/points?

All frequent flyer programs have different rules relating to upgrading, and generally you can only upgrade on their own flights anyway so your line of questioning is flawed.

Through BAEC as you state you can only upgrade one class.
However through the Qantas FF program you can request an upgrade from Qantas economy to business.

So again, the reason for your question is rather flawed. If you had only Emirates miles you can't upgrade flights on other carriers anyway regardless of the number of cabin classes..