The subject says it all. Is there such a thing as discount biz class fares, e.g. advance booking or other restrictions? Or is all biz class the same (fully unrestricted, refundable, $$$$)?

FewMiles..

There are heaps of discounted Bus. Class .. on pretty well all carriers I imagine. Sometime it is just snooping that will reveal them.

And yes, there often may be restrictions that will not apply on a full fare Bus.

For instance on UA it is FAR cheaper from me to book Bus. to London than to New York or Washington, despite the extra 2 long transatlantic sections.

Often a cheap Bus. is not booked in full J, but in other classes, D, or L or whatever, but you DO get same points, seating and status as if you did.

Often on Qantas you can often book a holiday package overseas and pay something small to upgrade to Bus. Long routes like Sydney to Bali on QF or AN cost only peanuts more in BUS, as there clearly are NO business full fare pax ever use those routes .. nearly all budget holidaymakers, but planes still are configured with 10 or 20 Bus. seats.

On Thai Airways I ALWAYS fly from BKK to Saigon, Hanoi, Pnomh Penh, Vientiane, Kathmandu etc as Business Class add ons from BKK, that cost only about $A100 each. Published fare is 10 times that. Thai do not really TELL you these insane bargains exist .. you need to snoop around or ask!

Luckily, you are in Canada .. it has often been posted here than Bus/First fares on long haul even on same carriers like UA are far cheaper from say Vancouver than if booked in Seattle!




[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 08-09-2000).]

Of course if there are TWO travelling, and if you have a Platinum Amex card and charge tix to that, you get TWO tickets for the price of one! To pretty well any useful destination on earth. See:

http://www10.americanexpress.com/sif...41,2731,00.asp


International Airline Program
Platinum Card� members can enjoy exceptional savings on member carriers when traveling abroad.

Sixteen participating member carriers offer Platinum Card members a complimentary companion ticket with the same itinerary when they purchase a full-fare Concorde, First- or Business-Class ticket* through PTS. Card members can enjoy the benefits of this remarkable travel program as often as they like with trips to virtually anywhere in the world.

This program extends to major international routes originating from the United States and reaching the business centers of Europe, the lively cities of Latin America � even exotic destinations in South Africa and Australia.

To make reservations or for more information, please e-mail PTS Online at [email protected].

Earlier this year, Cathay Pacific from Bangkok to San Francisco was approximately $800 one-way from a consolidator in Bangkok. The routing had one stop in HongKong (Cathay's home), but the passenger was not allowed to depart from the airport. The business-class fare was not the traditional "J" class, something different I can't recall which made it clear to the airlines that the seat was bought from a non-airlines company, the implication being that the passenger's request for a refund would be to the vendor and not to the airlines.

The "J" class fare bought directly from the airlines was slightly higher, approximately $1000ish. Even though the routing would be the same BKK-HKG-SFO, the passenger would be allowed to visit HKG at his\her pleasure, then continue onwards to SFO.

Within Canada, J is J. I have never seen any discounted business class.

On some european routes there are J2 fares (e.g. YYZ - LHR) which are slightly lower than the J fare, and on which there are no stopover privileges. This is the fare that will be routinely quoted for a non-stop J class ticket.

Occasionally to BDA, the Carribean and Hawaii there are C class fares, which must be booked and ticketed round-trip, with and advance purchase requirement. These usually take about 35% off the fare.

Ex-U.S. UA often sells Monday-Thursday fares across the Pacific at the lower "C1234" fare, but this is rather like the J2 fare, in that it is lower, but still quite heavily priced.

Whoops.

[This message has been edited by AC*SE (edited 08-09-2000).]

Of course, there's always corporate discounts, too. My tickets are in J, but considerably less than on Expedia.

Also, I have looked at (but not used, so I can't endorse) www.1stair.net. They seem to have a good discount on business and first class tickets. (Their site seems down right now.)

Ac/SE, must beg to differ. CP and KL frequently have a discounted biz class from YYZ to Milan, Italy for between 1650 and 1850 USD--standard biz is $3500 USD.