Travelling business class is not as expensive as you think, sometimes!
AJ
I’m sure all of us have given the business class travellers a snide look when walking through the front left gate to the economy section of the plane. Most of the travel upfront is paid for by companies for their employees (hence, the term ‘Business Class’). However, I can tell you that the seats ahead of the curtain are comfortable, the service more bearable and the meal slightly bigger. Plus, your baggage comes on the belt earlier and you also get access to the airport lounge, so you can keep away from the hoi polloi. And, yet, in my few years of business travel, my company has never picked the tab for flying me business class.
With the tough economy, airlines are getting pickier about free upgrades. But there are still various ways to score an upgrade on domestic and international flights by paying a nominal amount of money, or nothing at all. Airlines give out free upgrades under two circumstances; it is important to be a ‘loyal’ flyer of the airline in both cases, to increase your chances of an upgrade.
Airlines frequently offer upgrade vouchers to their frequent travellers who qualify for elite status on the airline. So, you could earn upgrade vouchers for earning silver, gold or platinum level status with your airline of choice. These vouchers can be applied on a revenue ticket to upgrade against an unsold business class seat. For longer flights (mostly international), you will need more than one upgrade voucher per flight. Don’t consider these upgrades a given though, because airlines will usually try and sell the seat until the last hour sometimes and, only if unsold, confirm your upgrade.
Another scenario where upgrades may be given by the airline, even without a voucher, is when they are overbooked on the flight. In these cases, they will try and accommodate some passengers in the business cabin to ensure maximum passengers are flown. Again, there is no randomness here. Loyal passengers will be made happy with these upgrades.
However, there are various opportunities presented by the airlines to buy-up before they dole out these seats for free to some. With the precarious financial situation of Indian airlines these days, they are trying to extract each small sum of revenue that they can. Air India started to offer paid upgrades at the airport a few months back, where you can pay Rs4,000 for a flight up to 750km and Rs6,000 for a flight above that distance, to upgrade. Similarly, they offer upgrades on international routes as well, where one can save significant amounts on business class travel, by buying a last-minute upgrade.
AJ writes an India-focused travel and aviation blog called LiveFromALounge.com and can be found on Twitter at @LiveFromALounge