How to Fly First Class and Business Class for Less

Here are 10 quick first class air travel tips:

1. Flexibility - Be flexible with your travel dates and try to book your first class ticket in advance to get the less expensive fares. Many online booking engines such as Orbitz and Travelocity have flexible date search tools which are very helpful in tracking down the lowest available airfare over a set period of time. Always select "lowest fare" when doing an airfare search online. Choosing the "fully flexible" fare will bring up the full fare price.

2. Book In Advance - Never book too close to your departure day as you will probably have to pay the full published fare which will be very expensive. For example, Los Angeles to Hong Kong full fare with Cathay Pacific will run to nearly $14,000. That is why first class full fare tickets are generally only bought by corporate travellers on business.

3. Travel Days - You should avoid peak business travel days like Monday and Friday. Add a Saturday night stay to reduce the fare further.

4. Departure Airports - Always experiment with your departure airport for your trip – this may sometimes throw out a much lower fare. Many online booking engines such as Orbitz will allow you to check prices from nearby airports. With first class tickets the savings can be significant.

5. Ground Transport - Consider ground transportation costs, especially if your departure airport is some distance away - the cost of taxis (or extra flights) can add up. If you fly Virgin Atlantic Upper Class on a higher fare you will get complimentary chauffeur driven cars at both ends. For example, passengers to Los Angeles can be driven to any desired location in California.

6. To Hub or Not To Hub - Flying through a hub connection airport is often cheaper than flying non-stop - but weigh up whether any saving justifies the extra inconvenience

7. Red-Eye - Good deals can often be found booking overnight ‘red-eye’ flights - those comfortable first class seats will help you sleep better!

8. Cover the GDS's - Check the price of your flight online with a number of major booking engines to ensure you cover all the GDS's (Global Distribution Systems) - these are the 4 primary mainframe databases which power the airfare market worldwide - Sabre, Worldspan, Galileo and Amadeus. Some online agents are biased towards a single GDS so you will want to cover all your bases by checking other agents. Then double check any prices found directly at the airline websites.

9. Consolidators - Phone your travel agent to see if they can beat your online quote. Also use a specialist business class / first class consolidator who will have access to many unpublished airfares not available elsewhere. Generally, using a consolidator is optimal when booking around 4 to 8 weeks in advance.

10. Invest in Your Travel Knowledge - There are a few services and guides available which will get you up to speed with the first class and business class air travel market. Knowing some insider tricks can really help you reduce your airfare and get you that upgrade.

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