Fly Business Class on Points?

JAL Airlines Business Class Menu

Planning a trip with points? Specifically want to fly in lie-flat business seats? Here's a few things to think about before you go down the path of luxury seating.

Keep this in mind:

Give yourself plenty of time to earn points and be prepared either 11 months in advance of the desired date of travel or within one- three weeks of departure to find the best deals. The key to booking on points is flexibility.

Why?

As more and more people enter “the world of points”, award seat availability starts to dwindle. This is especially so for the luxurious lie- flat business seats which are often released by 1-2 seats per business class and first class.

There are some exceptions like Singapore airlines and American Airlines for its partner airlines like Japan Airlines, Qatar and British Airways that release 4 business class seats.

It’s easiest to find one business class seat or first class seat. Searching for two business class seats still not bad, but anything above three seats is difficult to find yet, not impossible.

Here’s where flexibility comes in, if you don’t have specific dates you can always change around your itinerary when an award seat becomes available.

But, if you care more about getting to your destination than the in-flight experience have no fear they release 7-9 award seats on a regular for economy award bookings give or take, depending on the airline. There’s also Premium Economy which has comfier seats and some of the business class amenities all while still being considered economy.

Economy seats are all “point priced” relatively lower than business class seats if you find the right award booking. Generally, a good business class deal is anywhere between 45,000 miles to 110,000 miles per person for international flights.

You'll be on the hunt for "saver" labeled fares because these seats are released at the lowest rate for that specific route.

You will find that if you were to search for a flight leaving out of your home airport next week that there's at least 1-2 seats available to book on points in business or first class. Some folks are able to book flights last minute and grab these deals. You could get these deals too, by booking yourself on that flight in premium economy and then checking closer to departure for these deals and rebook the new reservation you found.

Another thing to think about is whether you are just getting started with points bookings or have been doing it for many years you will come to learn that it changes pretty frequently. From the number of points needed to book a particular seat, to changes in the amount of available award space for booking. This is frequently referred to as a “devaluation”, which has already happened quite a few times this year across various airlines.

I could go on and on and bore you to tears, so I won't. If you remember only a few things from this article it should be these two things: first learn how to search for award space on each airline quickly and comfortably and second, understand the value of points for each bank, hotel or airline eco-system because they are not created equal. Yes, there’s a lot to learn!

No worries though, hopefully I can be of assistance! Keep an eye out for another article about award bookings.

Travel On!

Gabby