I just came across this article and haven't priced anything myself yet so don't know how useful the info is.
Pat

Discounted first class tickets are the airline industry's best kept secret.

Did you know that every domestic airline offers discounted first class tickets on planes that have a first class cabin? Referred to as "Y-Up" or "Q-Up" fares, they are usually 30 to 75 per cent less expensive than the full price for a first price ticket -- and sometimes even cheaper than the full coach price.

These deeply discounted first class airline tickets are available only for travel within/between the United States and Canada. According to FareCompare.com, a travel web site that tracks over 100,000 of confirmed discounted first class airfares, the existence of Y-Up airfares is not widely known largely because they are intentionally published to look like a coach ticket for accounting purposes. In other words, the ticket fare code is economy, but the seats are allocated in the first class cabin.

"This sneaky little trick allows corporate travellers to legitimately and inexpensively get around their "No First Class Travel" policy," the company states on its web site. Y-Ups were originally issued to cater to an airline's best customers who purchase the most expensive coach tickets. Airlines make more revenue from these fares where first class seats would normally go unused or be filled by less lucrative frequent flier upgrades.

Here are some details:
* Y-Up airfares are almost always available, even on full flights, peak days and times (Mondays, Fridays, Sundays, holidays) or last-minute trips.

* Most are sold as one-way fares, but to get the cheapest price you sometimes need to book a round-trip. To purchase a ticket, contact the airline directly. And remember to ask for a Y-Up fare as many ticket agents will not offer it unless asked specifically.

* No advance purchase is necessary, although the cheapest fares sometimes have a 7-day advance purchase.

* The fares can be fully refundable and are always exchangeable.

* You can receive a confirmed seat in the first class cabin ahead of frequent flyer upgrades.

* Since Y-Up airfares are booked in the first class cabin, you will get frequent flyer mileage based on buying a first class ticket (this is usually twice the mileage award of a coach ticket).

Who benefits?
Frequent business travellers. For the same or cheaper price that many corporate travellers pay for refundable and last minute coach tickets, they can receive a confirmed first class cabin before frequent fliers are automatically upgraded.

Travellers who miss their flight. If you miss your flight, a Y-Up first class airline ticket could be less expensive than the walk-up coach ticket for the flight replacing the one you missed.

Special occasion travellers. Celebrating a honeymoon or anniversary? In some cases, Y-Up airfares are a better deal than using your frequent flyer miles for a first class seat.

Last minute travellers. In cases where coach walkup prices are expensive, Y-Ups can be a far better deal.

Travellers who require larger seats.

A caveat: Before booking a Y-Up fare, make sure all the planes on your itinerary actually have a first class cabin. You may end up on a regional jet on a segment of your journey that does not have a first class cabin.

Also, because the price of a Y-Up airfare is driven by competition within certain markets, keep in mind that you may not always get as much as a discount as you hope.

Hi Pat,

Interesting article and you can find more information on various fare classes at FlyerTalk.com/forum.

Y fares can be a great deal. However, they do not guarantee a first-class seat. So, before you purchase a Y fare you need to call the airline to confirm the upgrade. Otherwise, you'll just overpay for a coach seat. You won't be placed in business/first without requesting the upgrade (at least that's the experience we've had with Continental).

Here's some price comparisons based on a search I just did at Continental.com...

Newark to Honolulu to Newark (11/3/08-11/12/08)

Y economy fare is $2,437 per person
Ticket earns 150% mileage for OnePass members

R discounted BusinessFirst fare is $2,693.84 per person
Ticket also earns 150% mileage for OnePass members

A and J are the full fare BusinessFirst tickets and they are currently pricing out between $4,300 and $4,600 per person.

I and S economy fares (lowest available nonrefundable) are currently $787 pp.


Here's another pricing test...

Newark to Seattle to Newark in July 2008

Y fare is $1,197 pp

R fare is $1,358 pp

U fare (lowest nonrefundable available) is $478 pp


I think Y fares can make a lot of sense when the discounted R Business/First fares are sold out. Definitely worth investigating on long-haul trips.

Andrea

Andrea, I have never understood what all these letters stand for....the Y, J, A etc. this really is all Greek to me. Is there some kind of cheat-sheet that I can print out so I know what you're talking about ? So a Y class ticket is the kind that is upgradeable to Biz class with f.f. miles ??

Hi Marcie,

I think the airlines purposely make this confusing!

I believe I actually mis-spoke in the above Continental example. The Y fares on Continental can purchased on their website with a confirmed upgrade if you're Elite. If not, you can call to find out if you can upgrade with miles as a non-Elite.

The "Y-up" fare with Continental (where your upgrade is not dependent on using frequent flyer miles) is actually "Z", but I rarely find that fare class available.

Delta also has "Y-up" fares, but I've heard of flyers being "confirmed" in Business/First only to show up and be bumped back to economy.

You can learn a lot about airline fare classes at FlyerTalk.com or ExpertFlyer.com. Or, spend some time reading the fine print at the airline of your choice.

I'm trying to figure all this out because Len and I want to go to the Seychelles next year. That's a long trip and I really don't want to be in coach, but I don't want to spend $15,000 on airfare either!

Andrea

Andrea, I know there is a lot of good information on Flyer Talk. I have read threads from time to time on FT but to me, they're speaking in "tongue". You kind of have to be "one of them" to understand their "foreign code".. We have no elite status with any airline, just jump around with who ever has the best deal at the time we book or better yet, with whom we can get f.f. seats.

You will love Seychelles, it is beautiful !! (stopped there on 2007 WC)

LOL, Marcie about your Flyer Talk remark. I know there's great information there but my eyes cross (as well as my brainwaves) trying to decipher the "code."

Good luck with your air arrangements, Andrea. I would love to see the Seychelles.

Its really quite confusing since each airline has their own set of fare codes.

Here's a primer for you.

1. Full fare first class is either F or P, depending on the airline. P is Premium First. Some airlines feel their First Class is better than other airlines, or it's a different configuration. United used to call their SFO-JFK and LAX-JFK P class, as it had lie-flat seats. It's their P.S. service.

2. Full fare business class is C or J. Singapore calls theirs J class, and I believe BA does as well. United calls it C

3. Full Fare Economy is Y. British has a premium economy ( not to be confused with United's Economy Plus ) that is a separate cabin, and books as W class.

From there, each airline diverges a bit.

At United, and many of the Star Alliance Partners,
it goes like this

A = discounted first class, used for Around the World fares, or the YUP and QUP tickets. Same seats, they just limit the number sold at the discount.

D = discounted business class, restricted number of seats sold. These can be upgraded to F with miles or certificates.

Z = lower discounted business class, cannot be upgraded

B = full fare economy, may have restrictions on the number of seats sold. Many times the last seat on the plane goes at the Y fare, not B. Otherwise, pretty much the same as Y.

Y and B can be upgraded to business or first with fewer miles, and are generally refundable, can be changed with no penatly.

M, H, Q, V, W, S, T, L, K are discounted economy fares. M and H can be upgraded with miles internationally. Most of the others can be upgraded with miles domestically.

This is where you will find the sale fares, bereavement fares, etc. Advance purchase, non-refundable, fee to change type fares.

Other airlines differ. On Continental, B used to be a very low fare. Haven't checked lately, as i haven't worked in reservations for 3 years.

Then you get the "free" seats, which on some airlines are O, I, R, or X. On United, the discounted free seats are XY, XC, and XF. If you have to use a standard award ( more miles ), they book in F, C, and Y.

The first letter of a fare basis is the most important. It tells class of service, and where it ranks in that class. F is higher than A. C is higher than D. Q is higher than V.

It might not mean anything to you, but to inventory and pricing, it does.

You can also have numbers, which tell how much advance purchase you need. Then more letters. Again, it doesn't mean much to the general public, but to travel agents, reservations agents, and inventory/pricing people, there is a meaning to it all.

Confused yet?

Frances

Formerly United Airlines. Laid off again, so I'm retiring.

Thank you Frances !! This is more confusing than learning a foreign language. Do the airlines purposely want to make sure we have no clue as to what they're talking about ?

Congratulations on your retirement.....it may not have been as planned but hopefully will work out the best for you and Bob!

Yes, Marcie I am really challenged with this airline stuff. In fact trying to book with miles puts my stomach in knots. And YOU are GOOD at this stuff....not me.

Frances, my girl friend is currently on the United treadmill.....worrying every day about what is happening. I think she has about 19 years at O'Hare. Happy, happy retirement!

Frances, wishing you a wonderful retirement. Believe me when I say it is wonderful. I have enjoyed every day of mine and it just keeps getting better. Enjoy!!

Carolyn

Cindy, I'm right there with you about using ff miles. All the ins and outs make my head spin! Wish I had Marcie's know-how.

Frances, I hope this is the beginning of a new chapter for you, without stress, relocations or someone else controlling your life. If you're not ready to be "retired," I hope you find something fun and wonderful to fill your days (while you make money at the same time ;) ).

Add me to the list of people who stress over using FF miles - seriously, I think I'd rather have a root canal vs tackling a biz class FF ticket out of US -

Joanna, agree also...called delta precisely 331 days (at midnight) prior to our sailing on the Mariner next Feb and snagged two biz class seats from ATL to Buenos Aires..was thinking piece of cake...15 days later for the rtn flight from Santiago, could only get one Biz and waitlist for the other (also checked the next day) but generous Delta only releases one Biz Class seat at the Sky Choice (90k vs 250K) level...also waitlisted on coach...but our LCT FF dentist, "Peter" has helped me significantly and
added novocane where needed...it's been almost four months and still have not cleared either Biz or Coach...Peter recommends still waiting...we all work hard to earn our miles then find it very difficult to use them...r/wes

Wes, I'm still hanging on to get upgrade thru Delta right now for return from Rio after SAMBA in early Dec. Spent 170K miles to get biz class just for first leg to JNB, with economy coming home from Rio! Doing a search now, they want 530K for RT to get me biz both ways! I will sit in the back rather than pay those miles!

The more I read, the luckier I feel to have gotten biz seats for Roar2. I was out of town on the 331 days for outbound, and didn't work on it right after I got home. Was more than 331 days for return when I did book outbound, then no biz availlable so I waitlisted. I think we cleared within a month, I consider that amazing.

What will be fun is trying to get three seats to London next year. I'm hoping for two, and maybe do a purchase/upgrade for the third.

Wes have done the 331 days staying up till midnight for Delta many times - always with Marcie's help printing out airlines/schedules - some worked smoothly others took some tweaking for days in and out - ALL stressful - we have biz seats for Samba, and FUN (March 09) in and out of Lauderdale ... I will book Southwest that is easy ... BUT river cruise Paris to Amsterdam 12/09....hate to think about it -

Olivia, Pam...hope u get the seats u deserve...good luck! r/wes

I personally have never stayed up to call right at 331 days since I think that is somewhat over-rated especially with the airlines putting in more and more sophisticated inventory managemnt - they often release seats later on as late as a few days before the flight itself.

We bought upgradable Delta fares RT to Paris in Jan for the trip in July (at the time no seats had been sold either way) and the last seat didn't clear the upgrade until June - and we're both top-tier Delta Platinums. I felt pretty comfortable with them clearing since I was watching the seatmap closely. Of course this is somewhat gambling - last November we ended up in coach for Atlanta to Tokyo since we didn't clear the upgrades even though we bought the ticket in Sept.

I'm about to buy another upgradable to Tokyo since my cousin getting married in Dec messed up my Singapore First award tickets.

Peter, I have had a perfect track record on the upgrades clearing on the Tokyo flights. For our trip tomorrow, we booked just two weeks ago and it is Obon so flights all packed. M fare was lowest option ($2441 each). At first, they said waitlist for upgrades were closed but I talked them into putting us on the list. Outbound has cleared already. I am hoping return clears in next few days. If not, I will hope for an involuntary upgrade day of flight since it is sold out. That is even better as we save PMUs.

I need to make other reservations for September (round trip) and November (one way). I hope our good luck of always clearing upgrade continues for a few more months.

Good luck, Marc!! It's always stressful until you know you're flying in the front of the plane! With Award Planner no longer doing the award thing, I'm already wondering how on earth I'll manage my next long haul flight!!

Olivia, We too spent the 170k for business to JNB. We are in the back of the plane coming back from Rio........I just couldn't spend that!

We got hit for 210k per ticket for Biz, 120k to JNB, and 90k for the Return from Rio in Biz, The stupidity is that if we were returning from JNB the ticket would of only been 120k per person, becuase we are leaving form Rio they told me its an open jaw ad on, why dont they just say we want more and more of your FF miles. I mean isnt Rio like half the distance of JNB or close to it.

Only getting worse it seems..

Hope it works out for those waitlisted on the return.
FV

We got hit for 210k per ticket for Biz, 120k to JNB, and 90k for the Return from Rio in Biz,

Frank....420 per couple???

Total Miles were 420k for Carla and I.

Its a lot I think, but just want to be comforatable.

Olivia I just checked one way return from Rio on the 5th it was 250k for Biz. What a rip-off.

FV

At least I have an exit row seat back there! So far, no one next to me, but that will surely change.