We live outside of Seattle Wa. We are planning trip to Italy either Oct 2010 or April 2011. Researching best flights for business class or First Class. We have seen Open skys who fly btw NYC and Paris. Any other carriers with competive pricing. Thank you to all respondents
Stephanie Vashon Wa
Posted by
Freedonia
16290 posts
All Business/First Class discount carriers come and go quickly. There used to be two that flew between NYC and London but both went out of business in the last year or so.
What you might want to do is look for flights that don't offer first class but only business class. In those cases, BC is almost the same as FC but you're charged less. (Some business people are allowed to fly BC but not FC so the airlines just rename first.)
I've flow a few and once you're up front, they are pretty much the same. The real difference nowadays is the type of seat.
Check out Virgin Atlantic. Their "upper class" is usually very competitive price wise but they don't fly out of Seatac.
Also compare BC flights directly to Europe before buying in steps: SEA to NYC, NYC to Paris, Paris to Italy. By the time you add up all the FC/BC tickets, it might just be cheaper to fly BC from Seattle to Italy-direct.
Posted by
winston salem, nc, usa
1078 posts
I agree that you can't depend on the all-class carriers unless you are dealing with a short time-line. Suggest you think about going economy and returning on business. It is a strategy I use mainly because I sleep on the way over. In addition, don't know if you guys are ff"s or not, but I scored a terrific 52,000 point business class seat for my return from Rome on 31 March, which is a Wednesday. Usually start looking around 6 months' before I plan to go.