Business class ticket buying strategy

Have you looked at ZipAir? They have a fare of about $3600 for those dates. I didn't read all the restrictions, but it looked like it might be closer to $4000 with various add-ons.

Have you looked at ZipAir? They have a fare of about $3600 for those dates. I didn't read all the restrictions, but it looked like it might be closer to $4000 with various add-ons.

Had never heard of it, and I see that it is the discount option from JAL. Read some reviews, mostly negative. Plus I would have to add on a flight to get to/from the nearest gateway airport (IAH), so that would push the price well over $4000...

Thanks for sending this, but I prefer to fly AA / JAL, if not another full price carrier available to me from my home airport, in addition to AA including Delta and United. As such, I get some fairly competitive pricing flying from home.

I was also going to mention Zipair. They have "business class" style seats but not real business class service.

You order all food and amenities and pay for it. There is no "entertainment screen" but there is free wifi for the entire flight. You can connect to their inflight entertainment and watch it on your screen.

I have not taken them but are looking into it. There are numerous youtube videos of people utilizing this service.

I assumed that "la la land" meant you were from LA, so I did a search from there to Tokyo, although you didn't say where in Japan you were going.

I assumed that "la la land" meant you were from LA, so I did a search from there to Tokyo, although you didn't say where in Japan you were going.

No, I live in the "other" LA...the Bayou state...

The online reviews I have read for Zipair are pretty sketchy, customer service issues galore, especially if you buy the flex biz package and want to change your flight (everything gets done via email at that point, no online). And plenty of fees for making those changes, even though flex biz was purchased.

I know there are quite a few folks here who regularly fly business class, was just hoping for thoughts on strategy with respect to price drops, cancel/change ticketing, etc.

If you're ok with a lot of layovers, see if Fiji Airways flies to Japan from Nadi. We flew them to New Zealand and saved a lot on tickets and their crew is the most hospitable anywhere. They are partners with Quantas. I would fly them again if I were going to that part of the world. I strongly advise you to fly from San Francisco rather than LA. The LA airport has replaced JFK as the airport I most want to avoid.

JoJo, I can offer you my experience but it is from Canada to Europe using European airlines, predominantly KLM and AF. The closer the flight date is, the more expensive it is. We book fully refundable Business Class tickets, often 6-8 months ahead and that is when the price is lowest. We have had to cancel a few times in the past 4 years and rearrange our plans and the flights are always more expensive at the 2-3 month point.

Have you also compared JAL with ANA prices and routes? I am guessing (perhaps wrongly) that you can't fly direct from your home airport??? If you fly through ORD, both JAL/American and ANA/United have flights - I believe daily, may depend on season. Other connecting airports may well have the same flight possibilities.

Not a good "strategy" as it is iffy, but my travel companion last summer booked ANA economy (you have to review restrictions as there may be different categories of economy class). Was offered the chance to bid for upgrade to PE - worked on the way back, not on the way over. On the way back won the PE bid, then was upgraded to Business.

Again not particularly helpful, but my "strategy" is to find a price/route/time that I am happy (or at least comfortable) with. Book the flight and move on. I don't even do the monitoring for dropped price leading to cancellation and re-booking that many here suggest. I probably should do that! I just prefer "putting it all to bed" and feeling that I can move on with other things. Personal preference, not for everyone. Card laid and played rather than hedging bets???

I buy business class tickets as early as possible as I find very rarely do they get cheaper the closer to departure date. I've used Avios points in the past but generally I pay cash. Sometimes I find good deals during the sales but you never know when the sales take place in advance so it's not a good option if you're planning ahead.

Unfortunately there's no secret method to ensure cheap business class flights, your best bet is to look at flying from an airport that is well served by a variety of airlines that fly to your destination including those that have a stopover or two. For example, Turkish airlines offers very competitive business class rates flying from London (LHR/LGW) to a wide variety of destinations all with a stopover in Istanbul so consider one of the major airlines that fly to Japan with a stop at their primary home airport en route and you may find a more reasonable price.

I don't suggest going in Sept because the weather will still be muggy, unless you are going to the Okinawa islands for their Maldives-like beaches.

One strategy is to accumulate enough credit card points or airline mileage points to get award tickets. I have been quite lucky in pursuing this strategy and succeeding in getting business class seats for myself and for my family for leisure travel. However, this method takes time and you are traveling in three months.

You may consider doing an extended stopover in Japan, en route from the US to another Asian city. I did this flying from Hanoi, Vietnam to Tokyo (stay for several days) and then back to the US.

I appreciate the "strategies" offered, and I can see there really is no grand strategy for buying biz class tickets. Like ORDtraveler, I am now of the mind to monitor prices, and if it feels reasonable, buy and move on.

Thanks.

Edit: I pulled the trigger on the Japan biz class tickets, price was "less" than the typical for the time of year by more than $1,000, at least per google flights, and the price was OK by me, in line with what I have paid in recent years for business class to Asia, but a bit higher than what I find for Europe.

JAL is a great airline. If you transfer at Dallas or LAX to Haneda, then you will fly in their brand new A350 business class. Jal's new biz seats are better than many first class seats. You'd get a private cabin with tall doors (total privacy) and plenty of storage space. Their service is top notch. Happy travels!

JAL is a great airline. If you transfer at Dallas or LAX to Haneda, then you will fly in their brand new A350 business class. Jal's new biz seats are better than many first class seats. You'd get a private cabin with tall doors (total privacy) and plenty of storage space. Their service is top notch. Happy travels!

Yes, I am connecting at DFW to Haneda, and this was a factor in my choice of airlines and connections, Made the price seem not so bad, at least.

So once you start looking for business class tickets, you will get hit by an advertisement from somebody that’s going to tell you they can get you a deal keep your fingers off the keyboard. The days of the airlines needing to sell business class tickets via wholesalers went away with the Internet. No these fenders do not have access to secret fares you can’t find.

A lot of them are selling mileage tickets. Which is against the rules ofevery airline. And what can and will happen is you will get to your destination the airline will figure out that you were flying on this ticket and you won’t be going home because you don’t have a return ticket anymore. And the airline won’t care that you may not have known what was going on.

Or they’ll show you a great deal and you’ll give them your credit card and they’ll come back a little later saying oh well that one sold out it’s $200 more. And keep doing that over and over until you’re paying as much as you would’ve paid if you booked directly through the airline because you just keep giving them a few hundred dollars more

And then there’s my favorite version. We’ve got you a business class deal you’ll go to three different destinations and change airlines and sometimes airports at each place with about an hour between flights. I haven’t seen it to Asia, but I have seen it to Europe and literally this is a true flight. I saw somebody post that they bought one of these. First flight was from the home to LaGuardia airport in New York, they then had about 90 minutes to get to JFK for their flight to London Gatwick. They then had 60 minutes to get to Heathrow for their flight to their destination. This was on three completely unrelated airlines so when you missed a flight because you couldn’t make these connections, the airlines didn’t have to do anything.

Glad you got your tickets!

first buying another class ticket and trying to upgrade?

That's what I do. I buy a fully refundable ticket on United and refund or change my flight if prices drop. I pay $250 extra for that ticket, and rarely recoup it. Last week I recouped $216, so for net $34 I have a fully refundable ticket.

Then I watch United's "offers" to upgrade, checking periodically. Offers occasionally begin in the checkout process and often continue right up until the day before the flight. I view the "offers" by viewing the seat map for my ticket. I've seen offers for upgrades to business vary by (quite literally) thousands of dollars each way, with the peak prices around the time that late buying business travelers might be purchasing their tickets. That is the don't panic hour! Prices often come down after that peak.

All this depends on availability, of course. And my own risk tolerance for prices and sense of urgency.

Over time, I think United's pricing algorithm hopes that I get hooked on the business class drug and will pay more. I don't give in to those pricing pressures and will wait for a better deal, especially on outbound flights. I care less about returns.

And there's always the risk that I won't find a deal I like, so I make sure I have a seat that I'm willing to fly.