If you’re new to FareCompare.com, you’re about to learn one of the secrets to our popularity: we show you how to get First Class seats for less. And even if you’re a regular on our site, the following FAQs will explain all the great reasons for finding these seats (hint: its not just the price!), and exactly how to do it:

How to Y-Up and Q-Up into First Class (FAQ)

Discounted First Class Airline Tickets Common Questions

• Price Range of Discounted First Class Fares?
• Key Attributes of Discounted First Class Fares?
• Finding Discounted First Class Fares?
• Booking Discounted First Class Fares?
• Beware of Flights without a First Class Cabin?
• Are These Frequent Flyer or Automatic Upgrades?
• Who Benefits from Discounted First Class Fares?
• Why do Airlines have this type of Discounted First Class Fare?
• Won’t Frequent Flyers Who Want an Upgrade to First Class be Upset?
• FareCompare.com Users Rave About Discounted First Class Tickets

Introduction to Discounted First Class Airline Tickets

FareCompare.com tracks over 100,000 discounted first class tickets for travel within the United States and Canada (First Class Airline Ticket Search Tool).

These discounted first class tickets are the airline industry’s best kept secret!

Every domestic airline offers discounted first class tickets on planes with a first class cabin. Insiders sometimes call these Y-Up or Q-Up fares. Airlines file these fares using a very obscure technique where the 8-character “fare code” starts with the first character that denotes a “coach” fare, but the cabin type on the fare is “first class”.

The screen shot below shows why a quick check for these deeply discounted first class tickets is a great idea. In this case the first class airline ticket price is $250 than the same coach airline ticket!

Price Range

The prices range from $250 to $1600 roundtrip depending on the city pair. They are usually 30-75% below the full first class price and are almost always cheaper than the full coach price. Always do a quick check on all trips to see if the very cheapest ones are available.

Key Attributes of Discounted First Class Fares?

Discounted first class fares have the following important attributes:

• One Way (cheapest sometimes require roundtrip)
• Can be fully Refundable and are always Exchangeable
• Confirmed Seat in the First Class Cabin (ahead of frequent flyer upgrades)
• Available on the most popular flight days and times (when coach is sold out)
• No advance purchase (cheapest sometimes have 7 day advance purchase)
• Accumulate bonus frequent flyer miles (full elite qualifying miles, bonus miles)
• Ticket fare code is economy and therefore looks like a coach ticket for accounting purposes (skirting company travel policies that require coach only)
• 30-75% below full first class
• Priced below full coach

Finding Discounted First Class Fares?

Only FareCompare.com tracks over 100,000 discounted first class fares and offers free email alerts, so you can be the first to know when a cheap
first class ticket is available!

First Class Airline Ticket Email First Alerts

Each trip request shows First Class (First Class Airline Ticket Price Display by Month)
and a tool is provided to view the cheapest of these fares to all destinations from a particular city. (First Class Airline Ticket Search Tool)

Booking Discounted First Class Fares?

First Class fare searches on agency and airline sites (other than FareCompare.com) hide the first class search under their advanced option section. Look for the link that says “Advanced …”, “Expanded …” or “Additional …”, select the “Business or First Class Cabin” option and issue the search. Compare the first class price with the coach price.

Beware of Flights without a First Class Cabin

Connecting flights may have a portion of the trip on a plane without a first class cabin and online agencies and airline sites will sell you Y-Up fares on these flights (even though no first class cabin exists on the smaller planes). Make sure all flight segments you chose have a first class cabin!

Are These Frequent Flyer or Automatic Upgrades?

No! Frequent flyer status miles are not involved! These are simple discounted seats confirmed in the first class cabin. They are not upgrade coupons, automatic upgrades or purchased upgrades.

Who Benefits from Discounted First Class Fares?

Everyone should take a quick check of discounted first class before purchasing a higher priced coach fare. Those who benefit the most from these discounted first class fares are:

• Business Travelers who frequently fly on full price coach tickets (usually for flexibility and full refund-ability)
• People who miss their flight and are required to pay the walkup fare price for the next flight
• Last minute travelers where coach walkup prices are expensive
• Those traveling on special occasions (wedding, anniversaries, holidays etc.)
• Leisure travelers who are in a city pair with a very low discount first class price (some city pairs are real bargain)
• Travelers who require larger seats

Why do Airlines have this type of Discounted First Class Fare?

The original intent of these fares was to cater to their best customers who purchase the most expensive coach tickets. The airlines make more revenue from these fares where first class seats would normally go unused or be filled by less lucrative frequent flier upgrades.

Won’t Frequent Fliers Who Want an Upgrade to First Class be Upset?

The airlines normally allocate a small portion of the first class cabin for these discounted first class fares specifically to address the concerns of upgrading frequent fliers. Many savvy frequent fliers use Y-Ups because they are confirmed into first class before they enter into the frequent flier upgrade lottery where many more people want upgrades than can be accommodated in the first class cabin.

FareCompare.com Users Rave About Discounted First Class Airline Tickets

FareCompare.com has introduced thousands of people to discounted first class tickets. Check them out and never overpay for airfare again.