There’s a secret that the airlines aren’t necessarily too keen to let slip. There are discount first class tickets available to anyone who knows how to find them. We’ll let the cat out of the bag, and help you fly in the front cabin for less.

Sneaky Discounted First Class Seats

UP fares are deeply discounted first class tickets only available for travel within/between the United States and Canada. International business class prices have some discounts when purchased 50 days or more in advance — these are not Y-Up fares.

The origin of these obscure fares dates back to the late 1990s. The purpose of UP fares was to reward the airlines best customers who regularly paid several hundred dollars ($700-1300) for a coach seat, with a free upgrade into first class outside the normal frequent flyer program method.

These fares are sneaky because they use the fare codes associated with economy/coach tickets but are actually booked in the first class cabin. This was done specifically by the airlines to skirt corporate booking policies that said No First Class Travel.

The policy was enforced by looking at the fare codes not the cabin/booking code. With a little fare code trickery and a lower price than walk-up coach tickets, a business traveler in the know could fly in front of the curtain and stay within corporate guidelines.

Y-Up Story

There are over 100,000 UP fares; and they are increasing each day. Besides the prefix letter codes of Y and Q, some airlines use other letters like M and Z. To make it easy, I will refer to all UP fares as Y-Up. The Wall Street Journal article How to Buy a Cheap Seat in First Class by Evan Perez broke the Y-UP story May 2, 2006 with information provided by Farecompare.com.

Just a word of warning, Y-Up fares are not perfect for every occasion. Although there are some very inexpensive ones (as low as $240 roundtrip), most of these fares are very similar in price to the business walk-up and 7-day advance purchase. Y-Up fares are driven by competition in certain markets, so dont be upset if the price isnt what you expect for the places you want to go.

Tips that you should know about the Y-Up fares include:

• Inventory is usually available: even on full flights, peak days and times (Mondays, Fridays, Sundays, Holidays) or for those last-minute trips.
• Most of these fares are one-way. Last minute exchanges of restricted tickets usually quote the walk-up coach fares even when the Y-Up is cheaper. Be sure and ask the ticket agent when you miss a flight or have a last minute exchange for the Y-Up price.
• In certain cases these fares are refundable, so they act just like the full coach equivalent.
• If there is a cheap Y-Up, it is normally due to a promotion or an airline attempting to match a smaller competitor that has first class cabins. Using Farecompare.com you will uncover these Y-Up fare markets on the Trip Result pages. The benefit to you is booking a nice ride upfront that you can enjoy at the economy price.
• Corporate Travelers have the most to gain from Y-Up fares. For the same price as coach you can get confirmed into the first class cabin before frequent fliers are automatically upgraded. You wont have to compete against the 60 road warriors that are vying for upgrades to 10 first class seats.
• NOTE! Most self-serve corporate booking tools do not check for Y-Up fares, you will need to call your corporate agent and ask for them specifically.
• If you ever get into a situation with a phone agent, you should ask for Y-Ups by name as most agents are not trained to offer these even though they may be cheaper. Most phone agents use a script that is similar to the web site and will not attempt to get you the cheaper Y-Up price unless you explicitly ask.
• Be careful that you are booking onto a plane with a first class cabin. Many times they offer these fares but the plane is a regional jet without a first class cabin.

The first step in uncovering these elusive fares is to know if there is one available for your intended destination. Farecompare.com has created a tool that allows you to quickly and easily search all of these discounted first class fares with a simple trip based query.

These queries are demonstrated below by examples with screen shots.

Once you have found a discounted first class price that looks interesting you will in most cases end up booking the airfare online. The booking flow for Y-Up fares at the airline and agency web sites can be very obscure. Booking sites do not show these discounted first class prices on a normal trip-based query result page; even if they are cheaper, you have to know how to make the proper query.

The remainder of this document shows you how to find these elusive fares on Farecompare.com and how to book them on the major airline and agency web sites.

How to Find a Y-Up

Farecompare.com allows you to check the prices of Y-Up fares with a special airfare tool that lists the cheapest ones from your departure city.

On the research mode year view you can add rows of airlines or cheapest first class prices at the bottom right of the display grid (this link will show you an example).

If you find yourself on an airline website the following guide will show you how to find them.

AirTran Airways

AirTran includes business class seats on all their queries so it is easy to find the business class price. AirTran usually has a very limited business cabin. They do however drive down the prices on other competing airlines that are forced to file Y-Ups to match their prices.

American Airlines

American Airlines requires a bit more effort to access the Y-Up information. From their home page search box click the More Options button.

You will be presented an input-form page (shown below) which allows you to enter your cities and travel dates. Select the search method by Fare and select the Business With Restrictions option for the cabin. Finally, hit the action button which returns the results of the search. The Business With Restriction option implies that the fares will have some restrictions which might include an exchange fee or advance purchase.

The resulting page will show you the first class prices which you should note in the highlighted area. You can select and purchase the itinerary from here. Be sure that the plane that you select has a first class cabin by choosing your seat during booking.

US Airways / America West

US Airways also hides the purchase of Y-Ups in its advanced search page. You can access this page from their home page by clicking the One-Way & Advanced Search link highlighted below.

You will be taken to an input-form page where you can enter your cities, dates, select the Envoy/Business Lowest ticket type (cabin) and then hit the Continue Action button (all highlighted below).

The results will include the Y-Up fares for purchase. You should be careful that all flights on the itinerary have a first class cabin. Notice one of the flights below (highlighted) is on a regional jet without a first class cabin. The other 3 flight segments do have a first class cabin. In this case it is up to you if you want to purchase the Y-Up for a portion of the itinerary.

Continental Airlines

Continental Airlines hides the purchase of Y-Ups in its advanced search page. You can access this page from their home page by clicking the Advanced Search link highlighted below.

You will be taken to an input-form page which allows you to enter the cities and dates. Select the First/Business cabin on each date and hit the search action button.

The search result page will include the Y-Up prices for the market. You can finalize the purchase by selecting flights and choosing your seat under the View Seats selection.

Delta Airlines

Delta makes it easy to query Y-Ups directly from their home page by entering the cities, dates, selecting the BusinessElite cabin and hitting the Go action button.

Northwest Airlines

Northwest Airlines hides the purchase of Y-Ups on its More Search Options page. You can access this page from their home page by clicking the More Search Options link as highlighted below.

You will be taken to an input-form page which allows you to enter your cities, dates and Business cabin choices. Click on the Search by Price action button.

The result page will show the Y-Up prices where you can select your flights and finalize the booking. Again, make sure to confirm first class cabin seating by to choosing your seat in the View Seat Map selection.

United Airlines

United Airlines hides the purchase of Y-Ups under its More Search Options page. You can access this page from their home page by clicking the More Search Options link highlighted below.

You will be taken to an input-form page where you will enter your cities and dates. Select Service Class: First and hit the Search action button.

The result Select Flights page will show the Y-Up prices where you can select your flights and proceed to more screens to finalize the booking.

The result page allows you to Review your choice but, does not note the cabin type or offer a seat diagram. The equipment description under the Flight info is a good clue as to the type of aircraft and the availability of first class seating. The opportunity to make your seat selection is not offered until the final Purchase screen. On the Purchase screen the Seat Selection tab is at the bottom above the Purchase action button (screen not included here).