Of course, where you are going from/to also is a big factor in whether you can play these upgrade games. Would anyone really fly Denver-Houston-Vegas just to get a free upgrade on Continental when you could fly non-stop coach on Southwest/Frontier/United-Ted? And, it might be more expensive on Continental

I’m still looking for the free first class confirmed and guaranteed upgrade on a $200 fare. I’d probably do that, but I still like Southwest, who has no change fees!

Southwest shows fares as low as $79 each way plus tax (about $180-ish with taxes). Fourteen or twenty-one day advance purchase required. In the Dallas-Orlando example, that would be out of Dallas Love Field (DAL) and would require one stop pursuant to the Wright Amendment phase out agreement. Southwest offers non-stop service from a variety of cities to Orlando, generally with the lowest fare in the $59 to $99 one way, plus tax range.

No First Class, of course, on Southwest, but if you check in early, you *might* get an exit row which has some additional leg room. Meal = peanuts — bring your own food.

So, while it is true that you can fly first class for less than FULL FARE coach, its pretty hard to fly first class for less than “best price” coach.

There is a huge difference between paying $180 round trip and paying $786 round trip. First class is a lot more comfortable, but I can promise you, that meal in each direction is not worth $600. I’ll leave it to you to decide if the the meal and the comfort is worth $600 per person.

The best way to fly first class at low prices is to earn SILVER or better status at Northwest or Continental. They give free first class upgrades to their SILVER and better customers. Then you can buy the lowest price fares and still have a *chance* at first class. Your chance varies by route and by your status level. However, before you get status, you’ve got to fly 25,000 miles or 30 segments with that one airline. You *might* also get them to do a once-in-a-lifetime status match if you’ve got status with somebody else such as AA or UA.

Thank you

In the cases where the coach is more then the YUP, I agree go for the YUP.

Also to note, there are sometimes actual First Class fares that are cheaper then YUP’s.

 
Tom, comment #10
 
I beg to differ, here is a link for the “lowest available coach seat” for purchase right now! on the American Airlines Website March 15 - 22, $1151+tax.
 
The Discount First Class Price is $786, as shown in the post.
 
You go ahead and pay the “lowest available” coach price of $1151 — me I’ll hand you a free first class apple as you pass by me heading back to your $1151 “lowest available” coach seat so you can compare them apples to apples … (well really I would only do it if I absolutely had to take a flight that day, which I would only do in an emergency…too much of a cheapskate…)
 
Tens of Thousands of business travelers pay $800 or more roundtrip for travel in coach each day — when they buy less than 14 or 7 days in advance, if you read up on Y-Up’s in this blog you’ll see where you can use them to your best advantage — apples to apples.
 

Your example, while true, is so skewed as to be useless to most travellers. You’re talking about full-fare coach, which represents a miniscule percentage of all the coach seats sold on any given flight. By moving the arrival or departure dates by just one day - and trust me, six days with the mouse is better than seven and five is better still - you can cut the coach fare you quote by 25 to 35%. Just by waiting two days (today, Jan 10 at 7.15 pm) the price dropped by $200 for exactly the same dates you used.

And by flying to Tampa - an hour from Disney World and let’s face it, you’re gonna have a rental car anyway - a day later and returning a day sooner the price drops to less than a third of that which you cite: $272 r/t on a nonstop. Dunno ’bout you but saving a bit less than $600 EACH beats sitting up front for two hours.

Compare apples to apples (lowest coach fare available to lowest coach fare that gets you seated in First Class, a Y-Up) and I doubt your claim will ever hold water.

Nic, comment #1 our Y-Up Tool does all airlines (from the home page).
 
Jackie, comment #2, in this particular case the coach price was higher than first class. If I absolutely was going to have to buy — why not! I decided to go to LAX which was in the low $200’s in coach to Disneyland, the point however was that it was cheaper.
 
Levary, comment #3 & #5, Y-Ups are only for domestic U.S/Canada travel.
 
ME, comment# 4, The average prices of a Y-up is $700 roundtrip, I have seen them as low as $300 and as high as $1200, some are good deals some are not, it just depends on your travel cities
 
David, coment #7 as you can see in the story the RT price was over $900 for the days I wanted to go in coach and first class was cheaper, but no one would ever know it if they had to go and spend that kind of $
 
Nataile, comment #8, Yes the same thing applies for all the U.S. Legacy airlines they have over 100,000 of these airfares across the U.S/Canada