Do note that some of the deepest
Discount Economy fare classes earn Points but do not appear as Status Credit earning classes.
Some discount economy fare classes won't earn you any Premier Miles or Segments.
On AA partners however,
discounted economy fares generally only earn 50 % of miles flown.
Often most
discounted economy fares would not be eligible for a miles upgrade, so you would have to buy up to a higher level economy fare before you can use your miles for the upgrade.
Note: Most travelers booking Economy or
Discount Economy fares will not be reaching a meaningful level of status (Silver or above) with British Airways so I have deliberatley not muddied the waters by taking status earning into consideration in this blog.
More importantly,
Discount Economy fares booked though American Airlines still earn 1 EQM / mile flown and the airline has confirmed that this will remain the case for the time being.
The bad news is that
all discount Economy fares used to earn Base Miles at 100 % of miles flown but American has reduced that to anywhere between 75 % and 25 % depending on the fare class (shown above).
If you fly premium fares, you wont see many changes, as those fare buckets generally earn more miles than
discounted economy fares.
You could also deposit your travel to any Oneworld airline frequent flyer program for travelling with Cathay Pacific, but if you are travelling in
discounted economy fare, most Oneworld airlines will not offer any miles (earn 25 % of flown miles with British Airways and 50 % with Finnair)
The earning is based on distance flown, fare class and partner airline, with earning ranging from 0 % on deeply
discounted economy fares to 200 % on First Class.
Qantas has begun implementing changes to its loyalty program, Qantas Frequent Flyer, rewarding those who book higher fare classes and penalizing those who snatch up the heavily
discounted economy fares.
You'll get 15,000 miles for flying BusinessFirst (J, C, D, Z, Pclass round trip, 10,000 miles for flying full - fare economy (Y and B), and 5,000 for flying most discounted economy (M, E, U, H, Q, V, W, S)-- that excludes the most
discounted economy fares.
Not exact matches
Discount carriers like Southwest and JetBlue were reshaping the industry with cheap
fares and an easy - to - understand business model: fly one type of plane, sell only
economy - class seats and treat passengers like human beings.
Special offers vary but usually you get a
discount up to 30 % of the airfare price or free upgrade to business class in case if you bought a full
fare economy class ticket.
Bookable in the highest
Economy and Business class
fare (Corporate
fares or Abu Dhabi Goverment Employees Travel Programme
discounts are not allowed).
Start by assessing your travel patterns and booking habits (deep -
discounted economy vs. full -
fare economy or business / first), and reviewing both the redemption side as well as earning ability of potential programs.
(a) Classic Upgrade Rewards can not be used in conjunction with an open dated ticket,
fares ineligible to earn Points, a travel industry reduced
fare ticket, a prize ticket or any other promotional offer; (b) Classic Upgrade Rewards can only be requested on the Segments listed on the Itinerary for which the Member has been issued a ticket; (c) Classic Upgrade Rewards may only be used to obtain an upgrade as follows: (i)
Discount Economy,
Economy or Flexible
Economy to Premium
Economy class or Classic Flight Reward
Economy to Premium
Economy (where available), (ii)
Discount Economy,
Economy or Flexible
Economy to Business class or Classic Flight Reward
Economy to Business class (where available), Note: at the time of registration for a Classic Upgrade Reward to Business, Members may also register a request for a Classic Upgrade Reward to Premium
Economy (where available).
Basically, the different
fare classes have an EQM multiplier:
discount economy is 1x, full -
fare is 1.5 x, business is 2x, and first earns 3x.
(2) Basic
Economy (E)
fares are not eligible for: paid or complimentary upgrades; paid, complimentary or
discounted Delta Comfort +, paid or complimentary Preferred Seats; and are not eligible to make same - day confirmed or same - day standby travel changes, regardless of Medallion or other elite status.
P (
discounted business class) and N (lowest
economy)
fares will earn zero miles.
For business travelers, premium
economy fares are also
discounted for this sale to around $ 2,300 round trip.
You're not going to earn much as its a deeply
discounted Economy Class
fare that's being booked but a round trip will earn 3,278 Avios and 40 Tier Points and they all help!
Full -
fare tickets require 100 percent of the miles required for an award ticket to upgrade (i.e., if an
economy award between London and Bahrain is 24,000 miles one way, you'll need 24,000 miles to upgrade to the next class), and
discount fares require 150 percent of the miles.
The accrual rates start out at one qualifying mile per mile flown in
discount economy and go up with higher
fare classes.
The net effect here is that deeply
discounted Economy Class
fares will earn more miles while some more flexible
fares will earn fewer miles.
The 10 %
discount available through the Chase Iberia Visa isn't limited to
Economy Class — the
discount can be applied to Premium
Economy and Business Class
fares too.
Fortunately you can use your Alaska Airlines companion
fare on any Hawaii flight in
economy class, including already -
discounted fares published as part of this sale.
Because of this I thought I'd run a 3 - part series looking at the changes that are coming and how they will affect those of us who mostly book
discounted Economy Class
fares and
discounted Business Class
fares — if you book the more expensive
fares then you're in luck and you'll be doing just fine.
If your main source of Avios is from flying on
discount Premium
Economy fares or
Economy Class
fares and you like to use your Avios to book long - haul premium cabin flights, then there's an excellent chance you should be collecting AAdvantage Miles instead.
Discount Economy with published
fares booked in H, K, M, L, W, V, G, Q, N, O, S and Military or Government
fares booked in Y or B
As the two types of
fares I'm most likely to book are Deep
Discount Economy and Deep
Discount Business Class that's what I'm going to focus on here.
The earning rates on
Economy class
fares are mostly double that of American's while their earning rates on
discount Business Class
fares aren't that far behind.
With only 4 systemwide upgrades available per year, from 2017 onwards, buying
discount Economy Class
fares with the idea of upgrading them to Business Class won't work for someone who travels as much as I do — especially if I'm traveling with Joanna — so I need to come up with a way to get around this issue.
It requires that members purchase a domestic
economy revenue ticket in order to get a companions
fare discounted to $ 99 (or about $ 118 with taxes).
If you book a
discounted economy ticket in
fare buckets K, L, M, N, S or V, you'll only get 50 percent of the miles.
There's an oddity in the chart in that Y & S
fares which used to be classed as «Full
Fare Economy» and B fares which were classed as «Discount Economy» now appear to be First Class fare codes
Fare Economy» and B
fares which were classed as «
Discount Economy» now appear to be First Class
fare codes
fare codes....
Booking codeshares isn't something you should only consider when booking
Economy Class
fares — the same applies to
discounted Business Class
fares.
The
discount is valid on all
Economy Saver,
Economy Classic,
Economy Flex, Business Saver, Business Classic, Business Flex, and First, excluding child or infant
fares.
Worse still, the
discounted Economy Class
fares booked through partners don't earn the 1 EQM / mile flown like they do if they're booked through American — these
fares earn just 0.5 EQM / mile flown.
And if nothing else that shows you the gulf in earnings between
discounted Economy class
fares and the more premium cabins — it's huge.
If you were able to find a cheap J
fare, this $ 1,000
discount could potentially have you traveling in business class for
economy prices.
To jumpstart the new service from the West Coast, the airline had been offering special
fares from Los Angeles (LAX) to Tokyo (NRT) for $ 1,586, from San Francisco (SFO) to Seoul for $ 1,538, and from both U.S. destinations to Singapore for approximately $ 1,694, representing a
discount of nearly half off regular Premium
Economy fares.
I have a flight from Boston (
discount economy) to Norfolk on US Airways and a full Y
fare from Norfolk to Naples on United scheduled for the rest of the year.
And remember, the closer you get to your departure, the better your chance at getting a
discounted fare for a seat in premium
economy.
For example, North America to Germany is 30K miles to upgrade (one way) if your ticket was purchased in any of the
discounted economy class
fares.
This is a huge reduction in miles for
economy class
fares, but it is only fair, as American Airlines also plans to award customer traveling on the cheapest
fare (
discount economy tickets
fare) fewer miles as the ticket is likly to be inexpensive.
Discounted economy class flights earn 50 — 100 % of miles flown, depending on the
fare class.
First, Aegean offers mileage as low as 25 % of the distance flown for
discounted economy class tickets, although it can grant as much as 150 % for full
fare tickets.
Lately we've seen more first & business class
fare sales than ever before, as the airlines largely narrow the gap between
discounted premium
fares and
economy fares.
You get a boost to your miles and segments if you buy pricier
fares, like a full -
fare economy instead of
discount economy.