Best Time To Book Business Class Tickets
Have you ever wondered when the best time to book a business class ticket is, in order to get the lowest price?
Business class tickets can be pricey, but there are ways to find more affordable fares.
When is the best time to book Business class tickets?
Airlines regularly release special or discounted fares throughout the year, and these are the deals you can find on our website.
You might have come across various claims regarding the ideal timing for booking a business class ticket. While some websites or influencers recommend that booking 30 to 60 days in advance will lead to the best prices, this is largely a matter of luck, as it may align with an airline’s decision to run a sale or offer discounted tickets.
For years, we’ve been tracking Business and First Class fares from airlines daily, and we can tell you it’s impossible to predict when airlines will offer the lowest prices.
If you subscribe to our free newsletter, you’ll receive updates on the latest deals from Europe and North America to destinations all over the world.
Is there a best time to book a business class ticket?
We have published thousands of business and first-class “deals” to date.
Recently, we’ve noticed a new trend: cheap business class tickets are often available at least 3, 6, or even 9 months before the scheduled departure date. This wasn’t always the case. We believe this shift is due to the increasing demand for travel as people seek to return to the skies post-pandemic. Consequently, airlines are selling more tickets than there are available seats, making it unnecessary for them to offer discounts on upcoming business or first class flights.
Based on our experience, we advise that if you find a reasonably priced business or first class ticket that fits your budget, you should book it without hesitation. Waiting for a potentially better deal is not worth the risk.
Throughout the year, business and first class tickets may go on sale at various, and unfortunately unpredictable, times.
Set a price limit for yourself, and if a ticket comes up that is below that threshold, book it immediately and don’t wait.
While it’s possible to find an even better deal later, the opposite can also happen. The price might never drop again, and as your travel date approaches, you could end up paying significantly more.
We can assure you that this scenario is quite common, based on our own experiences! 😉
Be Flexible!
Above, we mentioned the best time to book cheap First or Business Class Tickets. But just as important as that is, that prices vary significantly depending on which country or city the itinerary originates.
You can use this to your advantage and get some excellent airfare deals. For that, you simply need to start your journey from another city or even another country.
For example: A ticket from Frankfurt nonstop to Johannesburg in FIRST class could cost you over 6000€, with Lufthansa. If you start your journey from Amsterdam, with 1 stop in Frankfurt, you would only pay 3800€ for that ticket.
You might even end up on the same flight, possibly in the same seat, for the leg from Frankfurt to Johannesburg! In such cases, it makes sense to start your trip from Amsterdam instead of Frankfurt and save a lot of money.
Always consider this before booking a fare. If the destination is what you’re aiming for, it can often make sense to buy a separate ticket to where the cheaper flight originates. You just need to be flexible.
How to find the cheapest First or Business class tickets?
As mentioned already, airlines publish cheap business or first class tickets from time to time during the year.
We track the best deals and special fares from airlines, so you don’t have to. By checking our page regularly, you will be updated each day about cheap business class or first class tickets.
We will send out “deal alerts” as well, but only for extraordinary cheap business or first class fares. For the deal alerts, you need to subscribe to our newsletter to never miss one of those deals.
If you enjoy our blog and would like to support us, you can buy us a coffee 😉
8 Comments
Lollie
When flying to Europe, does it ever make sense to buy a 1-way biz class going over and then return on a 1-way economy? The main advantage of the biz class is being able to sleep lying down on the way over. Coming back business class is not such a big deal.
premiumflights
A few years ago TAP was selling cheap one-way tickets from the US to Europe, under $1000, in that case it could have make sense.
But now one-way tickets in business class are too high, quite often even higher than return tickets.
So, I would say it makes no sense if you don’t want to spend more money than a business class round trip ticket that is on sale would cost.
Marry Walker
I mostly travel out of country every year and i prefer to book flights before three months. And as per my suggestion, This is the best time for Booking Business class tickets. I agree with your ideas. Keep posting!
Tim
This site is part of my 10+ daily click round robin.
Thanks for spending your efforts doing this.
Eszter Favics
This post is very thoughtful although I was not particularly worried. 🙂
It’s true that last year after I jumped on a Swiss deal in early November AMS-ZRH-LAX for 1600 and then around Black Friday there was a cheaper version directly from ZRH plus then I saw a HNL deal as well(which was our final destination from Luxemborg) I was a bit sad but since that was my first long haul business class journey I was still super happy and excited with the final deal. I guess after one get the good deal and don’t plan other trips it’s better not to check the website to avoid disappointment.
And for example couple of weeks ago there was AMS- Hawaiian Islands deal but I though there will come better one later. We will see; now we are still waiting LOL.
premiumflights
I booked last year as well for Black Friday LUX-SEA-MIA-LUX for 1300€ with Oneworld, I was hopping for a similar deal this year, but there was realy not much to North America. I still have time, so I am not worried, not yet.
But there’s one points I can’t agree 🙂
You say don’t check the website to avoid disappointment, don’t do that, visit us and read tutorials or stories…
But I know what you mean 😉
Eszter Favics
I understand your point 🙂
It is just for those who really maxxed out their yearly travel budget both time and finance wise and don’t want to bang their head into their desk seeing a 300eur(so 600 for a couple) cheaper deal than booked weeks before for almost the same trip.
And indeed thank you for your precious work!
On the app is there a way to request notifications appearing on the phone(I would even pay a bit more for that option 😉 )
premiumflights
Via the Android app you should already get push notifications for Deal Alerts. If not, there’s maybe a problem with enabling push notifications on your phone. With the iOS app we still have some bugs. That should be solved soon with an update.