FIRST-CLASS FLYER NEWSLETTER REVIEWS?

[DOLLARHIDE]

Am considering buying this newsletter. We travel by air about 4-6 times/year. is the subscription price worth it?

[kboojd]

DOLLARHIDE wrote:

Am considering buying this newsletter. We travel by air about 4-6 times/year. is the subscription price worth it?

I don't think so. I travel for work and vacation a few times a month (about 25x/yr)and canceled my subscription after a few months. You can get the same information for free using flyertalk.com, which I found to be far more useful. It's a community board like this one, but with a key word search feature. Granted, the FCFlyer Newsletter is very clear and well-organized, but since I tend to fly only one airline, it wasn't that useful for me.



I found flyertalk.com (free) plus expertflyer.com (subscription required) to be a better use of my $. expertflyer gives you direct access to seats and codes available for flights on most major airlines, international and domestic. It takes a little getting used to but I've found it much more useful than the First Class Flyer newsletter.



Hope this helps.

[DOLLARHIDE]

Thanks - am heading to your recommended sites now.

[lhbrown]

Hi kboojd,
Glad you clarified dollarhide's question. I too had been wondering about the First-Class Flyer Newsletter, but seen the high cost of it, I let it go. It might be of interest to some business travelers that fly a lot more and a lot further than I do.

[kboojd]

Actually, since most business travelers expense their travel and their companies usually have pretty clear travel policies, the FC Flyer newsletter is only moderately useful. For example, my company wouldn't let me fly first domestically unless I show them that it's even cheaper than any coach seats I could get. Even with a "cheap" FC seat, that's unlikely to happen.

Instead, everyone - the newsletter, flyertalk community - suggests trying to fly one airline/alliance as much as possible (so dump all your FF miles into ONE account), and link that account to a credit card that also gets you miles. Then, work toward getting "elite" status on that airline (usually 25,000 30,000 mi/yr. for the first level, and over 75,000-100,000 mi/yr for the highest level). Once you have elite status, your air travel changes completely. You get to board first, you often have access to the airline lounges, and you are first up for free or miles-based upgrades. For the last 3 years our international vacations (5-6 trips) have all been in international business class, for the price of a coach ticket. The one trip in coach, to Japan, was in exit rows with a ton of leg room, on two free tickets that were not upgradeable. But the free ticket made the Japan vacation a little more affordable (cut the price in half) and allowed us to splurge on some memorable hotel and dining experiences. And, since most of my work travel is domestic, my company pays coach, but I fly first!

So - I guess I might change my advice to Dollarhide a little - FC Flyer may be worth the $ if you are planning a once-in-a-lifetime trip where you have your destination picked out, but you don't have the miles either to upgrade or buy a FC or biz class ticket outright. Then, since it won't really matter to you which airline you fly, and you probably won't be accumulating *that* many miles, it might be worth it.

(On the other hand, Dr. kboo got GOLD status on AA (25,000 mi) with a single flight to Sydney and then Cairns, Australia on Qantas.)

[bdsouza]

I agree with the information in the previous posts. However, it's easy to get basic satus with most airlines but quite difficult to achieve elite status - I hit EP with American for 6 years running because I was flying inernational and coast to coast every week/3 weeks - the super elite means achieving the status in one calendar year - more difficult to achieve than it seems. I do not know what you earn, or what kind of travel you do, but Amex had a good offer for Platinum card holders - buy one business/first ticket, the other traveller goes free (you only pay the tax). If you do at least one trip per year, it is worth the $400 annual fee. BDS

[kboojd]

BD - Doesn't the buy 1 get 1 free business class ticket apply only to full-fare business class tickets?

[claassenam]

I have another, airline specific, travel tip. I try to always fly United and also use the United Mileage Plus Platinum Visa which allows me to rack up unlimited miles for every dollar...I'm sure many of us here use these types of cards. With 1-3 worldwide trips each year (which I can always upgrade with miles) plus several smaller in-country trips, I've managed to maintain my Premier status for several years now. I also joined United's Ameniti club:

https://www.ameniti.com/ameniti/control/amenitiHome

It costs $295 a year but each time I've joined it's after I found or received an offer for 25,000 miles with purchase. To me, that alone is worth the $295 but there are many other benefits such as entrance to the Red Carpet Clubs, rebates with several partners, free Starwood Preferred Guest Gold membership, and even a free bottle of wine. The number one listed benefit is the ability to receive a free companion ticket for every full-fare ticket you purchase, be it economy, business or first class. I have never found this companion fare to be worthwhile for domestic flights but I've used it a couple times to purchase full-fare international economy tickets. The price of one is often better than the price of two discounted tickets found online elsewhere, plus both tickets are then upgradeable with miles so we can fly business or first. I was skeptical of this service at first but I have found it to pay off several times and I plan to continue to be a member.

I know this is sounding like a United ad; perhaps your favorite airline does or will offer something similar. I just happened to choose to be loyal to United a while ago due to their excellent worldwide coverage and availability in my area....on the other hand I'm hoping they update their Business class seats soon as they are starting to be dated!