How to fly business class on an economy budget

Anyone who’s ever caught a flight has surely experienced the envy of standing up with your heavy duffel bag slung over your shoulder at boarding time, waiting in line with a throng of other passengers and watching those lucky few business class travellers breeze onto the plane via their own dedicated lane.

There’s no denying the perks of flying business class – your own big seats at the front of the cabin, with your own crew member to take care of you, and best of all, a swift exit when you arrive at your destination. Say goodbye to standing at an awkward angle, waiting shoulder to shoulder with the dozens of other passengers who also jumped up to get their bags the second the seatbelt sign switched off!

After you’ve flown business class, it’s hard to go back to economy. So the question – if you want to fly business class on an economy budget, how can you make the upgrade? If used responsibly, your credit card may be able to help.

How can you score a business class upgrade with your credit card?

If you’re an avid traveller, and are keen on snagging a business class upgrade but don’t want to pay business class prices, it may be worth investigating business class credit card rewards points. You may have heard of frequent flyer credit cards, but in fact, there is no one-size-fits-all frequent flyer credit card. Here are a few ways you can go about earning points to put towards upgrades:

• Converting credit card reward points. Some rewards credit cards allow you to earn points when you spend on the card, and you may be allowed to convert your points to frequent flyer miles with partner airlines.
• Earning frequent flyer points directly. There are also rewards credit cards in Australia that will allow you to directly earn frequent flyer points with certain airlines based on your credit card spend.
• Earning frequent flyer points as a signup bonus. Some cards will award you with frequent flyer points as a signup bonus, and if you can find the right deal, you can potentially score a lot of points in one go, though conditions will likely apply.

If you’re looking for the best credit cards for frequent flyers, you can compare with Canstar to find a card that works with your needs and budget.

Once you have signed up and started points for business class flights, your frequent flyer program may then allow you to start putting them towards travel perks like upgrades, lounge access, hotel stays and concierge services.

How do you convert points to upgrades?

While the process of upgrading will differ between airlines, generally speaking, you will be able to upgrade online. If you have booked an economy seat on a flight and received your confirmation, you will be able to log into your frequent flyer account, select your booking and see if an upgrade is available.

You may be able to upgrade immediately if you have enough frequent flyer points stored up. Alternatively, you may be able to request an upgrade using your points, and the airline will notify you if one becomes available before the flight leaves.

While different airlines will have different processes, you may find that they have tiered frequent flyer rewards programs – separated into a gold, silver and bronze tier, for example – and preference for upgrades will be given to those in higher tiers.

How many points does it take to upgrade to business class?

The points needed for an upgrade to business class will vary between airlines and carriers, so let’s take a look at an example.

At the time of writing Virgin says it costs a minimum of 4,900 of its Velocity Points to score you an upgrade on a domestic flight. Virgin says this would be enough to get you an upgrade on a flight from Sydney to Melbourne, if you were travelling on one of its Flex Fares.

According to Qantas, on the other hand, it would cost approximately 5,400 Qantas Points for a business class upgrade on a Sydney to Melbourne flight, if you were travelling on one of its Flexible Economy fares.

The points cost goes up from there. If you were to take a longer domestic flight – for example, Brisbane to Perth – then Virgin says that it would cost you 9,900 points to upgrade from a Flex Fare.

Qantas says that, on a flight from Brisbane to Perth, it would cost you approximately 10,900 Qantas Points to upgrade to business class on a Flexible Economy fare.

How easy is it to actually earn frequent flyer points?

While it’s all well and good to think about how you’ll spend your frequent flyer points on upgrades, it’s worth keeping in mind how you can actually earn them in the first place.

Both cards mentioned above, the American Express Velocity Platinum Card and the American Express Qantas Ultimate Card, will grant you a signup bonus of 60,000 and 70,000 points for their respective partner airlines, provided you spend $3,000 within the first three months of card approval.

Both cards offer the same amount of rewards points for credit card purchases – 2.25 points per dollar spent on purchases with the partner airline, 1.25 points per dollar spent on most credit card purchases, and 0.5 points for each dollar spent on purchases from government bodies (terms and conditions apply).

At the time of writing, the American Express Velocity Platinum Card has an annual fee of $375, while the American Express Qantas Ultimate Card has an annual fee of $450.

So … how does that translate to actual upgrades?

Say you sign up for either card mentioned above and spend the required $3,000 within the first three months, you’d have frequent flyer points with either Virgin (60,000) or Qantas (70,000).

According to the airlines’ own websites, that number of points could get you 15 business class upgrades on Sydney to Melbourne flights with Virgin. With Qantas, that same number of points could get you 13 business class upgrades on Sydney to Melbourne flights.

Do frequent flyer points expire?

Unfortunately, frequent flyer points do not last forever, and may expire after a certain point. Virgin says that its Velocity Points expire after 24 months of inactivity. Qantas, on the other hand, says you must either earn or use Qantas points on eligible activities at least once every 18 months, or your points will expire.

This means that not only will you need to be earning points, you’ll need to be spending them to keep your account active, and if you are an infrequent traveller, you may end up losing out if you forget to use your points, or don’t book a flight in the necessary time period.

What should you be wary of with frequent flyer credit cards?

While it may seem tempting to assume that signing up for a frequent flyer card is all you’ll need to do to be living it up in business class, the reality is, in order to earn any of the really juicy rewards with a credit card, you will need to spend quite a decent chunk of money. And to get the full benefit you’ll need to be paying it off in full each month to avoid being slugged with high interest charges.

If this fits within your lifestyle and budget, and you are confident in your ability to manage a credit card and make your required repayments, then a frequent flyer credit card can potentially be a way to earn a nice little bonus now and again.

If you infrequently use a credit card, though, or are unlikely to spend enough money to earn a meaningful number of reward points or struggle to pay off the balance each month, then you may find that a frequent flyer credit card is not worth the annual fee, or the higher rates that typically come with reward cards.

As seen from the example above, even if a credit card offers you a big haul of bonus signup points, a large spend may be required to get them, and going into unnecessary debt to earn frequent flyer points may not be a wise financial move.