How to book a Business Class Flight for “Free”
Traveling costs money, especially when you want to travel comfortably in business class. Those flights are sadly very expensive and sometimes can range from a few thousand Euros.
Business class is another level of flying, and is worth it.
A few things you get in Business Class:
- Priority check-in, more baggage allowance, and priority boarding
- Lounge access (with free drinks and food)
- A stylish ergonomic seat that can be converted into a lie flat bed
- Better food served to you on real cutlery
You just need to find a way how you can afford it ;).
How to fly in Business class for free?
The good news is you don’t have to be rich, you can travel in business class for free, almost.
All of us have daily expense, but only few people know that those expense can be used for their next business class flight.
For free business class flights, you will need airline miles, with those miles you can book free flights.
Now you just need to know how to get those miles, we will show you how.
Before you start, you have to follow those 3 steps:
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Sign up for airline loyalty programs free
Signing up for loyalty programs is free and the key to collect miles every time you fly, and also to get free flights. Sometimes airlines even run promotions allowing you to earn some extra miles for free. Don’t just sign up to one program, sign up to many of them, as sometimes redemptions for free flights are cheaper with a different program for the same flight. Sign up at least to each program from the 3 big alliances Oneworld, Skyteam or Star Alliance.
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Sign up for credit cards that earn points
This is another key point. Points that you earn with credit cards can be converted into miles (not all credit card companies). Actually, you can earn more miles every day on the ground than flying up in the air. You don’t have to be a frequent flyer to get those needed miles for a free flight. Very often, credit card companies like American Express have a huge welcome bonus. Your grocery shopping, dinner outings, salon visits or hotel bookings(*) can all earn you miles for that next free air ticket, so instead of just spending cash, use your credit card and earn miles for every Euro spent. Using the right credit cards that earn air miles and travel rewards for everyday expenses can very quickly add up your mileage balance.
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Pool your miles with family and friends
Many airline loyalty programs allow you to pool your miles together with your family or even friends. This isn’t a key point, but a great way to earn some extra miles. You can collect all the miles together in one family account and redeem them for free flights.
* Hotel Bookings.
For hotel bookings, you can even collect some extra miles.
Kaligo or Rocketmiles for example give you extra miles when you book a hotel through their portal.
You can select your airline loyalty program, and search for hotels.
Below is an example with Kaligo, for 6 days in New York, we choose British Airways Executive Club as airline loyalty program.
British Airways calls their Miles Avios, Millennium Hilton Downtown would cost you 258€ a night, and you would earn 21.826 Avios.
Sometimes Kaligo is a bit more expensive as booking.com or hotels.com for example, check prices before you book. If you get over 20.000 Avios it is worth paying a few Euro more, but you shouldn’t pay too much of course, that would make no sense.
So check prices first, if the difference is too much book through another portal.
(You will also earn Avios with British Airways if you book via the British Airways shopping portal. 8 Avios/1 £ spent with booking.com or 4 Avios / 1£ spent with hotels.com)
We have many more examples on our page on how to maximize airline miles.
Now that you know how to earn miles, we will show you how to book a business class flight for free, almost.
How to book a business class flight for free
As you may have noticed, we always say almost for free. This is because there are always some taxes to pay.
Iberia for example has low taxes. Iberia, like British Airways or Aer Lingus uses Avios as Miles currency, you can move the Avios from one program to another.
To book a flight in business class is very simply, visit Iberia.com, log in into your account then select a flight and tick the box “use Avios”.
When you have found a flight, you may transfer your points from the credit card to the airline loyalty program. We do it always that way, you may of course transfer your points first to your loyalty program, but there’s always a risk that there’s no free award seat for your desired date or destination.
A flight in Business Class from Madrid to New York, Boston or Chicago cost 34.000 Avios plus around 100€ in taxes (68.000 Avios for the return flight.)
If you follow these few steps, and a few more of our posts on how to maximize airlines miles, a free flight in business class should be feasible in a short time.
