What we haven’t talked about very much is how to make your actual flight better. Mostly this is because we didn’t learn about it until recently, but now that we have, we wanted to share. If you’re like us, when you board the plane, you immediately head to the right, back in steerage while quietly wondering what it’s like to turn left. And, like many of you, we always assumed business-class seats were well beyond our financial reach, instead hoping – in vain – for the complimentary upgrades your friend of a friend of a friend got that one time. Or at least that’s the rumor.

Certainly, we’ve shared the products we use to help make our flight experience better, but wouldn’t it also be nice to fly in relatively more comfortable environs? Lay flat seat, anyone?

Booking for Business-Class

We can’t be the only ones who have been on an airline’s website looking for flights and, just for fun, told the engine to search for business (or higher!) class seats. And despite our most fervent wishes for one of those enigmatic ‘fluke’ fares (when the airline accidentally lists a really low price for an upper-class seat), our hopes are always dashed. You want how much for that seat?!

The thing is, when you book a flight in an upper-class cabin, like business-class, you’re booking your full itinerary in that class, or at least insofar as those cabins exist on the planes you’re flying on.

For example, when we leave from Springfield on United Airlines, we almost always head to Denver, Houston, or Chicago before jumping across the pond. That flight out of Springfield is almost always on a small, regional jet (commonly with a 1×2 seating configuration). Those planes don’t have a business-class cabin, so there’s little point in booking the full business-class ticket when some of our flights don’t have business-class seats. Especially at those prices!

We’ve also learned that we’re more interested in business-class seats on the way to Europe, but not as much on the way back. Why? Our flight to Europe is always overnight, meaning that we land first thing in the morning. That means if you don’t sleep on the plane, you’re awake for nearly 48 hours, and the older we get, the harder this is to pull off without any embarrassment. If you can sleep sitting up and your legs don’t throb after being under you for a few hours, kudos to you; it doesn’t work for either of us!

Upgrading to Business Class

If you’re following along, this means that what we’re really interested in is an upgrade to business class on our trans-Atlantic flight on the way to Europe, only. This next part is important: I *need* the airlines to understand that we’re fully prepared to accept complimentary upgrades to business- or first-class as often as they’re willing to give them to us. This conversation is only about the upgrades we must pay for.

To make this happen, we’ve found this process works best for us:

1. Book your flight at your regular ticket class. We’ve previously discussed how, especially on long-haul flights, we prefer the Premium Economy seats, so this is where we usually start when booking flights to Europe.
2. After your ticket is confirmed (usually, we wait a few days), log into your frequent flier account (if you don’t have one, you should; they’re free) and find your flight. Where these are located depends on the airline, but for United, they’re referred to as ‘Current trips’.
3. Then look for the ‘Upgrade Cabin’ option, which, again for United, is in the same area as seat changes, insurance, and ways to change or cancel your flight.
4. Click on the Upgrade Cabin button and in the new window it’ll give you the option to upgrade your flight using either money or miles. At first, we only ever looked at the Money option, which was frequently in the thousands of dollars. Nope. But then we started looking at the Miles option and things changed.

For example, on our upcoming flight to London, we can upgrade (to business-class) for $6,016 per person. This is just for the flight from Newark to London, not the flights from Springfield to Chicago or Chicago to Newark. Again, nope. OR we can upgrade using miles, in which case it’s 20,000 miles per person for our entire itinerary. There is also a fee of $425 per person, but that’s considerably more reasonable than $6,000, right?

Other Important Details

There are a few things we want to be clear about:

• First, this is our cost to upgrade from the Premium Economy to Business-class cabin. If you purchase a regular Economy ticket, the upgrade miles + fees might be different, and they won’t let you upgrade at all if you buy a Basic Economy seat.

• Keep in mind that in this scenario, it’s 20,000 miles + $425 for each side of our itinerary. In other words, we’d have to pay this on the way to Europe and the same on the way back, meaning that our total upgrade cost would be 40,000 miles and $850 per person. But again, we’re mostly focused on the upgrade to Europe and will then roll the dice and hope for some kind of complimentary upgrade on the way home. A person can dream.

• We recently learned that if you pay for the upgrade (either with Money or Miles) a while before you leave, you might get put on a Waitlist. You will still be charged, but they’ll wait to upgrade you until closer to your flight, often 24-48 hours before you leave. That’s frustrating but know that if the upgrade ends up not being available, you’ll be refunded for the upgrade charge.

We know $425 per person is still a hefty price to pay, especially when flights are getting more expensive. However, it’s much less than paying directly for the upper-level cabin, so we’re okay with it. Especially since we’ll arrive at our destination ready for a great time instead of with painful legs, desperate for some rest, and seriously jetlagged. Remember, all this time we’ve talked about ways to save money so you can either travel for less, or be more discerning about where/when you splurge; this is one place we see the value in splurging when we can.

Not sure you have enough miles? No problem. You can purchase miles, but we never go this route. Instead, if you have a credit card that accrues points and is a partner with United (check your credit card portal for details), you can transfer points from your credit card to your United account. Alternatively, if you know where to look (we always leverage help from our friends at 10X Travel), you can find great sign-up bonus deals for a new credit card. As always, if you decide to open a new card, we always advocate for knowing your spending limits and never going beyond that. In other words, when we open new cards, it’s for the bonus, and we already know how it fits into our current spending and how to offset any annual fees with the benefits the card brings. Always spend responsibly!

We hope this is as helpful for you as it has been for us. Again, we don’t do this every flight, but for the long-haul flights, those lay-flat seats and quieter cabin really do make a difference.

Whatever you do, get out there and live your best life! See you out there!

The post The Hidden Secret to United Business Class Upgrades first appeared on The DeBode Way.

As I was sitting at the rooftop bar at my hotel in the heart of Madrid back in August, I got a notification from Air France for my flight the following day. If you’ve been reading along about my adventure of getting to Madrid this summer, you might read this with a tinge of panic; I know that was my immediate reaction when I got their notice. Fortunately, all was fine, and they were letting me know there was an option to upgrade my regular economy seat to business class for $130. *whew*

I see these updates all the time, and always ignore them. That’s not to say I’m uninterested in flying in an upgraded cabin, but the upgrade fees can easily end up being more than the cost of my entire ticket, and so it never really seems worth it. But, $130? That’s a different story. I should clarify this was a one-way flight from Madrid to Paris that was scheduled to take about 2 hours. Still, they had my interest.

I figured the upgrade would get me a nicer seat, with more space, drinks, better food, and other ‘gourmet delights’ that were sure to make my experience worth the extra money. Sure. But I was curious and was willing to spend the $130 to find out whether Air France’s business class, at least on a short-haul flight, was worth the money. So, after thinking it over for a few minutes, I forked over the money for the upgrade and was rewarded with a new seat number. What I didn’t know was all the other stuff that came with my upgrade.

At the Airport

As it turns out, when I got to the airport the following morning to check in for my flight, I was able to go through the line specifically for business and first-class customers. Sounds obvious but it wasn’t something I’d really thought about. This was nice, as it turned out there were 30 or so folks in the line for economy passengers and…wait for it…no one in the business line. As the gate agent was finishing up the check-in process, she told me to go to the VIP security area, not the regular security area. Eh? I had no idea.

She was very nice and, seeing my confusion, pointed me in the right direction: go ALL the way down and you’ll find the VIP area. Okay, seems simple enough. So off I go, wondering what exactly a VIP security area is. A few minutes later, I found out. It’s basically the same thing as a regular security line (sadly, no TSA Pre-Check lanes in international airports) but with almost no passengers. So, while the regular security check point had the familiar lines winding back and forth, the VIP area had a single couple in line ahead of me. I still had to take my belt off, computer out of my backpack, and the usual routine, but because there was no one else in line, it went so much faster.

Pre-Departure Nibbles

What the gate agent also told me was that I could get into the VIP lounge while I was waiting for the gate assignment for my flight. If you’ve read our blog before, you know that one of the best perks of our travel credit cards – especially our Platinum Card from American Express – is that it gets us into lounges (you can read about them here). Some lounges are better than others, but all of them generally let you relax before your next flight and grab a bite to eat, which, in an era of ever-more frustrating travel experiences, has a ton of value for us.

So, after going through VIP security, off I went to the VIP lounge. Nice. After walking in and scanning my boarding pass, I was directed to the food and drink selection. As it was roughly 10am, the food was a typical European breakfast: deli meats and cheeses, fresh fruit, pastries, and coffee stations. But the self-service bar was also open (and not monitored…I see you, VIP lounge staffers), as was a huge cooler that had all manner of drinks: beer, sodas, juices, water, and so on, as well as sandwiches, yogurts, and the like. All self-service. So, I grabbed a coffee, a few pastries, and fresh fruit and snagged a seat along the wall of windows that had a pretty cool view: I got to watch the planes landing at the airport while munching on croissants. Pretty cool.

Shortly after my breakfast, I got a whiskey and Coke Zero, because…wait, do I need a reason? No, and stop judging me. I threw in a lime slice for good measure, and limes are fruit, so it was basically a smoothie.

After relaxing for a bit, I headed off to my gate to board my short flight to Paris. Fortunately, something, or rather someone else was waiting for me in Paris: Tasha. More on that here, but suffice it to say I was ready to be in Paris and see my partner for the first time in nearly three weeks.

In-Fight Experience

I wish I could say the business-class experience on my flight was as nice as the pre-flight accoutrements, but it’s more accurate to describe it as meh. Much to my surprise, the seat itself didn’t seem any different than the economy seats other than there were fewer seats in our section, and they were only two across. But the actual seat looked exactly the same as the economy seats. I will say we had our own flight attendant, which was nice. It’s also not nothing to have fewer people fighting over the overhead bin space. In fact, the seat next to me was empty, so I had the full overhead bin to myself and got to spread out a little more than usual. Talk about small luxuries…

Our cabin did get pre-departure cool towels to wipe down with (yes cool, because it was crazy hot in Madrid, so a hot towel would have been insulting), which was super refreshing. Once the flight took off, we got a light meal shortly after the familiar *ding* indicating we’d just broken through 10,000 feet. The menu: a roll with butter, small salad, and a cold salmon salad over pasta kind of situation. Not something I’d have ordered, but it was tasty. Or maybe it was the wine. Or the whisky and Coke Zero. Either way, I didn’t hate the experience.

Once we landed it was also nice being at the front of the plane and with fewer people swarming around. All that meant a more relaxed exit which, again, isn’t nothing.

The Verdict

In the end, the biggest question I asked myself was whether I’d shell out the money for a similar upgrade in the future. I’ll admit the overall experience wasn’t what I was expecting, but taking everything into account, I think I’d do it again, just with more accurate expectations. Thinking about everything that was included in the $130: shorter wait time to check my bag, VIP security area, access to the lounge, fewer people in the cabin, the meal and drinks, and better service all made for a more relaxing flight experience. More than anything, after the craziness of Madrid, that was worth the money, at least for me. The only thing I was really disappointed with was the physical seat I was in, but even then, for only a two-hour flight, it wasn’t really that bad.

Now I’m just keeping my fingers crossed to get a similar offer for our next long-haul flight to Scotland. Probably best to not hold my breath as well.

The post Unexpected Paid Airline Upgrade – Worth It or Not? first appeared on The DeBode Way.