Brian Kelly, better known as “The Points Guy,” explained on this week’s Rapid Response podcast why traveling in business class is so popular and gave passengers two tips.
Airfares have fallen significantly since the travel chaos of 2022 as airlines have increased capacity and organized their operations, he said.
“Based on the dollar rate in 2019, airfares are cheaper today, even as the number of travelers has reached record levels,” Kelly said, pointing to European flights he booked for this summer that were three times as expensive in mid-2022.
The airline loyalty program expert noted that airlines have been cutting premium cabin prices since the pandemic as people continued to forgo business travel and instead preferred to work from home and attend Zoom meetings.
The cheaper rates attract holidaymakers who are more sensitive to price increases than people who pay for their trip with a company credit card.
“Once you get consumers used to being able to easily book a round-trip business class flight for $4,000 all summer long, it’s much harder to suddenly drive the price up to $7,000. Because consumers are set in their ways and say, ‘Well, I’m not flying,'” Kelly said.
On the other hand, passengers paid for premium economy or business to avoid being “crammed together like sardines” during the pandemic, he said, especially because airfares fell sharply during lockdowns because people weren’t getting on planes.
“So consumers got a really good taste of life in the front of the plane and realized that economy class sucks,” Kelly said. “Once you fly first class, it’s really hard to go back.”
Defeating the system
Kelly shared two travel tips. The first is to accumulate transferable credit card points that are accepted by multiple airlines. When you fly, you can use them to make a replacement reservation on another airline that allows last-minute cancellation without penalty fees.
“If my original flight is canceled, I cancel and get all my miles back in cash, with no fees,” Kelly said. “You can use your points as insurance to make sure you get to your destination.”
The second option is to take advantage of cheaper bonus programs in other countries, for example by exchanging credit card points for Air France points instead of Delta points.
“In France, there are no 100,000-point offers, no gold mines like we have here,” Kelly said. The result is that award flights abroad have not increased in price as quickly as in the United States.
“Because if they did that in France, where their French members can’t score points like we can, there would be riots,” Kelly said.
