Air travel strategy

The overriding problem with today's business air travel is that the industry's "standard" product: coach or economy, depending on where you fly-is a really, really bad product. Seating is extremely cramped and crowded and inflight service is minimal.

But there are ways to get the best out of the situation. With the right strategy, you can make business travel a better experience for you or your employees, and you can do it financially within reason.

The rules - In-flight seating: Explore your options and know your limits.

The strategy - Tips for getting the maximum value for your money.

Making the deal - Find the right fare type for particular needs and budgets.

The rules

The airlines' basic product is a seat in an aluminum tube that hauls you from one airport to another-with a high level of safety and a variable level of reliability. But there are huge differences about how you travel in those aluminum tubes, in both quality and price. Here's an overview of what you can expect from the seating classes:

Coach

Coach/Economy

The most important quality-of-service factor is the amount of space you get. With a few exceptions, seats are extremely narrow-usually 19 to 20 inches total shoulder-level width, with a corresponding cushion width of 17 to 18 inches. Seat rows spaced 30 to 32 inches apart (a measurement called "pitch") leave essentially no legroom or upper-level working room.

Beyond coach

Most large and many small lines offer at least one premium class of service. On domestic and other North American flights it's usually first class. On long-haul intercontinental flights, the predominant premium product is business class, but some lines also provide first class and a few offer a premium economy option.

Premium economy

Domestic first class

Overseas business class

Overseas first class

Pricing

Coach

Almost all the games airlines play with fares involve coach tickets. In accordance with the principles of yield management, on any given flight the larger airlines can have several dozen different coach fare "buckets," with a limited number of seats and unique purchase and use conditions attached to each bucket. Airlines shift seats around from bucket to bucket as reservations and cancellations come in, always with the objective of maximizing the revenue from each flight.

Beyond coach

Overall, business and first class fares range from double to as much as 20 times the cheapest available coach fares. Airlines typically don't play around much with their premium class ticket pricing, but you can sometimes avoid paying top dollar. For the first time in many years, you saw a few first class promotions in 2001, 2002, and into 2003 with discounts up to 50 percent, and you sometimes see twofer promotions in first or business class—pay full price for one ticket, get a second at no additional cost.

Of course, even at 50 percent off, a first or business class ticket usually costs a lot more than the cheapest coach ticket you can find. And it's very rare to find more than 50 percent off the price of a business or first class ticket.

The strategy

With air travel, you often face a trade off between the most time-efficient and cost-efficient options, a dilemma you don't encounter with hotel accommodations or rental cars. But you'll still find plenty of opportunities to cut costs by buying air travel carefully and creatively.

Relatively, the comfort and service standards of the bottom-end airline coach/economy product are much worse than the comfort and service standards of a budget accommodation such as Motel 6 or an economy rental car. Unfortunately, the cost of moving up from coach/economy to the next higher level (generally business or first class, depending on the airline and route) is usually prohibitive.

My own policy has always been something of a compromise. I refuse to fly coach except on short trips and hesitate to require it of employees. Instead, where possible, my solution has been to seek out comfortable flights without paying astronomical prices. How?

• Fly the few airlines that offer superior coach accommodations or low-price premium seats. On the big lines, buy the cheapest coach ticket that can be upgraded with frequent flyer miles or upgrade "coupons." In effect, that's avoiding the cattle car without paying the national debt to do it.
• I recommend that you encourage employees to use their frequent flyer credit for upgrades on business trips—and that you reimburse them for the frequent flyer credit they use for those upgrades. The nominal value of credit is anywhere from 1 cent to 2 cents a mile-the lower figure when credit is used for "free" coach/economy trips, the higher figure when used for upgrades; you decide on the value you want to use.
• You should also encourage employees to use—and reimburse them for using—upgrade coupons and stickers whenever they qualify and upgrades are available. By using frequent flyer benefits you can provide employees comfortable flights without paying a fortune. And, of course, you can use the same approaches for your own trips.
• Wherever feasible, concentrate your air-travel business on just one line (or possibly two). Most of you will choose a North American line as your default, but if you travel overseas a lot, it may instead be a big foreign line. Whenever you have a choice, you'll generally settle on your preferred line either because of better schedules and more frequent flights from your home airport, better quality service (American, Midwest, or United), or better (for you) frequent flyer provisions.
• If upgrades and "free" trips to exotic destinations are important to you, plan on using one of the legacy lines as a default, switching to a low-fare competitor only when the cost difference is compelling. On the other hand, if you value consistently low fares over frequent flyer perks, opt for a low-fare line. Although most of them have some sort of frequent flyer program, only a few offer upgrades and only a few can provide free trips outside their limited systems. What you get is low fares—and not much more.

Making the deal

First, get a benchmark. Your usual benchmark fare is the lowest refundable "business" coach fare on your preferred line(s), available at the time, which meets your itinerary needs. If your preferred airline offers nonstop service, or at least as good a schedule as any other line, count yourself lucky. You can get that benchmark fare from the airline, directly, or from a full-line online site.

Once you've determined your benchmark(s), it's time to check the tradeoff options:

Lower fares, with restrictions

Do you have seven to 21 days before you travel? Can you modify your original schedule so you do have enough advance-purchase time? Are you reasonably sure of the dates? Are you willing to stick with your original return flight, even if you finish your business early or if there's a chance you won't finish it by departure time? If the answer to all those questions is "yes," or even "probably," you can usually do a lot better than your benchmark prices.

1. If you can live with both an advance-purchase period up to 21 days, plus a Saturday-night stay, cheap nonrefundable tickets on any airlines that fly where you're going can cost as little as a quarter of your benchmark price. This is the time to explore whether you'd be willing to extend your stay over a Saturday to take advantage of the lower fares. You find the best restricted fares the same places you found your benchmark.

2. If you can live with a modest advance-purchase requirement, but not a Saturday-night stay, the new class of business fares that several of the legacy network lines are selling are around 30 percent less than full fare, but considerably higher then the fully restricted fares, above. Again, you find this information the same places you found your benchmark.

3. If you have some credit stockpiled, you can try using frequent flyer miles to get a seat. Good luck to you, if you try. Check with your airline's frequent flyer line, or online-most big lines these days can provide online availability of frequent flyer seats.

Lower fares, no restrictions

If you don't have much advance notice, if you don't want to stay over a weekend, or if you want to be flexible about your return schedule, you'll have to look outside the more traditional ticket sources.

1. Identify any low-fare lines that fly where you're headed and find the lowest price that meets your itinerary needs. Note that the legacy lines often match low-fare lines' prices on flights that operate at about the same times.

2. If no low-fare line flies your preferred itinerary, see if you can find one that serves airports within acceptable driving distance—at either end or both ends of the trip—and decide if the lower cost is worth the extra time and hassle. You may need to spend a few minutes with an atlas and either the printed or online OAG, although the big online agencies often suggest alternate airports where you can find lower fares.

3. Explore a consolidator ticket. Full-line online sites such as Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity list some consolidator fares, but you'll probably have to go to one or more independent consolidators to find out all of what's available. Many consolidator tickets do not earn frequent flyer credit and can't be upgraded, but a few can. Ask if either is important to you.

4. Check to see if you can find an air-hotel package that fits your needs. The best places to look are the big full-service online websites and last-minute tour specialists.

5. Determine whether you can accept the risk (no refund and no exchange) and schedule uncertainty of an opaque-price ticket. If nothing else seems to work for your trip, buy a ticket from Hotwire or throw in a bid on Priceline.

Related information:
Report: Secrets of the upgrade
Report: Low-fare airlines 101
Portable ombudsman: Voluntary bumping on flights