Fly First Class at Coach Prices

Feb. 27, 2008 <br/> Special to ABCNEWS.com&#151; -- You trudge past those smiling faces in the first few rows and then, smack — your roller bag bangs into some wretched traveler's seat in coach. You apologize and keep going; you have a long journey to the back of the plane. Your destination? That comfy middle seat between the two sumo wrestlers.

And as another flight begins, you remember those smiling faces and say to yourself: "Why can't I ever fly first class?"

You've tried to upgrade: After all, you travel 100,000-plus miles a year and you're in all those "elite" programs, but it never works out. Well, no surprise. There are at least 50 other elite travelers hoping for upgrades and just a handful of first-class seats available. Face it, you and plenty of others are losers in the upgrade lottery.

So, is it hopeless? Will you never take your place among those smiling faces? Well, you could always pay for first class.

Or you could let me tell you about a little-known and little-understood airfare called the "Y-Up."

Y-Up is airline insider-speak for "discounted first-class airline tickets" and they are the airlines' best-kept secret.

A little background: The first-class cabin isn't always sold out. In fact, the first-class cabin often has empty seats (even the wealthy among us balk at paying the steep freight for first class). An airline could turn over all the unsold first-class seats to upgraders, but that wouldn't make them any money. A Y-Up fare doesn't bring in as much revenue as full-fare first class, but it's better than nothing.

So how have Y-Ups remained secret so long? Because very few of us request first-class cabin when we shop online for our airline tickets, so we never see the Y-Up fares — a price that competes with coach and sometimes is even less than coach (which is especially true if you make your purchase at the last minute).

This is good news for those notorious last-minute shoppers — the business travelers. And here's another bonus for business travelers: Y-Ups literally look like coach seats because the fare code is coach but is booked in the first-class cabin (Y-Ups and coach fares often begin with the letter Y). That means if you work for a company that bans first-class travel, no problem: a Y-Up looks like coach, and is priced like coach, but it's first class all the way. So everybody's a winner.