Saving What?

Recently, Wise Bread posted an article about the top cheapest airlines for first class, but we decided to go further and figure out what it means to get cheap first class tickets. It’s all great and well to save some money, but at what cost?

Granted, the airlines examined are certainly obscure, but for the sake of being accurate in our criticism, we will examine two of the airlines mentioned in the article.

Spirit

Now, technically, Spirit doesn’t even offer first class, so to use them as our first example is a bit of a stretch, but they do have something called “the Big Front Seat” which you can pay up to $175 extra for, to receive. The Big Front Seat offers approximately 10” of extra space in width and pitch (the distance from the back of one seat to the next), but absolutely no other features.

Let’s say you’re considering the offer, let’s examine what else we receive by taking Spirit for the cheaper “First Class”. Out of nearly 8,000 reviews, the service on Spirit received a rating of 2 stars, and common complaints include the following:

Service: Lack of attentiveness, rudeness, and general lack of accommodation.

Food: Too expensive, no free offers of water.

Comfort: Hard, stiff seats, not enough leg room, often delayed.

Price: Seemingly their only redeeming quality, Spirit offers great fares for flights, as well as a free carry on.

La Compagnie

Really living up to its obscurity, La Compagnie has a total of two planes and they fly only from Newark to Paris. That being said, they do offer a cheaper first class option – none of their seats are economy. By cutting out the lower option to begin with, La Compagnie offers only comfortable business class at a much lower rate than their competitors who have the additional pricing tier with economy.

The small airline offers high end dining, sophisticated lounges, a wide variety of books, movies, and TV shows on board, as well as wine tastings, and chauffeur services.

Service: Some complaints of miscommunication and mishandling, but otherwise travelers of La Compagnie were pleased with the service provided and are eager to fly again.

Food: “Second to none” quotes one enthusiastic flyer. Other reviews included comments such as “best flight food” and “excellent, upscale meals.”

Comfort: While comfortable, the seats do not lie back flat. Decently spacious.

Price: Best priced flight for business class from USA to Paris. They also offer free drinks and are extremely accommodating.

Luckily, we need not sacrifice or compromise on comfort and service to fly business or first class with companies like Fly Business For Less. FBFL utilizes miles to attain cheaper tickets with any airline, instead of asking you to sacrifice much relied-on creature comforts you’ve come to love and expect.