Thread: Any way to select Fare Class for Fly Confirmed for Less?

We have both the Reserve (mine Business, her's Personal) and the regular Platinum.. Which one is better depends on your own needs. If you have Medallion Status, the additional qualifying miles can be meaningful but you have to spend a lot on the card to get them. You also get Redeemable miles (RDM's) and in the "New World" of earnings those can pay for the Reserve Card. The card is $450 and, if you use the Sky Clubs enough, that pays for the card. If you spend $60K with the card you get 1 RDM per $ and another 30K RDM's for hitting the 2 thresholds for a total of 90K RDM's. An RDM is worth a minimum of $.01 if you use it for Pay With Miles so you get $900 worth of RDM's to spend on tickets and Sky Club Admittance as well as a free bag. You also get 30,000 Medallion Qualifying Miles (MQM's) and bypass the Medallion Qualifying Dollar (MQD) requirement with over a $25K spend. That means that you get Silver Medallion without a BIS (butt in seat mile) and can make Gold Medallion (GM) if you fly 20K miles. Either of those gives you free Comfort+ at the appropriate window and a chance at upgrades on domestic flights. Earlier boarding for overhead storage, Sky Prioirity lanes for GM and above and more. IMO, if you fly the miles to make GM and can afford to spend $60K on the card, it's a no brainer. There's a Forum on FlyerTalk - The world's most popular frequent flyer community on Manufactured Spend which can give you ideas on how to get to the amount you need. There's also the Annual Companion ticket. Lastly, it's nice to build up a bank of RDM's so that if you get stuck somewhere and can't wait it out, you have a PLAN B with a one-way award ticket. That happened to us in early January with the AMS backlog due to east coast weather.

The regular Platinum also gives you the Sky Club, $200 in airline fee reimbursements and many other unique benefits. Also Companion tickets on INT'L. If you can use the benefits, the value more than offsets the cost of the card.

Yes, you're corect that one can often purchase inexpensive Business fares. Those are the ones I'd love to be able to get with FCFL. You can also explore "upscale" fares on AF, KL and AZ, purchased on their ticket stock.

Another source of information if one is buying tickets, Zed's or BP's is to look at the FlyerTalk - The world's most popular frequent flyer community Mileage and Points Forum. If you happen to be going someplace where someone has discovered an inexpensive routing, you can take advantage of it.

A myriad of ways to get there (and hopefully back) and all sorts of ways to control costs. Unfortunately, FCFL won't help with the First / Business discount fares.

Thanks again for your responses and for having this active Forum.