What's everyone's experience on buying a ticket with portions being economy class and portions being business class? I've never done a mix and match ticket. Best to do by phone? DH and I are thinking of a trip to East Africa in 2011 and realize it's a heck of a long trip but we're thinking budget wise it might save some $ to book the domestic U.S. legs economy class but opt for business class on the international flights. We fly out of PHX. I have about 78,000 miles on UAL - DH only about 15,000. Pointers/tips/comments?

Makes no difference. The pricey part of the itinerary is the international portion. Throwing you the domestic connection in domestic FC makes little difference in the cost for the airline.

I wonder how they would handle the baggage fees. I think generally business class gets an exemption, but tourist doesn't. So when you first check in on a tourist leg, will they or won't they want their money?

As rkkwan notes, because of the vagaries of fare construction there may be little difference between domestic Y + Intl Biz and domestic FC/Intl Biz. Don't think you could even build this online, as using the multicity option you only get to specify one cabin class for the whole trip. You do NOT want to do it in separate reservations, not only because it would likely be more expensive but also because in the event of a delay en route that causes a missed connection you are covered better on a single itinerary.

An upgrade reward would cover both domestic and int'l legs, but your current UA mileage is not sufficient to cover an upgrade reward both ways for two - that would run 30K miles per person each way, plus a copay of up to $500 each in each direction. (Total 120K miles plus up to $2K) You could try a mix of purchasing Biz one way and on the other go for purchasing coach and using an upgrade reward, but that may not result in the best overall pricing, and reward seats may not be avaialble for confirmation at the time you are purchasing. .

Think this is a situation where coughing up the fee to use a live agent or even using a trusted travel agent would be a good idea. I'd also use a site like http://matrix.itasoftware.com to do some preliminary scouting.

Thanks for the comments. In doing some general checking it looks like the economy fares range anywhere from $1,600 - $1,900 PP while biz is going for about $6,000 pp - ouch! DH may have to rough it on this trip!!

Seamus, thanks for the recommended site. I was not aware of that one, and am beginning my search for a multi-city flight to Rome/from Venice for next fall.

Have you considered flying Premium Economy either on British Airways or Virgin, connecting through London? I think BA flies from Phoenix, so you'd do two Premium Economy legs (one to London and then one from London to Africa).

Some business class and especially premium economy tickets have a clause that says if a plane does not have the seating class you have booked, you will be taken back a class - i.e. to economy (yikes), not bumped up. So unfair if you have paid AUD$4000 for a Premium Economy Fair to the USA or UK from Sydney. I was talking to my travel agent about it and she said that she had some clients who were bumped from Premium Economy despite paying the extra fare - nearly double - because they wanted an extra bit of comfort due to medical issues. She said that she had contacted the airline but was told "tough luck" about a refund as they knew the booking conditions.

In East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania) if you do any domestic flying you will be limited in your luggage so flying business class won't get you that benefit. Also older planes go from the half way points into Africa so the business class is crappy, as are the airline lounges at Nairobi airport - you would pay to get out of them!!
Take your extra money and break the journey by having a stopover if it doesn't affect the fare too much - stay in a nice hotel and get rested - even if it is just at the airport and then continue on.

PS. Premium Economy is a joke. On the very newest planes it might be ok, but really all the benefits are rubbish except for the slightly better leg room and as another contributor pointed out you aren't guaranteed that.

Might we hear which airlines bump you a class and don't refund the extra amount you paid for the higher class?

Clevelandbrown; British Airways do not refund.. it was in the conditions of my flight itinerary, and because of that I cancelled my Premium Economy. I contacted fair trading about it and they read the conditions and said that what they had stated was true and it was not in fact a breach. I cannot remember the reasoning, but I thought it was so unfair that one might pay $4000 plus to get to the UK from Sydney and end up doing it in Economy.

I just quickly got this quote from bestflights.com.au

World Traveller Plus is not available on all flights. When not available travel will be in economy class.

WT+ is on all longhaul planes that BA uses, including those to Australia. I think the clause is there only to protect themselves when they have to cancel a flight and put you on another airline - when they'll only put you in coach and not business.

Does Qantas?

I tried such an idea when booking BOS-EZE (Buenos Aires) on current trip on American. Wanted business MIA-EZE and anything was fine on domestic leg. Even looked at purchasing BOS-MIA and using miles for international leg. Still required same number of FF miles.

And as far as bumping up/down a class - I used miles for business for entire trip and since domestic was a 2-class plane, I flew first for BOS-MIA. So at least in my case on this trip with this airline, moving was up rather than down in class.

Depending on your spending patterns, what about each getting a UA credit card - you likely get ads for them weekly. Most still have a 25,000 bonus after a few purchases and if your DH charged everything you normally spend on, in a few months the miles would add up - not total amount for a ticket perhaps but enough that you could then buy some miles and would not be spending the $6000 cost of other business class ticket.

If either of you travel for business, use it to charge all those expensive reimbursed business travel expenses - then it really adds up.