Kiwi's latest feature is meant to help travelers fly business class for cheap. So how does it work?
Finding cheap business class tickets certainly isn’t easy. But, believe it or not, it is possible. There are a few tried and true methods for finding cheap business class flights, all with varying results.
The easiest way to find cheap business class flights is to simply let the deals come to you. Instead of spending hours hunting for those diamonds in the rough, sign up to receive email alerts for cheap business and first-class flights with Dollar Flight Club Premium Plus+. Sure, we may be a bit biased, but it's the best way to ensure you never miss a business class deal from your home airport.
If you'd rather go out hunting for deals, The most common way travelers look for cheap business class flights is by simply spending a considerable amount of time hunting for them. This means rolling up your sleeves a bit and spending time searching the top flight booking sites such as Skyscanner, Momondo, and Priceline.
Additionally, if you've got a specific route or destination in mind, be sure to set a flight alert on flight booking on the major booking sites like Google Flights and Kayak.
Until recently, these were the best ways to find cheap business class flights. Now, popular flight search engine Kiwi is hoping to give travelers another way to fly in style without breaking the bank.
Mixed Cabin Classes: The secret to cheap business class flights?
Kiwi recently launched a feature that could be a game-changer for travelers that are looking for cheap business class flights – Mixed Cabin Class Itineraries.
What is Kiwi Mixed Cabin Class?
Introduced in 2020, 'Mixed Cabin Class' itineraries, or simply 'Mixed Classes', is a ticketing option on Kiwi.com that allows travelers to book flights with different cabin class options on one itinerary. So, flights booked with 'Mixed Classes' can be part economy, part business or first class. These tickets give you your chosen class on the longer leg of your trip and regular economy on shorter flights. The goal here is to give travelers a flight option that is both affordable and comfortable.
Can Kiwi Mixed Cabin Class actually find cheap business class flights?
Most travelers can agree that mixed cabin tickets sound like a pretty great idea. After all, flying economy for an hour or two from Miami to Boston wouldn’t be so bad if you got to then switch to business class on the long haul flight to Lisbon or even Bangkok.
But does it actually save you money?
Using Kiwi to find cheap business class flights
In order to see if it deserves a spot in our flight finding tool belt, we decided to put Kiwi’s mixed class option to the test.
First, before searching for our flight, we simply checked the ‘Apply Mixed Class’ option on Kiwi. Now for the hard-hitting research...
When we initially ran our tests comparing Kiwi Mixed Class vs Google Flights for international business class tickets, the results were fairly inconclusive. Sometimes, Kiwi came in at quite a few dollars cheaper. Other times, Google Flights completely blew it out of the water.
But because Kiwi is a European-based company that seems to really excel at finding flights on smaller European carriers, we decided to flip our itinerary around and search flights that originate in Europe and fly to America.
For our hypothetical flight, we searched both platforms for business class tickets from Prague to New York City on the same dates with a maximum of one layover stop. Of course, Google Flights and Kiwi both allow you to filter by a ton of different factors including layovers, price, and flight duration.
From the screenshots below, it initially seems the Google Flights found a slightly better deal: $2,084 vs. $2,108 on Kiwi. However, you quickly notice that the cheapest flight from Google requires an agonizing near-22-hour layover.
Conversely, Kiwi’s flight is almost $300 cheaper than Google’s best option and only requires a 3.5-hour layover. Plus, despite the mixed cabin option, it’s a business class the entire way to New York. In fact, in the screenshot below, you’ll see that you’d only be in economy class for the final 1 hour and 45 minutes of your return flight. Not too bad if it can save you a few hundred dollars.
Is Kiwi com legit?
Kiwi is a legitimate and reliable option for booking flights. It’s certainly not a scam. To find the best cheap flights, your best bet is to use Kiwi along with other flight search engines and OTAs like Google Flights, Omio, and Skiplagged.
The Verdict: Can you use Kiwi to find cheap business class flights?
While we love the idea of Kiwi’s Mixed Classes, it isn’t quite an all-in-one solution for finding cheap business class flights.
When it works, Kiwi’s mixed class tickets are definitely a great way to fly in style without completely wrecking your travel budget. However, the problem is simply that it doesn’t always find the cheapest business or first class flights.
Overall, Kiwi still deserves to be considered as a solid tool in your flight finding arsenal. But if you’re in the market for cheap business class flights, you’ll still want to try searching several avenues like our Premium Plus+ email list, airline email lists, and setting price alerts to have your best shot at scoring a great deal.
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