These new ‘business plus’ airfares offers first class perks

While an increasing number of airlines are unbundling business class – stripping out standard inclusions such as lounge access and checked luggage – American Airlines is trialling a new approach to upselling business class with the lure of first class benefits.

The Oneworld member’s new Flagship Business Plus package will initially include a trio of primo perks usually associated with its first class fares:

• use of Flagship First Check-In at selected airports, where travellers can enjoy “a private check-in experience” with a fast-track to security
• access to the restaurant-style Flagship First Dining room in American’s Flagship Lounges
• a third complimentary checked bag

American's Business Plus fares include access to the exclusive Flagship First Dining room.

The new Flagship Business Plus fares, first reported by The Points Guy, will be priced above regular business class tickets – although how much higher remains to be seen.

An American Airlines spokesperson describes Flagship Business Plus as “a new way to access American’s Flagship premium travel experience”, although it’s understood that these ‘business plus’ fares won’t be sold on flights with first class, such as American’s Boeing 777-300ERs.

Lufthansa has previously talked up the prospects of ‘business plus’ as the German carrier moves towards what it terms “tailored needs-based airfare bundles.”

Travellers could purchase a baseline business class fare and then pay extra for not only a better seat – one with more space, legroom or privacy, such as the centre ‘throne’ seats on Lufthansa’s next-gen business class – but a series of bundled packages which could include services such as inflight WiFi.

Lufthansa plans to charge more for business class seats with extra legroom or greater privacy.

“It's not just one business class anymore,” Lufthansa exec Harry Hohmeister suggested to Executive Traveller in 2019, after the launch of the business class seat intended for the still-not-ready-yet Boeing 777-9.

“For example, having a 220cm bed (as an upsell) is of course a selling argument, especially for (taller) guys like me!”

The long-standing practice of what Lufthansa terms “static branded fares’ will be replaced by “need-based bundles’ coupled to an “upselling structure (of)  bundling the right offers and pricing them according to the customers’ willingness to pay.”

Two examples from Lufthansa show how the airline will approach upselling via add-on bundles.

Lufthansa cites examples of what it describes as Efficiency and Traveller packages – and even a beefed-up Plus version of each – being purchased atop a base fare.

“It's not unbundling, it's upgrading,” Hohmeister told Executive Traveller.

“We have to make clear in the market that we are not disrupting the (existing business class) product, but developing it to a better quality standard … to give the customer the best selection for themselves in terms of individualisation.”