How to Fly First Class For Less Than $100

by Daniel | Last Updated Nov 13th, 2022

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So there are quite a few decent premium reward credit cards available these days.
And in this article, I just wanted to show you that it is actually possible to book a return First class fare within the United States for less than $100 with the three credit cards in this article.

Now I know you’re probably saying, but Daniel these cards cost over $500 a year just for the annual fee, and yes that is true.
But If you take advantage of the benefits that are on offer with each card, it is quite easy to cover the cost of the annual fee and be left with additional benefits.

So sit back and relax whilst a take you through the process of how to actually book a First Class flight for less than $100.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9LLjDYLhLY

So as I mentioned at the start of this video all three of the cards in this review have an annual fee, but they all come with more than enough benefits to easily offset the annual fee.

If you are interested in any of these cards, just make sure to take into consideration if you will be able to take advantage of the benefits that are on offer with each card.
If you don’t see yourself being able to utilize most of the benefits on offer, the card may end up just costing you money.

So for the next section of this article, I’ll talk about each card that can provide you with a return first-class fare from within the US for less than $100.
I’ll also point out the benefits that will cover the cost of the annual fee.

United Club Infinite Card

Benefits that cover the cost of the annual fee

So the first card on this list is the United Club Infinite Card, and currently, it is possible to earn 100,000 bonus miles after spending $5,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of opening the account. 
And with miles being worth 1.2 cents per mile, this sign-up bonus is worth at least $1,200.

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So to justify spending $525 on the annual fee of the United Club Infinite Card, I’ll take you through the benefits that are worth at least if not more than the annual fee.

Now one of the most valuable benefits that comes with this card is a complimentary United Club Membership which is actually valued at $650 each year.   
This basically leaves you with $125 in extra value on the card after taking the annual fee into consideration. 

With this benefit, you the cardholder, and eligible travel companions will receive free access to every United Club location (which is more than 45 locations) and then any participating Star Alliance affiliated lounges worldwide, which just happens to be more than 1,000 different lounges.

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Another benefit that is quite easy to take advantage of is the $100 credit that can be used towards TSA PreCheck, Global Entry, or Nexus.

So assuming you so travel a fair amount through the year both the United Club Membership and this $100 credit will serve you quite well.
And seeing that both of these benefits are valued at $750, you are left with $225 in value.
Now it’s worth noting that there are quite a few more benefits that come with this card, but let’s continue on and see how to find a cheap flight.

Finding a First Class Flight For Less Than $100

So because the sign-up bonus with the United Club Infinite Card is currently 100,000  bonus miles, it is relatively easy to book a First class flight using just the sign-up bonus.

So before finding a flight it is important that you create a MileagePlus account.

This is where you will be able to use your bonus miles to book the flight.

Now once you have received the sign-up bonus, just log in to your MileagePlus account and you should see your available miles.
So for this example, let’s look at a flight from EWR (LaGuardia NY to LAX- on Feb 6th returning on Feb 9th.

Now when booking the flight make sure to check that if you have a stopover it isn’t too long, as the cheaper options available usually have a layover of more than 6 hours, which is a bit too long.

So the flights I chose for this example have a layover of 2hr 27 mins on the way to LAX and then a layover of just 44 mins on the return flight.

Now it’s also important to check the details of the flight to make sure it is actually First Class, and that it offers a meal, as sometimes there are no meals offered, even in First Class.

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And finally, you can see the booking here will require exactly 100,000 miles, which is the sign-up bonus at the moment, plus an additional $11.20.

Now if were to choose a similar flight on the same day at the lowest rate, it will actually cost $1,919.20.

So this values the sign-up bonus at almost $2,000, at least for this example.

Delta SkyMiles Reserve Card

Benefits that cover the cost of the annual fee

So the second card on this list is the Delta Skymiles Reserve card, and currently, it is possible to earn 50,000 bonus miles after spending $5,000 on purchases within the first 6 months of opening the account. 
And with miles being worth 1.1 cents per mile, this sign-up bonus is worth $550. 

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So to justify spending $550 on the annual fee of the Delta SkyMiles Reserve Card, I’ll take you through a few of the benefits that are worth quite a bit more than the annual fee.

And as I mentioned before, it’s worth considering if these benefits will make sense for your situation.

So the first benefit that is worth $545 a year is the complimentary access to the Delta Sky Club.
Along with this, there is also complimentary access to the Amex Centurion lounge.
Then there is the Priority Pass Select Membership which is worth $429.

So with all of these benefits, there is access to a large range of airport lounges, and all up this is worth almost $1,000 each year, which is more than enough to cover the cost of the annual fee.

Finding a First Class Flight For Less Than $100

Now as you might already know, this card comes with the Delta Reserve Annual Companion Certificate.
And with this, it is actually possible to receive a free domestic First class, Comfort+, or Main Cabin round trip fare, which is really quite valuable.
The only thing you will have to pay for is any taxes or fees that are associated with the booking, and thankfully this amount is capped at $80.

And its also worth noting that this benefit is awarded to you after renewing the card for the following year, so it will actually take more than 12 months before you are able to use this benefit.

So before finding a flight using the companion certificate it is important that you first create a DeltaSky Miles account.

This is where you will be able to use your bonus miles to book the flight and make use of your annual companion certificate.

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Now once you have received the companion certificate just log in to your Delta SkyMiles account.

And when using the Annual Companion Certificate for a First Class booking it is only possible to book flights that are in fares I and Z. 

So when searching on the Delta website, there is a flight from LaGuardia to Miami that is a Z fare for $848.
Then there is a return flight that is listed as the same price at $848 and is a Z fare which works for this booking.

And as you can see below, the total cost of the trip is $847.20, which will be complimentary due to the annual companion certificate.

Then the taxes, fees, and charges are $86.27, which is under $100.

Now there are more valuable flights that you can book using this companion certificate, I just used this as an example for this video, but as you can see it is quite a valuable benefit to have access to.

American Express Platinum Card

Benefits that cover the cost of the annual fee

So the last card in this review is the Amex Platinum card, and this is my favorite credit card for quite a few reasons. 

Not only does it come with a large range of valuable benefits, it is also possible to transfer the points to 17 different airlines, which can quite often present fantastic value.

Now currently it is possible to earn anywhere from 100,000 Membership Reward Points all the way up to 150,000 Membership Reward Points after spending $6,000 on purchases within the first 6 months of opening the account. 

And with points being worth 1 cent per point, this sign-up bonus is worth at least $1,500.

Now if you want to learn how you can actually get the largest sign-up bonus possible with the Amex Platinum card, check out this article, where I talk you through a few different methods that work quite well.

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So to justify spending $695 on the annual fee of the Amex Platinum Card, I’ll take you through a few of the benefits that are worth quite a bit more than the annual fee.

The first benefit that I really like is access to The Global Lounge Collection which includes complimentary access to the:

• Centurion lounge
• Delta SkyClub
• Escape lounges
• Plaza Premium lounge
• Air Space lounges

Along with this is a complimentary Priority Pass Select Membership that is worth $429 each year.
And just these benefits alone are worth almost $1,000, which is enough to cover the cost of the annual fee.

Finding a First Class Flight For Less Than $100

Now if you do want to transfer your membership reward points to one of the 17 airline partners it is really quite easy.

All you need to do is sign into your Amex account and then click here on the upper right-hand side of the screen where it says “Rewards & Benefits”
On the upper section of the next page, click where it says “Earn & redeem”
Here a drop-down menu will appear, at the bottom that says “Transfer Points’
Click on this and then you will gain access to all of the airlines that you can transfer your points to.
And generally speaking, it is possible to transfer pints at a ratio of 1:1.

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Now as an example, let’s assume that you choose to transfer your membership reward points to Delta SkyMiles.
Looking at flights from Newark to LAX on February 12th and returning on Feb 19th, there is a flight for 116,000 points.
Then there is also a return flight for the same exact amount.
So as you can see from the screen-shot below, it is possible to get a return first-class flight from Newark to LAX for 116,000 points with taxes, fees, and charges of $11.20.

Now if you were to pay cash for this flight, it would actually cost $1,348.20, which is a decent amount of money.

Final Thoughts

So there you have it, 3 different ways that you can quite easily book a return first-class flight from within the US for less than $100.

Now I understand that not every flight is perfect and that you will still need to account for the annual fee.
But like I said before, if the benefits that are on offer with each card make sense for you and your situation, all three of these cards really do provide you with a ton of value and the ability to book cheap first-class flights if you so choose to.

Now if you’re looking for an even better signup bonus than any of the cards in this review, check out this article where I show you how to receive a sign-up bonus of up to 170,000 membership rewards points with the Amex Platinum Business card.