Flying First Class may have once seemed like a dream reserved for the wealthy, with its luxurious perks like onboard showers, full-service bars, and suites in the sky costing thousands of dollars, but as someone on a Miles & Points journey, you now have the tools (plus the resources on this website) to help you book this lavish experience.
There are many ways to earn enough points over time for a premium cabin experience, but in this article, we’re going to show you how to book a First Class flight by signing up for just one credit card.
Are First Class Flights Worth Pursuing?
Flying First Class is truly a special experience. In the First Class cabin, you’ll usually be cocooned in a private suite and furnished with plush bedding, a designer amenity kit, and sleepwear.
The experience is rounded out by gourmet meals made with choice ingredients and paired with high-end wines and spirits.
Some First Class cabins, such as Emirates First Class on select aircraft, come equipped with an onboard bar and a shower.
Meanwhile, some airlines package their product with additional bells and whistles, including fine dining at their lounge (as with Air France La Première) or a limousine to take you to your aircraft (as with Lufthansa First Class).
Flying First Class is the aspiration of many who participate in the Miles & Points hobby, but frankly, making this a reality is not as easy as booking a business class flight.
Aside from the difficulty in finding availability, First Class naturally costs more than business class, and this may mean accumulating miles or points for a year or more before booking your First Class flight.
However, as we’ll demonstrate below, you can actually book not only one, but two, First Class flights by signing up for just one credit card.
Book First Class with This Single Card
It’s no secret that US credit cards are generally better than their Canadian counterparts, especially when it comes to welcome bonuses and benefits. After all, in the US, several financial institutions, each with a bevy of credit cards, are competing for the credit card spending of over 333 million people in 50 states, so they’re inclined to offer some fairly compelling perks.
Among the institutions vying to lend you money is Chase Bank, which issues a wide range of credit cards offering lucrative welcome bonuses and benefits, including its well-regarded flagship product, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card.
Another card belonging to the Chase Ultimate Rewards family, and the focus of this article, is the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card.
The Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, which has a fairly low annual fee of only $95 (all figures in USD) gives you the opportunity to earn a juicy welcome bonus that could get you up to two First Class flights.
For a limited time, the welcome bonus is 120,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points, earned upon spending $8,000 in the first three months of holding the card.
With this spending requirement, you’ll need to spend an average of just under $2,700 per month on the card for the first three months of card membership to earn the full welcome bonus.
While this isn’t a small amount, if you focus your spending onto the single card for the three months, you should be able to meet this requirement.
Now understandably, you might feel apprehensive about applying for a small business card in the US if you’re a Canadian.
For starters, we’ve written extensive guides on how you can get into the US credit card game as someone from Canada. By perusing these guides, you can learn how to get a US credit card with a few key steps, taking your Miles & Points hobby to the next level.
As for applying for a small business card, Chase has a rather flexible policy. Officially, the bank says:
“Even if you haven’t officially incorporated your business, as long as you’re trying to earn a profit in some legitimate way, you can apply for a small business credit card.”
In other words, you’re free to apply for the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card if you’re, say, a freelancer, a gig worker, or someone with a passion project on the side, as long as you meet the other required criteria for the card.
Booking Your First Class Flights
Once the welcome bonus of Chase Ultimate Rewards points has been deposited into your account, it’s time for the fun part – booking your First Class flights.
To book your First Class flights, you’re going to need to transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to the airline loyalty program that you’ll be booking with.
Chase Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred to a number of airline programs at a 1:1 ratio; the partnered airline programs are as follows:
- Aer Lingus AerClub
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air France KLM Flying Blue
- British Airways Executive Club
- Emirates Skywards
- Iberia Plus
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Southwest Rapid Rewards
- United MileagePlus
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
When transferring your points, you’ll want to keep in mind that once in a while, Chase offers transfer bonuses of up to 30% to certain airline programs, including Aeroplan, Air France KLM Flying Blue, British Airways Executive Club, and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.
We recommend doing some research on the different partner airline programs before you transfer your points to ensure you’re making the right choice for your travel goals and priorities. After all, there are lots of great ways to redeem 120,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points, so it’s worth taking your time when making your selection.
That said, this article is about how you can turn the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card’s welcome bonus into at least one First Class flight, so to demonstrate this, let’s look at the example of booking ANA First Class using Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.
Since we want to fly ANA First Class to experience its exceptional customer service, excellent dining menu, and highly private suite, we’ve chosen to transfer our points to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club since, despite a recent devaluation, it’s still the best program to use when booking ANA First Class.
If you transfer your 120,000 Chase points to the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club while there’s a 30% transfer bonus offered, you’ll get 156,000 Virgin Points.
Transfer the additional 6,000 Chase points (at minimum) that you’ll earn from spending on the credit card to fulfill the welcome bonus requirement, and you’ll get another 7,800 Virgin Points. That brings your grand total to 163,800 Virgin Points.
With Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, you can book one-way ANA flights per the following chart:
As you can see from the chart, your 163,800 Virgin Points are enough for you to book round-trip First Class flights between Japan and the Western US.
ANA First Class is currently offered between Tokyo (NRT/HND) and New York (JFK), San Francisco (SFO), and Chicago (ORD). The product is also available on flights to Honolulu (HNL) for fewer points than to the continental US.
On ANA First Class, you’ll enjoy a private suite furnished with a down comforter and pillow, a conditioning bed pad, a cashmere blanket, organic cotton loungewear, and an amenity kit by Ettinger.
Additionally, ANA’s First Class dining features high-end ingredients, such as Japanese black wagyu beef, complemented by top-shelf Japanese whiskey, sake, wines, and Champagne.
Ricky, our founder and CEO, did a review of his ANA First Class experience in the video below:
Now, booking ANA First Class through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is tricky because seats can’t be searched or booked through its online search function; instead, you must book seats through the program’s hotline.
Before calling the Virgin Atlantic hotline to book, you’ll want to determine what days ANA’s First Class seats are available so that you’re not having to look up multiple dates while on the phone with the program’s booking agent.
To find out if there’s availability, you can use the calendar search functions of other airline loyalty programs such as United MileagePlus and Avianca LifeMiles, since ANA award availability is more or less the same across all airline partners. You can also use an award search tool like Roame.
Another thing to note is that unfortunately ANA First Class award availability can be quite rare. To get your hands on one of these coveted seats, you’ll need to painstakingly check various dates and destinations, and in most cases, you’ll still only find one seat available.
An Alternative Card to Consider
If you have reservations about applying for a small business card or if you don’t qualify for one, there’s another Chase card for you: the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.
Similarly to the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card also commands a $95 annual fee, but its welcome bonus is quite a bit lower, typically coming in around 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
However, earning this welcome bonus may be easier for some, since the minimum spending requirement is also lower – usually $6,000 in the first three months of card membership.
If you were to convert your 60,000 Chase points welcome bonus to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club during a 30% transfer bonus event, you’d net 78,000 Virgin Points, which is already enough to book a one-way flight between the Western US and Japan in ANA First Class.
Conclusion
Even if you’re already deep into the Miles & Points game, you might still think that flying First Class remains only a distant possibility.
However, as we’ve demonstrated in this article, you can actually book round-trip ANA First Class flights to Japan from North America by signing up for only a single card: the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card.
With just this one card, it’s time for you to make your First Class dream come true!