Published: 4 October 2026
Business Class Light Fares: Are the Extras Worth Paying For?
Business Class used to be relatively simple. Pay the premium fare and you could expect lounge access, seat selection, generous luggage allowances, flexibility and plenty of frequent-flyer miles alongside the better seat and onboard service.
That is no longer always the case.
A growing number of airlines now sell cheaper, unbundled Business Class fares – often called Business Light – which give you the same seat, food and onboard experience but remove some of the benefits traditionally associated with flying Business Class.
I recently faced exactly this decision when booking Etihad Business Class from Heathrow to Phuket. The cheapest Value fare gave me the same Business Class seat and onboard experience, but paying an additional £153 each way for Comfort would add benefits including lounge access, seat selection, extra luggage, greater flexibility, more miles, Wi-Fi and Etihad Chauffeur.
At first I dismissed the upgrade. But was I actually saving £153, or would buying the missing benefits separately end up costing me more?
I went back through each benefit, put a value on what I would actually use and worked out whether I had made the right decision.
What is a Business Light fare?
Years ago, airlines such as Southwest and Ryanair pioneered the unbundling of fares, by charging for luggage, seat selection and on-board refreshments, which previously were included in airline tickets.
In 2019 Emirates introduced a long-haul Business Special fare which is generally regarded as the first unbundling of the traditional elements of a business class ticket as it excluded chauffeur service, seat selection and lounge access.
Finnair was the first to use the term “Business Light” in 2020 and many other airlines have since followed suit.
Why airlines offer ”business light” fares
- Make search-engine prices look keener: Price is a factor for the majority of us when it comes to choosing which airline to fly with and flight searches on online travel agents usually rank by fare and. A £1,799 Business Light fare is more competitive on the results page than a £2,199 fully bundled business fare, even if the products become more similar after extras are added.
- Compete with premium economy and other rival airlines: If ordinary business class is £2,500 and premium economy is £800, a £1,600 Business Light fare can create another step in the pricing ladder.
- Turn previously included benefits into upsells: Lounge access, seat selection, changes and other benefits can be sold separately. Some passengers ultimately spend nearly as much as they would have on the regular business fare.
- Protect higher fares: Instead of discounting the complete business-class product, the airline can effectively say: “We will give you a lower price, but you give up flexibility and extras.” Customers who need those benefits—particularly corporate travellers—still have a reason to buy the higher fare.
Overall, the cost savings on offering Business Light fares are not so significant, but this proposition does give airline revenue management teams much more scope when setting fares to different customer segments.
Booking a cheap(ish) business class ticket with Etihad
My personal view is that no matter the airline, there is no such thing as a cheap business class ticket, they just range from acceptably priced to super-expensive. However, I had been looking at some very competitive fares from Amsterdam to Thailand on Etihad – but then found some that were only slightly more from Heathrow to Phuket – and no inconvenience of getting over to the Netherlands.
Half way through the booking process, I was presented with this screen. For the two outward flights from Heathrow to Abu Dhabi, and from Abu Dhabi to Phuket, I could pay an extra £153 per person to upgrade from a basic Value business class ticket to business Comfort which would include things such as more air miles, extra luggage seat selection, lounge access and unlimited wifi. Alternatively for an additional £675 each, a Deluxe ticket would get me all the benefits of Comfort plus flexibility to amend or cancel the ticket for free.
Well the Deluxe ticket was never a serious consideration for our trip and I quickly disregarded paying extra for Comfort too. But afterwards I wondered if I was too hasty and maybe I would end up paying more overall for taking the Value option.
So is paying £153 extra worth it?
1) Extra 3,500 Etihad Guest Miles
I am not a member of Etihad so am planning on crediting this trip to Flying Blue anyway.
I know that my Value fare will go into booking class Z which pays 130% of miles flown. What is not clear is which booking class the Comfort ticket would go into and how many more miles I would get for that. I suspect it might go into C or D classes which would pay 175% of miles flown which in this situation would mean an extra 2,936 Flying Blue miles.
Overall value to me: £29.36 (at 1p per mile, although that is a generous valuation)
2) Extra 5kg of luggage allowance
My wife and I will be away for 11 days on holiday. I suspect if pushed we could manage to share a 35kg luggage allowance so we certainly would not need 40kg each.
Overall value to me: £0
3) Free seat selection
Just because a Value fare does not come with seat selection included, you can still pay for whatever seat you want after booking.
Costs are as follows:
- London – Abu Dhabi: £92.09
- Abu Dhabi – Phuket: £65.94
- Total: £158.03
Of course, this is pretty much the same as the cost of the overall upgrade but in business class there are rarely any bad seats. Furthermore, the cabin setup means that you are generally far more isolated from your neighbours than in economy or premium-economy so the relative importance or benefit of sitting next to your partner is low anyway.
Overall value to me: £0
4) Refund Permitted
For this particular leisure trip, our plans are relatively firm and I was comfortable accepting the restrictions of the Value fare. However, for other people flexibility may well be worth paying extra for, especially if your plans are likely to change.
Overall value to me: £0
5) Etihad Chauffeur
Comfort tickets come with a free Chauffeur service between Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi and any destination in the UAE. However, we will not be leaving the airport so this is of no value to me personally this time.
Overall value to me: £0
6) Lounge Access
You do not get lounge access included with Value tickets but paying extra for Comfort would get us in to the Lounge at Heathrow Terminal 4 and also the Etihad Business Lounge at Abu Dhabi during our layover.
However, the Etihad lounge at Heathrow is currently being refurbished and eligible Etihad Business class passengers are being sent to the well regarded Plaza Premium lounge instead, This is also available on Priority Pass (zero or £24.95 depending on your membership) or for £49.02 after a 14% Holiday Extras discount.
For the layover in Abu Dhabi, Etihad are offering paid access to their spectacular looking Etihad Business Lounge complex at Zayed International Airport for £78.64 per person. Alternatively, the Pearl (contract) lounge is available for a whopping AED 299 (over £60) but is also available on Priority Pass. However, we only have a 95 minute layover so lounge access is not something that is a necessity on this part of the trip.
Overall value to me: £49.02 (although between zero and £24.95 if you have a Priority Pass).
7) On-board wi-fi
All Etihad Guest members get free in-flight text messaging but business comfort ticket holders also receive complimentary “Surf” Wi-Fi access. For flights over 7 hours, Business Value customers are charged USD 24.99 a leg to connect to the internet properly. I will probably want web access to do some work on the first leg of the journey so I will end up paying what currently converts to £18.87
Overall value to me: £18.87
Overall
Total overall value to me: £97.25 (versus the cost of £153)
Retail value versus personal value
Each benefit can be individually priced but depending the situation, each individual’s personal value can be very different.
Here is my assessment of the additional benefits of buying a Business Comfort ticket over Business Light on London Heathrow to Phuket with Etihad.
| Benefit | Cost/value | Value to me |
|---|---|---|
| Extra miles | £29 | £29 |
| Extra 5kg luggage | Approx £100 (5kg overweight baggage) | £0 |
| Seat selection | £158 | £0 |
| Refund/flexibility | Potentially substantial | £0 |
| Etihad Chauffeur in UAE | £0-£150, depending on destination | £0 |
| Lounge access | £128 (2 lounge visits) | £49 |
| Wi-Fi | £38 (2 legs) | £19 |
| Total | £153 as a package | £97 |
Our Take
Business Light fares aren’t necessarily a bad deal. In fact, for the right traveller or right situation they can be an excellent way of getting the most important part of Business Class – the seat and onboard experience – without paying for benefits they don’t need.
The mistake is assuming either that the cheapest fare is automatically the best value or that the more expensive fare must be better because it includes more.
Our Etihad booking is a good example. Paying £153 each extra for Comfort would have given us a long list of additional benefits, but I calculated that the ones we would actually use were at the most worth around £97 each. Paying another £153 therefore would have made little sense for this particular trip.
Someone else on exactly the same flight could reach the opposite conclusion. If you want to reserve a particular seat, need the additional luggage, will use the lounge and Wi-Fi, or can take advantage of Etihad Chauffeur across the whole of the UAE, the more expensive fare can quickly become better value.
Flexibility deserves particular attention. For a leisure trip with firm plans, I may be happy to accept a restrictive ticket. For a business traveller whose meeting could move or be cancelled, paying more for a fare that can be changed or refunded may be far more important than lounge access or extra miles.
Existing memberships can also change the calculation. If you already have lounge access through Priority Pass or airline status, you will want to avoid paying for the same benefit twice.
Our approach is therefore to ignore the length of the benefits list and concentrate on what you would actually use. Check the price difference between the fares, work out what the missing benefits would cost to buy separately and, most importantly, give them a realistic personal value.
Business Light works best when the airline has removed benefits you don’t particularly care about. If you find yourself buying most of them back afterwards, you probably chose the wrong fare.
