Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.American Airlines is the only carrier now operating and promoting a 3-cabin first class product between New York and Los Angeles (and soon to be San Francisco). Fares on this route for first class are usually in the $2,935 one-way. However, there are a bunch of dates in April and May where fares are as low as $491.99 each way for the 6am departure. I generally don’t like flights that early, but I’ll always get out of bed early for a good deal!First class drastically cheaper than business classSadly, I’ve only found this fare for JFK-LAX and not the other way around, but still- the first class fare is thousands less than business class and sometimes less than $200 more than economy making this a no brainer for those traveling on the available dates.These are P fares which earn a 50% class of service bonus and 1.5 EQPs, but will incur a $200 cancellation/rebooking fee, but AA.com will let you hold fares for 24 hours so I’d recommend at least doing that because these fares will likely not last very long.I pulled up non-stop fares on the ITA Matrix for JFK-LAX in April/May/June and found the below- usually the days with $492/$500 fares are those with the super cheap 6am American Airlines departure in first class.April cheap fare datesMay cheap fare datesI flew this product recently and thought it was a really solid product and at this price it’s a no brainer!Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.Not the biggest first class seat, but certainly comfortable for a transcend and better than most other optionsYou can book through an online portal to maximize your miles/points and also put your purchase on the Premier Rewards Gold Card from American Express for 3 points per dollar spent on flights booked directly with airlines or the Sapphire Preferred, Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite Mastercard or Citi AA cards for 2x miles/points.Hat tip Dealspin
