Another newcomer that's garnering interest is V Australia, an affiliate of Australia's Virgin Blue, which recently launched nonstop flights from Sydney to Los Angeles and is offering three classes of service on its Boeing 777—coach, premium economy, and business/first. V Australia had postponed its launch twice, but with Delta planning to jump into the Aussie market this summer, it couldn't wait any longer. It promises to bring fares down in what has been a high-priced route for U.S. travelers: In February, V Australia was offering round-trip fares as low as $549 in economy for its upcoming Los Angeles-Melbourne nonstops and about $2,000 in premium economy, about half the going rate on Qantas and well below what other carriers are charging.

The odds of survival are slim for a new airline, and a number of all-premium-class carriers—Eos, Maxjet, and Silverjet among them—have come and gone in the past two years. But this new crop of upstarts are backed by major airlines, meaning that even if they go bust, ticketed passengers are less likely to lose their money.

CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS
The global scale-back of business travel means that now may be the most affordable time in memory to fly in business or first class. Cash-strapped companies are not just cutting the number of trips they authorize—fewer executives are allowed to fly up front, leaving airlines desperate to fill these coveted seats.

There are several paths you can take to the front: One is to purchase advance-purchase business- or first-class fares on the top international airlines, such as American, British Airways, or Lufthansa. Although they don't publicize it, these carriers often offer deep discounts on premium seats more than 45 days before a flight—sometimes as many as 60 or 90 days. But you have to act fast: The stealth sales come and go so quickly that you have to make an effort to seek them out. Saturday nights are reportedly one of the top times for airlines to release deeply discounted seats. You can also pay a commission and book a discounted premium-class seat (savings vary widely) through a consolidator such as Etravelbid.com or Cook-American Express. Another way to save big on first- and business-class fares is to book on a foreign carrier that you might not expect to fly a particular route. Some examples are Air Tahiti from Los Angeles to Paris; Malaysia Airlines from Newark to Stockholm; Air India from Chicago and New York to Europe; and even Kuwait Airways, which flies thrice weekly from New York to London's Heathrow.

Many other carriers that are household names may offer significant savings on some unexpected routes. These include Air New Zealand from Los Angeles to London, Cathay Pacific from New York to Vancouver, and Singapore Airlines from Houston to Moscow—surely one of the strangest routes, but one that made perfect sense when it was launched in early 2008, when oil prices were on their way to record highs and no one could have predicted what was to come.