How rich would you have to be to pay for business class flights?

duchy

To make it less of a DT question (which IMO it isn't anyway) and more of a travel question..........

Only the mega rich actually pay for themselves-many of the people in business and first are frequent travellers who are upgraded for this reason or have "paid" to upgrade using miles or are on company paid ticklets anyway. You'd be surprised how few people in a first or business cabin *have* paid the full fare.

I fly to the US maybe 3 or 4 times a year and as I use one airline for all my trips it adds up to enough miles that they regard me as a frequent traveller and always upgrade me to first class with in the US (and let me know I've been "moved" 4 or 5 days ahead). If I can make it 5 trips a year then I'd have enough status to get the free upgrades on transatlantic too. You don't need to be rich -you just need to know how the system works in a lot of cases-which I guess is true MSE-ing

I always travel on the cheapest fares btw

miffyhugmuffin

ScarletBea wrote: »

I went business to Sydney.
Worth every single penny of the around £1900 cost: a great part of my holidays, zero jetlag, and absolutely no back pain throughout the entire trip (which I suffer a bit).

I have only ever done long haul business once and that was on airmiles, but I'm worried I might have developed a taste for it! I guess that's partly what the airlines want to happen. I went to Sydney in economy once and it was pretty grim, took me nearly a week to get over the jetlag.

duchy

I've done the London Sydney in economy once....like you it took so long to recover I'd never fly it direct again -it was a killer-even though it was a very decent airline.

Tojo_Ralph

duchy wrote: »

To make it less of a DT question (which IMO it isn't anyway) and more of a travel question.

I believe it was Martin himself who suggested that this board was split because the powers that be had received lots of comments about the the travel board being too crowded full and full of I wannas rather than actually sharing MoneySaving tips...... Thus I think it is safe to say that a poll and general chinwag about "how rich would you have to be to pay for business class flights" has DT written all over it.

duchy wrote: »

Only the mega rich actually pay for themselves

I know plenty of people who fall far short of mega rich and who choose to fly Business Class, paying for it out of their own pockets..... All it takes is a little planning ahead and taking advantage of specials to make Business Class fares attractive and affordable.

duchy wrote: »

I fly to the US maybe 3 or 4 times a year and as I use one airline for all my trips it adds up to enough miles that they regard me as a frequent traveller and always upgrade me to first class within the US

What the US calls First Class within the US falls way short of even the low end carriers Business Class medium haul and First Class travel within the US is thus very affordable...... Hence the freely issued upgrades. Recently a colleague was upgraded on four out of four internal US Skyteam flights off the back of holding just a Silver FB card!!
...

miffyhugmuffin

duchy wrote: »

If I can make it 5 trips a year then I'd have enough status to get the free upgrades on transatlantic too. You don't need to be rich -you just need to know how the system works in a lot of cases-which I guess is true MSE-ing

Oh yes, I like playing the system! Went to LA with Air France using miles I'd built up with KLM's Flying Poo (opps, in mean Flying Blue) programme. However, I don't travel through work so despite using KLM exclusively for a few years, I still only managed to scrape together the necessary miles because at the time they were doing a special 50% discount on miles needed.

Got a couple of trips booked on my BMI airmiles (miles mainly collected with the credit card), so looking forward to that, but when they have gone my business class days are over.

duchy

If you like playing the miles game then www.flyertalk.com is definitely worth a visit. Takes a bit of researching but there's plenty of ways to get extra miles and some good promotions running right now.

Actually the biggest plus for me with status isn't the miles (although they are very nice) but the prebookable seating. Certain seats are only bookable in advance if you have the status and it means I always get an exit row which to me makes a huge difference.

(See this thread is getting more travel and less DT by the minute )

Tojo_Ralph

duchy wrote: »

(See this thread is getting more travel and less DT by the minute )

Only by going off topic. :think:

Trust_2

I would never ever pay for business as purely I am on the flight for 2-23 hours and that is it,
Whilst , when I arrive I would book into the best hotels.
I am a frequent flyer (Very) and the whole logic of paying so much for a couple of hours does not work
But this is my opinion.

richardw

Trust wrote: »

I am a frequent flyer (Very) and the whole logic of paying so much for a couple of hours does not work

What if it was say £110 extra one way for premium economy on a 14 hour flight, less than £10 extra per hour, would you pay that?

worldtraveller

I generally fly economy short haul and business class long haul. When long haul I will rarely pay a business class fare as such, but will often pay for a premium economy and use FF miles to upgrade. That always seems to be the cheapest way for me, as I rarely need a fully flexible ticket.