Upper Class Virgin - Worth it?

pelirocco

personally I would always like a'bed' on long haul because of lower back problems. I've flown UC on virgin a few times but down find their beds very comfortable. I have just flown back from US in PE on one of their new Airbuses much nicer plane so not sure if UC beds are better . The beds on BA business class are better.My sister rates Emeritates business class very highly

zagfles

Heathrow has improved a lot - the security queues and wait for baggage always used to be long, but this time it was a breeze, maybe 10 min queue at security and the gate area was nice and comfy with good views of the runway which the kids enjoyed, and free newspapers etc. No cocktails etc - had to wait till we were on the plane for that!

Baggage off surprisingly quick when we got back.

bb69

Go for it and enjoy the experience. You will never know until you try but be prepared to get the upper class bug!

blindman

MrsE wrote: »

Because you're using them day in day out. Its not a fleeting experience.

My car is just as comfy as the £70K one so that's no argument.

The point is I would not pay that much for a car but I would pay a premium for a better airline experience.

Some would do it the other way round.:cool:

MrsE_2

blindman wrote: »

My car is just as comfy as the £70K one so that's no argument.

The point is I would not pay that much for a car but I would pay a premium for a better airline experience.

Some would do it the other way round.:cool:

No way would a 6k car be as comfy as a 70k car.
I like to have a 4x4, I like to buy new, a known entity.
I plan to make my next one the 15k Dacia, it's economical & very good on fuel.
But if I won the lotto, it would be a range rover :-)
If I had a bigger budget than 15k, I would stick with Japanese, I suppose another Suzuki wouldn't be much more & Korean are great value & a great name, but the fuel consumption of the Dacia is very tempting.
But would I want a 6k tin can for country roads, flooded & pot holed.

claret_mike

So what you are saying is if you had the budget to buy, you would buy better?

Thats all people are saying about their purchasing on their holiday/trip experience.

I bet you could get an equally comfy car for around the £30k mark as you could for £70k.

People choose to spend their money on cigarettes/alcohol/following a football team, having 4 holidays a year rather than 1 or 2... There isn't a right or wrong answer here other than whatever you do, do it within your means...

zagfles

blindman wrote: »

My car is just as comfy as the £70K one so that's no argument.

The point is I would not pay that much for a car but I would pay a premium for a better airline experience.

Some would do it the other way round.:cool:

True, but the OP was asking about flights, not cars, in particular whether it's worth paying £2k for them to upgrade their flight. The fact that other people "waste" money on other stuff like cars isn't relevant to that question.

zagfles

claret_mike wrote: »

So what you are saying is if you had the budget to buy, you would buy better?

Thats all people are saying about their purchasing on their holiday/trip experience.

I bet you could get an equally comfy car for around the £30k mark as you could for £70k.

People choose to spend their money on cigarettes/alcohol/following a football team, having 4 holidays a year rather than 1 or 2... There isn't a right or wrong answer here other than whatever you do, do it within your means...

Of course there's no right or wrong answer. But the OP asked a question, is it worth them spending £2k on upgrading their flights. People are giving their opinions on that. I'm explaining why I think it's a ridiculous waste of money and others are explaining why they think it's worth it.

That's the idea of a message board. There's plenty of stuff I do that others would consider a waste of money, but we're not talking about them, we're talking about flight upgrades here.

claire16c

Ive been upgraded a couple of times and used miles to upgrade but I wouldnt dream of paying for it.

I dont know about Virgin but the flights with BA to Tokyo are often pretty busy if you book a certain day of the week, so you might be better off booking premium economy and hoping for a free upgrade if the flight was overbooked and if you dont get it youre still in a better seat.

When I have sat in in business from an upgrade, my friend who works for the airline has checked the system and one time there was only 1 passenger who had paid for their seat, everyone else was upgraded. Id feel like a bit of a fool for having paid for it.

I dont think the cost represents value. Like said above you could spend the same on a hotel and sleep in a suite or something for your whole holiday.

ferf1223

bb69 wrote: »

Go for it and enjoy the experience. You will never know until you try but be prepared to get the upper class bug!

Agree...there's no chance of a consensus about whether it's worth it or not as there's way too much personal preference involved but the OP has a variety of views to review and consider at least.

Strictly speaking we don't think upgraded cabins are necessarily value for money as such...but they can be worth it to us for the additional comfort on long-haul flights. I'm a nervous traveller (not a nervous flyer but I am always sure something outside of our control will go wrong pretty much to the point we are in the air)...and have found flying even PE takes away a lot of the anxiety...priority security, priority boarding, more baggage allowance (less 'will it be over the limit?' worrying), no crushed knees for 10 hours because the person in front reclines all the way the second they're allowed, seating configurations that mean no chance of getting stuck in a middle seat, more room to spread out a bit on the flight, etc.

I know plenty of people who would think it's a waste of money and I can see where they are coming from...to us it' can be worth it though.