Spending It

coyrls

CPT is the airport code for Cape Town (I am not in the know, I had to look it up).

Secret2ndAccount

Important to know your BHM from your BHX

Nebulous2

The idea of spending doesn't bother me. I've less to spend than many (most) people on here, but had a very spendy year last year, 3 foreign holidays, 2 of them long haul, new vehicle and new caravan. I've found the benefits of decent outdoor gear, expensive walking boots, and good waterproof / windproof kit. 

I've a longer- standing spending habit on bikes and cycling kit, I try not to look at some of it, in case I get a flashback about how much it cost. 

And yet - I'm assuming most of you aren't from a Calvinistic / hairshirt background - I can't bring myself to fly business class.

I had a 5 week antipodean adventure. Travelled to some gorgeous places. Let loose with the spending on food, and to a lesser extent with accommodation. 

The economy return flights were around £1300 each, and business class was over £5000. Another £7000! It's only 24 hours for goodness sake. Think about the original travellers to those regions. Think about 6 weeks on a boat for people emigrating much later. 

I really think I'd blow a fuse rather than pay for business class. 

Despite all that I've been considering collecting airmiles / avios to try to blag a free / reduced cost business class trip, just to see why people rave about it. 

Twinsdad1844

Bulkhead seats on Virgin for £60, worth every legroom penny........

Secret2ndAccount

Nebulous2 said:

... I can't bring myself to fly business class. ...
The economy return flights were around £1300 each, and business class was over £5000. Another £7000! ...

I generally agree. I have a fairness doctrine, hence my comment about refusing to pay £5 for Ben & Jerry's. You will notice in my comment, I referred to slightly nicer airline seats.
From my limited research, in a £5 pot of B&J, the CARDBOARD POT costs 15p, and the ice-cream less than 50p. The mark-up is huge.  When I apply the same math to long haul flights, yes of course there is a large mark-up on Biz class, but it's not actually fair to look at it as a multiple of cattle class. They make a loss on cattle class. If a plane flew (long haul) with economy full, and the front empty, they would not make any money. So, whilst the Biz seats are too expensive, the Econ seats are too cheap. It's not totally fair to build your view of what it should cost from the price of the cheapest seat.  If we all made a stand, and everybody refused to pay the price in Biz, they would have to start charging more for Econ. The rich are subsidising the poor.
So whilst I do baulk at the price of flat seats in Biz, I'm not saying I would never pay it. My fairness doctrine would permit it.

zagfles

Nebulous2 said:

The idea of spending doesn't bother me. I've less to spend than many (most) people on here, but had a very spendy year last year, 3 foreign holidays, 2 of them long haul, new vehicle and new caravan. I've found the benefits of decent outdoor gear, expensive walking boots, and good waterproof / windproof kit. 

I've a longer- standing spending habit on bikes and cycling kit, I try not to look at some of it, in case I get a flashback about how much it cost. 

And yet - I'm assuming most of you aren't from a Calvinistic / hairshirt background - I can't bring myself to fly business class.

I had a 5 week antipodean adventure. Travelled to some gorgeous places. Let loose with the spending on food, and to a lesser extent with accommodation. 

The economy return flights were around £1300 each, and business class was over £5000. Another £7000! It's only 24 hours for goodness sake. Think about the original travellers to those regions. Think about 6 weeks on a boat for people emigrating much later. 

I really think I'd blow a fuse rather than pay for business class. 

Despite all that I've been considering collecting airmiles / avios to try to blag a free / reduced cost business class trip, just to see why people rave about it. 

Invariably the thing people rave about most is the flat bed. I do find it amusing that people who'd never contemplate sleeping in a hostel dorm think that doing effectively the same thing in the sky is the height of luxury 

artyboy

MallyGirl said:

artyboy said:

....ALWAYS to a nicer seat on the plane. The sort that goes flat when you are traveling long haul.

We each have our red lines. That's mine!

Generally I am with you but occasionally the uplift is just ridiculous. When we go back to Canada west coast or revisit New Zealand it will definitely be in a nicer seat but our safari next year in Tanzania has prioritised the land based stuff at the expense of less nice flying. I am tall and I just can't sleep with the seat in front of me pressing in to my knees.

Completely agree that there is a price point to be aware of, but the advantage of advancing age is that I can afford to be more flexible on travel dates, when I book, and who I fly with.

There will always be occasions when you may HAVE to be somewhere at a specific time, but generally, there are always options to get a comfy seat at a 'reasonable' cost if you can play the game.

(Said just after coming off a flight with a flat bed at an almost embarrassingly cheap price  )

zagfles

Secret2ndAccount said:

Nebulous2 said:

... I can't bring myself to fly business class. ...
The economy return flights were around £1300 each, and business class was over £5000. Another £7000! ...

I generally agree. I have a fairness doctrine, hence my comment about refusing to pay £5 for Ben & Jerry's. You will notice in my comment, I referred to slightly nicer airline seats.
From my limited research, in a £5 pot of B&J, the CARDBOARD POT costs 15p, and the ice-cream less than 50p. The mark-up is huge.  When I apply the same math to long haul flights, yes of course there is a large mark-up on Biz class, but it's not actually fair to look at it as a multiple of cattle class. They make a loss on cattle class. If a plane flew (long haul) with economy full, and the front empty, they would not make any money. So, whilst the Biz seats are too expensive, the Econ seats are too cheap. It's not totally fair to build your view of what it should cost from the price of the cheapest seat.  If we all made a stand, and everybody refused to pay the price in Biz, they would have to start charging more for Econ. The rich are subsidising the poor.
So whilst I do baulk at the price of flat seats in Biz, I'm not saying I would never pay it. My fairness doctrine would permit it.

A lot of products have ridiculous gross markups, stuff like coke, perfume etc where the product costs virtually nothing to produce and is heavily marketed.

On the "fairness" angle as well as fairness between customer and supplier there's also the issue of fairness between customers, personally my fairness doctrine would extend to not subsidising other customers! Having said that, flight costs are heavly cross subsidised within classes, the amount 2 people pay for the exact same flight/class can be vastly different depending on when they bought the ticket. Partcularly on "budget" airlines. 

BikingBud

Fairness might apply is sports or playing games but surely the criteria here is value for money.

Do I consider the cost presents value.

I do not waste money but if the quality is increased by an uplift in price then is it worth it to me?

Meat pies are to my mind the best example.

A cheap pie has little meat. What there is will likely be the cheap cuts and poor tasteless gravy, that's why it is only a few quid but I am still dissatisfied and will not buy again

Buy a more expensive pie with more, better quality of meat and tasty gravy then the satisfaction rate will be higher and I would buy again.

I might try the pie with the gold leaf on the crust out of curiosity but might find the meat and taste is no better and I am being charged too much for the novelty. So generally will go back to meaty tasty pie. 

Across all consumer expenditure I will apply the same, I know what my daily allowable expenditure is but I won't blow it on something that add little satisfaction and therefore is poor value.

At some point when I decide to disappear on my bike for a few months, living within the daily budget might pay for that posh hotel for a few days vice the roadside camping. When I need a shower and proper bed that will be very good value.

Nebulous2

Secret2ndAccount said:

Nebulous2 said:

... I can't bring myself to fly business class. ...
The economy return flights were around £1300 each, and business class was over £5000. Another £7000! ...

I generally agree. I have a fairness doctrine, hence my comment about refusing to pay £5 for Ben & Jerry's. You will notice in my comment, I referred to slightly nicer airline seats.
From my limited research, in a £5 pot of B&J, the CARDBOARD POT costs 15p, and the ice-cream less than 50p. The mark-up is huge.  When I apply the same math to long haul flights, yes of course there is a large mark-up on Biz class, but it's not actually fair to look at it as a multiple of cattle class. They make a loss on cattle class. If a plane flew (long haul) with economy full, and the front empty, they would not make any money. So, whilst the Biz seats are too expensive, the Econ seats are too cheap. It's not totally fair to build your view of what it should cost from the price of the cheapest seat.  If we all made a stand, and everybody refused to pay the price in Biz, they would have to start charging more for Econ. The rich are subsidising the poor.
So whilst I do baulk at the price of flat seats in Biz, I'm not saying I would never pay it. My fairness doctrine would permit it.

In some ways I think you've just made it worse for me. The very rich people, or the people who actually are in business class, for business use, is one thing, but the people where business class is a bit of a stretch that have convinced themselves its worth it, or they need it, to then be paying to subsidise the rest of us in the cheap seats is even worse. 

That's where the high multiple comes from, its a snob tax. 

I've got this cultural thing, which as I implied may be part of my upbringing, about hardship having some value. Enduring something for 24 hours, doesn't seem like a big deal. 

Another way of looking at it is what else I could do with that money. I could get 5-6 weeks touring Europe, on what I had saved by not going business class. So 6 weeks of lovely French / Spanish food and wine versus 48 hours of slightly more discomfort on a plane.