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This is perhaps a perverse questions for a forum like this! Over the years I have used a mixture of points and paid upgrades to travel long haul business with my wife as a holiday treat and we have both become ‘addicted’ to the style! Now we are getting to a position to travel more we have to be a bit more careful on upgrades as unlike some I do not have access to seemingly endless pots of points or cash. In the last year or so I have flown sectors in economy with Turkish (2 x 4 hours) Ethiad ( 7 + 4 hours) and Qatar (7+4 hours) all OK with Qatar the best but we did look enviously at business. All much better than 4 hours with TUI (ugh!). It’s at least 7 years since I flew long haul economy with Virgin or BA but cannot imagine the experience would match the above airlines. I suppose much depends on airline and flight length plus being more flexible with locations to take advantage of sales. Thanks for your thoughts.
Not really a perverse question. Lots of people on here are happy to fly the likes of Ryanair and others who won’t touch them with a barge pole!
The site is about making the post of your points but isn’t 100% business class focussed.
I know people who will only ever fly economy (you get there the same time!) and others that will only ever fly business (I like the extra space!)
And there are the weird ones where one is happy in economy whilst the other is up front!
For sure, everyone judges value differently. Personally I never used to fly any business class flights over £1800. But post-pandemic, that’s not realistic. I think I’d still pass on £3k+ and go elsewhere, but plenty of others will not blink.
For sure, everyone judges value differently. Personally I never used to fly any business class flights over £1800. But post-pandemic, that’s not realistic. I think I’d still pass on £3k+ and go elsewhere, but plenty of others will not blink.
We’d roughly fit into this category.
PE is definitely our “standard” now, with the odd 241 thrown in.@MGOR What did you like about the better economy flights you’ve taken?
Simply put, for me, it’s worth paying for business when it allows sleep.
It’s nicer on board, and sleep means a day feeling human rather than a day feeling like crap after not sleeping. And as we get older the “day feeling like crap after not sleeping” means an increasing chance of catching a cold/covid/norovirus/whatever while run-down and being useless for several days.
There are also considerations of “does this luxurious flight save me a night of accomodation at one or both ends because I arrive ready to
work/drive or get extra time at the destination?” but sleep is the main one.And there are considerations of “if I took this money out of my company as cash I’d lose ~half of it in tax, so I feel like the £1k extra for business is really only £500”, if customer-related.
But sleep is the main thing.
Daytime flight to east coast USA, economy will do and WTP is ample.
Nighttime flight back from west coast, business.
If, like most people, your travelling is cash constrained, you will nearly always get more bang for your buck by upgrading your hotel, restaurants, oltheatre tickets or whatever than flying business class long haul. Premium economy is muchore viable.
Short haul, especially on flights of three hours or more, upgrades can be very cheap per hour. If you don’t already have access to a lounge and fast track, I’d say it’s almost always worth the extra.
I’m too old for my age sometimes but I’m getting to the point I just don”t like mixing with lots people. I just want to sit in a smaller cabin and mix with as less people through security queues and at the departure gate. Tbh If it was the same price, I’d pay to sit in the hold.
I know that wasn’t entirely the question. However, I guess it ties in the fact, the longer the flight, the more I really don’t want to be packed into a large cabin with people leaning on me and telling me that I have to move because they didn’t pay to reserve a seat next to their family.
The above relates to when I want to use my points really, or if I find value on the points. As for actual cash, for me, the price would be low. For example, I spent 800 quid once from Washington to Manchester via London but would I have spent £1500? Narr. I probably would spend 1500 from Auckland to Manchester though. It is all relative but I find value in milking the cow getting the points and redeeming those rather than spending physical cash on business seats.
Before Head for Points and Paid to Shop I had only ever been in business when my flatmate worked for Virgin. Gradually we have for more accustomed to business although rarely for cash. In 2018 we paid £1300 each for Oslo to Canberra and this made our 2023 trip down under hard to find good flights for. Eventually got a multi carrier redemption but had Mumbai to London in PE to reduce the over all points cost.
We are currently Silver and happy to travel to Spain regularly in economy as we almost always get exit seats and it leaves from LHR terminal 3 so great lounges.
I think like lots of things in life you need to occasionally not have the luxury to fully appreciate it when you do.I used to happily travel in PE/WT+ on BA. The seats were comfortable, and the leg rests meant I could sleep well. The last time I flew PE on BA, the new seats were hard and there was no leg rest. It was bloody uncomfortable. I might try PE on other carriers, but with BA if I can’t get a J or F seat I won’t travel.
20 years ago, economy on AA was fine, with a 34″ seat pitch and the perfect 2-5-2 layout. Not any more.
I find the empty middle seat in CE very helpful. The extra space really helps.
Long haul I choose business class every time. Again I appreciate tge space and the ability to stretch out.
Also since losing Silver I appreciate the lounge access that comes with the ticket.
I would rather have a shorter holiday than travel economy.
This is interesting as 2024 bookings already have me down for two long haul non-J flights. For context I’ve only done 4 in the last 20 years.
So we have a family trip to the US & Mexico. Out is in PE as it’s daytime and couldn’t in any way justify the extra x5 to go club, especially not on the BA fleet from Gatwick. However we’re back in Club as the extra was something like £80 each.
And am off to a conference later in the year. As a business owner I have to watch the pennies so again have booked Club for the overnight leg, PE for the day flight back. BA’s wifi seems pretty good so it’ll hopefully just be a day in the office.
Unless you have unlimited funds, I think it makes perfect sense to deploy cash appropriately. Will book lounge access at Gatwick with the family so that gets us fast track too – the only loss seems to be a lay flat bed for a daytime sector.
I find the CE seats very uncomfortable, and rarely travel short haul. Last thing I flew CE on the short flight to LIS I had back ache when I arrived (row 1) and on the return my knees were touching the seat in front. No thanks.
I need personal space. Not an empty seat next to me.
Flying alone: Y every time. A good book or two, a glass of wine or two in the lounge and if I still don’t feel sleepy, a movie on the IFE.
With family, short haul in Y and long haul in J.Medium haul is where it’s a dilemma. Flew J to Dubai recently and thought it wasn’t worth it as the meal services take 2 hours on either end leaving us very little time to sleep. PY going forward, as it’s both good value and you save points for the next long haul. PY on VS is good.
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I need personal space. Not an empty seat next to me.Don’t we all! But no airline offers it, so you take the best you can. I can get pretty comfortable using the extra space offered by the empty seat, and much more so than being in an exit row. A decent meal seals the deal.
Most of the really interesting places that I want to visit are either in Europe or close to Europe. We are fortunate to live in a continent with unrivaled access to history, culture, cuisine, architecture, beaches, mountains, skiing, cycling, castles, churches, museums and more. I’m not going to pass that up because the aircraft doesn’t enough legroom.
CW (or even better, F) is very nice on a day flight when you can fully enjoy the F & B and relax with a couple of films and books and not be bothered by emails etc. I would (and have) paid for this.
Nowadays I avoid overnight flights where possible, as even in CW I feel horrendous the next day. Last month we flew DOH-MAN in economy departing 1430 and arriving 1930 (albeit in exit row), and I would take this over a night flight in CW any time! It was an award booking but I’d pay cash to fly during the daytime over avios for a red eye.
We were in bed at our usual time, slept well and felt fine the next day – if we’d flown overnight we’d have just lost that day as exhausted zombies 😂
Tip for short haul – Ryanair’s exit row seats beat anything BA can offer in ET or CE in terms of leg room (row 1 on BA comes the closest if you can get that), and can be had for as little as |£11 pp extra, which I have paid for our 3-hour flights to AGP next month.
Thirty-odd years ago, I went with my mother to a pension salesman. She had 39 years in the NHS as a full-time GP and this was a small private pension pot worth c£30k.
What’s your attitude to risk, he asked. I replied: it is for my parents to travel business class in flights longer than four hours. What? he asked. It is a matter of health I replied. I have seen too many people at work retiring and going to trips of a lifetime and getting seriously ill while away. Flying is stressful.
Of course, now I am reaching that age. But the rules remain – over four hours (wee exception for the Canaries, direct from Scotland!), it’s “proper” business. Not CE.
So if fares are too high, we use points – or don’t go. Or take our time – a quick flight to Paris, a couple of nights there and then off somewhere.
I’d love to go to Egypt, but not on BA or Easyjet! So we are off to Vietnam this autumn – normal points on Qatar EDI-DOH-Hanoi.
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I need personal space. Not an empty seat next to me.… We are fortunate to live in a continent with unrivaled access to history, culture, cuisine, architecture, beaches, mountains, skiing, cycling, castles, churches, museums and more. I’m not going to pass that up because the aircraft doesn’t enough legroom.
Other continents also offer those attractions!
Alex G, I said unrivalled, not exclusive. I stand by that.
@MGOR What did you like about the better economy flights you’ve taken?
Qatar had good food good entertainment and reasonable leg room for someone who is 5ft 8 although I did feel slight hemmed in when the person in front reclined. The seat itself was not that comfortable slightly hard and not much cushioning- it was a 787. The Qatar a330 had a better seat but poorer entertainment- the seat I had on the a330 was compromised as it had a box under the seat in front for the IFE which was a bit of a pain. Not all seats had that
But the rules remain – over four hours (wee exception for the Canaries, direct from Scotland!), it’s “proper” business. Not CE.
So if fares are too high, we use points – or don’t go. Or take our time – a quick flight to Paris, a couple of nights there and then off somewhere.
I’d love to go to Egypt, but not on BA or Easyjet! So we are off to Vietnam this autumn – normal points on Qatar EDI-DOH-Hanoi.
A reasonable compromise is to fly connecting flights on economy for 3-5 hours each. Turkish is a good enough airline with decent food and a nice airport to stretch your legs before flying further.
Also, I agree with NorthernLass. Fly during daytime and its not that bad. You can still get a good nights sleep at the destination. Fly red eye, your next day will be terrible anyway!
Whenever flying long haul. If the tickets are too expensive I will not take that trip and look for alternatives.
For an East Coast USA daytime flight I have all the space I need in PE to read in comfort and that will keep me quite happy for 6 hours. I don’t need to work on flights. The food is bad in every cabin (by any sensible non-aeroplane standard). Lounges can be nice (e.g. VS Clubhouse), but it’s not worth an extra thousand quid or more versus whatever the terminal has to offer. I like to be last on the plane, not first, and can do this in any cabin :D. Business Class really has very little benefit for me in that scenario – I genuinely don’t care. Longer flights with sleep involved…. whole different ballgame. Sleeping sitting up is horrible. Maybe when I’m older this will change and I will be more bothered about additional space and recline etc during day flights; fair enough.
Short haul LCC: Hate Ryanair and will never travel again, don’t mind Jet2 at all. Have no hard facts but it FEELS like the seat pitch is 1-2 inch more generous and that is juuust enough for me to be comfortable. Getting treated well by friendly staff rather than the middle digit of Ryanair customer service helps a lot too.
Each to their own. Travel the most efficient way that will get you there in comfort that is satisfactory to you. Anybody travelling a higher cabin than they want/need just for snob value or to keep up with others or because they feel like they should is a bit bonkers.
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I need personal space. Not an empty seat next to me.Don’t we all! But no airline offers it, so you take the best you can. I can get pretty comfortable using the extra space offered by the empty seat, and much more so than being in an exit row. A decent meal seals the deal.
Most of the really interesting places that I want to visit are either in Europe or close to Europe. We are fortunate to live in a continent with unrivaled access to history, culture, cuisine, architecture, beaches, mountains, skiing, cycling, castles, churches, museums and more. I’m not going to pass that up because the aircraft doesn’t enough legroom.
You can take a train and increasingly I am leaning towards that for most of my European trips. It’s so much nicer with more space. However, I am close to reaching the point where I’ve been to every European country, so that means less short-haul, more long-haul.
@MGOR What did you like about the better economy flights you’ve taken?
Qatar had good food good entertainment and reasonable leg room for someone who is 5ft 8 although I did feel slight hemmed in when the person in front reclined. The seat itself was not that comfortable slightly hard and not much cushioning- it was a 787. The Qatar a330 had a better seat but poorer entertainment- the seat I had on the a330 was compromised as it had a box under the seat in front for the IFE which was a bit of a pain. Not all seats had that
I haven’t had nice experience with QR last year and I especially dislike QR suite. Everything was fine, it’s just that service was so robotic, food nothing special (I cook better at home!) and seat claustrophobic. Also very little personal space compared to other ME airlines and other Asian carriers. I will be avoiding them at all costs.
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