Who can afford First Class prices?

[Anonymous]

I think a lot of people use points for first class upgrades

[Anonymous]

we get busines class for any trip longer than 6 hours for our whole family. We never paid more than 4k / person round trip to europe (16hours total) and 7k /person round trip from asia (28hour total)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of people use points for first class upgrades

Not anymore; it's nearly impossible, whether international or domestic. I haven't received an upgrade to business or first class with points ever, as they are always sold out. we just pay now adays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most are definitely NOT 12k. Just searched for a 10 day trip Dulles to Rome late September. $3600 roundtrip business on Swiss Air.

Still a lot, admittedly, especially for say 4 people, but not even close to 12k/person.

Wrong, I just looked, it is $12,800 per person from DCA all the way through 2026

IAD to FCO round trip is $4k in business for the dates I checked (April and July)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of people use points for first class upgrades

Not anymore; it's nearly impossible, whether international or domestic. I haven't received an upgrade to business or first class with points ever, as they are always sold out. we just pay now adays.

Yeah it's only possible if you are really high level elite with an airline to get an upgrade to business internationally. Even then much harder than it used to be- they make very few seats available, want to sell them for cash instead

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most are definitely NOT 12k. Just searched for a 10 day trip Dulles to Rome late September. $3600 roundtrip business on Swiss Air.

Still a lot, admittedly, especially for say 4 people, but not even close to 12k/person.

Wrong, I just looked, it is $12,800 per person from DCA all the way through 2026

IAD to FCO round trip is $4k in business for the dates I checked (April and July)

I think OP. Is being purposely obtuse or misleading with that $12k number

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I expect my husband and I will fly at least business when we aren’t taking the kids. He does it for work and has a hard time getting comfortable in economy due to health issues. At least for anything more than a couple of hours.

We’ll budget for it just like any other travel expense. Maybe it will mean traveling less often or for shorter times.

Same. We both have back and neck issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just for fun, I will look up the cost of first class/business lay-down flat seats on flights. I am astounded at the prices.

Just looked at a direct round trip from one major US east coast city to a European major city. $12,000! And it isn't an anomaly - most of them are in this price range.

Seriously. Do people actually pay these prices?? Are companies justifying this for their business travelers? For others, do they burn up all their travel points and if so, it must be in the hundreds of thousands LOL.

My husband buys these for business. All the time. He's now Global Services on United. When he flies somewhere and pays full fare, I can get an auto business set using miles for an economy set. They will bump me up at the time of booking for no extra miles. It's the perk of global services - so basically 2 for the price of 1.

We do this a lot.

We also buy a lot of fully refundable full price economy and use plus points or miles to upgrade international seats for our kids or for leisure travel. So that 12k ticket is now $3k each. They will push those upgrades through too.

[Anonymous]

Starting your journey from DC adds a LOT to the bottom line. For example, I have 10 hour flight on United at the end of the month. If I start from IAD the price was, when I booked, 8700 and change. But, if I book the flight starting from Florida (first leg MIA to IAD then the exact flight from IAD), it is 2200. So I'll fly to Miami, and then start my journey from there. The extra step and cost is worth the 6000 savings.

[Anonymous]

We just book two trips in first/business one to Paris onAir France first and it was about 14k per person. And one to Bangkok on United business/Polaris it was about 9500 each.

We budget for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Starting your journey from DC adds a LOT to the bottom line. For example, I have 10 hour flight on United at the end of the month. If I start from IAD the price was, when I booked, 8700 and change. But, if I book the flight starting from Florida (first leg MIA to IAD then the exact flight from IAD), it is 2200. So I'll fly to Miami, and then start my journey from there. The extra step and cost is worth the 6000 savings.

Yep. We do a similar thing via NYC. International business is usually $1-2K less out of NYC airports than IAD.

JetBlue Mint in particular can usually be a steal at $2500ish RT w lie flat suite seating from JFK to Europe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Starting your journey from DC adds a LOT to the bottom line. For example, I have 10 hour flight on United at the end of the month. If I start from IAD the price was, when I booked, 8700 and change. But, if I book the flight starting from Florida (first leg MIA to IAD then the exact flight from IAD), it is 2200. So I'll fly to Miami, and then start my journey from there. The extra step and cost is worth the 6000 savings.

If you have to fly to Miami to reach Europe, you cannot afford to fly Business Class. Time is much more valuable and there’s no way I’d tack on a 3 hour flight plus layover for this. There’s no way you are finding $6,000 in savings by doing this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Starting your journey from DC adds a LOT to the bottom line. For example, I have 10 hour flight on United at the end of the month. If I start from IAD the price was, when I booked, 8700 and change. But, if I book the flight starting from Florida (first leg MIA to IAD then the exact flight from IAD), it is 2200. So I'll fly to Miami, and then start my journey from there. The extra step and cost is worth the 6000 savings.

Yep. We do a similar thing via NYC. International business is usually $1-2K less out of NYC airports than IAD.

JetBlue Mint in particular can usually be a steal at $2500ish RT w lie flat suite seating from JFK to Europe.

This makes more sense. Still not worth it to fight lines at JFK but sounds more reasonable than flying to Miami.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Booking ahead, it usually isn't quite that expensive, especially if you book at non-peak times/days.

The higher prices are really geared towards business travelers.

Most of the cabin these days is not points travelers - those days are long gone. Airlines are filling the seats with paid tickets.

I just booked a fist class ticket to India for $12k off peak on a random weekday. It's work travel.

Good on you. If they want you to travel all the way to India they have to make it comfortable. Where are they putting you up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Starting your journey from DC adds a LOT to the bottom line. For example, I have 10 hour flight on United at the end of the month. If I start from IAD the price was, when I booked, 8700 and change. But, if I book the flight starting from Florida (first leg MIA to IAD then the exact flight from IAD), it is 2200. So I'll fly to Miami, and then start my journey from there. The extra step and cost is worth the 6000 savings.

Yep. We do a similar thing via NYC. International business is usually $1-2K less out of NYC airports than IAD.

JetBlue Mint in particular can usually be a steal at $2500ish RT w lie flat suite seating from JFK to Europe.

This makes more sense. Still not worth it to fight lines at JFK but sounds more reasonable than flying to Miami.

What lines? Between premier lane access via your business class ticket, precheck for departure / global entry for arrival, and clear depending on the terminal - you should be covered??