Business or First class international airfare
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Anonymous
| We’ve been flying first class domestically for about 7 years or so but during the peaks of Covid we got nuts and traveled via a PJ numerous times. It’s like crack cocaine. If I’m traveling without my husband I fly coach which is just as nuts. I’m sure a good shrink could analyze my behavior. |
Anonymous
| Depends on the cost difference from coach. We fly coach, premium economy, or first depending on the pricing and timing. I think $20k for a business one-way international trip for a family of four is ridiculous for instance. But if you shop and time it well, you can get that same leg at about $7-8k, which is more than economy but not outrageously more. |
Anonymous
BTW, a neat trick we use here is to purchase tickets on two separate itineraries. DH is a 2 million miler on United with Global Services, so he has gifted the same status to me (this is a million miler benefit on United). So, when we fly, we show up as two separate parties, both of which have Global Services status. He will almost always pay $$$ for his own business class tix, even for personal flights, which helps him maintain his GS elite status – need to spend well over $50K+ on airfare to even be considered. Then, kids and I will book the same flights separately using with FF miles into business class or using $$$ into coach with DH’s PlusPoints upgrading us into business class. Works great most of the time, but you need to be smart about knowing when PlusPoints used by a GS will clear for multiple people in advance or not. Domestic between major hubs like IAD and SFO, rarely. Domestic to regional airports or international, almost always. |
Anonymous
| For long flights, business class. It makes a huge difference. It's not just the flight, it's the next 24 hours after the flight. One trick that sometimes works is to book the highest level of economy. When you get to the gate, ask if you can be upgraded to business. If there are empty seats, they will sell you an upgrade for as little as $300. |
Anonymous
| For me, its not just about money. It’s about how many years of travel I have left in me. At mid-50s, maybe 20 years of active travel. So I want to make sure my trips are good. And if that means paying to sleep on an overnight flight, I’ll do that. |
Anonymous
DP here but with similar net worth. We do international travel for vacations about twice a year. However, we have always flown coach. Neither of us have any business travel so we don't earn points/miles that way, and our vacation travel also too infrequent. We don't generally budget - the concept is irrational to us, but to each their own. We spend money on things that bring us value that is congruent with the cost, and business class vs coach just doesn't work out on that front. For our most recent 2-week trip to Europe, coach tickets were about $4k, and business class would have been somewhere around $18k-$22k. This was a 9 hour flight. To put that into perspective, that's about $7.40 per minute per person just to enjoy the comforts of sitting/sleeping in business class. Jetlag is going to be an issue regardless of how much rest you get on the plane. That $16k is just going to be *FAR* more enjoyable elsewhere on the trip - 5-star accommodations, show tickets, fine dining, exclusive excursions, etc. Sure, with relatively high networth, we could afford all of those things in addition to paying $16k on business class, but one of the reasons we've been able to build our NW is to not waste it on things that don't bring us enjoyment that match the cost. |
Anonymous
| Used to fly business class to Eastern Europe via Aeroflot for under $4000 round trip. Alas this is no longer an option. |
Anonymous
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Having flown international business and first class dozens of times in my early 20s as a consultant -- not worth it unless your company is paying for it.
At the end of the day you are still confined in a dark tiny space for 12 hours and first class food still tastes awful given what the altitude and cabin humidity does to your taste buds (chefs compensate by loading the food with extra sodium leading to bloating and constipation to start your trip). Accept the suck and do better things with your money. |
Anonymous
I generally agree with this and it is how we do things except when international is under $8-10k for business class for four. So, if the coach seats are $4k to Europe but the business class are double the cost at $8k, I will sometimes do it. But if they are $16k, I won’t. |
Anonymous
Pp here. My costs are also for 4 people. I would have to think about it if Business was "only" 2x more. Still, dropping $4k a day in an European city is going to guarantee a wildly good time. Business class is just "meh". I think I would be okay with an extra 500 a person for a transatlantic flight. |
Anonymous
PP here. I wouldn’t spend $16K on business class tickets for a single trip either. That’s crazy. I might spend $6K on coach and then use PlusPoints to upgrade to business. I might spend $4K for my own business class ticket and then use FF miles for the rest of the family. Quite frankly, anyone paying cash out of pocket for all of their personal business or first class tickets is either ultra-rich or ultra-dumb. You have got to take advantage of FF miles, hotel points, and elite status to cover the majority of your personal upgrades into luxury suites and comfortable seats. My family of four and I are traveling to France next week for seven nights. All four of us are flying business class round-trip on United. We also have two rooms booked at the Paris Park Hyatt Vendôme. Kids are sharing a room with 2 twin beds. DH and I have a Park Suite King. The total amount of cash we’re spending for 4 round-trip business class tickets and 1 room and 1 suite, each for 7 nights at a luxury hotel in Paris? $556, and this is just for taxes on the airfare!! The typical cash rates for these two rooms is €1,305 and €1,710, respectively. You’re spending more than 7X on just your coach airfare as I am on substantially more luxurious business airfare as well as top notch lodging. This is one of the reasons we've been able to build our NW: not wasting it on things that don't bring us enjoyment that match the cost. |
Anonymous
By leveraging points and miles that you earn anyway through business travel, you’re basically saving $40K+ over non-points travelers trying to achieve the same experience and level of luxury…on a single trip. That’s a lot of $$$ that can be redirected towards saving for college, retirement, or just general building of net worth. |
Anonymous
PP here. That's apples and oranges. You can't earn this level of FF points and elite status by traveling twice a year for vacations like we do. You are subsidizing your vacation travel either by 1) frequent business travel paid for by others, or 2) earning points through credit card spending, which is money you could have otherwise earned as cash back at 2% or higher. You said it yourself that you have a 50k a year budget to pay for business class seats, which incidentally is about the amount of annual spend required to maintain United Global Services status. The fact that your were able to save up and target your points to pay for this one vacation travel neglects the fact that some people, including you, have poured money to earn these perks in the past - cost that can't be ignored just because you want to brag about laying less than 600 for a luxury vacation. Look, never mind the luxury hotel, if business class only cost 600 for four people, I would gladly pay for it. It doesn't.Business class tickets are expensive no matter how you paid for them - they are not worth it to me after a full accounting of the costs. |
Anonymous
| We always flew coach until we reached 60 then started flying business class internationally but economy domestically. We use to fly American because for many years their economy plus section had more leg room which was great then they abandoned that to cram in more seats. Once that was gone and we reached 65 we decided to give up the cattle car experience, fighting for an overhead bin and having the idiot in front of me throwing his seat all the back and jamming my knees. Domestic first class is nothing but a bigger seat and free booze but at our ages (70) I think we’ve earned it. International business class is a must because at 70, despite being in pretty good shape, sitting up all night is an awful way to start a trip. |
Anonymous
Just to clarify, this is a $50K travel budget total, and not all of it is spent on business and first class airfare. The $50K we spend in cash results in leisure travel that is easily worth $150K+, as it is heavily augmented with optimized use of FF miles and hotel points, both of which are earned at minimal cost via business travel. This is another form of career compensation that is particularly valuable to a travel-heavy family like ours. This is also hardly a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence; we travel like this as a family several times per year. If you don’t have a job that provides this sort of compensation, you either need to be happy flying in coach and staying at dingy Airbnbs or you need to have a job that pays an additional $150K-$200K per year to cover additional, discretionary travel expenses. Not everyone is supposed to be able to afford to fly business class. |