Should I blow my bonus on business class tickets to Europe

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this is a first word problem, but that's what this forum is largely about, right? DH and I are taking the kids(6 and 5) to Europe in the fall. Business class tickets are $20k for the four of us! There is a small one-off bonus coming my way that will be about $15k after taxes. This bonus is unexpected and won't be something that will happen again soon. Would you splurge and spend it on the tickets or would you fly coach. The kids have been to Europe before once and we flew business, but it was half the price. At that time, I thought that business class was worth it because the kids had no jet lag whatsoever. WWYD?

Please don’t! I doubt your children are well mannered enough to behave properly in business class. There are few things in life more disturbing than explicitly paying to distance one’s self from unwanted nuisances, only to have those same nuisances take financially unreasonable and uncomfortable steps to embed themselves closer and into places they’re neither wanted nor belong. Your children belong in coach for the next five years, as do you and your DH, my dear.

Not really true for everyone---We took our 4 and 8yo to Israel (14 hours) in business/flat beds. Our kids were extremely well behaved, slept for 6-7 hours and then watched TV. It is possible for 4-5yo to actually behave.

+1 my 2 and 5 year olds behaved beautifully when we traveled from the US to South Africa in business and slept the majority of the time. In contrast our subsequent trip in coach was a disaster as they hardly slept at all and whined nonstop about being uncomfortable. If they are going to act up (which of course we try our best to prevent), frankly I’d just as soon they inconvenience a few wealthy/frequent business class passengers rather than the people in coach, some of whom simply taking an international trip at all may be something they have saved for for years.

I've dealt with plenty of obnoxious grown ass adults in first/business. Majority of kids I've encountered have been pretty well behaved. Purchasing first/business is no guarantee for perfect behavior from anyone

+1 I'd rather have a kid (not a baby, but a screen obsessed kid, as most of them are), than a snore-y or drunk adult almost every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hard to give you guidance without knowing your financial situation. What would Suze orman say to you? Are your kids college accounts funded? How about your retirement savings? Do you have other big expenses you’ve been putting off (renovations, car replacement?) I fly internationally all the time for work (or at least I did for CoViD). I also fly internationally on much longer flights than Europe 2x/year with two elementary age kids and I would never pay for business class out of my own pocket. Kids are short and don’t feel the leg room as acutely as adults and with the screens on the seat they don’t notice much else. That money could pay for a lot of tuition or some really nice summer camps or extracurriculars. But if you’re rich, go forth and enjoy the lie down seat.

+1 How are we supposed to answer the OP when she gave us zero details on her money and finances. No wonder 90% of these responses just talk about the nature of flying in business class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would go premium economy.

I never really understood the benefit of economy plus (unless you are 6’2”+). Honest question.

I fortunately I have a teenager and a husband who is 6’4 and we have to upgrade them. My self and my younger 2 sit in regular. I notice that really fat people probably need to be in economy plus ad well. Im 5’10 and regular economy doesn’t bother me. Girder I’m thin and it’s easy for me to move around.

Depending on the plane premium economy can be much better than just more leg room. We flew to Europe recently on United and the flight there had a 2 2 2 configuration for premium economy (vs 2 3 2 for coach) so you got more leg room and more width as well. On the return flight the plane was smaller and premium economy was just a regular 3 and 3 with more leg room like you usually see on domestic flights.

[Anonymous]

Money better spent on some luxury experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this is a first word problem, but that's what this forum is largely about, right? DH and I are taking the kids(6 and 5) to Europe in the fall. Business class tickets are $20k for the four of us! There is a small one-off bonus coming my way that will be about $15k after taxes. This bonus is unexpected and won't be something that will happen again soon. Would you splurge and spend it on the tickets or would you fly coach. The kids have been to Europe before once and we flew business, but it was half the price. At that time, I thought that business class was worth it because the kids had no jet lag whatsoever. WWYD?

Of course you should! No choice here.

You cannot expect those kids to fly coach at this point. No first grader should ever be tired on a return trip to Europe. Completely unacceptable, verging on abuse. Get it done!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would go premium economy.

I never really understood the benefit of economy plus (unless you are 6’2”+). Honest question.

I fortunately I have a teenager and a husband who is 6’4 and we have to upgrade them. My self and my younger 2 sit in regular. I notice that really fat people probably need to be in economy plus ad well. Im 5’10 and regular economy doesn’t bother me. Girder I’m thin and it’s easy for me to move around.

+1. My 18-year-ols son is 6'5" tall, and he really enjoys having 2-3 extra inches of legroom in Premium Economy. If I put him in Economy, it would only be for a short flight and he would dread it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would go premium economy.

I never really understood the benefit of economy plus (unless you are 6’2”+). Honest question.

I fortunately I have a teenager and a husband who is 6’4 and we have to upgrade them. My self and my younger 2 sit in regular. I notice that really fat people probably need to be in economy plus ad well. Im 5’10 and regular economy doesn’t bother me. Girder I’m thin and it’s easy for me to move around.

+1. My 18-year-ols son is 6'5" tall, and he really enjoys having 2-3 extra inches of legroom in Premium Economy. If I put him in Economy, it would only be for a short flight and he would dread it.

Yup. I just flew a short hop to Boston for a school visit with my 6’4 son and there were no upgrades available. That flight was the limit for him with that economy legroom.

With that said I don’t think I could stomach actually paying for upgrades, especially what the OP describes. We have a lot of points and never pay for upgrades just use points. My DH is a road warrior and we use our united Chase card for absolutely everything. Even just purchased a car and out the max the dealership would allow on that card. Never would I pay first class or business class rates.

[Anonymous]

Just flew coach to London on United morning flight. Much better experience than the many times I flew business. LHR was totally empty. Landed at 8:15pm and was at 9:30 pm at hotel in center London.
Had a nice evening walking around a good night sleep in a proper bed. Jet lag was much less of an issue than usual and having two teenagers rested is priceless.
A much better alternative to paying business prices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just flew coach to London on United morning flight. Much better experience than the many times I flew business. LHR was totally empty. Landed at 8:15pm and was at 9:30 pm at hotel in center London.
Had a nice evening walking around a good night sleep in a proper bed. Jet lag was much less of an issue than usual and having two teenagers rested is priceless.
A much better alternative to paying business prices.

How much were your coach tickets? My family of five is flying to London next week on United in business class. We’re spending $346 and 120,000 frequent flyer miles per ticket (works out to maybe $1800 in equivalent cost per ticket, depending on how you value FF miles). DH accrues about 1 million UA MileagePlus miles per year through work, so this is no biggie. Just seems like business is more comfortable and with significantly better service, plus you can access the Polaris lounge at IAD. But, if you’re snagging at $600 per ticket or less, then coach can definitely make sense.

Sounds like you stayed in a great hotel. We’ll be staying in the Churchill Residence Suite at the Hyatt Regency. Four bedrooms, 3400 sqft, multiple balconies, grand piano, dining room with seating for ten, etc…. It’s running us a whopping £494 + 9000 Hyatt points per night. Works out to be about the equivalent of $750/night (assuming you value Hyatt points around 1.7¢ each), but we got a good deal on the business class tix, so this seemed like a worthwhile splurge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just flew coach to London on United morning flight. Much better experience than the many times I flew business. LHR was totally empty. Landed at 8:15pm and was at 9:30 pm at hotel in center London.
Had a nice evening walking around a good night sleep in a proper bed. Jet lag was much less of an issue than usual and having two teenagers rested is priceless.
A much better alternative to paying business prices.

How much were your coach tickets? My family of five is flying to London next week on United in business class. We’re spending $346 and 120,000 frequent flyer miles per ticket (works out to maybe $1800 in equivalent cost per ticket, depending on how you value FF miles). DH accrues about 1 million UA MileagePlus miles per year through work, so this is no biggie. Just seems like business is more comfortable and with significantly better service, plus you can access the Polaris lounge at IAD. But, if you’re snagging at $600 per ticket or less, then coach can definitely make sense.

Sounds like you stayed in a great hotel. We’ll be staying in the Churchill Residence Suite at the Hyatt Regency. Four bedrooms, 3400 sqft, multiple balconies, grand piano, dining room with seating for ten, etc…. It’s running us a whopping £494 + 9000 Hyatt points per night. Works out to be about the equivalent of $750/night (assuming you value Hyatt points around 1.7¢ each), but we got a good deal on the business class tix, so this seemed like a worthwhile splurge.

How many different forums are you going to post about this trip? Jeez.