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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]PP here. Well, no sh*t Sherlock. This thread didn't ask "is a business class ticket worth it if it is paid for by other people". The entire premise here is paying out of one's own pocket. To be sure, I'm envious of your travel perks, but do thank my lucky stars for having the sense to be able to follow the salient points of a discussion. [/quote]

Actually, the OP posted as follows:

[quote]At what HHI did you buy business or first class airfare for your family for international trips? We are a family of 4 and travel internationally 1-2x per year to Europe. I'm curious at what HHI folks switch from economy (which we still do) to business or first. I'm thinking of upgrading after a couple difficult trips.[/quote]

The entire premise should not assume that you’re paying cash out of pocket for business class or first class airfare. Even smart use of travel rewards credit cards can generate more than enough FF miles to cover the cost of business class tickets. You can use a combination of Chase Sapphire Reserve and Freedom Unlimited credit cards to easily generate an average of 2 FF miles per $ spent. Money that you would have spent anyway. With a HHI of $400K, this could translate to $10K per month in CC spend no problem, which translates to 20,000 FF miles accumulated per month (more if you spend in the right categories). Every 24 months you’re earning enough to pay for 4 round-trip business class tickets to Europe that might otherwise cost $5K each or $20K total. You’re giving up what, a 2% cash back CC alternative which would be worth at most $5K over the same time frame? That’s a $15K advantage by using CC spend over paying cash.

So…even if you’re not at all a frequent flyer, if you’re always paying cash for business class airfare and holding out for a sufficiently high HHI to be able to afford to do so, you’re being quite foolish financially. [/quote]

That only works if you are traveling internationally every two years.

The only way to regularly fly business on upgrades is if you do a lot of business travel, which is an awful way to live and comes at a much higher cost than paying $15k for tickets. [/quote]

Correction. It [i]used[/i] to be this way. In reality, FF miles and hotel points are mostly accrued based on spending. You’ll earn just as many FF miles flying once per quarter on $10,000 business class tickets IAD-CPT than flying once per week on $700 coach tickets IAD-LHR. In the former scenario, you’re flying about 63,000 miles per year for business. In the latter scenario it’s more like 380,000. DH is an exec and all his business travel is in paid business or first class, but he’s gone maybe 7-8 days out of each month, mostly short trips IAD-SFO. It’s not ideal, but [i]it’s not that bad either[/i]. His company probably spends $100K or so on his airfare each year, which generates a little over 1 million FF miles for us in business travel alone. [/quote]

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