Route? If Polaris has a number of seats left, I’ve seen it drop as low as $499 at check in.

Mid 40's parents and 2 teens flying overnight to Europe this summer. Adults in business class, kids in economy plus. It's worth it. We save points and use points credit cards to get the better seats.

So worth it for an overnight flight. Just did a horrible overnight in worst seats possible. Takes forever to catch up on lost sleep and my poor back

I paid $500 for premium plus coming home from Amman in November. It was a 12.5 hour flight that left at 145am and landed in DC at 630am. Was very much worth it to me and both my father and I felt pretty good getting off the plane...and my dad is 80!

I've also paid $400 for it coming back from Zurich in July. I don't sleep that well on planes regardless of which economy I'm in, so I'm fine with regular economy while trying to snooze a bit on the way over. I'd rather have the premium plus for the way home...its a longer flight (9.5 hours) and I'll be awake the whole time and more conscious of my comfort. Plus econ + was already $260, so it just wasn't that much more.

I don't think I'd pay more than $500 for it though...and would only consider that for flights up around 9-10+ hours. Otherwise I'm good in econ +

^^^ My calculus is how much will I need sleep? And how stressful will the flight be

Anonymous wrote:I asked a similar question a few months ago about upgrading to Premium Plus for $300/ticket for IAD to Tokyo for 6 of us (2 adults, 4 kids), and the consensus was pretty much that it was definitely worth it.

That's a 14 hour flight and probably 15 hours once you consider how long your butt is in the seat. It comes out to a cost of $21/hour per person for the upgrade during the flight.

Absolutely worth it.

It's better to think of upgrades in $ per hour of flight time. The longer the flight, the lower your $/hour will be. I'm willing to spend more $/hour if the flight includes an overnight portion.

My rule of thumb is Premium Plus for $35/hour or less is a very good deal. Lay flat business class for $60/hour or less is a very good deal.

Sometimes they will offer a deal of points + cash to upgrade. For example, a common biz upgrade to Europe will be 30K miles + $300. But if you're willing to pay cash fully, the biz upgrade might be only $375 which is a better deal (30K miles is worth - at the low end - $300 if you assume 1 cent per mile.....so clearly paying $375 upfront is a better deal for the traveler).

It's worth it for overnight flights to Europe, ME, Asia, etc long than 8 hours.

I wouldn't pay that much for an upgrade to fly 5 hours to LA or Mexico City in the middle of the day.

I asked a similar question a few months ago about upgrading to Premium Plus for $300/ticket for IAD to Tokyo for 6 of us (2 adults, 4 kids), and the consensus was pretty much that it was definitely worth it.

For overnight, absolutely. For daytime, no, book econ plus.

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't pay it, because there are 3 of us and that's a lot of money to me. So this is going to be pretty subjective.

+1 for my family of 4.

For an overnight flight, it's worth it to have the extra leg room, recline etc. Although I would confirm by checking Seat Guru what the actual seats you are sitting are in are like - nothing worse than discovering no window, or the recline is less than other seats around you. For a daytime flight I would not pay the extra. And in some cases, I only pay for the taller members of my family and not for me. Or depending on what we plan to do on arrival - if we need to drive or get to a business meeting or conference the person needing to be on will get the upgrade. We typically have a trip budget and if I feel like I'm saving in other ways I will upgrade on the seats.

I have done it once for an international flight -- cost was similar but we are family of two, so total cost was much less. It was totally worth it for our overnight flight and I would do it again at that price point.

If you have the money, it's really worth it.

Anonymous wrote:Will you end up with a middle seat in Premium Plus also?

No - we’ll have aisle and window seats in premium plus. And earlier boarding, which might be nice since we aren’t planning to check bags.

Will you end up with a middle seat in Premium Plus also?