I'm booking us business to Australia but from east coast to Europe I'd probably stick with premium economy. We can afford business but the price still astonishes me.

Not with little kids. Go premium economy and just raise the arm rests to create more room for the adults.

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't do it for a flight to Europe, the flight is so short that once you take off and eat you might get a few hours of sleep and then you have landed and are jet lagged anyway. For flying to Asia it is more worth it, but then again it is still pretty expensive.

+1.

I wouldn't do it for a flight to Europe, the flight is so short that once you take off and eat you might get a few hours of sleep and then you have landed and are jet lagged anyway. For flying to Asia it is more worth it, but then again it is still pretty expensive.

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.

I would not do it. For a fleeting experience. My kid (who is older) spent the whole flight playing video games on the in-seat console.

SO many better things you could do with that money (than have a comfy seat and free mediocre food in a cramped space). Like take the whole crew to a national park and build lifetime memories.

Just no, from my perspective.

The responses in this thread are pretty funny.

Generally, on vacation, I enjoy myself once I’m there, it’s the getting there and getting back part that can be really tough. Whether I’m staying at a 4 or 5 star hotel, I enjoy it. Sure, the 5 star is better, but generally a 4 star experience is nice too.

Contrast that with coach vs business. Those two experiences are dramatically different. More importantly, I’ve been traveling my whole life, and they have moved much, much farther apart. Coach has gotten drastically worse, and business has gotten drastically better with the move to lie flat. So the marginal utility I get from moving up from a Westin to a St Regis is minuscule compared to moving from coach to business on a wide body jet.

I will admit that if the flight is not overnight, generally premium economy is fine. I find the extra 4” of seat pitch makes a dramatic difference as long as I’m not trying to sleep.

The above is why I paid cash for my family of 5 to fly in J to Europe next month. If it was just my wife and I, I’d use miles, but getting that many award seats these days on the same flights is really tough.

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.

You are explicitly paying for a larger/more comfortable seat and better service, not to distance yourself from “nuisances” (however much you may hope that to be the case). For the latter you need to fly private, but my guess is that is financially out of reach, or you wouldn’t be here trying to bully/intimidate others out of booking accommodations they are perfectly entitled to.

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

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.

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?

I would use the extra $10k for two more days of vacation, knowing that they will be spent adjusting to jet lag. I would rather have half-days of vacation (and the other half in the hotel room) then spend it on a less than 10hr flight.

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.

Face it, more and more young people with kids and money are going to be destroying the peace and quiet you’ve enjoyed in business class so far. You’ll have to deal or perhaps move to coach yourself.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I fly a 2-3 times per month and only in business class; I have only paid $5K+ for a ticket four times: IAD-PEK, IAD-SYD, IAD-SIN, and IAD-NRT. My family of four is flying to Europe twice in the next three months. First set of business class tickets cost 120,000 frequent flier miles and less than a hundred dollars in taxes each. Second set of business class tickets we purchased in coach for $1,100 each and then used United PlusPoints to immediately upgrade to confirmed business class round trip. Maybe you should get some frequent flyer status first, and then start aspiring to fly business class.

I love it when my kids are at the gate getting ready to pre-board and some entitled older couple pushes in front of them and says, “Excuse us dear, we need to get through. We’re actually flying first class.” Then my kids can only roll their eyes, as we’re all sitting in the same first class but we’re also United Global Services and legitimately entitled to pre-board. First class boards with Group 1 on United, not part of pre-boarding, of course.

Newsflash‼️‼️‼️

You are just as insufferable. Quite possibly worse because you squirted out little budding douchebags.

+1

You’re kids are insufferable, too - by rolling their eyes at an older couple,
Clearly mocking them.

People like this older couple are referred to as gate lice for a reason. PP’s kids should have blocked them from cutting in line, but were reserved enough to not say anything or make a scene.

NP who hates it when people crowd the gate, but first class fliers aren't really the gate lice. They know they'll be among the first boarded and they're not jockeying to sneak on early. It's Group 5 but can't clear the path for everyone before them because they want to be Person Number One To Board In Group 5 that really gum up the works.

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.