Anonymous
Post 04/21/2024 10:28     Subject: Flying first/ business class
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I’m am so lol, but that is such a true description of the parade of horribles in economy. And the reason why I sometimes will pay for first or business even though my income and net worth are less than those above. And why it’s completely silly to have an income of seven figures and be flying overseas in economy.


Agreed- the alleged coach/economy plus- flying 1.1 million HHI poster above is either a troll or a fool


$1.1m poster here. I have a couple of comments:
(1) Based on my degrees and the line of business I am in, I am not a fool.
(2) You are right, you would never know how much money we have based on the cars that we drive and our house, but we are just not into material things. Ironically, we like to travel (coach ).
(3) Maybe one of the reasons that our NW percentile matches our income percentile is because we actually make saving money a priority.


I have been called an idiot for flying economy plus on DCUM. We have a $2m+ HHI. We fly economy plus now and flew economy plus at 1.1m and also 800k.

We recently went to Asia and I believe our original flights had cost around 15k for our family of 5. We did end up upgrading on the way home for 15k to be able to sleep. If we originally booked all business class, our trip would have costs 60k. Can we afford 60k for just flights for spring break? Yes, but we didn’t want to. We ended up splurging for flight back since Dh had to go to work and kids had school. Wanted to be able to sleep on plane.


We have a high HHI and woud flinch at spending $60k for a family of 5 too. But why was it that high? That's $12k/person. I just priced flying round-trip to Tokyo leaving next week, and it's $7,500/person. Buying tickets well in advance it should be a good bit lower than that.


Business to Europe can be $10K+, even when purchasing 2-3months out. Spouse travels for work and is only allowed business under $6K roundtrip. It's getting more challenging to do that, you have to take connections/odd times to manage it nowadays
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2024 09:57     Subject: Flying first/ business class
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Once we were 60 we started flying first /business to get planes with lie flat seats. Even on 5 hour trips, makes a huge difference getting legs up level.
This. We know we have saved more than enough and now we can spend frivolously and for comfort.


I plan to do this for international flights when we retire. Now we are young and with kids and it would make us travel less because of paying for four expensive tickets. It's psychological more than financial for my wife. For me, I would pony up right now, expecially when the difference is only $500 more per ticket. I got off a flight last night that had an emergency medical landing in Ireland that ended up taking 15 hours or so overall. I can't imagine how much more pleasant it would have been if we had been in first or business.
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2024 09:28     Subject: Flying first/ business class
Anonymous wrote:HHI is just about $10M. We always fly first/business. At this point, why not?


Ours is 20 mm. I can troll too
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2024 09:26     Subject: Flying first/ business class
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Just here to call BS on the person talking about lap babies who are over age 3. There is zero chance. You have to enter your baby’s birthday when you buy his lap baby ticket and they check birth certificates at check in, you are not allowed to check in via kiosk or online ahead of time. They even check for newborns.


Nope! Plenty of deceitful travelers bring 3-4 yo kids on airplanes and pull the lap child card to avoid paying for an extra seat. I was boarding a flight last week IAD-SFO and a family of five had a 36” tall kid in a stroller (supposedly < 2 yo), an ~8 yo kid, and – get this – a teenager on all fours wearing a service animal harness and leash posing as a legitimate seeing eye dog for the pirate eye-patch wearing mom. Only three seats purchased for the five of them. It is out of control!!

https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/identification#:~:text=TSA%20does%20not%20require%20children,requirements%20for%20travelers%20under%2018.


Fake news
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2024 09:23     Subject: Flying first/ business class
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Assuming that you don’t track airline miles at what income level would you start regularly flying first/ business class for just regular vacation.

Assume 2 adults and 3 kids.

Is your number based on actual experience having reached it or is it a hypothetical question only for you at this point?


Our HHI is $575K and NW is $7.5M. We never fly coach. Not ever. If a particular flight doesn’t have business class or first class (usually small regional flights), we won’t even take it. I’d rather fly at a different time of day or to a nearby city. Our family of five flies about 6 times per year. Half domestic, half international. DH flies for business 1-2 times per month in addition to our personal travel. Always business or first.

Dealing with all the clueless and unprepared people that don’t regularly travel, the overcrowded club lounges, the chaotic boarding processes, the fake service animals, the lying and self-proclaimed disabled and military travelers pushing to the front of the line, the 3+ year-old lap children, the mediocre service, the bulkhead diaper changing, the garbage on-board food, etc…. It’s all too much. The only stress reliever is knowing that at least on-board we’ll have a reasonably elevated and comfortable experience. Couldn’t handle it otherwise.

We have a dedicated divided ETF that generates about $6K per month after taxes to help offset cost differences between coach and first.


Do you mind sharing what ETF you’re referring to?


+1
To the 575K HHI and 7.5MNW poster, what ETF are you referring to? TIA

Indian doesn’t share secret
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2024 09:20     Subject: Flying first/ business class
We're at $12MM in assets and $450k HHI. We buy business for the family to our annual European vacation. I recently bought business seats for a cross country flight and DH thought it was worth it - not that much more than coach+. Regular domestic, I'm now willing to pay for the exit row seats because everyone in my family quite tall. When it's just us, I'll def have us flying up front everywhere we go.
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2024 09:00     Subject: Flying first/ business class
Anonymous wrote:
We’re flying to Asia this year and I cannot rationally justify spending an extra 8k/person for business for one day.


Why would it be $8k extra? I looked at a random week in August to Tokyo. It's $7k on the direct flight -- probably cheaper it if was bought further in advance. Economy is about $2k so that's $5k extra.
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2024 08:11     Subject: Flying first/ business class
HHI 700k -we still fly basic economy for flights under 2 hours if the price difference is more than $40/person

We’re flying to Asia this year and I cannot rationally justify spending an extra 8k/person for business for one day.
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2024 07:00     Subject: Re:Flying first/ business class
HHI $350.

We fly first class, family of 5. We travel once a year.

It helps we under bought in 2015 and are still in our house. Mortgage is $1700 a month.
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2024 06:13     Subject: Flying first/ business class
HHI 300k NW 4M. My last flight was United Basic. Just finished covering 2 college tuitions. Got me there!
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2024 04:03     Subject: Flying first/ business class
HHI $800K, $6M net worth, no kids yet but on the way. Frequent, spontaneous travel and we occasionally fly international business on points, reasonable paid upgrades, or for work.

Have yet to pay full price business class for personal travel but we may do it when kids are young to make traveling a little less painful. We do not plan to do default business for all travel until the earlier of $30M+ net worth or age 50+.
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2024 00:52     Subject: Flying first/ business class
Like PP, we’re at around $200K HHI and $2M NW and we like to travel in our family of four, but I have never had enough money and cannot imagine ever having enough money to feel that business or first class would be in our reach.
Anonymous
Post 04/20/2024 23:59     Subject: Re:Flying first/ business class
Divorced no kids, HHI $170K and I have never flown/paid for better than economy premium or been able to points my way to one of those seats.

Anonymous
Post 04/20/2024 22:52     Subject: Flying first/ business class
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I’m am so lol, but that is such a true description of the parade of horribles in economy. And the reason why I sometimes will pay for first or business even though my income and net worth are less than those above. And why it’s completely silly to have an income of seven figures and be flying overseas in economy.


Agreed- the alleged coach/economy plus- flying 1.1 million HHI poster above is either a troll or a fool


$1.1m poster here. I have a couple of comments:
(1) Based on my degrees and the line of business I am in, I am not a fool.
(2) You are right, you would never know how much money we have based on the cars that we drive and our house, but we are just not into material things. Ironically, we like to travel (coach ).
(3) Maybe one of the reasons that our NW percentile matches our income percentile is because we actually make saving money a priority.


I have been called an idiot for flying economy plus on DCUM. We have a $2m+ HHI. We fly economy plus now and flew economy plus at 1.1m and also 800k.

We recently went to Asia and I believe our original flights had cost around 15k for our family of 5. We did end up upgrading on the way home for 15k to be able to sleep. If we originally booked all business class, our trip would have costs 60k. Can we afford 60k for just flights for spring break? Yes, but we didn’t want to. We ended up splurging for flight back since Dh had to go to work and kids had school. Wanted to be able to sleep on plane.


We have a high HHI and woud flinch at spending $60k for a family of 5 too. But why was it that high? That's $12k/person. I just priced flying round-trip to Tokyo leaving next week, and it's $7,500/person. Buying tickets well in advance it should be a good bit lower than that.


We flew during spring break and went to two countries. I have friends who track flight prices. I don’t. All I know is we are always stuck paying peak prices for winter break, spring break, summer and long weekends like MLK and Presidents Day. Winter and spring break are often double or triple regular off speak prices.


How far ahead do you plan? I've noticed the same during those periods, but only in teh rare cases we planned a month or two ahead instead of 10+ months ahead.
Anonymous
Post 04/20/2024 22:18     Subject: Flying first/ business class
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I’m am so lol, but that is such a true description of the parade of horribles in economy. And the reason why I sometimes will pay for first or business even though my income and net worth are less than those above. And why it’s completely silly to have an income of seven figures and be flying overseas in economy.


Agreed- the alleged coach/economy plus- flying 1.1 million HHI poster above is either a troll or a fool


$1.1m poster here. I have a couple of comments:
(1) Based on my degrees and the line of business I am in, I am not a fool.
(2) You are right, you would never know how much money we have based on the cars that we drive and our house, but we are just not into material things. Ironically, we like to travel (coach ).
(3) Maybe one of the reasons that our NW percentile matches our income percentile is because we actually make saving money a priority.


I have been called an idiot for flying economy plus on DCUM. We have a $2m+ HHI. We fly economy plus now and flew economy plus at 1.1m and also 800k.

We recently went to Asia and I believe our original flights had cost around 15k for our family of 5. We did end up upgrading on the way home for 15k to be able to sleep. If we originally booked all business class, our trip would have costs 60k. Can we afford 60k for just flights for spring break? Yes, but we didn’t want to. We ended up splurging for flight back since Dh had to go to work and kids had school. Wanted to be able to sleep on plane.


We have a high HHI and woud flinch at spending $60k for a family of 5 too. But why was it that high? That's $12k/person. I just priced flying round-trip to Tokyo leaving next week, and it's $7,500/person. Buying tickets well in advance it should be a good bit lower than that.


We flew during spring break and went to two countries. I have friends who track flight prices. I don’t. All I know is we are always stuck paying peak prices for winter break, spring break, summer and long weekends like MLK and Presidents Day. Winter and spring break are often double or triple regular off speak prices.