Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is such a timely post. I just booked four Business Class (Club World) on British Airways for an April trip to London out of Dulles. We are returning on economy but flights are non-stop both ways. Came out to $8500 total (BA was having a promo) and I almost had a stroke when I clicked that 'pay' button but we 1) depart on my birthday and 2) celebrating our 20th anniversary while in London and 3) it's the last big trip before our son goes off to college. Those are the mental gymnastics that I went through to justify it in my mind. It is most definitely a splurge and not something we would do again in the near future. I'd be lying if I said I was super excited, especially as our kids don't know about the fancy seats (at least on the way there).

Business to London for leisure travel is kind of a waste. The flight there from DC is 5.5-6 hours in reality despite it saying 7.5 when you book. If anything you want business on the flight back because that one is closer to actually being 7 hours.

I can never actually get enough sleep on the flight over because of the short slight + meal services after takeoff and before landing which cause a ton of noise even if you skip. So it’s 2 hours meal service, then 1 hour sleep, then meal service for breakfast starts again.

Last night's late BA departure was in the air for 6:20:

https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/BAW292/history/20250908/0250Z/KIAD/EGLL

The play to maximize sleep is to take the late night departure and eat dinner in the lounge (or even at home if it's a 10 or 11 PM departure). Arrive at the airport at 8 PM, eat from 8:30-9:30, get on the plane at 10, brush teeth, change into sleep clothes. In the air by say 11:15, 10 minutes later put your seat down. If you can fall asleep within 20 minutes you can get around 5.5 hours until they make you put it up 20 minutes before landing. Sleep through breakfast and eat in the arrivals lounge.

Yes the return is probably 45 minutes longer, but it's a daytime flight. We do fine with the 1 PM or so departure, watch movies in economy (middle section of 4 seats to ourselves), land at 4 PM DC time, home by 5:30, quick dinner, kids in bed by 7 PM (midnight in London). Everyone has their own preferences, but I think business class is much more worth it on overnight flights, especially if you are the type who can't sleep in a regular seat (have tried many times and its never happened more than an hour total).

Yeah 5 hours sleep isn't perfect, but its enough to be functional and get you through the day when you arrive, which is a short day anyway since the flight lands at 11 AM and you won't be at your destination until probably 12:30 or 1 PM.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is such a timely post. I just booked four Business Class (Club World) on British Airways for an April trip to London out of Dulles. We are returning on economy but flights are non-stop both ways. Came out to $8500 total (BA was having a promo) and I almost had a stroke when I clicked that 'pay' button but we 1) depart on my birthday and 2) celebrating our 20th anniversary while in London and 3) it's the last big trip before our son goes off to college. Those are the mental gymnastics that I went through to justify it in my mind. It is most definitely a splurge and not something we would do again in the near future. I'd be lying if I said I was super excited, especially as our kids don't know about the fancy seats (at least on the way there).

Business to London for leisure travel is kind of a waste. The flight there from DC is 5.5-6 hours in reality despite it saying 7.5 when you book. If anything you want business on the flight back because that one is closer to actually being 7 hours.

I can never actually get enough sleep on the flight over because of the short slight + meal services after takeoff and before landing which cause a ton of noise even if you skip. So it’s 2 hours meal service, then 1 hour sleep, then meal service for breakfast starts again.

Last night's late BA departure was in the air for 6:20:

https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/BAW292/history/20250908/0250Z/KIAD/EGLL

The play to maximize sleep is to take the late night departure and eat dinner in the lounge (or even at home if it's a 10 or 11 PM departure). Arrive at the airport at 8 PM, eat from 8:30-9:30, get on the plane at 10, brush teeth, change into sleep clothes. In the air by say 11:15, 10 minutes later put your seat down. If you can fall asleep within 20 minutes you can get around 5.5 hours until they make you put it up 20 minutes before landing. Sleep through breakfast and eat in the arrivals lounge.

Yes the return is probably 45 minutes longer, but it's a daytime flight. We do fine with the 1 PM or so departure, watch movies in economy (middle section of 4 seats to ourselves), land at 4 PM DC time, home by 5:30, quick dinner, kids in bed by 7 PM (midnight in London). Everyone has their own preferences, but I think business class is much more worth it on overnight flights, especially if you are the type who can't sleep in a regular seat (have tried many times and its never happened more than an hour total).

Yeah 5 hours sleep isn't perfect, but its enough to be functional and get you through the day when you arrive, which is a short day anyway since the flight lands at 11 AM and you won't be at your destination until probably 12:30 or 1 PM.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:US to Europe business is typically $3k to $5k depending on the route and time of the year. The expensive first class tickets are to the Middle East, Japan, and Oceania.

Picked random dates in October. $3600 to Dubai roundtrip on BA business, 90 minute stop in London.

Sorry I meant on a Middle Eastern carrier. BA first class is worse than business on most airlines. Look for first class on Emirates or Etihad.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is such a timely post. I just booked four Business Class (Club World) on British Airways for an April trip to London out of Dulles. We are returning on economy but flights are non-stop both ways. Came out to $8500 total (BA was having a promo) and I almost had a stroke when I clicked that 'pay' button but we 1) depart on my birthday and 2) celebrating our 20th anniversary while in London and 3) it's the last big trip before our son goes off to college. Those are the mental gymnastics that I went through to justify it in my mind. It is most definitely a splurge and not something we would do again in the near future. I'd be lying if I said I was super excited, especially as our kids don't know about the fancy seats (at least on the way there).

Business to London for leisure travel is kind of a waste. The flight there from DC is 5.5-6 hours in reality despite it saying 7.5 when you book. If anything you want business on the flight back because that one is closer to actually being 7 hours.

I can never actually get enough sleep on the flight over because of the short slight + meal services after takeoff and before landing which cause a ton of noise even if you skip. So it’s 2 hours meal service, then 1 hour sleep, then meal service for breakfast starts again.

Anonymous wrote:Just for fun, I will look up the cost of first class/business lay-down flat seats on flights. I am astounded at the prices.

Just looked at a direct round trip from one major US east coast city to a European major city. $12,000! And it isn't an anomaly - most of them are in this price range.

Seriously. Do people actually pay these prices?? Are companies justifying this for their business travelers? For others, do they burn up all their travel points and if so, it must be in the hundreds of thousands LOL.

Anonymous wrote:This is such a timely post. I just booked four Business Class (Club World) on British Airways for an April trip to London out of Dulles. We are returning on economy but flights are non-stop both ways. Came out to $8500 total (BA was having a promo) and I almost had a stroke when I clicked that 'pay' button but we 1) depart on my birthday and 2) celebrating our 20th anniversary while in London and 3) it's the last big trip before our son goes off to college. Those are the mental gymnastics that I went through to justify it in my mind. It is most definitely a splurge and not something we would do again in the near future. I'd be lying if I said I was super excited, especially as our kids don't know about the fancy seats (at least on the way there).

Anonymous wrote:This is such a timely post. I just booked four Business Class (Club World) on British Airways for an April trip to London out of Dulles. We are returning on economy but flights are non-stop both ways. Came out to $8500 total (BA was having a promo) and I almost had a stroke when I clicked that 'pay' button but we 1) depart on my birthday and 2) celebrating our 20th anniversary while in London and 3) it's the last big trip before our son goes off to college. Those are the mental gymnastics that I went through to justify it in my mind. It is most definitely a splurge and not something we would do again in the near future. I'd be lying if I said I was super excited, especially as our kids don't know about the fancy seats (at least on the way there).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most business class people use points now a days.

We went to Japan recently and paid cash about $10,000 per person. Too long a flight for us old people to do premium economy.

Any flight over 5 hours we pay or use points for flying business or first class. But luckily we can easily afford to do that. Do I think it is a waste yes. Business isn't always fabulous it's mostly about lay flat seats and getting some rest.

My sister has traveled all over the world in economy her thought is the plane still gets her there just like me.

Just a personal preference.

Trump will make these costs rise exponentially by next spring.

Whew man, the idea of paying enough money that could get me a car for 24 hours of time is just, hard pill to swallow!

Yeah, I don’t love myself enough to drop 10k for an airline ticket. I guess if you make dumb money, it’s an option, but still….

Having flown to Japan many times, I guess I do love myself enough.

I think what I and pp are saying, and what most people are alluding to here, is that that is enough money to make it really hard to justify to the vast majority of people. Like even as a fancy splurge. Our HHI is like 300,000, we're not poor or struggling and I do splurge on many things. But dropping THAT much for essentially a more comfortable seat for a few hours is like, just mentally really difficult to wrap my head around.

That isn't like a negligible amount of money its enough to eat better food the whole trip or do a really cool experience or put my kids in camp in the summer.

Agreed- when I have observed the boarding line for international business class, definitely some folks of course who are traveling on the company dime. I'd say feels like probably half the people are boomer retirees who probably have their monthly living expenses covered by SS and interest off of investments, and because of the market booms since the 1980s, there are tens of millions of them who have $1 million+ in their 401k. For people like that, doing a big trip once or twice a year where they spend $15k on airfare for a couple? That's a drop in the bucket if you have $2 million in your 401k and your house is paid for.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most business class people use points now a days.

We went to Japan recently and paid cash about $10,000 per person. Too long a flight for us old people to do premium economy.

Any flight over 5 hours we pay or use points for flying business or first class. But luckily we can easily afford to do that. Do I think it is a waste yes. Business isn't always fabulous it's mostly about lay flat seats and getting some rest.

My sister has traveled all over the world in economy her thought is the plane still gets her there just like me.

Just a personal preference.

Trump will make these costs rise exponentially by next spring.

Whew man, the idea of paying enough money that could get me a car for 24 hours of time is just, hard pill to swallow!

Yeah, I don’t love myself enough to drop 10k for an airline ticket. I guess if you make dumb money, it’s an option, but still….

Having flown to Japan many times, I guess I do love myself enough.

I think what I and pp are saying, and what most people are alluding to here, is that that is enough money to make it really hard to justify to the vast majority of people. Like even as a fancy splurge. Our HHI is like 300,000, we're not poor or struggling and I do splurge on many things. But dropping THAT much for essentially a more comfortable seat for a few hours is like, just mentally really difficult to wrap my head around.

That isn't like a negligible amount of money its enough to eat better food the whole trip or do a really cool experience or put my kids in camp in the summer.