We were recently looking at plane tickets to a distant international destination, and out of curiosity we checked to see how much it would cost to upgrade to business or first class. Perhaps we could splurge on nicer seats for a few hundred extra dollars.
We were way off. Business class was an extra $7,000 per person one-way, and first class was more than double that. Who is paying that much for 12 hours on a plane?!
My best guess is that most people in these seats aren’t actually paying for them. Instead, it’s their companies who pay for the seats or they’re able to upgrade using frequent-flier miles instead of money.
But is there something else I’m missing? Surely there’s a secret to getting these seats that doesn’t require such a steep out-of-pocket expense. What do you think?
We normally fly first class domestically. I surprised my hubs with a trip to England and Scotland for his 50th birthday. To put it mildly, I don’t fit in an economy seat. I’ve never tried getting an extra seat because I’m fine in first class. I was as surprised as you when I saw the cost of international first class. I discovered something called Premium Economy, which has seats the same width as regular first class, better food than economy, and was as comfortable as I wish economy seating would be. It wasn’t as cushy as first class. Fine by me – I just need the seat width to be reasonable. The extra cost was, IIRC, around $1500 USD per seat. That, I justified, and it made the 10-hour flight comfortable for both of us.
I’ll be following the comments to see if there are any tricks to such upgrades. Maybe I’ll find out more when my SIL starts piloting international flights. She made captain for domestic flights a couple of months ago.
I’m glad you’ve found solutions that work for you, both domestically and internationaly! I like the premium economy option.
I’m flying Business when going to our oversees offices. Company is paying and honestly if I had to fly 17 hours in economy for private reasons, I would do it with layovers. I mean, 10-12 into the flight I wish it would end already and I’m in one of the most comfortable spaces on the airplane. Privately I usually “splurge” and upgrade to Premium Economy, better seats and it’s worth $100 to $200 for longer flights. I don’t see myself spending thousands of my own money on biz or first upgrades, just not worth it.
That’s very nice for your work to pay for it!
Work paid for it when I travelled with them (international between Australia and Canada). It wasn’t as expensive back then, and it can be worth it from a business perspective if you need to work while on the move or need to be able to sleep decently and be ready to work when you get there.
I’ve also used points to upgrade a flight home (USA to Australia), which was a nice way to end a holiday.
With some airlines international business class also provides lounge access, which is fantastic when there’s enough of a break between flights to have a shower and (free) food.
I wouldn’t pay actual money for it though!
I agree that the lounge access is really nice. We got it when we traveled to and from Alaska (when the upgrade to business wasn’t expensive at all), and it was great, especially given when the flights leave and arrive in Seattle from Fairbanks.
I only got first class one time by using points. I think I was still uncomfortable on the 12 hour flight. I can’t justify purchasing first class upgrade. I think one time the stewardess came before take-off and offered my dad an upgrade because of his status maybe to cram more people into economy.
12 hours is indeed a long time to fly no matter how comfortable the seat is. 🙂
Wife and I usually use frequent flier miles for business, but we’ve gone cash a few times. Not sure what rout you were looking at to see such a price increase, usually business class is only 2-4x the cost of economy. We would often see prices of say, 3.5-5k round trip for a ticket that might otherwise have been 1100. We’re fortunate to be in a position where that’s not an unreasonable cost a few times a year, and it makes a difference when you can sleep for 6-7 hours out of a 12 hour flight, vs arriving in your destination jet-lagged and exhausted.
That said, this is a more recent development (last few years). Prior to the shift in our financial position, we always flew economy. We only made that change once we entered the top 1% of income earners.
One of the routes we’ve seen these prices is to Australia. I agree that 2-4x may not seem like much, but a jump from $2k to $7k per seat is a lot! 🙂
I had the same thought as you recently! It’s astronomical. We flew internationally with two kids who are reasonable humans and they didn’t sleep a wink on the overnight international flight in economy. Economy simply isn’t designed to actually allow you to sleep, and even the best neck pillow (we tested many), did nothing.
I thought, “I’ll never do that again!” until I checked the price of upgrading…several thousand dollars per person! With four humans, we’d need a second job to make that happen. I also was left wondering who actually pays those prices!
I hear you, and I can only imagine how tough that is with kids (both the actual travel and the increase in cost for 4 people).
The only time we’ll fly Business Class is when we visit Indonesia next year as it’s nearly 24 hours of travel. Additionally, all of our other flights have contributed thousands of “miles” on our account which significantly offsets the amount that we actually have to pay out of pocket.