Amazon Prime has "free" shipping, costs $100/year. Your cellphone plan has "free" text messaging, costs $79/month. Your postage has "free" tracking, costs $11.
Why, in particular in American, has the word "included" seemingly been vanished from the popular vocabulary to be replaced with "free?" Now what word do we use when something is ACTUALLY free?
Return flights are usually something like:
* economy 900USD
* premium 2000USD
* business 6,000USD
* first 10,000USD
So, I always go economy.
Not sure it's ever worth a month's wages (after tax) to have a bit of free champagne.
For example, I fly Singapore to Tokyo about once or twice a year, sometimes more often, always on Scoot, a budget airline run by Singapore Airlines. Upgrading from economy to ScootBiz costs as little as $80 with their "bid for biz" program. I always "bid for biz" and it's absolutely worth it: early boarding, free food, much more space (for yourself and your carry on), etc. So the marginal utility of the upgrade for me is worth more than $80.
At some level of net worth, flying First on a legacy airline to Tokyo, maybe Japan Airlines which I had to take in economy once for $1,500 vs the $200 or so Scoot can go down to, would have more utility to me than the $10,000 extra I'd have to fork out. I don't know what that net worth would be (probably north of 50 million), but I know that past perhaps a few million dollars in liquid assets, I would always fly business even at 3x the cost, and I know plenty of people in that situation doing exactly that. And there's people for whom flying SQ Suites [1] for $30,000 one way is a "discount" from flying the same route privately.
[1] reposting because such a fun read: http://dereklow.co/what-its-like-to-fly-the-23000-singapore-...
Even using American's post-devaluation chart (one-way):
* economy 35,000
* business 70,000
* first 90,000
So, buy miles when on sale, fly first at a significant discount subject to availability.
[1] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=quadratic+fit+%7B1,900... [2] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=log+fit+%7B1,35000%7D+...
When I woke up at my destination, significantly less jetlagged and actually rested, I said "now I understand."
I still don't pay for it, but it's certainly worth something.
Sometimes you get lucky. I booked 1st class for my xmas trip home last year, and it was only $100 more than the comfort seat upgrade and 1 checked bag that I was going to spend anyway.
This is only my experience on long flights. In 2007 I had a $600 coach seat from NYC to Ireland (may have been a connection I do not recall). The first-class seats were in the upper $4k range.
My wife and I fly from the northern east coast of the US to the southern east coast once a year, the tickets are roughly $650 total for coach (including $50/person for the "Comfort +" seats). First class has never risen past ~$950.
I'd fly business every single flight I ever took if it was only 2x. IMO the airlines are missing a huge business opportunity to provide all-business-class travel.
Transatlantic flights are downright luxorious. They also give free everything, I assume it's a law somewhere.
The one thing being short is a superpower for :D
And he's not even factually incorrect. You do not have to pay for drinks in first class, whether you're paying for your ticket or not.
Also noteworthy that on some airlines you can easily consume $1k+ worth of alcohol on a first class flight.
On some airlines the food/drinks assortment is identical between economy and economy+. Just get more legroom/width, sometimes an included checked bag (of $25-50 value), sometimes earlier boarding, and sometimes included access to entertainment/WiFi (a couple of airlines charge for seat-back entertainment).
I am 1.88m tall, long legs and all, and have absolutely no issue travelling in tourist class around the world. true happiness and lifelong experiences come from different places
I too am 6'2 and find travelling any distance extremely uncomfortable, and if the person in front reclines they're literally laying on my knees, bouncing up and down. International travel in economy is extremely uncomfortable as a result, and I routinely take painkillers before flying economy.
I pay (often 50% more) where I can to upgrade to "Premium Economy" (or exit rows, or anything to provide more legroom without bankrupting me).
I might be reading this wrong, but it sounds like you find not worrying about spending money somewhat deplorable. Why?
>I am 1.88m tall, long legs and all, and have absolutely no issue travelling in tourist class around the world.
I'm 197cm, I can't sit in most economy seats without my knees getting killed by the seat in front of me.