To spend £400 of my own money to upgrade a work flight?

I did it recently and accidentally did a voice call - my partner called me haha, I spoke really quietly and through the hum of the aircraft and people watching stuff no one heard me!

If it’s air Canada do not bother it’s rubbish

I’ve done this. I’ve travelled BC with a fair few different airlines. only worth it for longer flights and night flights for sleep.

I only regretted upgrading in the new Virgin Atlantic planes. They put you in a diagonal staggered configuration with next to no room (more room in PE, simply able to lie down). Nowhere to store anything and you face directly the people infront of you and next to to you is so close with a low barrier. It’s really a bit awkward and uncomfortable and zero privacy. Not worth the money and I would defo choose PE over BC on their newer aircrafts.

I've done it. It was worth it.

I flew out to Asia economy, then got a similar upgrade text and flew back in ABSOLUTE LUXURY - it turned a trial to be endured into basically a weekend away. Pyjamas, gift bag, wine, massage seat on the plane with an actual quilt. No waiting to check in or get my luggage, lounge access - it was such a night and day difference that I did it for each work flight I had after that.

Go for it, its the cheapest way to experience it. Which airline?

You only live once! If you can afford it go for it!

I have never noticed rules about no voice calls (possibly because I don’t always read the rules 😬), but I’m also one who has never seen or heard anyone make a call in BC.

Yes, thats true, they specifically say that calls are not permitted.

That comment puzzelled me as well.

I know WiFi onboard is commonplace now but whilst I'm sure there will be the odd exception on most airlines I'm aware of there's a stipulation that in flight phones should be used for data services/messaging only..not voice calls.

Having done what must be 300+ long haul BC flights in the last 20 or so years, I can honestly say I've never noticed anyone to be on a call on a flight, other than while on the ground.

I've done this before, when I was quite junior, was totally worth it. There was a sale on business class seats and the difference between PE and business was about that. I really enjoyed myself on the flight. I think I cleared it with work.

Im never convinced that BC is that much better than PE. However that’s usually as it costs £2k more, £400 is worth it. Go for it… just remember the hangover isn’t upgraded too

If you can afford it do it! I sometimes upgrade to 1st class train travel for the same reasons. Whether it’s work or holiday, it’s still YOU travelling. Go in comfort if you can afford to, life is short, treat yourself.

Can you afford it?
Will it bring you joy?
Will your employer be OK with it?

If 'yes' to all the above, do it.

Totally this. I used to fly a lot with work. If it the trip changes and you don't actually go you've lost a whole load of money and potentially in a whole pile of poo with work. Lounges aren't that great anyway and who wants to get on a plane extra early?

I recently did this, worth every penny and reduced jet lag. Mine was £440 for an 11 hour flight. a bit cross with myself that I slept through all the yummy food but felt really well on arrival. Do you have any expenses that don’t need receipts? I intend to recoup a bit via that.

I fly a lot and as it isn’t an overnight flight, I wouldn’t but I would treat myself to and expense a nice meal at a nice airport restaurant and maybe pay for lounge access.
Some airports also allow you to buy express security
The food isn’t great on most airlines and business class is only worth it if you are sleeping.

Worth checking but sounds legit/credible to me and not unusual.

As many have pointed out for several reasons there are maybe not that many people prepared to pay the full fare for Business Class on the daylight sector on this route.

Close in to departure the airline now know all the seats aren't going to sell to they are simply trying to get a bit of extra money by offering upgrades.

I prefer premium economy, find business class claustrophobic and very noisy as people are all on calls

For a daytime flight 6hr flight westbound? No, I wouldn't.

I fly to the US and Canada constantly for work and whether it's automatically business or only PE depends on client budget, and then potentially whether I'm willing to spend our internal budget on an upgrade.

I would be very reluctant to spend even someone else's money on upgrading a 6hr daytime flight in that direction, though.

The last thing I'd want to do is sleep, since I'd be trying to adjust to staying awake later not earlier, so it's pointless paying for a bed, and that's the main benefit of BC. I'd potentially upgrade coming home but depends on timings, etc.

For Asia/Middle East I'd be far more likely to upgrade if the ticket wasn't already BC.

The Asian and ME airlines' BC is generally far better, as are their lounges, and the bed is much more important for a long haul to Singapore, for example,

Did the offer on your phone come from a reliable source? I might be getting twitchy because of the amount of scams we have to recognise and swerve, but I question anything that looks good.

Go for it.

I am still gutted I missed out on a really affordable chance to fly business class on a long international flight. Normally on my flights it is thousands different, but obviously they hadn't filled the plane, so on the day of the flight there were stewards walking round offering upgrades for a few hundred..

If it had just been me, I would have jumped at it. But I was with my whole family, and that meant that A, the total cost was a bit much for us to justify it, and B, with young children it wouldn't have been that relaxing anyway..

But I then spent the whole flight annoyed that this couldn't have happened on one of the many times I fly by myself.

So why not? Work are still paying for most of it..

£400 for an upgrade is cheap! Sounds like you can easily afford it but it’s a matter of principle whether you do it or not. In your shoes I absolutely would.

You off to the IBA? I’m flying premium economy to that. It’ll be fine!

Nothing wrong with going for it if you want to try it for the experience! However I recently flew Gatwick-Toronto and it's a relatively quick flight so it wouldn't be worth it to me for a daytime flight.

• can you do it for the nighttime flight instead? That's where it would make a massive difference in comfort for me
• def get a day off in place of the day you spend travelling