Those who regularly fly business/first class, how so?

[cucumberella]

Are you simply just rich or are there some tricks and tips I am missing?

Company pays business class for any international flight.

It's a double edged sword. It's ruined me for normal flights, to be honest.

I don’t fly business or first (other than once when I had a lot of luggage and business was cheaper than paying for extra luggage in economy) but second the BA Amex as a way to make it cheaper. I do all my spending on it, after buying my rail season ticket I only have to spend another £5k a year to get the free companion ticket which isn’t difficult to do with normal spending. We went to Costa Rica a couple of years ago, DP flew for free using the companion ticket and we upgraded to premium economy using Avios which was well worth it on an 11hr flight. Then you have extra money for offsets etc (please fly responsibly)

So the answer is that most people aren't using their own money.

They're either paid for by their employer or they've earned air miles due to being frequent travellers.

Interesting that some people are allowed to use business earned air miles to pay for leisure travel. Not that I fly much on business, but our travel policy expressly forbids this.

They'd rather the perk go to waste than anyone gets a freebie.

I can afford business class, but would not pay for it. It is a lot of money just for a better seat. I tend to sleep on the plane anyway. I would rather spend my money on much better hotels, restaurants and exotic destinations than a business flight.
I am amazed at the person who picks inconvenient routes to fly business e.g. not direct. I always fly direct unless there is no direct flight and will pay more for this. But then I tend to sleep on long flights.
Food in economy is often poor, but it is easy to buy stuff and take it on with you. I often take on fancy chocolates and depending on the airline a salad bought in the airport.

Due to DH's previous job we were always upgraded which was rather nice! Now we don't fly long haul so much but if we do we cost the upgrade into the flight of the holiday. Short haul we always pay for extra legroom.

British Airways Amex :)

My parents have flown BC a few times. They are late 60s/early 70s, decent pensions and few costs, they have done an annual long haul trip and for their comfort choose BC. It's a massive cost but its their money and it makes their travels much more comfortable.

I've flown BC but for work (company paid) and it hasnt been regular. My company has sensibly massively reduced work travel, it has to be absolutely essential to happen now. They are aware of the environmental cost and video conference advances have made it less necessary.

No one is flying much at the moment, but in usual times I would fly to India and Dubai on business four or five times a year. It is company policy to use business class, given that Management staff are expected to work (quite hard and long hours), straight off the plane (often with jet lag). Once you have done it once, it is nothing special, and the jet lag can be really hard.

• Be an Expat so you have to fly longhaul a few times a year to get home. Then pick and airline/group of airlines and stick to it.
• Credit card with triple points on all travel and dining spend (also put work travel and dining on here as I don't have a corporate card).

- Frequent flier miles from work trips. DH and I both had jobs where we used to have to fly a lot and often at the last minute. - DH also used to do consulting for the luxury travel industry, so that earned us a few upgrades too. I charmed the Head of Sales for Virgin at a drinks party once and he stuck "VIP" on my record for me which earned me LOADS of upgrades and lounge time for a while.

I miss travel and flying so much! I'm an expat and I can't even go home :(

Staff travel, air miles and saving is what I use. I love it .

Get an AMEX card, by the time we're able to fly again we'll probably get round the globe a couple of times 😁

We only fly business or first and have done so for about the last fifteen years (since we were early and mid 30s). We have flown a lot with work in the past which helped with airmiles and frequent flyer status at the time, but that is no longer the case.

We focus on one frequent flyer scheme at a time, currently BA, but we have been with American and Qantas in the past when we have lived overseas. We use the BA Amex, shopping gateway and up until recently Tesco card to collect points. Every now and again we purchase a business or first class flight which helps to top up airmiles and flyer status points, but for each flight we purchase with cash we generally manage at least one possibly two on points and companion voucher.

We are not rich, but we are mortgage free, child free, late 40s/ early 50s.

Pre Covid DH was a frequent work flyer so had platinum cards etc, making upgrades free or v cheap in short haul.

Company covers our flights back to UK BC meaning I had a reasonable amount of points on my flyers cards to use.

We are ok with topping up a bit on personal 4+ hour flights but haven't had to pay full price.

Short haul I like dc to travel coach a bit so they understand it is normal and it is only DH's work that means long haul is BC.

Tesco points converted to air miles gets us both enough for a virgin Atlantic upper class return flight about once every 18 months. We just pay for taxes.

Otherwise we stalk the internet and get them as cheap as we can. Twice we’ve bought economy tickets and kept ringing until we got a cheap upgrade price.

Would never pay the extortionate rates they sometimes try and charge though!

I have my own small business and put all of expenses on my American Express card (when a retailer will accept it, not all do).

My husband and I go to Dubai a couple of times a year and these points usually allow us to upgrade to business class with Emirates one way, twice a year.

I’m perplexed as to how previous posters get to regularly upgrade with points earned on personal cards. Upgrades with most airways cost about 50k points, and you usually £1 = 1 point. So you’d need to spend £100k on a reward card for a one way upgrade for 2?!

FIL and his wife always fly first class and his wife is exceptionally picky with airlines she will use too. She owns her own marketing business and is evidently quite successful, she does a lot of work in Africa and FIL goes along with her as her ‘PA’ (he tends to just play golf a lot . They are wealthy, she earns around 100k a year.

Work (not first class, sadly, cheap fuckers!)

If your business has to go through the expense of sending you abroad to get work done, might as well pay for decent travel conditions so you can actually be awake and work when you land!

Privately, I think economy is fine when you are younger, but you start to need the extra space, comfort and perks as you get older

Accumulated points from frequent travelling and also credit card connected to air miles, so every time you purchase something, you get points towards a flight

Leisure flights are mainly paid for personally, with the odd miles flight or upgrade voucher used.

OH and I also both (used to) travel a lot for work, business or first for long haul.

We can afford it so why not?

@BarbaraofSeville

Dh bought the first class Aus tickets as a surprise for me, so I honestly don’t know what he paid. It was lovely, double bed, 2 leather armchairs, 4 TVs (🙄), and a Little wardrobe each, and at Singapore airport we were in the most amazing lounge, even better than Qatar 1st. 4 flights altogether.

No pockets in a shroud.

Generally someone else is paying or the fare can be afforded or one or both of the people fly regularly so can accumulate points or be on a list

We've flown to the US several times Business Class. Paid for it ourselves. It's very nice but I do it because I am terrified of/ hate flying and it helps me to sleep through as much of the flight as possible!!

We are due to fly virgin upper class to Florida (hopefully) later this year. When we originally booked the holiday I booked premium, then when Virgin had a sale on I rang up and priced for an upgrade. For the return flights it only cost an additional £300pp.

I find sometimes doing it this was they work out cheaper than booking upper/business class straight off.

Points/air miles! My husband has A LOT of BA Avios miles (hundreds of thousands) simply from having a BA American Express card which he uses for literally everything possible 😄
Also all our holidays/flights (when we could go on them!) are with BA which earns us more miles.

We were meant to be flying to Vegas in First Class this Wednesday 😭😭😭

Upgrade for my business travel then use a mixture of points and cash to upgrade my leisure travel.

Don’t think I’ve flown economy in over 10 years