Who on earth pays for 1st class flight tickets

[Gregoravitch]

Just got home from a lovely holiday from the US.

We splurged out for Premium Economy tickets and it was bliss, as you enter the aircraft we had to walk through first class and my word it was so bloody extravagant and packed, their didn't seem to be an empty seat.

Out of curiousity I had a look at the prices for the very same flight journey that we took for a first class ticket and the cheapest I could find was around 3 grand and the most expensive was 7 grand

3 bloody grand, if I could afford it I probably would but it seems horribly expensive. A return ticket would be 6 grand and that's more then our entire holiday for 4 for a fortnight cost.

Who are all these people paying these prices?

I'm also very envious, those first class seats looked very comfy

Are you all talking about the BA Amex card that you pay £195 a year for and have to spend £10k on? Do the companion vouchers apply to the first flight you take only or every flight?

A friend who works for thall shall not be named newspaper website (yes that one) always travels first class and as a business traveller they expect him to get off the plane and go straight to work, whatever the time difference, even if it's Australia.

Ahhh dm always flies Emirates biz, I'd love to try that one but my flight fear is very specific in which airlines and routes it allows.

Yes KenAdams I'm talking about the BA Amex. The amount you spend to qualify for the companion voucher resets every year so you have to spend £10,000 to trigger the ticket, you also have to have enough avios to be able to get a points flight - can't use companion voucher if you just pay for flights (or so I believe).

the vouchers last 2 years each, so we're using our first one next year and I'm slowly building up my spend to qualify for another companion voucher to use in May 2019.

Ken you get sent a voucher once a year and it's valid for 2 years. Flights are released 366 days in advance and to have any hope of booking one, especially in Club/First you have to book immediately.
We haven't had masses of luck.

Wow I'm surprised the amount of people that get first with work these days. I've worked in several companies in the city and only if you were with clients would 1st be approved.

Many people that could fly biz often didn't as they were also in charge of budgets. I often flew club Europe and apart from some bubbles and a cheese platter it wasn't special.

I've got over a million avios but I hate flying and the cost to use them to fly first class is often the same as a cheap economy ticket anyway.

I'm sure 90% of people in 1st don't pay.

It's interesting that some people think it is worth the money. I think that to some extent it may depend on age, size, disabilities etc. In my early twenties, I flew first class and business class on long haul flights a few times and couldn't see how anyone could feel it was worth the extra money (I used airmiles). At that age though, I could sleep anywhere and I'm quite small so the space in economy is fine for me. The food was good but you can get several much better meals in expensive restaurants for the same price.

I have relatives who work for an airline (not management I should point out either)....they often get bumped up to first class...and their children....so the people there may not be so rich after all...just they work for the company...they always dress well for flights...but what a perk..

Maybe someone who flies regularly with BA can tell me - are the Club World seats set out differently depending on the size of the plane?

I was in a backwards facing window seat, with a gormless bloke facing forwards to my left who kept looking at me and trying to strike up a conversation. The screen didn't work after takeoff either, so that was unfortunate. (Thank goodness it was only DH)! Then if I wanted to get out I had to climb over the mans feet in the row behind me.

Milners
If I were you I would change your Flybe date to the day before if possible, and then stay at the airport hotel. It will be less stressful!

SilverBat I know zip about planes but the seat configurations of the planes seem to be the same. What seems to be different is that BA appear to have 3 different types of planes. The really new ones (which dh gets excited about is I think the A380), I like those because there is much more storage space if you sit by the window. The next ones down have the entertainment system where there is a lot of choice. The crappy ones (which they might now have taken out of service as I haven't been on onevrecently) have the ancient entertainment system with not much choice. I also notice that the service standards seems to differ if they are on a route where they have competition (eg New York) vs not much competition. Go figure!

BA do 2 Amex cards - the black one racks up the points more quickly but costs £195 a year. I am fairly sure the other one is less than £50 per year.

MilnersGold you must sort this out, it will not go away. The airline will not reschedule again just for you. Airlines do summer and winter schedules, so booking over 6 months in advance often means flight times change (sometimes under too). Not sure how you booked this: one ticket thorough one airline or 2 tickets with the individual airlines. If one ticket definitely entitled to refund, if 2 tickets probably can only change date/time. Don't leave it, do something.

Silverbat that's the standard business class configuration for BA.

I recently flew on the 787 Dreamliner which is a new plane, newer even than the A380, and you still had to clamber over people's feet in business class.

I was just wondering why people would think that that layout was better than Virgin UC when the prices are about the same.

I'm the mummy with kids in economy whilst Daddy is up the front . He travels a lot and more often than not ,gets a free upgrade .I can slum it for 6.5 hours in the provision he takes charge once we land and I head to the hotel pool , shop or spa it for the equivalent hours .

Just swap boarding cards- they never check and if they do it isn't an issue- happens all of the time. Surprised he hasn't told you this if he is a frequent flyer!

Silverbat I don't think anyone does! But there are a lot of people wedded to Oneworld/BA because of the points, so they fly them anyway, particularly for work trips.

We're one of those families. We nearly always always fly on a Oneworld carrier for work. For holidays, paying taxes on Club World flights and using points is preferable to paying full freight for Virgin UC. And hence thanks to mugs like us, BA never tries to improve

Ken you get sent a voucher once a year and it's valid for 2 years. Flights are released 366 days in advance and to have any hope of booking one, especially in Club/First you have to book immediately. We haven't had masses of luck.

We always manage to book in 1st. Flights come up across the year -although some are always released a year out. You need to be flexible on dates. Recently Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Oman regularly and India a few times.

My lovely DH has on more than one occasion let me take the business class seat while he sits in economy with our 2 little kids. He flies so much and doesn't get to spend much time with the kids so he volunteers to do it, which I think is insane, especially since he is absurdly tall. I seriously do not deserve him.

I only say it because we flew out recently First Class to Bermuda with BA as DH had a companion flight and loads of air miles. It went from Gatwick (the lounge was REALLY bad compared to Virgin at Heathrow). Yes the seats were wider and more comfy than Virgin, the crew on BA are always nicer IMO too. But apart from that I would still choose Virgin. The route back only had Club World available. A couple of posters have said they prefer it, which I don't understand.

I was just wondering why people would think that that layout was better than Virgin UC when the prices are about the same.

It isn't. Virgin installed a new cabin a couple of years ago ( I was a guinea pig on one of 1st flights). It was awful as it was see through. New planes dont have it and they have just announce that they are removing them all.

Many Virgin have half of UC facing a wall so those seats are quite private. And on some of the narrow planes there are just 2 seats at the front- which is incredibly private.

Some people don't like the Virgin bling- my DH being one of them.

Silverbat it's perfect for us - family of 4 compared to sitting side by side and being unable to hold hands with children or talk to them.

If I was flying alone I would consider Virgin but still the UC cabin feels very claustrophobic to me.

Virgin isn't geared up for children in UC in comparison to BA imo either.

How can a herringbone pattern of 4 seats width feel more claustrophobic than backwards/forwards seats 7 width?
I understand about the children though. But then mine are happy not to talk to me as they are teens 😀

Spring is there a pattern as to when the flights become available? That's how we ended up in Bermuda as there was not really any other availability. We didn't realise the companion voucher had an expiry date. (Although I'm glad I went, and would return)

Silverbat we booked ours the day they came out to Florida and then called to add the return flight on it's release date.

Well the seats have two high dividers on either side and when the seat was reclined I found it a bit too enclosed - I quite like being able to get up from lying down and grab a glass of wine from the bar and sit back down not slide down the bed to get up. I think turbulence on the way back from NY in VA also freaked me out as it was overnight and I felt like I couldn't see anyone and a bit trapped.

When we do BA we tend to book the front or back row so there is no one to climb over - think that also contributes to my thoughts.

Does anyone else read the onemileatatime blog? I have wasted hours of my life reading in depth reviews of Etihad first class apartments.

Sadly my own travelling experience has been limited to economy. But I like to dream!