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

riceuten I don't think anyone is actually trying to justify why they travel first/bc. Why would I do that? It's my money, legally earned. I have not one whit of shame about how I spend it. why would I?.

As to responsible business people - what a load of tosh! I travel once a month, usually Sunday night arriving back Friday morning. BC allows me to work for 6 hours solid in peace. For the next 4 working days, I do 8am to about 10pm, then get back to the hotel and work till about 1am, then up again at 5am to do a couple of hours of emails before breakfast meetings. By Thursday night, I am utterly exhausted as I have had about 12-15 hours sleep cumulatively. As soon as the seat belt light goes off, my head is down and I get 5 hours sleep. I usually have a call scheduled for the car journey home and it doesn't stop till 2pm when I go to do the school run. i cant imagine the additional toll of doing a week like that and flying economy.

My Mother as she likes to have a little more room. In fairness she always gets a good discount.

And it was probably packed as they only have a few seats. I once got a call to ask if I would mind downgrading as they had combined two flights and there were now overbooked.....I declined

I would love to fly first class, or even business class and hope one day I can earn enough to do it. It seems much more luxurious , more space etc than economy. I doubt I'll ever be able to afford it but I can live in hope

Bare in mind that you can get F flights with BA for a few hundred £s and lots of Avios. There are a lot of people who save all their Tesco vouchers, get a BA branded Amex card (where they can get a 2 for 1 voucher) etc and once every few years get a holiday away flying F.

Other airlines have similar schemes.

I've been First a couple of times when BA has done a special offer to upgrade Business to First. I actually didn't find it quite as good as business: it takes longer to get fed as it's all individual service, so if you want to sleep on the flight it's a bit slow! Easy to say when you're not paying for it of course.

My clients always used to pay for business class if I was flying long-haul: expensive but cheaper than paying for recovery time and it's pretty rough to get straight off an overnight economy flight and to a meeting. I used to go to South Africa a lot and I'd fly out one night, grab a shower at the airport, go to the meeting, and then back at the end of the day for the overnight flight back, and into the office straight from the airport the day after: don't think I could have done that on Economy (not in one piece mentally anyway!) I got loads of airmiles during those few months which I still have a good chunk of, and sometimes spend on Premium Economy or even Business for overnight leisure flights, but I would never spend even points to upgrade to First. In fact I quite often get free upgrades from BA even though I'm only Blue now, which I suspect is because my lifetime points are high from that crazy year 10ish years ago.

I did know one guy who always flew First for business back then, but he was 6ft5in so the extra length of the beds in First made a big difference for him. Personally for me there wasn't much in it. Both have nice food and service and plenty enough space for an average height person. And on my limited experience there are some very entitled/annoying people in First who can really ruin it for everybody else in the cabin - whereas Business people tend to be more boring, which is what you want of your fellow passengers on a flight :)

I use Avios collected through fights and my american express card to upgrade / pay for my Club World BA flights. With our 2 for 1 voucher and also our avois points we are getting a 9 hour flight return for 2 in Club World for about £1000.

My employer will pay for business class on overnight flights. Sometimes I get upgraded to first but I think I prefer business class on BA. I'm in my 50s and if my boss asked me to go straight to a meeting after an overnight flight in economy the answer would be "no".

We fly economy within Europe (unless upgraded) and I often use low-cost airlines anyway - don't really see the point of paying more for flights less than 4 hours, unless you have a health issue or other good reason.

Which sorts of jobs/ careers pay for you to fly in first class?

airmails :)

...or airmails even

damn it, air miles

Few people can actually stretch to first class
Don't be silly. Do you really think there are only a handful of people in the world who can afford first class, Lavender?
And yes, I'm quite sure the majority of us know the difference between first class and business.

My husband owns a large scale construction business and I am a makeup artist in a niche area, that's how we do it.

Fewer than they used to Bee. I started work in the early 90s and my boss would reminisce about the good old days when as a middle ranking executive in the finance industry his employers would routinely cough up for First Class for long haul flights and he would find himself sitting next to the international rich and famous of the jet set. But those days had long gone when I started - it was business class travel only.

I have a relative who always flies first class, but that's because his employers pay for it. He'd never be able to afford it otherwise.

15 years ago I won upper class virgin flights to Florida.
They were £4125....each!

They were bliss. Seats five feet apart. By reclining most of the flight I avoided swollen legs that I normally get.

Food was lovely and beautifully presented. Champagne as much as you wanted.
There was a bar you could sit beside.
There was supposed to be a massage included but not on that flight. I was presented with £100 of duty free.

The worst thing about it was the shithead I was sat beside...my ex!

What a show up!

In that 'Saudi Princess' biography, the princess gets married off to a cousin at age 16. They fly off on honeymoon and he has not just booked first class - he has booked every seat in first class, so that they can have privacy. Now that's extravagant

p.s. The cousin is young and handsome and she's very attracted to him, so it's all very romantic. Things go downhill later, but the first class honeymoon is all good.

The company my father worked for used to pay for first class sometimes and business class the rest as they needed him to fly to America, go to a meeting and fly back again. He would have been too tired to do that if he had flown economy. He flew every couple of weeks so even if he had a business class ticket he was usually upgraded to first class as was such a frequent flyer.
I have flown first class a couple of times (using his air miles) and it didn't seem worth the extra cost to me but I suppose it is different if you are flying for leisure and don't have to work as soon as you get there.

I think the price and service/facilities difference between first and economy is obscene.

I think they should cut some of the perks of first/business and divert them to economy. Basically 'pool' the space and services more. I do realise that some people need to arrive refreshed and so need a flat bed and a good night's sleep, though.

I fly economy through necessity. Was upgraded to premium economy once and the difference just between that and economy was huge; although for me it is mainly about the space and legroom (I'm tall) –I don't care about free champagne, massages etc.

See I'd be thinking how much better the extra £7k could be spent in Florida on amazing hotels and experiences. I usually look at the difference in the hourly rate for economy versus business or first to decide if it's worth it to me......usually it isn't but that calculation is different for everyone. If I hadn't done it before it might be worth doing solely for the experience for example.

Virgin UC is business not 1st.

I fly business most of the time. I fly 1st with BA twice a year using my air miles (so costs approx £600 return long haul to Hong Kong) Laurent petrie grand siecle at £110 a bottle in Waitrise- soon get that value back!

Why wouldn't you? Also if you book in sales then 1st can cost the same as business or less.

On virgin last year we were coming out of upper class and they were holding the premium economy back. A little girl with her mum looked into UC and said 'when I am grown up I want to fly in seats like that. Her mum said "you will have to marry a rich man then" I said "or you could do what I did which is work very hard at school, get a good job and pay for it yourself'. The cabin crew member chortled and said "bravo'

Sapphire ....why do you think that ? People have the choice to pay for the sort of service they want. If I'm going out for the evening I might get the bus to the venue, if I want more privacy I might get a cab, if it's a huge occasion I might hire a limo. Air travel is no different. You get what you pay for.

I really don't care if it's first or business or club etc provided i get a flat bed.

I've generally flown first when someone calls a last minute meeting and all seats in business are gone. Or I've been upgraded from business to first.

Which sorts of jobs/ careers pay for you to fly in first class?

My parents had average jobs, not really careers, Mum was an (industrial) Radiologist, Dad made bits in the same factory, very well paid as far as factory work is concerned but not in the same league as say GP's etc.They worked lots of overtime as they love their holidays and have been flying First Class for about 15 years

trafalgar, I just think there is such a massive gulf between packed into economy and flat bed and limo service in Business/First.