Are flight upgrades worth it to you?

[Dopplerineffect]

If you are not rich earning a modest income with a bit of play money. Not talking about the super rich.

Going away with my friend soon,looking at flights it is 2k more for first class ( I know can usually be 10k) then premium economy is another 400. She wants to go premium.

I have flown both but think its a waste for 10 hours but then when stuck in the cattlle market. I have regretted it. However it is only 10 hours.
Aghhh its a waste isn’t it?

I am following this thread avidly as we are planning a trip to Australia next year, which is a helluva long way to fly economy, but we have been quoted an extra £5,000 each to fly business. Those of you who upgrade, do you book direct or through a company and do you have any tips on how to get a good deal?

It depends on how much you dislike being squashed in economy. If it doesn’t bother you, then don’t spend the money. It would make a difference to me if I was on a long haul especially overnight flight but not short haul. I can feel a bit claustrophobic though so the thought of the person in front of me putting their seat back in economy where there’s less room would make me spend the money.

Absolutely yes for me!

That said, I travel a lot and choose, sometimes it’s worth it (long haul) and sometimes on a city flight for a couple of hours, it’s not.

Business vs premium economy, honestly paying myself I wouldn’t bother with business, the premium economy has all the space and comfort.

American Express have good cards for air miles, the Gold preferred rewards card or they have airline cards. You do have to spend quite a bit on them but if you do it’s worth doing.

Or fly often enough with same airline and get membership card, lounges and fast check in, bring it on:)

If you’re comfy in regular class and sleep ok on planes/are happy to watch movies and read etc, it can be a lot extra that can put to much better use on a trip.

Enjoy the travels!

the other thing to think about is doing the upgrade only on the way home - on the way out you're looking forward to a holiday, and on the way home you just want to get home

astatelypleasuredom we flew Manchester to Sydney about 4 years ago, cost about £3k each, dates expensive for 3 weeks over Xmas & NY. Went BC with Etihad, wonderful experience and would not want to do that journey in eco. Booked about 6 months before. Always do it all separately but worth pricing against Expedia as adding a couple of nights in a hotel can be cheaper. that was better service overall than Emirates BC in the A380 to Dubai. Other than that happy to schlep across Atlantic in eco with Virgin twice a year

I fly a lot for work, and we don't get to fly in anything but economy. On the odd occasion I get upgraded I enjoy it in business, but I'd never pay for it even on the travel budget. I can't say 14 hours in economy is fun, but its a huge amount of money that could be spent on much more interesting things imo

I was deeply sceptical of the value of upgrading seating until I went business class to Japan. I managed to get a decent sleep on the plane and had next to no jet lag (unlike a colleague who had to go premium economy!). I would go business again if I could afford It!

We are going to New Zealand, havent bothered with premium economy, but paid full flights early and have spent about £500 between the two of us prebooking seats with extra legroom, which was a lot cheaper than the premium economy .

Thanks Queen. Did you book direct?

Are the credit cards mentioned worth the effort and roughly how much do you need to spend to make it worthwhile?

you can also bid for an upgrade depending on your airline

We always fly at least PE now, although we get our flights for next to nothing using air miles from Tesco and our credit card so we only pay taxes.

DH wouldn’t fly economy again.

PE is definitely worth the upgrade. First/Upper is amazing but so expensive. We’ve only done it once when the upgrade price was a bargain.

AStatelyPleasureDome, did use travel agent for the flights to book as there were 4 internal ones included, probably would have been cheaper to do direct to the airline. Booked the accommodation myself, stayed at 3 different places. Certainly do a search around the dates you want to go - sky scanner, expedia, momondo, prob depends on how long you are going for and which route. Middle east was most straight forward for us and longest connection was about 3 hrs.

When I book my US flights I search about and sometimes include a hotel for a night as this tends to brings the flight cost down.

Are you going to America? We upgraded only on the way back as taxes etc were much cheaper for some reason?

I’d grin and bear economy if not. It’s a lot of money to spend!

If you fly with Virgin they sometimes have a “seat plus” option where you pay about £75 for an extra seat in economy. Well worth exploring as you might then be able to guarantee a row to yourselves with the spare seat to put your feet up on (I’d choose that over PE on Virgin personally as it’s more comfortable than what is basically just a slightly bigger economy seat). Upper is fantastic though if you can afford it.

I would always fly at least business on flights over 5 hours. A flatbed on an overnight flight, increased privacy and decent food on longer flights is worth every penny.
I’m happy with economy on short haul inside Europe.

Just returned from New York on premium with virgin. Only 6.5-7.5 hour flight but makes the world of difference in terms of comfort and service. I don't think about the cost of the flight. It's part and parcel of the holiday to me and I'd always come back skint regardless 😂

No, I'd always spend the extra on the actual holiday rather than the flight. Sadly I have a lot of room to expand on that before I've exhausted any upscaling potential.

TC doesn’t have a first

No, but they do "premium economy" and only charge about £90 for it each way. I've used it often and they're extremely good ... newer aircraft, priority everything, excellent seat, pretty good food and free drinks

Works for me

For those that have flown premium economy - can the people infront of you, still recline their seats into your lap?

Mycats I've only done Premium Economy with BA, Virgin and Thomas Cook, but yes - they all still had reclining seats. Point is though that they didn't recline "into your lap" as there was a LOT more space

On BA nearly all the seats were broken in some way, but that's another story ...

Premium economy worth every penny x

Thanks for that, Puzzled. It’s the thing that annoys me the most about flying economy.

Depends which airline.

We mostly fly BA so personally First Class isn’t worth it for me as I don’t like the food and the actual seat is too uncomfortable for me. (I’m 5’1 so can’t reach the foot rest without having the seat practically lying down)

But business class (club world) is definitely worth it for us as you have tons of leg room - flat bed means I actually sleep on the flight so no jet lag at the other end.

There’s a sale due very soon and the prices are tons better.

I haven't flown economy for about 10 years. I would rather not fly now. But it's not a choice between that or something else. I suppose each time we could pay off some of our mortgage or something but we try to balance life so we live now as we want. We both earn well tax free though so why not?

What's premium economy?

Yes, I always fly business.