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

[Hungarian]

I have a daytime flight to Toronto for a work trip soon. It’s on a weekend so technically it’s “me time”. Work will only pay for premium economy.

I got an offer through on my phone that I could upgrade the day flight to business class for £400. So effectively £400 for lounge access, fast track security, a nicer seat on the plane, better food, and quicker bags.

I’ve always wanted to try this airline’s business class product but would never spend my own money for a biz ticket. So £400 is probably the cheapest way for me to try it. DH thinks I’m mad to spend my own money to upgrade a work trip.

A colleague did this, we're public sector so otherwise have to fly economy and technically upgrading, even with our own money, is against the rules as a discounted upgrade counts as a benefit and we're not allowed anything nice unless you're an MP of course

But she said she thought 'sod it, I don't often spend a lot on me' and said it was the best £400 she ever spent, so based on that, as long as you can afford it, hell yes, do it.

Personally I wouldn't.

I think that for a day flight the difference between business and premium economy is not that huge anyway, and for a night flight your company should be paying for business class.

If you're travelling at the weekend you should be getting a day off in lieu, and I would focus on making that happen.

For 6 or 7 hours to Toronto during the day I wouldn’t. If premium economy already I don’t think it’s worth it.

If it's your money, then spend it as you wish.

I wouldn't. Business class give you more leg room, wider seats and better food. I can think of a million more fun ways to spend £400.

I tend to agree. If the flight is that length and daytime you will probably spend it upright or reclined watching movies or reading. Which makes PE endurable and for about £100 you could arrange lounge access on the way out and back. Lounge experience isn’t what it used to be even in business class and wouldn’t be worth an extra £400.

A lot depends on the airline and aircraft as well. A shitty old BA Boeing isn’t going to be as nice as a new plane with a better airline. And you definitely want to investigate what seats are left to book. Even business class has bad seat options near toilets or family areas.

If money is no object and you wouldn’t miss it then I wouldn’t even tell my OH or solicit their opinion. Then again he would say it is up to you.

Me too

I wouldn't. If it was the Gulf I might, but transatlantic business class can be fairly utilitarian depending on the airline. Although if it's BA to Heathrow you can use the arrival lounge which was lovely the one time I used it (shower and a free massage!)

Presumably you can expense a meal in the airport anyway so no real benefit to the lounge. If it's the return leg, lounges in North American airports aren't all that nice in my experience.

And it's a day flight so you don't need the bed.

I wouldn't bother for a day flight. For an overnight yes; I can't sleep in normal plane seats.
In my (limited!) experience of premium economy, it's perfectly fine for a daytime trip, even a long one. That bit extra legroom makes a lot of difference, and I'm not bothered about lounges or freebies or limos from the airport or whatever, and I don't drink, so the free booze would be wasted on me.

Depends on your financial situation, I love business class and £400 is a deal but not if you have to live on beans and toast the rest of the month.

I would definitely do it!

Good point about the plane, if it’s old style BA business for example it’s not so worth it. If it’s Virgin is a tricky dilemma.

I’d do it. And prepare for the downer of being in the back of the plane on the way back.

Not for Toronto as quite short flight.
i can book lounges from £30 at Heathrow too and usually do. £400 on say an upgraded room would seem far better value.

If you can afford it why not? Usual rule of thumb for upgrades is £100/hr for a good deal. Read the small print though because upgrades don’t always include lounge access.

I've flown business for work before. And never been tempted to spend my own money upgrading personal flights. Sure it's nicer (much nicer than regular economy) but you're still in the same metal tube for the same (give or take few mins) time. I'd far rather spend that money on hotel upgrades, meals, experiences etc while away. Things that are enjoyable more so rather than making something less unpleasant if that makes sense.

Have you checked that is OK with work, not all companies allow an upgrade. If your work use an agency you may find you become liable to pay the full amount. Worth checking first and you never know your company may offer to pay the upgrade.

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

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

£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.

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..

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.

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,

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

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 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.