Would you pay £500 each to upgrade to business for an 8 hour flight?

[rollop]

Flying home overnight from Barbados. Working from home the day we land. An upgrade to Business would cost roughly £500 each. This is vs economy standard.

It’s a relatively short long haul flight, at 8 hours. Is it worth it? £1000 is about 15% of our take home salary for context.

No, because I can sleep anywhere so I’d be paying for it without getting much benefit. I’d be more tempted if it was a day flight and I could enjoy the upgrade!

yes absolutely. We paid £250 each once last minute to upgrade on BA from Chicago to London to business from economy and was worth every penny.

Yes definitely

In a heartbeat as long as it’s BA or similar.

Personally I would not, it wouldn't be that important to me. I'd rather spend it on something else.

Proper business class or package holiday upgrade class?

There is a big difference.

no way. For Dh and me that would be £1k. We could have a lovely long weekend somewhere for that money! It's only 8 hours. Bring your own blanket, watch movies. The time soon passes.

I had 2 years of bad sleep with kids, so one night of bad sleep to save a thousand pounds seems like nothing IMO.

Sod that anything over four hours and I'm in business.

Yes but do it quickly, upgrades post booking tend to have dynamic pricing so it may be £700 each next week.

Totally would.

Very tempting in your situation if I was going to work after getting off the plane, and it sounds like you don't have kids draining your finances and that that money isn't needed for something else. For me, that's the flight portion for all of us to go abroad somewhere between Christmas and New Year, so I probably wouldn't and would spend it on that instead.

I could afford it but I'd probably use the £1000 to upgrade our hotel room for the week.

Though we did pay £300pp more to fly premium eco back from Japan via Hong Kong which was a day flight (17 hours)

I don't fly well now, particularly if I feel trapped in a seat with strangers around. So paying to get a seat for 2 is worth it. But that could also be 2 of 4 in the middle.

You take home almost £7k a month….. I’d be frugal and save the £1k… it’s only 8hrs. However if you are sitting on a load of savings and not planning to buy a big purchase….. YOLO

If I had the money I'd upgrade to business class with a lie flat bed and all the paraphernalia that goes with it for a flight to Belfast never mind a long haul. So yes, I would upgrade. However, my salary only allows the holidays, not my be upgrades! Do it!

Overnight on the way back? Yes, I would. Be warned - the BA business class cabin is the older style where you have to step over people to get to the aisle if you’re in the window seat. Feels very exposed in the aisle due to the setup. Virgin I also would take the upgrade but again look at the setup online, very comfortable but the seats face into the aisle.

Be warned - the BA business class cabin is the older style where you have to step over people to get to the aisle if you’re in the window seat
I flew BA business class to Doha and New York the year and it wasn’t the old style step over people’s feet style.

If it was just me and Dh, then yes, probably. But if we were with the kids as we usually are, then no..not for £2500

Yes I would, and have done similar in the past.

Does the upgrade get you flat bed seats? If so then I would pay it.

Yes I would, I don't sleep at all in an upright position on a long haul flight. I've never tried business class but I assume it's much easier to sleep on those flat beds.

The Barbados route hasn’t been upgraded - I flew with BA last year and they’ve already said Gatwick will be one of the last routes to be upgraded.

Yes, so long as all other bills were paid then without a doubt. We’ve booked flights to NY next year and it’s a similar flight time and we’ve upgraded to business so we can sleep on the way back.

I wouldn't, but then I'm very short and don't find the seats in Economy particularly restrictive. Plus I doubt I'd sleep anyway, even if I was in first class, so it's unlikely that it would make any real difference to me. As I see it, it's only 8 hours of minor discomfort so it wouldn't be worth that amount of money to upgrade for 8 hours marginally less discomfort. However, were I a larger person, or someone like my DH who would sleep through the whole flight if he could lie down, or if I had some kind of medical condition that made the extra space particularly valuable I might consider it. But otherwise I can think of lots of things that I'd rather spend that amount of money on. But no doubt I spend on things that lots of other people would think unnecessary or a waste of money. We all have different needs and wants.