Business Class: numbers or psychology?

[MEL_Traveller]

Not sure about that. There are a lot of high income people out there with limited time off. When they travel it’s prioritising the experience, not worrying about 20-30k of flights

I agree… although I’m not sure about the 20-30k on flights! I know some folk who have no money issues but wouldn’t drop that sort of money easily. $10-15 on the other hand, divided by two is more realistic?

There are plenty of specials out there to fill business class cabins for leisure travellers, excluding the USA perhaps. But with carrier like ANA offering business class ex Syd for what was it…$2799 return… it’s not that much extra over economy. And if pressed for time, or exhausted by work… it makes sense.

 

[ellen10]

We are retired and in the last 9 years have been able to enjoy some nice long haul business class flights, mainly using points. But the points game has been drying up for us, as there are no longer credit card sign up promos, and with no status, we will have to look at paying for our next long haul business.

Our last trip we bought flights to Asia and then used points to Europe. So our next options are purchasing Business flights from Australia or repositioning to Asia and purchasing business class flights from there. I love travel, my husband not as much. So I think our long haul flying days will slow down. I have always been a saver all my life, but feel that now that we are comfortable, we should enjoy it while we can.
Who knows whats around the corner!

 

[Cynicor]

I agree… although I’m not sure about the 20-30k on flights! I know some folk who have no money issues but wouldn’t drop that sort of money easily. $10-15 on the other hand, divided by two is more realistic?

There are plenty of specials out there to fill business class cabins for leisure travellers, excluding the USA perhaps. But with carrier like ANA offering business class ex Syd for what was it…$2799 return… it’s not that much extra over economy. And if pressed for time, or exhausted by work… it makes sense.

I was talking about 20-30k over a whole family, sorry.
Esp with specials, 4 to Europe at $6k each isn’t that bad

 

[Cynicor]

I just remind myself business is 3-6 times the cost of economy.
I would much rather go to 3 holidays in economy vs 1 holiday in business

No brainer for me

My guess is you don’t have a partner and you definitely don’t have kids.
It’s almost never a choice between 3 holidays or 1. And tbh even if it was, flights are only a portion of the holiday cost. At 3 or 4 times the cost of flights it might be the choice between 1.5 holidays or 1. And most people have to think about limited leave etc too

 

[SOPOOR]

My guess is you don’t have a partner and you definitely don’t have kids.
It’s almost never a choice between 3 holidays or 1. And tbh even if it was, flights are only a portion of the holiday cost. At 3 or 4 times the cost of flights it might be the choice between 1.5 holidays or 1. And most people have to think about limited leave etc too

Yes spot on.
Partner but not kids.
Obviously the comparison was worded a bit incorrectly. But i used to go to bali, it would cost me about 2.5k for 10 days inc flights,
So going back to my example
$2k Y flight vs a $7k J flight.
I could have 2 extra fully paid bali trips

And as for leave, ive taken unpaid leave for my holidays, or been between jobs or been unemployed. People who use leave as an excuse not to go, thats their choice

 

[Cynicor]

And as for leave, ive taken unpaid leave for my holidays, or been between jobs or been unemployed. People who use leave as an excuse not to go, thats their choice

it’s not, but obviously in your extremely limited experience and world view it is. Good stuff

 

[StayGoldPonyboy]

And as for leave, ive taken unpaid leave for my holidays, or been between jobs or been unemployed. People who use leave as an excuse not to go, thats their choice

For some people it isn't fully their choice, that's the thing. Depends where/how you work (e.g. hospital staff or project workers, etc) if it falls outside of school hols and you can't take your kids out of school then there is no choice.

 

[SOPOOR]

For some people it isn't fully their choice, that's the thing. Depends where/how you work (e.g. hospital staff or project workers, etc) if it falls outside of school hols and you can't take your kids out of school then there is no choice.

Thats fair enough, i agree

 

[OATEK]

We are retired and in the last 9 years have been able to enjoy some nice long haul business class flights, mainly using points. But the points game has been drying up for us, as there are no longer credit card sign up promos, and with no status, we will have to look at paying for our next long haul business.

Our last trip we bought flights to Asia and then used points to Europe. So our next options are purchasing Business flights from Australia or repositioning to Asia and purchasing business class flights from there. I love travel, my husband not as much. So I think our long haul flying days will slow down. I have always been a saver all my life, but feel that now that we are comfortable, we should enjoy it while we can.
Who knows whats around the corner!

Now in our 70s, and with various injuries, arthritis etc etc, long haul Y is no longer doable. A mix of Y+ and J is what we are into, and as you and others have said, getting to Asia however you can manage, and the J to the rest of the world, comes at a much lower price point that straight from OZ. We have been doing points to Asia (Y+ and J), and the paid J to Europe.

As for the underlying question of what gets left to the kids, well they will just have to wait and see what is left. Half my super is defined benefits, that leaves nothing for the kids if not dependents living with us. But we expect a good portion of the rest, and selling our real property, will see them a lot better off than we were from our parents.

 

[Blinky]

Well in my career I saw many people who saved up for their grand retirement trip but who were no longer with us or so disabled that they couldn’t.
So we began travelling J well before my retirement. Finally truely retiring just over two years ago we had a long talk with our son and his wife. They told us to go and spend their inheritance. So we are doing so.

Well we have seven kids so they worked out some time ago not to rely on an inheritance. They are very happy for us to spend up.

I still have over 1 million velocity but purchase J most of the time. Get them early enough and they can be reasonably priced.

 

[Forg]

My sneaking suspicion is that the majority of people who fly paid business class pre-retirement, do so because someone else is paying for it — usually their employer, or sometimes another family member.

Or see a great deal come up … we only went to NZ in EK F ‘cos there was a massive deal, it was cheaper than QF Y. I didn’t really have a solid plan for cabin-class when hunting for tickets, but we flew CI J to the UK in 2018 ‘cos it was cheaper than QF or SQ Premium Economy (actually I think full-price QF Y was only a coupla hundred more).

 

[bashworth]

As we are retired we quite often go away for 6-10 weeks.

Although Business class is 3 times the price the fact that we go away for so long means our flight costs per week away is comparable with someone who goes away 3 times for 2-3 weeks flying Economy.