How many people actually fly F in their lives?

[Hvr]

F travel still results in jetlag

If it does you're doing it wrong.

 

[Berlin]

F travel still results in jetlag

Yes, this is something people who have never flown up the front (let alone in F) always misjudge. I always still suffer from jetlag, no matter what. And drinking large amounts of booze doesn't really help there, even if it's 'top shelf' booze

 

[cove]

I don't buy Krug for home so it remains special for SQ Suites and First on the 777. Same for the caviar with the icy Vodka.
MasterCove has done pretty good things with his points and Miles and uses me as a back up.

 

[cove]

Did someone say pay for it?? No thanks. Just points, miles and upgrades.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Did someone say pay for it?? No thanks. Just points, miles and upgrades.

My 120k American Airlines miles will be the last I see of any First cabin for a long time. Unless I pay! I have minimal CC spend beyond living expenses and the big banks don't seem to like me for Credit Cards. I was smiling when AMEX said yes. And I did afford a laugh when Telstra told me I had "the absolute best credit possible" when signing up for some new plans last week.

Maybe the banks know what I might be up to...churn churn

 

[TomVexille]

I have once, which was a MEL>SIN>MEL (not sure if that qualifies for long haul) ...

I'll allow it

I think our family do about 20 a year all on Points/Miles.

Yes, but they all only count once.

... I've mused on how many at the pointy end are paying for all the fare themselves; not staff/points/company nor even tax deduction subsidised. Now there's a very small group!

I'm fairly confident that I know of 2 on here

 

[ayebee]

Got upgraded to F a few times MEL-LHR back when you needed to qualify with miles / kms just to be a member of QFF. No points involved.
Todays J is much better.
Best effort was upgrade J to Concorde R LHR to Washington Dulles. That was an experience.

 

[JohnM]

Yes, this is something people who have never flown up the front (let alone in F) always misjudge. I always still suffer from jetlag, no matter what. And drinking large amounts of booze doesn't really help there, even if it's 'top shelf' booze

Now, where is the disagree button when one needs it....

 

[MEL_Traveller]

In saying that wife and daughter are flying F in June whilst I slum it in business. They don't know yet. Wife thinks the surprise is me flying business and them flying economy. I am not going to tell her until that morning when she guests me into the SQ F lounge. I think. She will appreciate the F flight even though she does not drink.

Sorry for the OT... this is TG F to BKK? If so, you can most likely join your wife on the buggy on arrival. If F isn't full they usually allow immediate family to join. Secondly... eat in the SQ lounge before departure. The food is abysmal in F ex SYD. J class food is better. So eat up!

 

[JohnK]

Sorry for the OT... this is TG F to BKK? If so, you can most likely join your wife on the buggy on arrival. If F isn't full they usually allow immediate family to join. Secondly... eat in the SQ lounge before departure. The food is abysmal in F ex SYD. J class food is better. So eat up!

TG F to BKK. Wife and daughter will love the buggy. Wife doesn't eat much in flight so we'll eat up in lounge.

I don't mind the long walk to immigration giving luggage a chance to come out.

 

[juddles]

This general question is also interesting as not so many years ago the question would have been: "How many people actually fly in their lives" - that question still applies to many regions in the world.

 

[Bilton]

I've had 3 long haul F sectors out of about ~97 long haul sectors in total. SYD-LAX, SYD-AUH, AUH-SYD.

 

[SFSC]

Cost becomes less of an issue the closer a person approaches to the end of their days. Hopefully, I still have quite a few days yet to expend because the paid F I used SYD-LHR-SYD this year was discounted (A).

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I'd mostly agree with this. I feel it can't be above 0.01%.

Quick back of envelope math: QF flies five flights a day with a true F out of Australia currently (SYD-DFW, SYD-LAX, MEL-LAX, MEL-DXB, SYD-DXB, ignoring SYD-HKG as not F service). These have 14 seats each. This is just over 25,000 F seats per year, one-way. 25,000 is just over about 0.1% of the total population of Australia. Of course, seats go empty, and people from other countries are in these seats as well. And, surely, many of these flyers are repeat flyers who have flown F before, with a number of them repeat flyers from the previous 12 months even. Of course, there are other carriers flying F into and out of Australia, but this is just to give an idea of the numbers.

But 'in their lifetime' how far do we go back? Let's say the jet age - 1959. Many flights weren't daily, but they had larger F cabins than we do now.

Fast forward the QF 747SP had up to 28 F cl (12 upper deck and 16 in the nose). Those flights might have been daily SYD-LAX? So that's already 10K seats a year. But as you say - some flights would have been lightly loaded. Others carrying pax ex USA. But equally other airlines would also have carried Aussie pax from here. CX had up to 35 F on their 742s and SQ up to 40 F on their 743s. Not a small numbers.

125K since 1959 is not a large number - 2000 a year.

 

[juddles]

I am just lucky that QF does not offer F on my usual SCL-SYD route. Don't have the money, so knowing there was something better would be cruel.

 

[JohnM]

I am just lucky that QF does not offer F on my usual SCL-SYD route. Don't have the money, so knowing there was something better would be cruel.

Ooohhh, I hope QF puts the Big Bird on that route... - juuust kidding! .

 

[Denali]

I remember flying SIN>SYD and departing through the forward cabin, thinking one day it would be nice but not for a very long time, if ever.

Now its, 'Yeah, I aint flying unless its the pointy end (J for us)'.

Both my and husbands parents were migrants, they came here via a long boat trip. How the times have changed for their children.

 

[drron]

But 'in their lifetime' how far do we go back? Let's say the jet age - 1959. Many flights weren't daily, but they had larger F cabins than we do now.

Fast forward the QF 747SP had up to 28 F cl (12 upper deck and 16 in the nose). Those flights might have been daily SYD-LAX? So that's already 10K seats a year. But as you say - some flights would have been lightly loaded. Others carrying pax ex USA. But equally other airlines would also have carried Aussie pax from here. CX had up to 35 F on their 742s and SQ up to 40 F on their 743s. Not a small numbers.

125K since 1959 is not a large number - 2000 a year.

But Business class wasn't introduced until the second half of the 70s.Usually when it was introduced the F cabins became smaller.Indeed with SAS F disappeared with the introduction of business class.

I was the first of my extended family to fly.I was 23 and it was in 1969.So indeed you don't have to go back that long to a time when just a small proportion of the population flew.
PS to me the 60s and 70s were not that long ago although to the younger members they might appear to be the dark ages.

 

[Dr Bob]

So using my possible pool of flyers over the last 15 years (since I became an avid points hack & flew up the front), when in casual conversation with colleagues, clients, acquaintances & friends & the talk turns to holidays I usually ask where, which airline & what class & then bang on about points & cheap J or F flights.
Never had anyone said, yes I have been in first, although I estimate hundreds would have the ability to do so if they had listened to me bang on about points.
Then just 2 weeks ago over some nibbles & drinks after a treatment session with my dermatologist she said to me, Dr Bob I took your advise & WOW a shower on my way to Greece, I'm never going down the back again.
So that is 1person in 15 years & let's say 120 people a year so less than 0.05%.

 

[TheBOSman]

This general question is also interesting as not so many years ago the question would have been: "How many people actually fly in their lives" - that question still applies to many regions in the world.

It still applies even in "first world" countries: my mother never set foot on a plane in her life. I never set foot on a plane myself until 2009. And there are quite a few people in the USA who haven't flown at all similar to my mother. And there is a significant group that only fly either to go somewhere warm in the winter to get out of the cold and snow, or to visit relatives who have moved too far away to drive.

That said, I'm approaching 400 flights in the past 6 years .