What do you look forward to more - the Flight or the Destination?

[Forg]

Out of curiosity, what does your work clarify as "long distance"? I've heard of some employers classify a BNE/SYD/CBR/MEL - PER trip long distance, whereas the same treatment for others would need a minimum of a MEL - SIN/KUL/HKG/BKK etc.

I have some input to this, and would be interested to see what others are doing.
We've got a general policy that if it's over ~10 hours it's J, under 10hrs international (except NZ) is W, and domestic is Y (plus NZ, we're based in Sydney so flying to Auckland is considered "domestic" in terms of comfort/seating/etc).
It's flexible though, for example if you're flying back from SIN on the red-eye and expected to be coming to work the next day, it's not fair to make you stay up all night screaming in pain & being beaten by the angry bikies hired by airlines to keep the pax behind the J curtain aware of their lot in life, if sleep's available on J.

Of course those that fly a lot have points & status to help them up their travel class, but that's at their expense not the company's. I say this because my better-half travels a lot for work & is a federal government employee; there are special booking classes available (which is almost the same as saying "there's a special place in Hades reserved for") for at least her department where the airline can NOT give frequent-flyer points 'cos they're considered a "kickback". I'm not sure what her department's policy is on travel class & distance travelled, because she's always going just about the furthest you can travel & still be on the same planet.

I'm also voting for the planning as being an intrinsic part of the travel (vacation) experience but of course the destination is key too. Part of planning is the search for award seats in the pointy end or finding that great fare.

I find it a bit intriguing that the more you know about what can be organised/planned, the more it bothers you when minor things the airlines don't care about occur.
I mean stuff like an unexpected change of aircraft, eg. going from one configuration to another configuration even when things like the seats & IFE are the same … you've carefully planned that perfect seat in that perfect location, there's a last minute change & the seat you've chosen is no longer perfect & somebody else has already checked-in in the seat you'd have chosen if you'd known it was this configuration.
And yet the infrequent traveller Forgs up the back are stoked because they managed to score a window. ​

 

[Ekulgreen]

I enjoy both I must admit even to the point that I book a plane spotters package at Rydges airport in Sydney the night before my flight. My partner on the other hand only starts to enjoy his journey once he steps foot of the plane. We pretty much fly J for flights if it's available, I find flying fun but when I turn around my partner is always asleep he says it's the only time he does not get emails or phone calls so that understandable.

 

[Denali]

I enjoy both I must admit even to the point that I book a plane spotters package at Rydges airport in Sydney the night before my flight. My partner on the other hand only starts to enjoy his journey once he steps foot of the plane. We pretty much fly J for flights if it's available, I find flying fun but when I turn around my partner is always asleep he says it's the only time he does not get emails or phone calls so that understandable.

Mine gets the IFE schedule and plans movie marathons. One SQ long haul had all the superhero movies so he had a blast.

 

[serfty]

Mine gets the IFE schedule and plans movie marathons. One SQ long haul had all the superhero movies so he had a blast.

During the course of several long haul flights last year I corrupted my brain (I think) by watching the all three series of Mr. Robot while flying Qantas.

 

[OATEK]

I love flying, but not for the sake of it. I want to get somewhere. So I ticked Option 3 - Both. MrsOatek argues that I can't enjoy flying all that much because I sleep through so much of it!!

 

[Wanderlust_tim]

All my flying is in Y (flew the red eye from DPS on the 737-800 last night). This may have coloured my judgement, but definitely the destination for me.

 

[JohnK]

For me it's everything related to the travel experience from planning to the actual trip and most important the destination. Couldn't care less about premium travel.

With a young family can't plan too far ahead so only ever really have 1 trip in the pipeline.

The rough plan is 4 nights in Khao Yai (have never been) with 2-3 games of golf, 2 nights in Bangkok and more specifically Holiday Inn Sukhumvit, 6 nights Pattaya with 4 games of golf, 3 nights Chiang Mai with 1-2 games of golf.

Award flights BNE-SIN on EK and SIN-BKK on 3K all in economy booked. Return flights likely to be SQ award in economy.

Khao Yai is a concern as I'm not sure sure it's ready for international tourism. Sounds very disorganised but some nice cheap golf courses away from the crowds.

 

[mrsterryn]

Depends on the destination and the flights
4 day trip to Tokyo . Definitely the destination. Aka shopping
2 plus weeks in Europe , mixture as I love exploring new parts (New to me ) of Europe
Rewards flights with 3 legs in first class with two one world carriers I havnt been on before..the flight.... though it is to Paris to catch up with a friend and her family
Actually it is both. I love planning holidays and trips. Checking which plane and then which class....what perks.....and of course the holiday itself

 

[Deleted member 29185]

For me, it's all about the destination. The flight is boring, mundane and a waste of hours left in my life.

 

[tgh]

The J novelty has long dissipated and I have become selective ( picky , critical/ your adj )
Some recent long haul flights have seemed eternal.
I derive great pleasure from the formulation and creation of a trip.
The joy of the chase -v- the consumption of the prey…..

 

[Blinky]

I picked option 3, but if long haul in F, it would be option 1. I’ve only flown F (EY) to and from Europe with my wife. Although the whole trip was wonderful, my best memories are about the flight.

 

[MathNerd]

I picked option 3, but if long haul in F, it would be option 1. I’ve only flown F (EY) to and from Europe with my wife. Although the whole trip was wonderful, my best memories are about the flight.

Yes indeed, long haul F is about as good as things can ever get

 

[DaveinCanberra]

Cannot afford J or (of course) F so the flights are something to be endured more than enjoyed - especially as (unlike my wife) I cannot sleep at all en route. The planning is always exciting, and destinations have never disappointed, so far.

 

[jch]

As the title says - my wife and I (newly married) have had this discussion plenty of times since our SQ Suites experience on SQ218 from MEL to SIN last month. 7 hours just isn't enough to fully appreciate the awesomeness that is First Class travel (especially being Suites in an SQ A380).

This was our first ever premium travel experience - all other travel has been in whY, and on a variety of airlines (chosen purely due to the economics of cheapest price wins). Having stashed a bunch of MR, I booked our 2 Suites tix as a surprise way to start off our honeymoon in MLE.

Ever since then, all I've been doing is reading, reading and reading even more about SQ Suites and the routes they fly. We're heading to Europe this December 2019 for a proper honeymoon, but only managed to get confirmed tickets on SQ J. SQ F is Waitlisted.

I've been talking only about the flights, not the destination. The wife is the opposite. I'm looking towards (hopefully, fingers crossed tightly that waitlist clears) smashing out 14+ hours in Suites on the SIN-LHR leg, and she doesn't get why I'm anticipating that, as after all "it's just a plane ride".

Anyone else experience the same?

The new SQ F suites were available for upgrade on the overnight leg from SIN-SYD on my way back from PEK next November. I decided against it for this reason it didn't seem long enough to enjoy. I'll definitely do it on an overnight leg from SIN-LHR if I organise a Euro trip next year... a full dinner sleep and breakfast in the suite would be awesome over a ~14h flight.

 

[Flying mermaid]

I love it all - love the plannng and deciding on hotels. We are members of all the hotel loyalty schemes, but choose based on the nicest hotel at the destination, rather than points.

Love the flights (but then we don’t travel Y) and totally love the destinations. Realistically the destinations are the most important, but I do love it all - even coming home, because by that time I am longing to see the fur babies again.

Mr FM hates flying and is bored by planning, so I guess it’s all destination for him.

 

[Cossie]

I enjoy the planning. The going, not so much. Once there I can enjoy but I'm already thinking/researching the next one, because I enjoy the planning

Same here, it drives mrsC nuts, now in a hotel in Yangon, sorting out parts of our trip to Europe in May/June!

This is just a short introduction to Myanmar, must start planning something much longer here for next year.

 

[amp-qld]

The destinations first, then flights and airports absolutely nowhere - necessary evils.

We're retired and fairly small people so we can't justify flying J or F very often. Although we fly 20 to 30 sectors each year (mostly international), it's with lots of different airlines (30 in the last five years) so we don't get many reward flights.

It's even worse for my wife - she's claustrophobic and needs a window seat. In many business classes, that would mean we couldn't sit together. Instead, we split up long flights so that we only do daytime flights with a maximum of about 9 hours, then we have two nights on the ground before the next flight - hotels are cheaper than business class.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I picked option 3, but if long haul in F, it would be option 1. I’ve only flown F (EY) to and from Europe with my wife. Although the whole trip was wonderful, my best memories are about the flight.

Gawd Blinky. You've just confirmed my worst fear. Mrs swanning_it has conned me into a Eu trip to which I'm really not looking forward. Now you go and confirm to me the best part will be the flight! Bleedin' wonderful.

 

[Blinky]

Gawd Blinky. You've just confirmed my worst fear. Mrs swanning_it has conned me into a Eu trip to which I'm really not looking forward. Now you go and confirm to me the best part will be the flight! Bleedin' wonderful.

Relatively. The other parts were fantastic. I could easily do a Freddy Mercury and die in Montreux.

 

[DragonBABY]

I have picked both flights and destination, I do get very excited about the destination but I sure enjoy planning my flights with miles and points and scoring a good deal! My other half is just not interested in miles and points, and while he enjoys all the comforts in F and J that DIRECTLY RESULT from my meticulous and diligent planning the ENTIRE year, from credit card sign up, choosing which credit card to put what spend on, reading up and knowing the ins and outs of each FF program, he is just NOT interested. None of my friends are interested. One asked me the other day "can you just tell me briefly how you got business class FF tickets to Japan"? .....hmmm, where do I start?
I feel so alone sometimes.