Poll:Air Travel

[Dtail]

Always fly coach currently. Perhaps some first class in the future.

 

[audreyh1]

Where is the extended leg room coach option? Almost as cheap as coach, but with more room. Flown to Europe this way several times. Cheap and comfy.

Pretty much won't fly coach without this. More leg room plus sitting at the front of coach.

 

[Ronstar]

Always fly coach. No intention to spend extra $ to fly first class.

 

[Octogirl]

We usually fly coach but request aisle or extended leg room seats.

Also have TSA Pre Check ! The TSA lines can be awful.

We most always choose first flight of the day.



We spend extra for a nice rental car and hotels with good amenities such as free shuttle, breakfast, mini kitchens, walking distance to attractions.
We just returned from a SoCal vacation.

 

[nhcycling]

Domestic flights just coach or extra leg room seats. International flights business class.

 

[marko]

We take about 10-12 flights a year and fly First or we don't go.

On the rare occasions where there is no First/Business on the plane at all (I'm looking at you JetBlue on your Boston>Bermuda or Boston>Palm Beach) we pay extra and also buy the middle seat.

When we first RE'd we tried coach for the first time ever from Paris to Boston. Let's just say that it wasn't an experience we want to repeat.

 

[Aerides]

Coach for domestic, economy plus, and I will rarely, if ever, compromise desired dates to get a cheaper fair. I'll pay more for the right departure/arrival time, and a direct flight, vs. multi-stop nonsense.

International? I'll consider business especially for the really long +10 hour stuff.

 

[Dreamer]

I have only flown coach. I guess that I would not want to fly First and get spoiled. I am a fairly small person and I am fine in coach. I watched 3 movies on the way home from Europe and was offered wine and beer. I felt it was enjoyable! I enjoy people watching while waiting at the airport or in line.

 

[SheitlQueen]

I always fly. I look for the cheapest airfare and airlines that include luggage for free (Southwest and Alaska). I also use airline miles.

 

[Freedom56]

We only fly Business Class/Upper Class/Executive Class only for any flight longer than 3 hours. We travel a lot. It as been that way for 30 years now. That was our corporate policy and it was instituted in our retirement. We avoid the low cost domestic carriers (Southwest, Spirit, and others) and stick with premium carriers such as JetBlue. We get comfortable rental cars when we reach our destination and avoid trains and buses. We also avoid low cost hotels and stick with conveniently located premium hotels with parking. We also avoid traveling to destinations with lousy food and hotels.

 

[flyingaway]

This is almost nothing extra for domestic flying. I usually get upgraded to it when I am just a slightly higher level member.

 

[CoolRich59]

We rarely travel by air, mostly because we don't like travel at all, and flying now is such a general PITA with crowds and all the waiting around.

Agreed. And it seems to be getting worse. I was discussing just this subject with my lovely daughter-in-law yesterday.

For the most part, flying has become a miserable experience.

I know we have to have security, but it frosts me to stand in a long line that is crawling because only one TSA agent is checking people, even though a couple of other agents are standing off to the side jawing.

I know airlines need to make money, but I really dislike buying a ticket and then finding out that all the add ons (checked bags, seat selection, etc.) effectively double the price of the ticket.

 

[Bamaman]

We're flying back from Paris today on Norwegian Air Shuttle. For the price of flying one of the big legacy air carriers, we can take three trips on a budget air carrisr. Although the coach seating is tight, their Boeing 787 audio/visual systems are first class. And since we're picnicing, we don't have to pay $79 for.any airline food either.

 

[audreyh1]

DH got to where he couldn’t stand long car trips anymore. Ti was mostly just the time spent stuck on the road. So we stopped driving long distances. I have to agree it’s a relief to get somewhere domestic in one day.

 

[DrRoy]

Historically C, but flew 1st to San Juan when it was only 30% more. Now thinking that we want business class in future to fly overnight.

 

[Retired Expat]

We are more pragmatic in our approach. We primarily live in southern South America so pretty much everywhere is a long haul for us. 9-10 hours to Miami, 12 to Europe and then longer to get to final destination so it takes a lot out of us to make the long trip.

Typically we try to upgrade to business on the way out so not DEAD on arrival for our vacation but coach on the way home where we can take a few days to recover. Now that we have a 2nd home in the US we fly coach both ways since we can rest when we get there and go for longer periods.

Plan is to start more Europe Travel by leaving from our home in the NE, more flights, shorter and usually better fares than flying from South America. Will pick and choose where and when to splurge on business for the transatlantic legs based on how quickly we need to hit the ground running on arrival and where we are in our annual budget expenditures

 

[mrfeh]

I'm between B and C. I search for the lowest fare I can find, but not willing to fly in the middle of the night, or connect through a city that adds hours to the trip.

 

[youbet]

It would be interesting if folks would note whether their upgrades to business or first class are paid for by an employer, miles they had on their account when they retired, gifted miles, etc. vs actually opening your wallet and paying with personal funds.

Haven't traveled much since FIREing long ago, but when working most of my travel was international business class. Retired with lots of miles on my account (and got to take them with me) which were sometimes used for upgrades. Lately, we try to fly cheap when we can do so without excessive layovers or odd times. We're not large people and it's rare that we find even regular coach seats untolerable for a few hours. Then we blow the dough at our destination.

 

[RunningBum]

Mine is all paid out of my pocket. I've been retired long enough that any FF miles from work are long gone. I don't fly that much so my own FF miles are slow to add up.

I just found that I was avoiding some destinations I want to go to because I couldn't stand the air travel in coach. So now, especially for the long trips, I factor the cost of business or first class into the trip, because I probably wouldn't go otherwise. For shorter trips, I'll upgrade if it's relatively cheap.

 

[Retired Expat]

Mostly upgrades are with miles earned during work career, credit card points or other. I don’t differential. Although sometimes with cash when it makes more sense based on the cash value you assign to you FF miles.

 

[FIREd]

I don't fly much anymore, as I prefer to travel by car or train now. But I flew business class when I used to routinely fly across the Atlantic or coast-to-coast in the US.

 

[T-Minus]

Pretty much stopped flying domestically (if it is under 1500 miles each way, we ALWAYS drive, above that is case by case) altogether. I travelled a lot for work and got sick and tired of airports and airplanes...
For transatlantic, I now do Economy Plus (where I like the price to comfort ratio for Delta a lot more than AA). This is a major change for us - we used to be rock-bottom economy type travelers

Transpacific, business class is a MUST... or I'd rather stay home

100% agree with this. With security lines, airport hassles, etc., I’d rather just drive a few more hours listening to my backlog of podcasts. Plus, since I’m now retired, I’m not in a hurry so there’s more opportunity to stop and see what I can see.

 

[pacergal]

started flying First class in retirement, far more comfortable for DH bad back. We may travel less by air, but it is worth it to us. Last trip we did do two legs in economy plus, aisle seats. Not bad, but would not choose it for longer flights.
We will drive on some trips also.

 

[kcowan]

Audreyh1 describes our habits exactly.

 

[Kwirk]

I am wide-bodied, DW is not. We both object to being squeezed laterally. Leg room isn't an issue for us. We can happily fly coach if we are seated together in a 2 seat grouping. If we have to fly in a coach seat grouping of 3 or more we buy the third seat (usually requires calling the airline but they match the online price).

On rare occasions we will upgrade to business class or something similar.