PaunchyPirate
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Background: I am a big guy. 6 foot, 4 inches tall and about 350 pounds. Sitting in economy seats on a plane just about kills me after a couple hours. My knees are usually jammed into the seat in front of me in pure economy. Even in the more expensive "enhanced" economy seats, I'm just too big and tall to comfortably sit and I'm also an annoyance to those sitting next to me. Since I'm single, I often fly solo. So it's an unlucky stranger who gets to sit beside me. I always try to get an aisle seat so that I can lean my body out into the aisle a little to help the stranger sitting next to me. This contributes to my discomfort on longer flights.
I love to do international travel when I can (usually Europe) and have usually scratched together enough frequent flyer miles or credit card reward points to reserve business class seats for my previous trips. The larger seats helps every one involved.
I just used my last American Airline miles (mostly from their Citi Credit card bonus reward) to book business class seats for a May 2022 trip to Ireland. I'm also working on accumulating 100,000 Chase Sapphire Rewards points right now, which might be enough to get me another business class trip or close to it. I will continue to try and maximize these perks. But I don't want to become a full-time reward chaser either.
Once Covid settles down and Europe opens up fully again, I'd like to take a few more trips over the pond in the next year or so. Switzerland, Mediterranean/Iceland/Baltic Cruises, Budapest, Spain/Portugal, and others are all calling my name.
I'm starting to accept that I may need to just pay for my business class airfare. While expensive, I can probably afford a trip or 2 or 3 a year within my non-existent spending "budget". But I have a real mental block agreeing to spend $2000-$3000 for these tickets. Maybe I just need to loosen up a bit.
I guess my question is... do many of you just pay for business class because you want it bad enough and can? Are there any tips or tricks you have found to getting better deals on business class seating? What is the best time to buy business class seating for a trip (how far in advance)? Any other thoughts?
I love to do international travel when I can (usually Europe) and have usually scratched together enough frequent flyer miles or credit card reward points to reserve business class seats for my previous trips. The larger seats helps every one involved.
I just used my last American Airline miles (mostly from their Citi Credit card bonus reward) to book business class seats for a May 2022 trip to Ireland. I'm also working on accumulating 100,000 Chase Sapphire Rewards points right now, which might be enough to get me another business class trip or close to it. I will continue to try and maximize these perks. But I don't want to become a full-time reward chaser either.
Once Covid settles down and Europe opens up fully again, I'd like to take a few more trips over the pond in the next year or so. Switzerland, Mediterranean/Iceland/Baltic Cruises, Budapest, Spain/Portugal, and others are all calling my name.
I'm starting to accept that I may need to just pay for my business class airfare. While expensive, I can probably afford a trip or 2 or 3 a year within my non-existent spending "budget". But I have a real mental block agreeing to spend $2000-$3000 for these tickets. Maybe I just need to loosen up a bit.
I guess my question is... do many of you just pay for business class because you want it bad enough and can? Are there any tips or tricks you have found to getting better deals on business class seating? What is the best time to buy business class seating for a trip (how far in advance)? Any other thoughts?
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