Poll:Air Travel

[dirtbiker]

I always travel by coach, if I can't get somewhere by car. I can afford to travel first class, but that money would basically come out of my money I'm contributing toward retirement. My goal is to be able to always travel first class once I retire, which means sacrificing now. I'm also many years away from retirement.

 

[Teacher Terry]

We fly coach and try to get cheaper fares but wouldn’t fly in middle of the night or a longer route to get it. Twice when traveling alone I was upgraded to first class. Both times the attendants asked people alone to move so a couple could sit together and people said no. I volunteered so the plane could take off. Nice surprise both times.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

We don't fly too much these days but when we do, we usually will go business class. Sure, it's not cheap, but at almost 6'3", it's a cost I don't mind and I prefer getting off the plane (and through customs/ag) before the mass of humanity exits.

 

[RunningBum]

Flying isn't all that much faster than driving even if I'm going halfway across the country. To visit my family in the midwest is about 18 hours of driving, which I can do in one trip. I only make gas stops, and carry snacks in the car. I realize not everybody can do this, or would ever want to.

Flying requires:
- 1.5 to 4 hours of driving from home, depending on which airport I pick.
- plan to arrive at the airport at least 2 hours early, especially for the longer airport drives to bigger cities, in case of traffic delays, parking issues, etc., so that I don't miss my flight and have to wait much longer for the next one. Very possibly the next day.
- Flying time is typically 5-7 hours, with connections.
- On arrival, I have to wait for luggage if I've checked it, wait for the car rental shuttle, and get my car. It can easily take an hour to clear the airport
- The drive on the other end is 30 minutes to 3 hours, depending on which airport I fly to.

If I added up the worst case, even with no flight delays, that comes out to 17 hours, but if I flew out of the bigger airports with longer drives it's probably a direct flight, so I've never had a 17 hour flying day planned. Realistically it's 11-12 hours if it goes smoothly. Any hiccups and it can be much longer. Missing a connecting flight by 5 minutes can cost me a day. Driving delays typically only cost me a minute for each minute of delay, unless my car breaks down or I'm in an accident, which are legit concerns.

 

[Walt34]

Flying requires:
- 1.5 to 4 hours of driving from home, depending on which airport I pick.
- plan to arrive at the airport at least 2 hours early, especially for the longer airport drives to bigger cities, in case of traffic delays, parking issues, etc., so that I don't miss my flight and have to wait much longer for the next one. Very possibly the next day.
- Flying time is typically 5-7 hours, with connections.
- On arrival, I have to wait for luggage if I've checked it, wait for the car rental shuttle, and get my car. It can easily take an hour to clear the airport
- The drive on the other end is 30 minutes to 3 hours, depending on which airport I fly to.

Hence the old saying: "With time to spare, go by air".

 

[NoiseBoy]

I just priced Sept/Oct international open-jaw tickets to AMS, return from CDG for business versus economy plus which is the minimal class we will fly. The business class was 2.2x more. I consider this to be a reasonably good deal - you rarely see international business class much cheaper in comparison.

I agree that it is a good deal. I fly Premium Economy to Europe and Economy Plus domestically. I've flown domestic first class once from my small regional airport, through Atlanta, to NYC. My fare class for that trip did not get me access to Delta's lounge in La Guardia I have never flown better than PE to Europe and I won't go to Asia until after I retire when I can stay on that side of the world for longer than a week.

I use Google Flights to search for the best deals, but set some limits around total travel time and layovers. Since I'm still working, my travel dates are not very flexible, but I generally look for a PE fair that is roughly twice the price of cattle country. We stay in Airbnbs so I can afford to splurge a bit on airfare and I'm 6'2", so I find economy to be intolerable for more than a connection flight. I've looked at some exit/bulkhead rows in economy and I think I could sit there too, but I enjoy the other perks of PE. My most recent trip was with Air Canada and I enjoyed zone 1 boarding and priority baggage handling. It's the little extras that I'm currently working for

One thing I plan to keep an eye on is the bidding for seat upgrades. I tried to get in on it coming back from Munich earlier this year because I had miles on Lufthansa, but I had a split ticket with Austrian, and the system wouldn't let me.

 

[jollystomper]

We fly coach by default, but for coast-to-coast or international we will go at least economy plus and sometimes first/business class if we can get a relatively good deal. I can manage coach fine domestically even when crowed if I can get an aisle seat and the flight is 3 hours or less.

 

[MJ]

Even with my secure nest egg + 70 1/2 start of SSA payments, it's still painful for me to shake the lifetime LBYM mindset so I still fly using Spartan Coach. I'm going in a couple of weeks to China which I haven't done in 4 years. The flight will be an average of 25 hour
2 stopover trip so I'll be testing the durability of my aging body. I just can't see paying $5K to $6K for 1/2 day of comfort plus I have never been able to sleep on a plane or train. We'll be also going to Japan so I'll splurge on nice hotels and food. I guess I'll be a modified tightwad til I die.

 

[marko]

Even with my secure nest egg + 70 1/2 start of SSA payments, it's still painful for me to shake the lifetime LBYM mindset so I still fly using Spartan Coach. I'm going in a couple of weeks to China which I haven't done in 4 years. The flight will be an average of 25 hour
2 stopover trip so I'll be testing the durability of my aging body.

I used to do the Boston/Narita/Shanghai run. At one point, once a month for 22 months. I could not begin to imagine that trip in coach.

Please get back to us and let us know how it went!

 

[marko]

FWIW it pays to shop around and check the FC seats regardless. Last year I booked a flight for SIL who was coming down to meet us in FL.

I found a First seat on Delta that was $35 CHEAPER than a coach seat on JetBlue with similar flight times. GoogleFlight is your friend.

 

[dirtbiker]

You guys are making me want to fly somewhere now!

 

[Nemo2]

You guys are making me want to fly somewhere now!

 

[Kimo]

You guys are making me want to fly somewhere now!

"You guys are making me want to fly somewhere now"





Give me 20 minutes, I should be able to fix that.....

 

[FIYes]

Interesting thread. I am surprised by the number of business class fliers here. I have never flown other than coach....not even economy plus...and that includes trips to Europe and Asia.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

You guys are making me want to fly somewhere now!

Here, this should help...

 

[DFDubb]

Started flying business/first exclusively a few years ago. If we can't stomach the price of biz/1st, we just don't go. It's made planning our travel a lot easier and we enjoy our trips so much more not having to deal with the circus that has become air travel.

 

[Souschef]

Interesting thread. I am surprised by the number of business class fliers here. I have never flown other than coach....not even economy plus...and that includes trips to Europe and Asia.

By using FF miles, CC miles, and a free companion ticket, Business Class cost the same as 2 coach tickets. As we get older, our bodies cannot handle being crammed into a coach seat for 10 to 12 hours.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

This is timely as we are looking at going on a trip in October. I have signed up for price alerts via Google Flights and a pair of FC/BC tickets can vary by several hundred dollars A DAY! Talk about a rigged system...

 

[Chuckanut]

Interesting thread. I am surprised by the number of business class fliers here. I have never flown other than coach....not even economy plus...and that includes trips to Europe and Asia.

Just curious. How tall are you? What is your inseam? And your shoe size?

You don't have to give us the particulars. But, I hope you get my point.

 

[RunningBum]

Interesting thread. I am surprised by the number of business class fliers here. I have never flown other than coach....not even economy plus...and that includes trips to Europe and Asia.

Part of that is a function of overshooting my retirement portfolio needs, and having the first few years of retirement go well financially. Once you see you're not going to spend all of your money, you realize spending a little extra on this is worth it. Sometimes it's just a premium economy upgrade for me as long as it's more than just an early boarding and forward cabin seat. Needs to actually be a bit roomier.

I used to think of it as "Would I really pay a few hundred $ just to sit in a more comfortable and slightly roomier seat anywhere else for a few hours?" Then I realized if I had to stay in that seat no matter how many times the person next to me bumped me, snored, sneezed, etc, it made more sense.

 

[MJ]

As we get older, our bodies cannot handle being crammed into a coach seat for 10 to 12 hours.

I'll be testing my 70+ yo body on coach very soon.
East coast to LAX 4H 45M
Layover 2H 50M
LAX to Guangzhou 14H 50M
Layover 2H 45M
Guangzhou to Kunming 2H 25M

As always on long flights, every few hours, I carefully walk up and down the aisle, find an open area and do various exercises and stretches, all to keep my circulation flowing. Hopefully, my body will successfully survive this long coach flight.

 

[REWahoo]

i'll be [-]testing[/-] torturing my 70+ yo body on coach very soon.

East coast to lax 4h 45m
layover 2h 50m
lax to guangzhou 14h 50m
layover 2h 45m
guangzhou to kunming 2h 25m

fify

 

[MJ]

fify

 

[marko]

By using FF miles, CC miles, and a free companion ticket, Business Class cost the same as 2 coach tickets. As we get older, our bodies cannot handle being crammed into a coach seat for 10 to 12 hours.

+1
While we always fly upfront, on many different instances I've told DW: "We're too old and too rich to put up with too much crap anymore...spend the extra money on X if it makes it easier/better/more comfortable"

 

[Big_Hitter]

I flew to NOLA and back last week, about 10 hours each way from house to hotel and vice versa. Traveling stinks.

BOI-DFW-MSY
MSY-DFW-BOI