I've been researching flights for an upcoming work trip, and my company said I could upgrade if I cover the difference. Out of curiosity, I checked business class prices and nearly fell off my chair! We're talking 5-7x the cost of economy for the same route.
I see people on social media casually posting about their business class experiences like it's no big deal. How?? I make decent money, my partner and I both work, no major debt, and I still can't wrap my head around dropping that much extra just for a more comfortable seat and better food.
Are there insider tricks I'm missing? I stumbled across business-class.com while researching and saw some deals, but even "discounted" premium tickets seem wild to me. Do people use points exclusively? Corporate accounts? Win the lottery?
Genuinely curious – is the experience actually worth 5-7x the price, or is this just something wealthy people do without thinking twice? Would love to hear from anyone who's found a way to make this work without selling a kidney!
by caroulos123
33 Comments
There are a lot of people who make a lot more money than you.
There are a lot of people who fly for work and have the company pay for it. Which is where the name business comes from.
There are also a lot of perks that snowball. Once you get different frequent flier tiers, it’s easier to upgrade to business. The more you do that, the easier it is to get the next tier, then it’s easier to upgrade, etc.
My spouse travels for work about 10-12 times a year. We get bumped up to domestic first class about half the time we travel together.
Other companies don’t make you cover the difference. Influencers frequently get flown business as part of deals with companies. And also people who frequently fly for work build points that makes upgrading easy.
If your flying 14+ hrs NS, you look for ways to get in J. I regularly see fare differences of 1k-4k for a ticket in J across airlines, so you shop. Google flights makes it somewhat simple when considering options. I know some people use consolidators to save money but those tickets tend to be restrictive with little support when things go wrong.
In addition to the other answers posted here, the multiplier is not always so extreme. I regularly fly first class, and while sometimes it’s 5x economy, sometimes it’s closer to 2x. In any case it’s worth it to me.
Points and miles. I don’t ever pay full price for business class flights and watch for reasonable redemption deals like a hawk. I am not wealthy but the points/miles game has been part of my “make my money work for me” personal finance journey.
My wife and I fly from LA to Sydney, and back, twice a year. For the two of us, each trip costs about $12,000 in business. It’s just a cost I’m willing to pay for a comfortable seat on a 15-hour flight. We’re retired and the comfort is more important than the money.
Credit card points converted to airline miles, and snagging deals. I typically spend enough on the credit card annually to fly business at least once, and I’ll fly premium for any other trips I take that year. Sometimes I get lucky and get upgraded, or a business seat opens up for the price of a premium seat.
I never fly for work, only leisure, so idk how companies would cover flights. I would imagine they provide their own card or something.
It’s worth it on long haul flights.
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Some people just have money. Some people are just willing to pay for the added services. Some find deals/promos. Others don’t have much money but spend anyway kinda like buying luxury bags/shoes way beyond their financial capability.
If I wasn’t saving up for a house I’d definitely do business class for long haul flights.
The older you get, the more it seems worth the cost!
I love how often people on reddit are surprised that there’s people out there with way more money than them lol
I’m someone of low economical means who always flies economy for holidays.
Having said that, I’ve got a brother who is doing much better at life than me and he does do a lot of international trips and travels business class for those but it is literally because he’s doing ‘business’. If your employer wants you to fly halfway across the world to meet potential customers then they are more than happy to pay for their employees to enjoy business comforts.
Work pays for it
A lot of true business travelers. Some companies require business level do fights over x-hours. Also points. And wealth.
My rule of thumb is to take PE over Economy if less than double, and take Business over PE if less than double, or basically if business is less than 4 times Economy.
Cash deals like this are rare, but with points it’s not so hard.
Also, SUB churning, and 30k a year in travel can get us 200k miles a year, a little shy for 2 JFK-TYO round trip in business class at T-14 days.
I have arthritis of the spine, so flying is inherently painful to me– even though I also love to travel. If I fly in economy class and can’t recline, my pain is often debilitating for at least a day or two after arriving. So I don’t fly business class regularly, but I do it whenever I can for long-haul flights. I use a travel credit card and save up points or cash until I can afford it.
For me, personally I fly business when work is paying for it. Then I use my Amex for work and get reimbursed but I get to keep the points. Eventually I have enough miles through Amex and flying on work’s dime that I can get my own business class or first class tickets for really cheap. I fly from LA to Tokyo business class on points all the time. It’s more expensive than before but it’s still a lot cheaper than paying full price. I’d never pay “sticker” price for a business class ticket.
They make a lot of money lol, it’s not rocket science. Only a small percentage of business class seats are even allocated for rewards redeemers. Some airlines will only reserve as little as 2-3.
Other than that many companies comp the travel expenses, but obviously if your company is comping you business class seats (especially internationally) you likely still make a lot.
If you book in advance and off season, flight to Paris for example will cost $500 basic economy while business class will be around $2500. $2500 is in the realm of people doing honeymoon, etc.
Plus you can upgrade with points. If you have a business and do all your purchases with an airline card, that can add up quick. Some businesses buy and sell and make very little in profit but do a lot of buying and selling. You get the benefit of the ‘buying’ portion in points.
I work as a travel agent specializing in international/intercontinental Business Class flights (mainly from the US), and the easy answer is that there are a lot of rich people or people who are simply doing well enough in life that they can afford to fly Business Class.
I have three types of clients:
First, there are people who came to live in the US and travel back home for the holidays (e.g., India, China, Japan, Middle East). Second, there are retired people who go on cruises or plan vacations far in advance and get very decent deals. And of course, there are people who fly for work and have their expenses covered by their company, or are high-ranking employees themselves who can afford it.
Of course, this is just a generalization, and there are exceptions. I’ve had people who just wanted to try it out at least once, people who occasionally scrape together what they have because they refuse to travel coach, and some who either use points or are legitimate influencers who get to fly for cheap or for free to promote a new cabin, hard product, etc, but this very rare.
Business class is actually becoming more affordable from what I notice in the past 5+ years of working in the industry. Like you can get some freak deals and fly on a flat bed seat from the East Cost to Europe for $2000 round trip.
I work for a company that let’s us fly business class if the flight time is over 6 hours.
I have flown to all corners of the world in business class for my job.
This is also why I hate flying private because I can only justify economy, though I sometimes get to upgrade for free thanks to points.
My big splurge for my wife and me is to fly business class whenever we travel across an ocean. We are retired, have a good income and don’t bend as well as we used to years ago.
Lots of people who are not even rich are flown regularly at their companys expense for business. Its kind of in the name, business class. Theres a ton of working professionals period.
I’ve done many business class flights to Europe & Asia for my business.
From NZ to Europe is a hell of a long way, and I have to hit the ground running and be ‘business-ready’ when I arrive. Having a good night’s sleep on the plane really, really helps.
Then as soon as business is done, I’m on a plane back home again. No days off, no down time. Short compressed trips to the other side of the world purely for business. I don’t think I could do it in Economy class.
Be rich.
What is “decent money” to you? To some people it’s $2m+ a year. To some it’s $10m+. Etc.
Depends what you mean by decent money.
I make good money so flying business class for vacation really isn’t a big deal, it’s just part of the cost of vacation. It’s worth it for me because I arrive well-rested and the flight itself is very enjoyable.
People make 5 – 7x more money than you do.
I play the miles and points game, and I also regularly churn credit cards for bonuses.
Every single dollar I spend goes on a rewards card. I make every dollar work for me with some sort of award point associated with it. Bonus categories, promotions, you name it.
Then, when I fly for leisure, particularly on overseas flights, I pay cash for economy tickets and use points to upgrade to business class.
There’s no way I could afford it outright without points.
I mostly fly business for leisure. It’s not just ‘a more comfortable seat and better food’, it’s rest and experience. e.g. I took a 12hr flight with friends on same flight in economy. Me and my partner had a glass of champagne in hand within 5-6 minutes of entering the airport, having checked in and passed security. We arrived refreshed and able to function and enjoy the first day, first off the plane, straight through almost empty immigration and luggage amongst first off at the belt. They looked broken, first day was a write-off, and took much longer between border and baggage at destination. It probably took until day 3 that people were ‘equally rested’.
To me that was worth the difference.
My old boss was one international airline’s runner-up “Passenger of the Year” about 5 years in a row until the winner finally retired or died. Then he finally won.
He was based in Malaysia and flew to Sydney, Brisbane, Tokyo, Beijing, and Shanghai monthly, and Buenos Aries and Caracas quarterly. He had other trips less regularly to the US, UK, etc. The guy he was runner up to went to the UK from Malaysia twice a month, with other trips around those.
My other boss flew from Brisbane to Sydney every Monday, and from Sydney to Brisbane every Friday for 20 years.
He also flew all over Australia to our offices (every major city and a dozen regional offices). Plus he flew to see our equity shareholders and banks in Malaysia, Japan, China, Canada, the US the UK, and so on
He always joked that if somebody else got Seat 1A in business class ahead of him then they must be somebody really special…
He used to take the family on a ski holiday to Canada each year for two weeks. He’d stay in a nice hotel and splurge on meals and wines and whatever else, and it still cost less for ALL of that
Than the 5 business class tickets he bought to get the family there.
I know because I booked it for him. And twice I was the 6th “family” member invited along (i’m not family).
That’s the kind of money that says my comfort and sanity after a 14-20 hour flight is worth way more than a few thousand bucks saved by slumming it in economy.
Also, our company had a rule. If your approved work trip required a flight more than 5 hours long it was upgraded to business class.
And eventually he upgraded the top executives to allow charter jets when a group of 4 to 6 if them went on roadshows to see many many banks on multi-city tours around the world (mostly North America) so they didn’t have to dick around in airports for hours each side of the flight, and it was no big deal if they were delayed by meetings either.
He now travels by charter Jet quite a lot, and sometimes by himself, as he says it’s not a lot more than business class /first class and the convenience is so worth it.
Many times he’s flown to a sporting event in one city far from home and picked up his guests in the jet from their own cities along the way.
And finally, he took the family to Japan for a ski holiday in a larger charter jet. It had about 10 extra seats so he told his kids (then about 20 years old) they could bring friends for free since the jet was paid for, so long as they rented their own rooms and gear. He’d pay for meals and drinks.
On the way to Tokyo, they all decided they wanted chicken wings…
IN KOREA!
So they modified their route and went for dinner in Soeul.
Your average top tier consulting partner makes over a million a year. They also never pay for anything related to travel and rack up so many points that they fly business for free in their person life whenever they fly. Lots of people who are in senior roles experience this phenomenon.
Domestically: 1. Delta reserve card gets me a bump to first class on one hour flights about half the time. Not worth any extra money. If JetBlue flues that route, I am happy with a middle seat and no priority on short hauls.
2. on longer flights I am willing to pay 60 dollars per hour not to cramp my back and neck. Seattle to IAD. 250 vs 500. First class.
Internationally; We spent the last two trips using Amex points to buy 150000 mile one way trips on Virgin and AirFrance. Burned through the last of those miles spending about 360000 miles to go IAD to Venice and back on British Air. Out of pocket cost for the Venice trip would have been $8200.
For our next trip, we are thinking of return from Europe on Icelainair or Air Lingus, but want lie flat seats going over to Europe. Might have to spend real dollars. I am 71, wife 76. Keeping her happy is the priority. Plus, do we fly coach so the kids get more when we die?
International business class is 4-6x econ. It is just a fact of life. I own a small business that involves a lot of international travel. We aren’t huge earners individually. But if you are pulling 20-25 hour travel days on the regular – (1hr Uber to airport, arrive 3 hours before flight, 10 hour flight, 2 hour connection, 3 hour flight, 40 min wait for luggage, – hour Uber from airport- as an example), flying econ will literally kill you. We also pay for an extra night of the hotel so the room is ready for those early morning arrivals. Is it expensive (adds about $100k to the expense line a year), yes! But caring about your team and their well being, plus arriving rested and ready to be your best professionally has a price.
And I promise that the majority of folks flying biz (D1, Polaris) aren’t there because of upgrades… that is not something you can count on.