Do you ever upgrade your flight tickets with your own money?

[Don]

Following from another thread.

Would you ever splash your hard-earned cash on upgrading the class of your flight ticket?

Would you do it long haul only? Short haul?

If so what's your main reason?

[thainy77]

Yes but only on long haul and typically to business, not first. I can't sleep on flights so sitting cramped in economy trying to watch a movie with the passenger in fronts seat on my lap is torture.

I would rather stretch my legs and be fresh when reaching my destination.

[Dr Jekyll]

Generally on long haul rather than short. But sometimes you can get a cheap upgrade on short haul and it can be worth it just to make the airport experience a bit better.

[Puggit]

Dr Jekyll said:

Generally on long haul rather than short. But sometimes you can get a cheap upgrade on short haul and it can be worth it just to make the airport experience a bit better.

Or to get status points.

I once upgraded LHR-AMS for £25 each way. 40 tier points instead of 10.

[cylon]

I had to fly to Washington DC to visit HQ, stingy company only pays for economy,

thought i'd try my luck and call virgin and check how much to upgrade, to my surprise, upgrade from economy to premium got it for £150rtn, which i paid out of my own pocket.

[TartanPaint]

On anything non-domestic I want legroom. Lots of it.

[kambites]

I only ever fly long-haul for business in which case it's not my choice. Waste of money for short-haul, IMO.

[alorotom]

Long haul we do either pay to upgrade or just book business upfront (only 1st twice and don't think it's enough extras to pay for that)

Domestic i often get free upgrades but it's only NCL to LHR and it's the same seats and marginally bigger legroom, just no one sat in the centre seat

Edited by alorotom on Tuesday 23 May 14:34

[Rawwr]

I'm fortunate in that I could quite happily sleep in a crashed car. I get on the plane, get in my seat and fall asleep.

[GT03ROB]

Long haul most months & generally do Club. I have an overnighter, then in the office within hour & half of landing. No flat bed, no sleep, then I effectively lose a days vacation. An extra day at home is worth more than the cost differential.

[The Leaper]

Invariably travel Club when on holiday with the wife. Sometimes use Avios to upgrade otherwise I pay. If travelling to Europe, BA often offer a really good deal to upgrade.

The advantages to me are far better traditional customer service, good baggage allowance, and a lounge if the flight is delayed

R.

[Saleen836]

Long haul upper class with Virgin for me always

[Don]

We got Business Class for our US trip the coming summer. Did California last year in Economy.
I'm hoping to get some sleep this time.

But this is the first time I have ever justified the extra cost - and it is because we are short of time. Normally the difference between Economy and Business is enough to pay for a few nights in hotels: so we just build recovery time into our trip and enjoy the hotels.

This time we have to be there, and at the end must be back. So sleep on the plane is a requirement.

[telford_mike]

We often use business class for our regular hops between Birmingham and Zurich with Swiss. It's usually only a few pounds/francs more expensive and the extra baggage allowance/meals/lounge access make it a no-brainer.

It also pays dividends when things go wrong. Our flight back to Brum was cancelled due to a technical issue last October and needless to say business class were at the front of the queue for re-routing.

[Perik Omo]

Always book and pay for business when long-haul and upgrade to first if cheap enough, no way at 6'2" am I going to be in an economy seat for up to 27 hours, all our travel is now to visit kids/grandkids in Aus and NZ usually via Hong Kong.

[arfursleep]

Usually get Premium Economy for long haul, which is generally decent but Air New Zealand (LHR- LAX) was brilliant last year. Flew to LAX on Monday, meetings on Tuesday, flew LHR on Wednesday. PremEco (separate pod seats, good food etc) allowed me to rest up on the 11hr flight so i wasn't completely screwed up either way.

Upgraded to BusinessFirst once (united) via airmiles was okay but i don't think worth the extra £2500 normally.

Travelling in US with Delta last year and they had a deal on which meant First was about $20 more than Economy - booked it. Turned out to be well worth it as plane was delayed 2.5hrs due to fog and we got good service on the delayed plane, priority re-routing for connection and stewardess took pity on us on the second flight so kept plying us booze and food.

Booked First with American Airlines for internal flights in US early next month - on basis of above experience with Delta and it'll be third plane journey in as many days so will need to relax.

[Sheepshanks]

cylon said:

I had to fly to Washington DC to visit HQ, stingy company only pays for economy,

thought i'd try my luck and call virgin and check how much to upgrade, to my surprise, upgrade from economy to premium got it for £150rtn, which i paid out of my own pocket.

It's always worth keeping an eye on Virgin pricing, especially if your company may have paid a highish price for the ticket - it's not unheard of for PE to be cheaper than Economy.

OTOH it always surprises me how Virgin won't negotiate at the Airport - I've been on flights were PE looked mostly empty but they wouldn't budge on the full upgrade price.

[The Ors]

We don't bother; we just charter a plane and it's there and back in a day...

[lee_fr200]

Flown first with British airways and club world with them, over to Canada to visit family

Going to Orlando next year and virgin wanted 2k to upgrade the 4 of us and were more expensive in general than Thomas cook

Thomas cook have upgraded us to premium economy for 956 for 4 of us

[djc206]

I don't fly for business but when flying for pleasure short haul generally economy unless the deal is too good to refuse and long haul with the exception of Dubai I try to fly business either using miles of hunting out good deals.

Booked Malaysian to Bali, two of us business class with decent hotel for 10 nights £3175.

KLM are doing great deals out of the UK connecting via Amsterdam. We're looking to go to South America next May and they want £1200 return business class and we can fly from Southampton which is convenient.