How wealthy do you need to be to buy your own J or F ticket?

[stewiejp]

I don't think it comes down exclusively to salary, more how one spends their cash. Last year my taxable income was $55,000, and I managed to travel in J a few times as well as Y. Having said that I my house is paid for, I invest successfully in the stock market, have other investments, pay my credit card on time, and don't buy a new car unless I need one - many I know who earn double what I do owe 90%+ on their home, "lease" a new car every 2 years costing a fortune, max out their cards and wonder why they are doing it tough....

All comes down to priorities and discipline when it comes to spending/saving/borrowing/repaying... I've always said it, a high percentage of people simply increase their spending with every pay rise, and start to rely on things like overtime to get from week to week, when it isn't really that hard to manage your own budget.

..../rantover

 

[amaroo]

Look for specials....we've done quite a few paid family (2 adults/2 kids) hols in F however, none of them were full freight. We've also cashed in a fair few points to fly F when J was not available......points really is the only way to go.

We're all different.....I would happily drop more coin booking a fabulous Hotel than always flying F.

 

[wandering_fred]

There are plenty of bargains on PE and J tickets if you are buying them in places other than Australia.

But then Perth is closer to SE Asia than SYD/MEL. And a 5 hour daytime flight in Y is mostly acceptable. Thirteen hours trans-Pacific in Y is usually not.

Happy wandering

Fred

 

[JohnK]

Apparently I am on a decent income. Not just salary. I could not justify spending they money airlines want for business class airfares.

For me economy is too easy and that is how I set what I am prepared to pay for an airfare. e.g if an economy airfare is ~AUD1,000 I could not spend more than ~AUD1,500 on a business class airfare.

I hope you meant to put a comma or semi colon after the "Y" above, or do you actually commit the ultimate AFF'er sin of burning points for Y redemptions!

Absolutely nothing wrong to burn points on WHY redemptions. Looking to do just that on my next 7 economy Oneworld awards.

 

[casanovawa]

The way i arrived at a figure for me of around $200,000 + is its that level perhaps that i could throw money around with a bit of abandon (i actually live pretty frugally) to be able to say screw paying $2500 for an award flight in J and go and spend $7,000-9,000 in J or even more for F... Until that point, spending an extra $5,000-$8,000 or so for what, about 30 hours, would not outweigh my ability to buy a big screen tv to enjoy like 3-5 hours a day, every day (more or less) or update to a nice car every couple of years to enjoy driving most days, etc, etc... The $/hr of enjoyment would be a lot higher on those other options... Plus i don't mind roughing it now and then just to make sure oi haven't lost it..

Again everyone is different as we have found on this forum, but me personally, for 30 hours i would sturggle to feel the need to spend those extra $'000s of dollars... Spending an extra $500 to go from Y to J i can relatively easily rationalise, even it it does come with a few of the drawbacks of award travel...

 

[cove]

The chap I buy my 2 year old cars from has recently done a family trip of six in Suites Class to Europe on SQ.
That would be pretty serious money as they did not split up on different flights like many AFF family members would do.
He chose convenience over cost and wanted the whole group to travel together on a family holiday and it worked well.

 

[cirqueboy]

I changed jobs about 4 years ago and with that came constant international travel. Before then, international J was a bit of a pipe dream as much as OS travel was. Now, with so much travel, I simply won't go below Y+ and quite often will be in the J cabin either paid outright through my work or when self funded it's usually a combo of fully paid or Y+ with points upgrade. 60+ international a year with most of it in the 10 - 14 hour bracket, I simply would not be able to handle Y.

 

[The Rok]

The chap I buy my 2 year old cars from has recently done a family trip of six in Suites Class to Europe on SQ.
That would be pretty serious money as they did not split up on different flights like many AFF family members would do.
He chose convenience over cost and wanted the whole group to travel together on a family holiday and it worked well.

You buy 2 year old cars? Oh the horror, the shame! What would my neighbours think?

 

[freepyjamas]

How wealthy do you need to be to fly F or J as a default fare?

According to Ms Freepyjamas, 100k per annum more than I currently earn. According to me, 100k per annum less than I currently earn.

life is complicated.

 

[Mal]

How wealthy do you need to be to fly F or J as a default fare?

Well it depends on how much you travel. If you only flew syd to mel once a year, just about anyone on a reasonable wage could.

... however if you fly syd to lhr once a month....

 

[ozmille]

The way i arrived at a figure for me of around $200,000 + is its that level perhaps that i could throw money around with a bit of abandon (i actually live pretty frugally) to be able to say screw paying $2500 for an award flight in J and go and spend $7,000-9,000 in J or even more for F... Until that point, spending an extra $5,000-$8,000 or so for what, about 30 hours, would not outweigh my ability to buy a big screen tv to enjoy like 3-5 hours a day, every day (more or less) or update to a nice car every couple of years to enjoy driving most days, etc, etc... The $/hr of enjoyment would be a lot higher on those other options...

Interesting idea of looking at it in a $/hr perspective, had a quick look at an upcoming itinerary and have done the breakdown including transfer costs

Limo transfer from home to SYD Airport
4hrs Flounge
14:30 flight to DXB
Limo transfer to hotel
Limo transfer to airport
3h Flounge in DXB
7:30 flight to LHR
2h Flounge in T5 Galleries
1:10 flight to BRU

Limo transfer from Mainz to FRA airport
3h lounge in FRA
6:20 flight to DXB
3h Flounge in DXB
13:50 flight to SYD
Limo transfer to home

If we say a limo transfer would cost about $80 each that is a total of $400 to take off the ticket price
and then I have Flounge visits for a total of 15hrs
and flying time of 43:20
so 58hrs of travel at about $57 dollars an hour is not too bad (if I then also take into account the points I earn and take a value of 0.03 it brings the price per hour down to $31)

YMMV though, I'm just justifying why I do it

 

[albatross710]

YMMV though, I'm just justifying why I do it

Personally one of my justifications is what I do after the trip. A J/F tix to Europe will have me productive from the moment I arrive fresh. So I also factor in the extra 2 days of productivity and not felling like ****e. I know that I don't travel and recover as well as I used too.

 

[oz_mark]

If I just did my end of year overseas trip once a year, I could by a J ticket everytime.

In reality though, I take a few small trips during the year, which tends to make a cash J ticket a bit harder to reach!

 

[mrpooky]

mrspooky and I fly Y everywhere when we have to pay, and my company always goes for 'cheapest fare of the day', so that's always Y as well.

I've only ever flown international J twice, both times as a free upgrade (op-up), and never domestic. J. mrspooky has only ever flown domestic J once as a free upgrade, and never international J. We've also both never flown Y+ or F.

I'll be taking my first domestic J flights on a QF status run next month, assuming I don't cancel beforehand. I'm looking forward to the experience, but feel like I'm wasting the $ and points.

I suspect we will never fly F, and will probably never pay to fly Y+ or J unless it's only slightly more than Y (maybe Lifemiles redemptions with paid-for points). I do hope to one day have enough QFF points for 2x One World RTW awards in J, which will be a massive luxury for us, and will be even better if I'm still SG or even WP by then. We just prefer to spend the extra money it would cost to go J on other things, like twice (three times?) as many trips in Y. Or paying off the mortgage more quickly.

 

[Alanslegal]

You don't have to be wealthy at all to fly First Class. You just have to be at the right place, at the right time .

 

[significance]

According to this calculator (http://martincjones.squarespace.com/posts/2013/3/28/equivalised-income-how-do-you-compare-to-other-australians.html), my household income is in the top 2 or 3% in Australia. I have no debts, having recently finished paying off my mortgage, and my living expenses are not high (I run only a compact, 14-year old car, for instance). I wouldn't consider paying for a J fare at this point in my life, but as I get older and start to accumulate the aches and infirmities of old age, I expect that I will.

 

[Warks]

I'd really have to have some serious coin to contemplate paying in the order of $12K for the two of us in J. The difference between that price and the Y fare would pay for a lot of accommodation, meals and attractions, all for say 48 hours of better comfort. Having travelled in J for work I know what it's like and I loved it but it still isn't enough to justify the expense in our position. With kids as well there's no chance. Even using points to upgrade Y to J is a bit expensive - buying full Y fares rather than the absolute cheapest ticket I can get (barring "no fly" airlines) goes against the grain. I may never have got over being a cheapskate backpacker sleeping in railway stations some 20 years ago!

 

[casanovawa]

The last trip, and the one coming up, i will fly J using USDM for the long haul legs and Y for the short domestic ones, but i did and i will stay in hostels....

Can't see the point of paying $150-200 a night to stay in hotel rooms where i only sleep and then are up and at it exploring all day... The higher cost would also mean for my given sort of budget i could afford 2-3 weeks in hotels or 5-6 weeks travelling using hostels..

Also often a more social vibe in a hostel than stuck in a big hotel room all on your own...

 

[casanovawa]

Interesting idea of looking at it in a $/hr perspective, had a quick look at an upcoming itinerary and have done the breakdown including transfer costs

If we say a limo transfer would cost about $80 each that is a total of $400 to take off the ticket price
and then I have Flounge visits for a total of 15hrs
and flying time of 43:20
so 58hrs of travel at about $57 dollars an hour is not too bad (if I then also take into account the points I earn and take a value of 0.03 it brings the price per hour down to $31)

YMMV though, I'm just justifying why I do it

As a WP would you get Flounge access no matter what class you flew on???

And with my calculations, i would still get the flat bed experience and access to business lounges, i'm just talking about using a $2,500 award rather than paying for a $7,000 ticket...

But your right YMMV and everyones does...

 

[Duffa]

The last trip, and the one coming up, i will fly J using USDM for the long haul legs and Y for the short domestic ones, but i did and i will stay in hostels....

Wow, that's an amazing perspective! Prior to AFF, Mrs Duffa would always choose to travel Y and spend the money in nice Paris/London hotels (or shops for that matter)!!
Almost the opposite of you!
Indeed, as they say on this site YMMV!