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

[ozmille]

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...

Very true, I have recently got an account with Avianca and when the next promo is on will start buying some miles there. However as I only pay 3.5k and the status helps when I have to travel Y or Y+ for work I reckon I'm still good of with my J trips, and can use miles to get to F ;-)

 

[JohnK]

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!

We are indeed all different.

I cannot justify business class long haul or spending $150-$200/night for hotel rooms.

My goal is to travel as often as possible for as long as I can and choose to travel in economy and stay in $30-$80/night hotel rooms as anything else is wasted money.

 

[casanovawa]

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!

Oh many years ago, me and the former missus went travelling around the world a couple of times, in 2003 and 2004, and after getting two QF RTW fares and then staying in just ok hotels, nothing fancy, for about a month i think those trips ended up coming in at close $15,000 each... After that i thought i never either want to have to save up for a years to do some travel, or come back with a mega credit card bill and spend the next year or two paying it off...

And like i say when i travel i really do spend most of the days out exploring, touring, taking photos... i would feel a bit out of touch i think to come back to a hotel room all on my own every night, expensive meals in hotel restaurants or room service etc... I've actually had some good experiences in some hostels and staying with couch surfers, much more social when travelling on your own, got some good stories and experiences out of it rather than staying in some antiseptic hotel room... i think on my last two trips of 2.5 months in 2011 and 6 weeks in 2012, the only hotel i room i stayed in was when flights were cancelled or the airline put me up in one because of a missed connection... Ok, they were maybe alright for one night...

 

[cove]

We used the economy/budget room offers from Pan Am about 40 years ago which was well before Internet analysis of rooms. A wrecking ball would have a kind result or a fire may have resolved those rooms.
Since then I have tried hard to get some of the worlds best hotels that suit our tastes and needs rather than a roach motel/hotel and the same with airline tickets.
Flying up the front of the plane does not generally require money if you treat the whole thing as a game where you can acquire enough points to do redemptions. Now that might require buying into US Airways,American,Avianca styles of points purchasing if you are feeling "sticker shock" with the price of an air ticket.
You will be hard pressed to find anyone who says "I have enough" when it comes to money or for that matter airline loyalty points.
Play hard,play fair and enjoy the game.

 

[sjd]

If you have minions to arrange your travel then you can probably afford F. Excuse wme whilst I go whip my minions for booking me in J on J*!

 

[Ewing]

If you have minions to arrange your travel then you can probably afford F. Excuse wme whilst I go whip my minions for booking me in J on J*!

I had a minion arrange my travel once.

Flew across to LAX in Business and then in Y from LAX-JFK.

That was the last time I let anyone handle my travel for me. I was also travelling with the CEO who was not impressed!

 

[harvyk]

If you have minions to arrange your travel then you can probably afford F. Excuse wme whilst I go whip my minions for booking me in J on J*!

God minions arranging travel, I've had that once and I did not like that one bit. I hated the fact that I was simply making suggestions to the minions as to what flights I wanted to be on, but ultimately it was up to them (company policy). Ever since then even if I've had a TA do the booking, I've always done the research myself and said specifically what flight I want to be on at what time.

Personally I think that no one cares more about my personal comfort more than me, so if I'm going to fly somewhere I want it to be on a flight of my choosing. I also am pretty sure that's a good part of the reason why I so rarely have the "bad flight" as is so often used as comedian fodder and the basis of the hard luck travel stories so mentioned at dinner parties.

 

[OATEK]

There is a stark difference I think in the responses depending on type of travel, age and aims of the travellers etc.

For those of us who are leisure travellers there will always be an element of bucket-listing about our travel. For some it is sleeping in a truck in an African game park and hearing the lions roar at night, or perhaps hiking to Machu Picchu. As a sexagenarian, I have things on my list such as staying at the Adlon Hotel in Berlin (ever read any Phillip Kerr?), or a Nile Cruise etc. And I am prepared to pay for the experience even though it might finish up being a might pricey.

And of course, on topic, its travelling to Europe in J so that I can tick some of these things off the list.

 

[markis10]

Very true, I have recently got an account with Avianca and when the next promo is on will start buying some miles there. However as I only pay 3.5k and the status helps when I have to travel Y or Y+ for work I reckon I'm still good of with my J trips, and can use miles to get to F ;-)

Next month should be a promo.

 

[Paddy55]

Should have mentioned in my previous post(s) on this topic that I've found purchasing AA Points when on sale allows Mrs Paddy and I J or F travel for about the same cost as a Y ticket - can be great value if you can plan 11 months ahead (which we find worthwhile :mrgreen

Next Monday Mrs Paddy is enjoying an 80K Mixed F & J SYD-SIN-FRA Aaward on QF & BA, returning late June on CX using a 60K Aaward - buying those 140K points cost about $2,600 or so. Great, great value IMHO :shock:

 

[ozmille]

Next month should be a promo.

Thanks for that, I quickly got some friends overseas to sign up for it as well

 

[SQ421]

Airlines price tickets to the market. Play them at their own game and buy tickets outside Australia. Especially if it is a trip you do often.

I don't think I've ever paid more than 2x the price of ex-AU economy ticket for J (and this is on CX!); quick, back of the envolope math suggests I've never paid more than $70 per flown hour for a J ticket.

 

[simongr]

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

I don't think we should look down on people who make different decisions. They might think that sitting in a big seat for 21 hours is a lot less important than having a nice car that is low in maintenance and has better reliability (last year after 12 years with my old car we are leasing a car and it is the best decision I have made).

Also circumstances make a big difference - when I moved to Oz 13 years ago I had trouble selling my house in the UK - it eventually six months after I left (after I had been advised to knock back an offer I had before I left) for substantially less than we expected. Paying a UK mortgage on Oz salary at that time was hard and we paid for that for a while - but at the time we decided to move and committed to move it was a good decision.

I think kids are a big influencer on the affordability of premium travel. Instead of it being $6K for one person to fly to Europe - for us it would be closer to $18K and there is a big leap there. Hopefully if a few things align over the next few months we might be ahead for once and then future trips will be in premium cabins. Just need to get the right phone call in the next few days...

 

[fairhsa]

I buy J class once a year at least for trips to Europe. I currently live in Hong Kong so it's not THAT expensive and if you purchase Cathay flights originating in Taiwan (a short detour at the start of the trip!) you can save about 40% of the cost. That said, still spending about AUD 3 or 4k for a return trip. My salary is pretty hard to identify - since when we don't have enough cash in the business I don't get paid! But it's not much over 6 figures. I won't fly long haul in Economy though - have a high blood clot risk and I hate economy - so it's worth it. Hubby sits in the back; I sit in the front. He doesn't want to pay and I do.

So my question for the OP is - why is your wife asking? If she wants to spend her money on J, let her. You choose your own seat. And if she has no money of her own - tell her to get a job ffs!

 

[Nizar]

Does anyone know when QF usually have their J promos to Europe ?
I think I've seen them for like $6999 return.

Excuse the off topic.

 

[The Rok]

So my question for the OP is - why is your wife asking? If she wants to spend her money on J, let her. You choose your own seat. And if she has no money of her own - tell her to get a job ffs!

If I dared to suggest to my fiancé that her money is for her flights and she can choose to fly whatever she wants and my money is mine and I'm flying business then I would probably wake up dead!

For us, if we flew economy (which she would) then we could go to EU/USA maybe 3 times a year. As it stands I won't travel below Business for the space/comfort as I get claustrophobic in long haul Y, so we sacrifice and only take really long trips every 18 months or so.

Short hauls in AU or to Bali fill in the gaps….

 

[fairhsa]

If I dared to suggest to my fiancé that her money is for her flights and she can choose to fly whatever she wants and my money is mine and I'm flying business then I would probably wake up dead!

For us, if we flew economy (which she would) then we could go to EU/USA maybe 3 times a year. As it stands I won't travel below Business for the space/comfort as I get claustrophobic in long haul Y, so we sacrifice and only take really long trips every 18 months or so.

Short hauls in AU or to Bali fill in the gaps….

Hmm - if she is only your fiancé you still have time to train her!

 

[markis10]

Hmm - if she is only your fiancé you still have time to train her!

Assuming vice versa has not already happened.

 

[Duffa]

if she has no money of her own..........................

She says she has lots of it. Mainly plastic!!
Funny how the monthly bill is always addressed to me


(Not really fair; she does work and earns ~50k p.a.)

 

[cove]

Duffa I have been reading all of this thread and Mrscove would quite happily pay for tickets when I am gone so she and Mrsduffa have not been warped by AFF just yet. I suspect she is the normal one but this game with points is such a money saver we are a little unwilling to think of the cash method that nonAFF travellers use.
I think we should get Mrsduffa out for a few drinks with an AFF gathering as she may figure a lower cost front of plane ticket together with a stay at some worlds best hotels may really suit her. Swing her past Tiffany with the savings and the love story can continue.