What is your business class fare limit ?

[German_flyer]

What is your business class fare limit in comparison to economy ?
Are you willing to pay two, three, four or even more times for business ?
For sure it depends on some factors ,so please specify.

 

[luxury-lizard]

Good question - depends on the length of the flight - domestic: less than 3 hours about 50% more; longer 100% more. International: almost doesn't matter since fares vary so much depending on dates and airline - but up to 4-8 times Y is fine/normal (e.g. SYD--xx_-FRA might be well under $2000 in Y but under $10,000 in J should be achievable). Of course right now - fares are a bit crazy due to the impact of the war.

 

[levelnine]

All medium and long haul is in J, so I think of it more against the baseline fare of J for that route, which obviously fluctuates over time.

I know what is a sale and what is a fake sale, and only buy during the former if I'm paying cash.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

What is your business class fare limit in comparison to economy ?
Are you willing to pay two, three, four or even more times for business ?
For sure it depends on some factors ,so please specify.

It’s whether the overall proposition is value and not taking me for a ride.

Using the above example of FRA… would I pay $10k from Australia when the same airline is charging just $3000 from Jakarta? no, because as a matter of principle they’re ripping me off with the Australia ‘tax’.

my benchmark is kind of the realestate. For narrow body aircraft business takes up around d 2-2.5 times the space of economy. For international around 4 x an economy seat. So I look at what the airline is charging in relation to those measures, and whether the ‘premium’ in top of that makes it worthwhile.

 

[Forg]

There is no physical pain in J, yet there is in Y.
Given that I’m very much motivated by avoidance of pain, that means we get down to an equation of 0/X (where X is the amount of physical pain in Y) … so the price limit on J sort-of becomes infinite.

 

[Beer_budget]

It's not a comparison to economy because if it's whY, I'm not going (internationally). We'll do PE to SIN occasionally, if I am sick of the Canberra winter and just need a thaw cycle, but I can generally scrape together enough miles to do that in J once a year, without mucking about churning credit cards.

Domestically we do fly mostly Y, except when the Qantas flex economy fares are more than J (not unheard-of out of CBR), or when we're connecting to international and don't want to worry about luggage.

Long haul, it depends. We've had some travel where obligations at the other end meant dates and arrival airports weren't flexible, but for leisure travel, $10k is the upper limit before I start testing alternative routing/timing/points options. We aim for a Euro trip every 3 years, with plans to increase that frequency as we increase income/head towards pre-retirement (being mid-career, sacrificing longer breaks to get ahead is a consideration for us right now).

YMMV. We're DINKs with good jobs, no real commitments and solid career growth so we can afford to splurge when we travel, and I'm very conscious that's a luxury many don't have, because I certainly didn't when younger. Very jealous of the kids who travel in J!

 

[jb747]

I won’t fly economy over about 3 hours. PE can be okay, depends upon the airline. J, all depends upon “how much”. At the end of the day, I don’t actually need to travel, and can think of other things to do if I can’t make the $ work.

 

[mrsterryn]

No economy travelling internationally
PE is ok say from Sydney to Tokyo
Business for USA (though no current expectations of returning for a variety of reasons not the least is travel insurance lol )
Business for Europe UK definitely
Haven't done the spilt type fares @MEL_Traveller mentions cause too difficult to try to do that

 

[Dmac59]

I’m with @mrsterryn
International travel must be PE or J, except for the short hop to NZ.
It’s not so much the multiple of Y $, but am I prepared to pay x. Always (as is the case for most AFF’s) on the lookout for sale fares.

 

[RooFlyer]

I can’t answer the OP question directly as I rarely compare the prices. J only for Int’l and anything over three hours domestic.

I’ve done enough travel now to know roughly what a fair price is for the certain level of airline and will judge a particular J air fare’s appropriateness with respect to that.

Using the above example of FRA… would I pay $10k from Australia when the same airline is charging just $3000 from Jakarta? no, because as a matter of principle they’re ripping me off with the Australia ‘tax

Yes to that! I no longer buy any long haul ticket ex Australia. Award to Asia and then revenue after that.

Haven't done the spilt type fares @MEL_Traveller mentions cause too difficult to try to do that

It’s really not too difficult. But I guess you need to plan well and advance to snag the award seat from Australia to Asia. And then don’t mind a night or maybe two at the Asian port. Or you can just tolerate a cheapie Y or PE revenue fare to Asia and then get the better airline from there. The money you save really is worth the effort.

 

[clifford]

I don't pay more than $3,000 for a return fare, (.). Well, unless the sky is falling, as it is now (thanks to POTUS et al).

For flights of 5 hours or less, I won't consider buying a business class fare (unless it's super cheap and with a decent airline).

But of course, it does help if you can fill up in the lounge beforehand.

 

[Forg]

I don't pay more than $3,000 for a return fare, (.). Well, unless the sky is falling, as it is now (thanks to POTUS et al).

While I appreciate that … before Agent Апельсин messed things up, we booked a holiday in Europe in June/July with a couple of specific dates we wanted to meet, and we can afford+justify not suffering in transit. Because of the Thing with anger/hate/suffering/darkside it was either PE or J because I really can’t afford the entanglement with law-enforcement authorities which would occur after applying the light-sabre to bulk younglings, and PE just isn’t enough cheaper than J these days to throw away the mid-journey J perk of lounge access & showers … in combination with lie-flat seating.

 

[Hunter4vr]

I've been sticking to the $100 an hour premium for J over Y and it works out well for me. Based on a 19 hour total flight time to Europe, and a base return Y fare of around $2k, my "fair" price for J to EU would be around the $6k mark (rounded up for simplicity).

So I would say 3x is my limit, but I would pull out all the stops such as flying to CGK/KUL/MNL and flying J from there before I fly Y from Australia to Europe or US.

 

[albatross710]

I think about the thresholds differently.

If I am going to Asia I would pay J for $2k if I saw it but otherwise Y.
If Europe I would grab a J fare under $6k otherwise Y
RTW fare <$10k but wouldn't do it in Y

For the price difference I would extend my holiday a week or two and upgrade my hotels.