What is your business class fare limit ?

[German_flyer]

Thank you so far for your answers.
Interesting how much or less some willing to spend (neutral comment)

By the way, my limit is approx. 2x for short haul, 2-3x for medium haul and 3-4x for long haul but may vary on some factors.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Sometimes I go with prem Y or comfort seat booking tho.

 

[bPeteb]

We'll see how our super accounts look after a few years before we decide if J becomes something we'd be prepared to pay for semi-regularly. If it does I'd say no more than 3x. Y+ is more us.

A day of travel in y isn't going to do either of us any damage. Neither of us has extra long legs or are plus size so y seats are no issue. We'd much rather have nice hotels waiting for us when we get to wherever we're going than blow $10k on one day of travel.

 

[downgraded]

Too time poor to do these convoluted routes. Just returned from my first ever personally paid for J trip to UK. Made easier by only one of us making the trip this time. Over 10k paid on QF but at the time of booking it was competitive, a not so bad multiplier over Y, and travel turned out to be peak ME mess and it all ran perfectly to time. PE is still the one that feels grossly overpriced to me. The J lounge experience in SIN is vastly improved now that the wannabe F riff raff are cramming into their own space.

 

[Beer_budget]

But neither of us are retired and as such annual leave is a limiting factor.

I think this is one of the big differentiators. Our main restriction on travel is leave availability, and that also means the approach of just leaving more days for recovery (and paying for that in hotel rates instead of J fares) isn't really an option. I have health issues, Mr Champagne Tastes has a terrible time with jetlag, so flying J long haul and at least PE medium haul has an appreciable impact on how quickly we can get into holiday mode on arrival (and back to work on return).

 

[JustSlash]

Good question and interesting to see everyone’s take on J pricing.

I’m pretty similar to most here, really depends on distance and carrier. For domestic, around 2–3x Y feels about right. For Asia, I used to aim for ~$3k return and would usually hold off if it went above that. Lately though, prices have crept up and sadly anything under $4k return now feels like a “book it before it disappears” moment.

For Europe (or the other side of the world), I’d probably budget roughly double that… though at this rate, that’s more of a theoretical exercise than actual planning

 

[CaptJCool]

For family trips to Europe/UK we generally fly QF SYD-CGK getting F Lounge access (on points in J if available, or paid Y if not), then EY CGK to LHR in J. Total cost is usually $4k-5k pp depending on whether SYD-CGK is cash or points. In comparison, QF wanted >$3k SYD-LHR return in Y at Christmas.
I can't imagine self-funding SYD-LHR return in J at >$10k pp (and defintely not x4 pax).

This Christmas 2026 QF Y fares were bordering $6,000 return WTF

MY RULE OF THUMB
Consider points options noting QF now has 18 million members (and plenty of points hoarders)
Consider re-positioning options
Consider BFOD price points including CR discounts etc
Consider airline and earning points eg. JAL AF IB
Consider Who’s paying ?
Consider personal capacity to pay and if so for how many ?
Eg employer provided allowances plus tax deductions cut a $8,500 J airfare down to $3,700
Superannuation tax cuts provisioned $15,000 spare cash (tripled by home loan paid off and children support finishing up)
Consider cost sensitivity and the Australia Tax (and the Heathrow tax)
Consider if travel dates / time of day are narrow or open
Consider Fly More Pay less (adds sectors and elapsed time) since flying is a hobby and passion ….
Consider cost plus versus airlines who price based on “whatever ridiculous price we can get PAX to pay”

That all suggests Y to J = factor of 4
Y to F = factor of Upto 8 (pipe-dream that Syd-LHR F sale would be less than $13,999 - and getting to Auckland can see an F fare cheaper than just from Sydney!)

As for domestic QF have pulled their J fares down - note Y to J Adel-Melb is around 4. Melb-Bris around 2, and their Feb sale price Syd-Melb was $299 (factor 1.5-2) but the late purchased flights (inside 14 then 7 days) are ridiculously expensive

 

[MEL_Traveller]

QF/SQ/LX we’re offering $14k F return last year from Australia. QF/SQ to SIN and LX (sometimes even LH) for europe sectors.

 

[Forg]

QF/SQ/LX we’re offering $14k F return last year from Australia. QF/SQ to SIN and LX (sometimes even LH) for europe sectors.

For me, the extra added by the step from J to F is nowhere near the step from Y to J, in modern product at least.

Maybe my view is skewed, I’ve only F’d with EK, but the food’s no better than a $50 cafe meal and the extra space looks nice rather than offering any physical advantage.

So … I’d pay $10k to Europe in J over $2k in Y. But at $14k for F I don’t see the value over that $10k J, not unless you’ve never tried it & are interested just to see what it’s like. Or, maybe, if you’re working and you need the space to lay out some papers around the laptop?

 

[camperdown9]

Really depends on the flight....

under 3 hours it will be economy unfortunately unless I have miles/points to spend
3-5 hours it would depend on the fare if the difference is economy x 3 or more it would be economy
5+ hours business or I am not going.

Everyone is different

Alex

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Really depends on the flight....

under 3 hours it will be economy unfortunately unless I have miles/points to spend
3-5 hours it would depend on the fare if the difference is economy x 3 or more it would be economy
5+ hours business or I am not going.

Everyone is different

Alex

I won a return trip on VA to any of their international destinations… at the 1 point store.

I traded that in with the person in front of me who won 12,000 points.

No way I was gonna fry VA for 6 hours to Bali in economy. But 12k points married with my orphan miles to give me buseinss class one way SYD-MEL.

But… if that free flight had been QF or GA, i would have flown in economy!

 

[Seat0B]

I’m OK for short domestic hops in Y - and even more so with QF Economy Plus.
Long domestic eg CBR -DRW or CBR-PER I prefer J
Intermediate domestic eg CBR-ADL, it depends on the deal I get.
International it’s J all the way, but like others not at any cost. We are retired now so have a lot of flexibility on departure dates in both directions. This can often result in savings of over $1500 on fares especially to USA, EU. We also look at departure points within Aus. We live in CBR and it is often significantly cheaper to transit via MEL rather than SYD, even if it necessitates an overnight hotel to permit an early morning departure . Again, we have only had this luxury since retiring. We have also started looking at the options for connections through Asia, but have not done that yet. In terms of what we pay, for us it isn’t a comparison with Y as we re not doing that. Rather we know what typical fares on our airlines of choice are, and jump quickly onto any decent sale fares that emerge.

The other thing we consider is the fly more pay less mentioned by @CaptJCool upthread. We often fly to DXB to visit Seat Son who lives there. It is usually same price or even cheaper to make this a flight to any port in Europe, with 2x30 day stop overs in DXB plus an optional Asian port stop over in each direction that just fly direct to DXB. When I first found this in 2018, I could not believe it, but we have subsequently done this many times and it is often enough to make the European part of the trip either free or all but free. But again, this requires more time, and was not something we could do when working.

Finally, for the last couple of years I have just paid what I think is a fair price for my J International travel without too many regrets. I have cancer of the “chronically terminal” variety. I am now very aware of my use by date, and there re things I want to do, places I want to go and most of all people I want to see, plus I now don’t have to plan for quite as much aged care as initially thought , so I am spending what it takes without paying crazy fares. I think $15k return J to USA or Europe is a crazy fare and I won’t pay that - I just look for better deals, including trying to use points.

And as mentioned by @Forg, the only times I’ve flown F is when I’ve been given operational upgrades $ I don’t think it’s worth the money to buy outright or the points for points upgrades for the incremental value differences between J and F. Unpopular view, I know. As a OWE I get pretty great perks if I stay within One World Alliance.

 

[Aeryn]

As a mostly self funded traveller i would not pay for first nor premium economy, the advantages over J and Y respectively in terms of comfort (my reason to pay more) are minimal.

Domestically i will only pay for J if there are both DSCs and sale fares to be had. None of the domestic routes are too long for me to do in whY as there is no need to fly over night domestically.

Internationally im fine in whY if its a day flight, but if its over night if i can afford it or redeem points want to lay flat as I cant sleep sitting up.

 

[Youfah Mizzum]

Never purchased revenue J in my life - always on points.
My main criteria for J over Y is the time of the flight. Night time and over say 5 hours then its J.

I've done SYD-HND-SYD about 5 times now and QF59 is a daytime flight (well, it departs noon or thereabouts) so OK to do that in Y.
Likewise QF26 HND to SYD departs at 6:55am so again - daytime which I'm OK in Y.

But if I were going QF25 and QF60 (both at night) then I'm desperate for those J CR seats.
Using points its 32600 versus 98400 so ratio of about 2.7 times.

Very happy to use points in J at that Y:J ratio.
Revenue though its about 4 times so just too expensive.

 

[LionKing]

Absolutely F and J only in and out of Australia, NZ and Oceania.
Absolutely R, F or J only between East/SE Asia and America's/Europe.
For intra-Asia and domestic Australia or Europe, Economy only if Business goes beyond 3x Economy fare as that's not worth the money and absolutely no reward available.
I am willing to fly up to 5 times for J, however I can find a lot of gaps in fare struture where you can always fly into East Asia for much less.
For me, status credits and lifetime status is more important as my short term pain will mean long term gain.