Wow, two of the worst airlines merging (movies, utilities)

[Ivory Lee Spurlock]

What's the big advantage of traveling business class that makes it worth paying $2,000 to $6,000 for a ticket when a ticket to the same destination can be bought for $300 to $700? That makes no sense to me. Make it make sense.

[elnina]

Originally Posted by Ivory Lee Spurlock

What's the big advantage of traveling business class that makes it worth paying $2,000 to $6,000 for a ticket when a ticket to the same destination can be bought for $300 to $700? That makes no sense to me. Make it make sense.

Makes sense on long flights.

[CLT4]

Originally Posted by Ivory Lee Spurlock

What's the big advantage of traveling business class that makes it worth paying $2,000 to $6,000 for a ticket when a ticket to the same destination can be bought for $300 to $700? That makes no sense to me. Make it make sense.

1.) Person has the disposable income to afford a $2,000+ ticket
2.) They value comfort
3.) They want to sleep on the flight in a lie flat seat and arrive in Europe rested to begin a full day
4.) They put a value on the services offered in business class (access to an airline lounge, showers, food in the lounge and in flight, et...)
5.) They don't want to sit close to other people
6.) Your employer or client is paying for the ticket for business travel

Example: If you are a business traveler, the $1,200 premium for business class can be worth it if you can bill it to the client or recoup the cost on efficiencies (i.e. less hotel nights). You depart at 5:15PM, have a full meal in flight after takeoff, go to sleep in your lie flat seat, land at 9:25AM, and do your first business meeting in London around 12PM meeting the client for lunch, afternoon meetings, et... If you flew economy, you probably did not sleep well during the flight and are exhausted at 9:25AM when you land in London and are not ready to present / be in front of a client. You thus would need to leave a full day early so you can rest and be professional / ready for meetings. This accrues a full extra day away from home, an additional hotel night in London (say $380), additional lunch, dinner, and breakfast meals, (say $100) that starts to close the gap on the fare difference.

[Vision67]

I used to travel in business class most of the time on United when I was a big traveler and a member of their big Kahuna club, aka "frequent flier 10K"

Those tickets were mostly free upgrades. My experience is that most of the people in business class have their company paying for it. It's well deserved compensation for their road warriors.

United learned that 80% of their profits come from those 20% of frequent fliers. They reward the hand that feeds them and screw everyone else.

[kyle19125]

The arrival of budget airline newbies Breeze and Avelo have upped the competition to where Frontier/Spirit and Southwest had better up their game or really start to lose out.

[CLT4]

Originally Posted by kyle19125

The arrival of budget airline newbies Breeze and Avelo have upped the competition to where Frontier/Spirit and Southwest had better up their game or really start to lose out.

Breeze is in a pretty grave financial situation. The other airlines just need to outlast Breeze running out of cash or needing to raise prices. Breeze has lost $250 million over seven quarters on $300 million in capital raised. They've been caught off guard how much pilot salaries have risen since their initial launch and will need to eventually raise prices or raise more capital from investors to help them sustain selling flights at a negative margin.

[Ivory Lee Spurlock]

Originally Posted by CLT4

1.) Person has the disposable income to afford a $2,000+ ticket
2.) They value comfort
3.) They want to sleep on the flight in a lie flat seat and arrive in Europe rested to begin a full day
4.) They put a value on the services offered in business class (access to an airline lounge, showers, food in the lounge and in flight, et...)
5.) They don't want to sit close to other people
6.) Your employer or client is paying for the ticket for business travel

If they can afford it, and that's how they want to spend their money, I say go for it. To each his own. I still think it's a waste of money. If the employer is paying for the tickets, they will just pass the extra cost on to the customer and the prices go up. No wonder it costs so much to live these days.... If I owned a business and found out my employees were charging the company $2000 for a plane ticket when they can get $300 tickets, I'd have them in the office and chew them out.

[denebj]

You also are forgetting a bullet here, more people than you think fly biz for free or close to free :
1) Airline employee (I am one of them)
2) People using the points game to buy biz fare with points (If you churn the bonus of credit cards or have a business with good spending) you can rake up pretty good and buy biz fare to Europe for 50/100k+ one way.

Personally I am ok flying eco, though when you fly business on a long haul it's definitely a very nice experience (food, drink, space, confort etc.)

[CLT4]

Originally Posted by denebj

You also are forgetting a bullet here, more people than you think fly biz for free or close to free :
1) Airline employee (I am one of them)
2) People using the points game to buy biz fare with points (If you churn the bonus of credit cards or have a business with good spending) you can rake up pretty good and buy biz fare to Europe for 50/100k+ one way.

Personally I am ok flying eco, though when you fly business on a long haul it's definitely a very nice experience (food, drink, space, confort etc.)

Good call out! And while passengers that are using miles / points to purchase a business class ticket, offering a business class is a big incentive to get those customers to spend more in economy / fly more with their airline or on their credit card partners, making the business class seat feel free to the customer, but the airline still made money.

[CLT4]

Originally Posted by Ivory Lee Spurlock

If they can afford it, and that's how they want to spend their money, I say go for it. To each his own. I still think it's a waste of money. If the employer is paying for the tickets, they will just pass the extra cost on to the customer and the prices go up. No wonder it costs so much to live these days.... If I owned a business and found out my employees were charging the company $2000 for a plane ticket when they can get $300 tickets, I'd have them in the office and chew them out.

It totally depends on the industry and you may manage a business where the ROI per employee is different. Here's how some of the justification for the $2,000 over $300 ticket can price out for an employer in lucrative industries (many global companies allow business class for any flight over 6 hours, especially international long haul):

Price delta between business class and economy is $1,700. Business class traveler can sleep on plane, reducing one night of accommodation in destination city in Europe, while Economy traveler needs to leave a day early to rest before work.

Hotel cost saved: $380
Food cost saved: $100

New price delta: $1,220

For return flight during day hours from Europe to North America, employee in coach does not work majority of flight due to angle of computer, space, privacy of company documents from other passengers, and ability to eat and work at same time. If employee flies business class, expectation is a full day roughly of 7 - 8 hours of work. If this senior manager / exec on the business trip makes $280,000 per year, their time is valued at roughly $1,166 per day.

You are paying that person $1,166 for their time on the flight that day whether they work or not. If they work, you can recoup some economic output from their salary and the extra $1,220 for business class could be worth it to have them work during the flight on a business class desk in privacy rather than sit the whole time watching movies in a cramped economy cabin. Say they used those 8 hours to work on the confidential pricing proposal for the potential client they just visited in Europe for a deal that could be worth $65 million. The $1,220 premium for business class is worth it if it keeps this high valued employee productive on the way home.