With all the talk of "Concord", whether or not the UD or the F cabin were best during turbulence, I'd rather assumed that we were, as usual, in a premium cabins only thread, like the one to which G-BOAC linked above. My mistake, I think, looking at the OP.

I won't dive too deeply nto the can of worms about who and who isn't overpaid. I was an academic for ten years. I work in finance now. Do I get paid more? Yes. Do I work harder? Yes. Am I overpaid now? Pass. Was I underpaid before? Well I thought so, and someone even made a speech in the House of Lords about my meagre income then (as an illustration of academic pay) but if you can still fill the posts with good people: Pass, again.

Suffice to say, both I and my friend are well paid, but not so much so that we're indifferent to airfares. My friend MFU'd from WTP and paid around £800 for his flight. I MFU'd from CW to F - a 4-night trip in my case - in order to save £300 (I kid you not).

P.S. You do have a good memory about the story. That was ages ago, and you remember correctly. He still is a colleague of mine: he escaped briefly to another firm, but a takeover forced us back almost next to each other and after some further resignations and hiring he recently re-acquired the same boss he had before. Funny old world.