Originally Posted by
cytog64
As a consultant, I have had to do the LAX-SYD and ATL-JNB round trips this year in Y. It usually makes me unproductive for 3-5 days, most of the time I am in front of customers after 1 day of recovery. I usually feel very miserable after these trips, specifically suffering from headaches, nausea, and back pain.
For personal travel I have done DTW to NRT in both Y and J (used miles to purchase). I experienced no health issues when I completed the trip in J.
I found the same thing (especially back pain), and that was on "good" economy international flights. (Add in no day of recovery - land, go downtown and go into a meeting - and maybe a bad experience on the overnight flight in economy, and it is even worse.) That is when I started using miles to upgrade for international business trips, and sometimes even paying to upgrade out of my own pocket (though always looking to minimize that). There is no doubt that it pays off for me - colleagues and clients don't complain, while the additional billings and consequent compensation effect more than offset the cost.