I almost always travel in J on my own dime, occasionally F if there's a sale. I rarely fly for work these days as they buy the cheapest of cheap seats (preferably on a LCC with multiple connections to reduce the cost further). They have no issues booking you a middle seat in Y with Jet on an overnight flight to India and expecting you to go straight to the office and do a 16 hour day.

When flying BA long haul, I will usually do ex-EU. I just don't think BA are worth more paying money than ex-EU prices! Positioning from LCY is also very convenient for me so even without the significant price differential, there are times when ex-EU starting/ending at LCY suits me better. If I'm flying with Emirates (or someone else), I won't bother with ex-EU and will just start in London.

Because I pay for all my flying myself, like others have already mentioned, I try to keep costs lower by avoiding school holidays, flying mid-week etc as much as possible. I don't mind WTP for flights of 7 hours or less and when desperate to go somewhere/prices are sky high, I will force myself to sit down the back in Y (ok, I admit that I've only done that on 1 flight in the past 2 years). I NEARLY flew Y to Montreal this weekend for the F1 GP but the weather forecast was so bad that I decided to save my money and stay home....maybe I am a fairweather fan

I think it's all down to priorities in the end. I spend my money on travel and my health (ok, and on shoes and jewellery, and my car). I don't have kids, I don't drink much, I work long hours in a pretty stressful job. For me when I go away, the flight experience is usually an integral part of my break (in some cases, the flight is the actual holiday as a whole load of family stress is waiting at the other end!) so I am willing to spend more to be in J. It's worth the premium for some peace and quiet when I can't be contacted. ^