Originally Posted by
injera
On a longer international flight, its not about the better meal and free/better booze but about the ability to arrive well rested.
I'm travelling next month to India (from NYC) for work. My flight lands at 8am and i'll be headed straight to the office where i'll be working the full day then expected to go to a nice dinner that evening.
It'll still be a rough day, but the difference between Y & J is the difference between getting no 'real' sleep and me getting 6 hours of decent sleep. Also the difference between me being able to conduct productive meetings and being an incoherent space cadet for the first day.
The $3500 extra for J is a lot of money, but when its the difference between a productive trip and a non productive trip its a no brainer.
I suspect that for many long-haul business travelers it's basically a cost-vs-time trade: some prefer this approach, others opt (or are required) to travel a day earlier (perhaps in Premium Economy if it's within corporate policy or if they're willing to pay the difference out of pocket) and use the extra 24 hrs at the destination to get better rested ... one additional night in a hotel, and one additional day of meals and incidental expenses, is typically a lot less than the difference between PE and J