Originally Posted by
billlwr30
I'm 6ft 3in, 250lbs and have back problems. The small amount of difference, between cattle and Elite, in legroom, seat width, and guaranteed armrest makes a world of difference to me.
I won't even consider cattle class for long hauls. I'm not wealthy but the $300-500 difference(RT) is, to me, well worth it to avoid the torture of being cramped in an Economy seat for 16+ hours at a time. That would be even more physically, and mentally, exhausting than 16 hours in Elite.
For a few hundred extra? Try it. You can always fly economy next time. You won't want to but you can. And, of course, when you do, you'll be thinking about how nice it would be for that extra couple/few inches when you first sit down in cattle class and look forward to the next 16 hours.
If you are willing to pay up to $500, you should really be looking at buy up for airlines like AA and UA, as for those the buy up cost for US-Asia are constantly at $660, which is the cost to business not premium economy.
I had never seen any US-Asia routes on BR's elite class cost only $300-$500 more than the lowest Y fares roundtrip, if so I would have tried it already, it is always at around $800-$1000 more, basically around $1500+ range while the cheapest Y ticket is about $800 or less.