Originally Posted by
platbrownguy
That's a lot! If that is just the difference between J and F, that would be essentially US$1000 per person each way, which is probably about the most it ever is (J seats can be had for $559 per person each way, or $659, or $1059 as capacity shrinks... sometimes I see the J fare at $559 but the F fare at $1899, which I think is the biggest "normal" spread between the two.)
On a good day, the J fare is $559 and the F fare is $859. (See, e.g., all day Saturday December 2.) Traveling solo, the $300 upfare to F would be well worth it to me because of the private seat, the very nice Flagship First Dining at the lounge, and the chance for a slightly better experience onboard. But with a +1 it's a closer call because the F cabin isn't built well for traveling with a companion.
Anything higher than the $300 though... probably not worth it, the J seat is a very good product for a 5-6 hour domestic flight.
Wishful of me to expect to have found such a deal on the transcon for a J fare. Just searched on December 2nd and the going rate is $1100-ish for J and $1400-ish for F.
But what I did discover, may be old news though, was that by purchasing Y outbound, my inbound prices for J and F were lower than if I had selected J or F for the outbound.
I've been wondering why it's always "cheaper" to return to SFO in F than purchase an entire F tix from the get go!
Case and point from above example:
Purchasing a Y tix outbound: $650-ish, the return in J or F was $750-ish and $1000-ish respectively! Work it to go outbound in Y, hope for upgrade. But have a J or F tix for the return in my opinion.