woodey

Thanks for asking

I went for it, just over 2 month into the job and I’m loving it. The first couple of months have involved a lot more travel than normal but I knew that would be the case. So far I’ve done 5 long hauls, 4 European trips and a couple of US domestics, all booked in economy. At least the long hauls have been booked into B class so they earn reasonable tier points and Avios.

I’ve discovered that long haul Y isn’t too bad on a day flight if you get an exit seat and have the right expectations, I’ve been fairly lucky getting the middle seat empty which helps too. The main point is the people around you are able to affect your comfort a lot more than in J. For example the lady in the seat behind me on the way to Miami who decided it was a good idea to rest her feet on the back of my seat literally inches from my head (I did have polite word with her). Or the gentleman with an upset stomach sitting next to me for 12 hours on the way back from Cape Town.

I’ve tried to AUP every overnight flight to J but only been successful on 2 out of the 6 sectors, for the others they said that J was already full. Interestingly I haven’t been offered any upgrades online or in the App for the long haul sectors but I’ve been offered upgrades at online check in for most of the short haul flights, not sure why that is?

I’ve spoken to the corporate travel agents to see if they can book me into J and I pay the difference but apparently, they don’t have the systems in place to do that, especially when plans change and tickets need to be refunded.

I should be settling into a more reasonable travel pattern after the summer of 1 long haul and 1 short haul a month.