Enjoy your first flight in F and the accompanying LPGS!
There is endless advice from veteran flyers on here to maximise the experience (seats, lounges, F&B etc) which I found very helpful indeed. Re seats row 1 should open up T-72 if they haven't been taken, so may not necessarily be out of bounds. Expertflyer.com will let you know if they're blocked or occupied in the meantime which you can use for free for a few searches.
The only thing I would add would be to let the cabin crew know it's your first F - I've seen this happen a few times and the crew are more than happy to indulge! I'm sure others have better stories but I have witnessed a wine tasting from each of the champagne, white and red wine menus.. I did wonder if he would manage to remember the flight afterwards
Originally Posted by
frandrake
I think for personal travels I would not spend more than 1.5k for a biz class seat. It's when I travel for biz and I need to go straight to the office, busy schedule, boring dinners, etc, that biz class becomes a must have for me. F in my view adds privacy to the biz class experience, food is still plane food and as per the wines, I have better bubbles in my cellar to quench my daily thirst.
That said, I am afraid it will be hard to go back to kettle class. Lie flat is what makes a world of difference IMO, the rest is just smoke and mirrors that you end up enjoying or not enjoying only if you fly a lot. Good news is that with credit cards, various promos, etc. it is not that hard to bank loads of Avios. So if you only fly once or twice a year and plan properly you could fly mostly in premium cabins.
This a hundred times. I used to be in the staunch camp of viewing travel as a means to get from A to B and to save the cash for the other end, but the premium travel bug well and truly bit a couple of years and ago after going for a POUG.
I have very few longhaul business trips, but in terms of personal travel with the OH, our trips now start before leaving home rather than having recovered from a delightful Y/W seat and jet lag. It's also a delight delaying that thud back to reality on the way to the airport when returning home. With a bit of careful planning (and lurking on FT) we've managed to fly premium on revenue, avios and AUP fares ever since and reached that elusive gold status as well!