Originally Posted by
offerendum
Not so sure about it
I agree with the poster - it is very easy to differentiate between people who don't pay for their own flights, ie. flying for work and those who are not. Especially on US/European airlines.
Originally Posted by
George of the Jungle
Personally, I have been frugal my whole life, and I would prefer to have an extra $5000 in my retirement savings than spend it on a better seat on a 10 your trip. E.g., if somebody offered me $5000 to downgrade from up front to move back a few rows, I would take the $5000, and pay for the rest of the trip
That's another thing. Even if its not an issue to buy a $5000 ticket, justification for it is hard. We are not going to spend $10000 on an airplane seat for a few hours. That same $10000 is going to pay for a few weeks of travel, travel far more luxurious than that flat bed on a flight for a few hours.
Of course, only a fool would spend $5000 on a ticket out of their own pocket when there are so many way of getting the same thing for much less using miles (and should immediately be banned from FT 
)