morges1

But it wasn't! It was the small Dash8-200 with 32 seats and it wasn't bad at all. Interesting landing on a 886m runway, 600km off the coast of Oz. So even though I'm a little bit older than (Uncle) T, I may have to take a Y class course from time to time to remind me of being such a privileged J/F FF.

Boraxo

+1

+1

My employer does not pay for F within the continental US or within Europe, but any international flight >5 hours is always in paid C. For leisure flights I require C for TATL or TPAC and will pay to upgrade shorter flights as well if the premium is reasonable, i.e. $25/hr. To be fair I normally expect E+ on UA (equivalent of WT+ on BA) for most US-domestic flights...

RobDBA

Having flown Y to Melbourne on the 2 stop Brunei service earlier this year I think it's fair to say I haven't found my limit yet. Its a seat, with TV and magazines, an iPad and some food and drink. I don't mind it when travelling leisure and not expected to impress in client meetings the minute I land.

rossmacd

Shorthaul - I would tolerate up to 3hrs as my maximum. In fact I'm on TK tomrrow ZRH-IST which is right at my limit for Y travel. On BA, I would tolerate 2hrs due to the horrendous new product. Even a OSL-LHR sector in 'new' CE was bad enough.

Longhaul (which I will class as above ~5 hours) - minimum J. No exceptions. I have it written into my work contract that all longhaul is J, or I do not travel. For personal travel, I am in the lucky position where I have enough disposable income to determine my class of travel, absolute minimum of J. Everyone is different, and our needs & wants are all different, hence such differing views in this thread.

Would having a different financial position affect my decisions? Possibly, but having being become "accustomed" to J travel, I guess I would reduce my overall travel rather than reduce my travel class if times were hard. I guess, should I have not be fortunate enough to experience J/F and all I knew was Y, then my decision making here may be different.

Flying Europe to OZ/NZ in Y - no thanks, I would rather not go.

T8191

"We happy few, we band of brothers"

A 2-day trip from Lyneham to Little Rock, night-stopping at Goose, was rather tedious ... but I managed to sleep through much of it thanks to my hammock.

"And now we return to our normal programme ...."

onaswan

Company policy was: up to 4.5 hours = Y. Over 4.5 hours = J
This seemed quite sensible (concidering most of my Y flights were LHR - DUS and therfore only an hour) My J flights were mainly MIA, NBO, RUH and eastern seaboard USA.
Cut backs mean J has been dropped altogether! :-(

icegirl

Ha ha! good one after reading this thread I agree. ^^

A lot of company travel policies these days only give economy travel regardless of position/rank in the firm. My husband works in IT Sales for a very prestigious technology company. He is lucky as much of his travel is around EMEA these days with the old trip to the states once/twice a year. In more cases often than not he would prefer a business class seat on night flights as more often than not he has to return to the office after the flight and if returning from the west coast it can be very tiring.

On a general note, I find there is very little difference when flying economy on a premium airline especially when it's a long haul flight and try to avoid overnight flights if possible. I actually prefer the new BA WT seat to most other airlines as I find it very supportive and comfortable. The main meal offering is generally very good and I don't believe I have ever had an issue with it unless it's the 2nd meal offering or breakfast which I find just too small.

Simon Schus

I tend to only fly Y so I must have a high tolerance compared to others (plus I get a sense of achievement re-qualifying for OWS through only Y flights).

For example, I fly Y for my monthly transatlantic from the EU to the US unless of course I get a free upgrade which is rare for me. My routes to the US tends to involve connections with with the first flight being 7 to 9 hours in length, followed by another 1 to 2 hour connecting flight. A couple of weeks ago, I did 2hours+9hours+2hours in Y.

I find that the OneWorld Sapphire card is worthwhile in making this a more enjoyable situation:
- getting the preference of seat choice (particular on AA with MCE which I'm big fan of particularly on the new 767s which is very similar to WTP)
- lounge access (particularly those with showers that I can use during connections, or on a domestic AA landing)
- priority boarding and security are always well-appreciated to make it more enjoyable.

My longest set of Y-based flights last year were on two itineraries straight after another. I did:
- ICN-HKG-LHR-MAN (in CX Y for all but the UK domestic in BA Y)
- immediately followed by MAN-AMS-BOS (in KLM and DL Y). I had about an 80-minute turnaround time to get from the BA flight to the KLM flight. At the time I was SkyMiles Platinum so used this for a decent seat preference.
The journey ended up being fine and about 24 hours near-continuously in the air in Y. The first part of the itinerary was coming back from conference in South Korea (I work in academia, I didn't feel right charging a business class flight to my research grant) and the second part of the itinerary was heading out for my partner's birthday. The showers, seat preference, and lounges (wine!) help and flying Y is just so much part of my routine that I don't really think about it until I get a DYKWIA infrequent flyer bustling past me whilst boarding.

So... long winded answer... I have managed 24 hours in separate one-after-another flights in Y including a HKG-LHR segment.

P.S. For full disclosure, I have flown BA Club Europe a few times from TXL-LHR and LGW-VCE. This was due to there being no Y Avios availability for the TXL flight and as a treat for my partner for the VCE flight.

Cymro

I did BKK - LHR in Y on a 772 recently and quite enjoyed it as a day flight, oddly more than LHR - LAS in W.

So as long as it's a day flight and starts at a sensible time, I'm happy enough down the back, especially with lounge access and priority boarding.

I'll still pay for W or J if the premium is reasonable though. Overnight I would really need a good reason not to go J now.

gordon0808

I don't pay for CE as I find it a waste of money. Long haul it is always J and occationally F. Haven't done long haul Y in more than 10 years and I have no plans to do it in the foreseeable future.

User Name

I can manage a couple of hours if there's no other option, but I'm still looking at other airlines just in case.

BAfromZRH

I fly more CE than CW. I like the little bit of extra space (free middle seat) in CE and that there are less people sharing the same overhead bin. It's much less stressful. The CW product is, although not bad, very expensive (I only make leisure flights because my office is 2 min by foot from my appartment and I'm for 100% working time in a projecting until May). So WT+ is product of my choice and I figured out that if you book quite early you can get WT+ tickets at the same price as WT booked later (~£550 for ZRH-JFK back in Feb).

Rubecula

My long haul preference is zero. If I had to travel at my expense and the alternatives were all full fare then Y for me. Thankfully that has not been the position since 2001.

wytco0

I don't travel as much as many here but I have done many flights around Europe in business when travelling for business and I consider them to be a complete waste of money as many of the cabins are hardly any better that economy. When I am paying for short haul I just get the cheapest available.

VikH

After my recent experience, none.

For background, this year I have done the following routes in economy: ORD<CDG on United, ORD<HKG on Cathay, and ORD<PHL<ATH on US Airways.

I haven't traveled on BA for several years and recently took a flight from ORD>LHR>MAA (Chennai, India). BA has the worst economy cabin I have experienced in recent memory. I flew on the 777 from ORD to LHR and the newer 787 from LHR to MAA. Both were terrible mostly due to the amount of space between the seats and legroom. How did they design a new 787 plane to contain the bulky media boxes under the seats in front? This leaves little leg room with hand baggage stored under the seat as well. Also the thickness of the seats and the spacing of the seats is very tight. If the person in front of you reclines fully you have limited space.