Sam Bee

I love threads like this, well I don't as it just reminds me how priviliged and / or rich a lot of Flyertalkers are! There are also those who work damned hard, and those why are cash poor but use FT to the max!

It's worth remembering that 2/3rds of BA passengers fly Y. However, i'd guess that 1/5th - 1/10th of BA Flyertalkers do?

I almost exclusively fly Y (quite a lot), almost entirely longhaul (mainly Asia), and to boot, i'm 6ft6! I have never flown to OZ/NZ (Christmas Island doesn't count apparently) so that would the 'how far' question that would test me. I suspect I would have to stopover in each direction. I had 2 x back to back night flights to get to PNG and back - and chose a night in each direction to break up the flights.

But first and foremost I still find travel & the world such an amazing place, even when working that I cannot imagine myself turning down a trip anywhere due to me flying Y (but put a 1-3 day LHR-SIN-LHR trip to me and i'd be tested - SIN bores me now i've been 30 times!).

I don't have the disposable income to be able to fly J without blinking. I'd like to be in that position, but if it was marginal I would always fly Y and put the additional spend into hotels. I should add that the above explains why I do not fly BA to Asia, I always fly airlines that are quiet, and will get me an emergency exit. There are ways of doing that with airlines besides paying that has only seen me not get an exit once (last minute emergency flight home on SQ).

Jetstreamer

I travel all over the world in Y. I’ve actually come to prefer it in a strange sort of way. Read this board and every day you get people complaining about CW & F. I rarely have cause to complain about Y. Flying CW & F just creates expectation that inevitably leads to disappointment. I’ve been there! Much better to start off with no expectation and take it from there!

Also as I pay for most of my travel myself I’m happy to have 10 hours of sub-optimal comfort and use the money to spend the next week in 5* luxury at destination.

Give economy a go folks. It is the one cabin where BA actually out-perform other carriers!

St Elmos Fire

Depends on airline, travelling company, available seating, ability to sleep and of course price differential.

Longest flight I have done was 15:30 LAX-MEL on QF94 in economy - but on A380 in the mini cabin upstairs in a window pair (in 2-4-2 configuration) with my wife. I've had many worse flights in WTP, quite frankly. Comfortable enough for the price and the crew, aircraft and service were excellent.

orbitmic

I find the question so strange in a way as many of us fly what we can for different trips. I'm lucky enough to do much of my long haul travelling in j and some in f even if I frequently pay for the cost difference, but when said difference has been too much, I've also done lhr-akl in y and return after a mere 48 hours. I find it strange for anyone to say they "can't" even if they prefer not to (which I fully understand), and think we should all remember that others "can" manage to survive horrific things like death of close ones, rape, terrorist attacks, and homelessness or we would quickly take the risk of sounding like inconsiderate spoilt brats.

headingwest

Personally I'm never happier than when I'm flying economy class. Just the thought of how much money I'm saving is enough for me. Maybe when I'm old and decrepit other considerations will come into play, but for the time being give me a seat in Y and I'm happy.

(apart from the odd Tier Point run to get status of course )

T8191

Choose your words carefully, Sir

Flexible preferences

Yes! You can be beautiful at any age

St Elmos Fire

I agree with you, having got to Gold a mixture of the hard way (countless internal US and EU economy flights, occasional TATL and TPAC economy), mainly the middle way (WTP TATL) and the easy way (TATL/TPAC in J on business). Flying J is still something a little special - although I can see a proper tier point run on the horizon with FT help

Currently looking at NY for two in March or September £350pp Y £900pp W - £350 is really very cheap, and an extra £1100 of my own money is significant - and an upgradeable W fare a lot more...

snuffi

I am perfectly happy to fly economy as needed. The travel is a part of the experience for sure, but the main part is the destination. I much prefer flying in business (and indeed First!) but that's not remotely possibly all of the time for a leisure flyer with a family, so economy is what we do. Frankly you can't really argue with return European flights for well under a hundred quid, or the US for £400. I've done SIN and EZE in economy, and SYD and HKG three times. No issues. Would I have preferred to have been up the front? Absolutely! Did being unable to stop me getting there? Nope!

Using BA97, if I look at 2014 and 2015 by distance, almost 50% of these 146,000 miles are economy, with a small amount in premium economy. The numbers are skewed by frequent premium economy upgrades.

GentleGiant

Dublin is about as far as I would go if flying from the UK.

petewally1976

I'm in a very small minority on here having only ever flown economy. In fact I would never have even considered anything else before discovering HfP and then FT this year. In the past I've flown all over the world (once including LHR->VIE->SIN->SYD and return with no stopover) and never found it a problem.

Since having children 7 years ago I have only flown once but next year I'm flying twice woo hoo! At the moment it's a novelty just to fly and it's only short haul and with the kids I wouldn't want to spoil them with J or F. Even in the future I couldn't really imagine ever thinking it was worth the extra for J/F (or even W) even on a 'cheap' ex-EU but then I guess my feelings and financial position could change. My parents have only ever flown economy though.

I collect Avios (mostly with credit card churning/Tesco clubcard) but that's to enable us to fly at all (using RFS).

flyer0123

I have flown Y from SFO-India (different cities) via LHR, DXB, SIN, HKG many times over 20 years and was OK with that until I joined FT few years ago when I was traveling in J from SFO-Europe via LHR.

Big Mistake joining FT

After joining FT I have found several ways to travel in J and F (mostly cheap awards and 2-for-1) and have not traveled in Y to India since. Now I am running out of Avios and other airline miles, I dread traveling long haul in Y. And it is just not me, as I took my family in BA J and F, now they want me to book them only in J or F.

So bottom line, thanks to FT, now I can only travel 3-4 hours in Y, beyond that I start looking for J or F

the_seeker1977

In my head the longest economy flight would be somewhere in ET, so I guess 4 hours. I typically fly ExEU nowadays which feels like value...

However, I almost justified BKK in economy with Qatar as it was lounge > 6 hours > lounge > 6 hours, in the end I didn't need to thankfully.

GadgetGal

The extra space in the middle still allows a bit more room for manoeuvre. Now that seat pitch is the same I have considered booking a comfort seat in Y, but so far it has worked out better just booking CE

T8191

I recall being reasonably comfortable on a 3-hour LGW-MLA in CE. Recently we did a ~1-hour LHR-DUB in CE, and it was bloody uncomfortable, only slightly alleviated by the vacant middle seat.

Somehow the concept of being wedged in a 3-abreast ET doesn't sit easily with me nowadays. As for l/h, forget it!