seanp7

Very good point. There seems to be many who live beyond their means. A marketer's dream, of course (if they still have any credit), but you are right - we do tend to have more disposable income than those with kids, but our lifestyle adjusts pretty quickly to add expenses. Gyms, as you said, but also things like dining out, $14 cocktails, $80 dance party tickets, iPhones/iPads, manhunt memberships (), etc, etc. I'm definitely stereotyping but the demographic is there and while they appear to have income to spend, there may not be much left after the bills are all paid. (I just finished paying off all credit cards after two years of racking up business class / hotel charges, and a resounding "never again" is in the front of my mind)

g767i

^
I thought I was alone in thinking like this
Granted, if the chance comes up, I'll gladly Upgrade to J or F with miles or extra $$$ - but I totally have a hard time paying Full Fare - even in Coach!

CMK10

I'm with you guys, I'd rather spend the money on the more important things in life to me (like more trips, good food, entertainment etc.). Now, when I finally win the damn lottery I'm going to change my habits

wiredboy10003

The whole reason most of us are on Flyertalk. Getting travel deals and upgrades!

MegatopLover

I guess I'm the outlier here, at least among those posting in this thread. I pretty much stopped flying Y for inter-continental flights several years ago. Excluding the odd great deal/mistake fare, I've only purchased J tix twice in that time, and even then got discounted tix. Apart from that, it's flying J or F on miles or upgrading using SWU's. A lot of these discounted tix, effective use of SWU's and miles, and mistake fares are thanks to FT, of course.

To me, knowing I'm going to have a comfortable 24 or 30+ hours in the air means the vacation begins much much earlier (well before arriving at the airport, in my mind anyway) and significant stress is eliminated. I actually look forward to the long flights of just chilling out and catching up on reading and wathing movies I've missed and so on. In many cases, I also buy J on shorter-haul trips for me and Mr. Megatop, so our holiday includes the pleasure of flying together in J. As a data point, the last such trip we took saw at least three other male couples flying together in J on NRT-BKK, plus several other g's apparently flying on their own up front.

Some of my g FT acquaintances are the same way, but others are not.

More broadly, I agree with the point made up-thread that marketing to The Gays is an easy way of targeting DINKs while also getting CSR credit for being homo-friendly, inclusive, and so on.

thepointsguy

I swore off Y intl travel many times, but ridiculous fares like the $150 JFK-CPH which I'm taking this weekend (and two other JFK-ARN runs) are just too good to pass up. While not comfortable, its totally doable with some lounge cocktails and Lunesta

Luckily I can fuel all of my personal travel on miles/points, but if I couldn't, I'd defintiely plan my international trips around discount business/ cheap upgrade flights. I'm 6'7" so flying in coach longhaul is dreadful and would take away from the pleasure of a leisure trip.

seanp7

I'm exactly the same way, even the train/taxi to the airport is a moment of excitement for me (and certainly being confirmed in Business or First prior to arriving at the airport helps) - sadly, my other half is not, and views the vacation starting AFTER we land.

Oddly, a great hotel room at the destination (while appreciated) isn't essential for me, but is for him. Go figure!

saint82

My partner and I of 22 years have been just about everywhere around the world with the exceptions of India and Egypt. With a very few exceptions, we have done it all in Coach. We would not be able to afford the 50,000 plus miles in personal travel a year if we were paying first class tickets.

Same with hotels. If it is safe, convenient, and quiet, we don't care whether it has a hydrotherapy spa or Egyptian sheets. I would rather spend my money on our home and on more frequent travels.

edinv

I see no evidence of airlines trying to get my business as I don't really think I am a target as all my flying these days is for leisure.
That said, for flights over 5 hours (mostly TA) I aways try and push the boat out and buy discounted J. If travelling with b/f where possible we will buy one revenue ticket and another as a FF redemption. -This can take some homework to achieve! AC used, I am with them and b/f with BD. It also takes some effort to gain enough FF points for an annual TA flight in J.
On short haul in Europe again we use * Alliance as much as possible, always in Y. In the past 12 months have used BD, SK, LH & JK. (we do try and book in fare buckets that do give points to AC & BD, as so called cheap tickets with LH SK & JK offer nil points!)

g767i

Couldn't have said it better myself
On the subject of 'partners', mine gets irritated if somehow the Upgrade isn't available or doesn't come through. To soothe things out, I make totally sure to book Exit Row Seats (even though we're on the short side, it's nice to have that extra room)!

Sam7

Personally, I don't find any particular airlines trying to persuade GLBT flyers to be in the front of their metals. However, I believe it's a personal choice to be in J or F mainly because the differences in comfortable level be in seat, food or IFE. I am CX DM and my partner is AA EXP 3 MM, so yes we both are mileage whores. So, whenever we fly together, which we rarely do, we will make sure that both of us sit in J. Indeed, I enjoy sipping my bubbly whilst watching movies which I don't usually have time to do it when on the ground.... It's a life style/personal choice, I reckon.

Ps. the last time I sat in Y was when the plane had to make an emergency landing in Kazakhstan from AMS back to Asia. I swore to myself then never again to be stuck in Y when such thing happens which you never know when

glasnost7

I haven't noticed much marketing in our direction, but then again I'm rarely paying attention.

Our rule is that if the flight is over 7 hours or overnight, we don't fly coach either by paying for F/J or using some sort of upgrade instrument or miles. We like to do a lot of long weekends in Europe and that's just not doable for us if we have to do the overnight segment in J. Besides, if you have to pay a $500 copay and miles on a $600 ticket, $1100 for business class is still a deal. Daytime flights from Europe we'll do in Y if we have exit row to ourselves.

I like the notion that "the vacation begins a little earlier." That's our policy exactly.

chrisjur

Well, when it comes to work, I am very spoiled. I've spent most of the last 10 years flying International J or F and my current travel policy allows me to fly International F on any transcon flight over 6 hours (which is pretty much every transcon flight).

HOWEVER, even though we have lots of disposable income, we won't pay $3K/$4K/$5K+ per seat for 99% of our trips when it comes to personal travel. Like many others have said, we try to use miles/SWUs/Membership Rewards to help get us J seats for free or reduced prices, but if it's under 10 hours, we'll suck it up and slum it in Y.

Do I shed a little tear sitting in the back while I watch people in their flat beds? Yes. Am I happy when I look in my bank account and see that I've got thousands more dollars because of it? You betcha...

glasnost7

^

LAX_AAFlyer

My partner and I don't have the opportunity to travel often due to her work schedule. When we do travel, though, it's almost always F or J. Because we travel infrequently, we don't have the status to upgrade, so we pay the fares. We did do PHL-LAX-PPT in Y a couple of years ago because the F/J fare was more than we could justify spending at that time, but generally speaking, it's well worth the expense.