Disagree. I have flown private tons of times, unless you're getting a BBJ or larger, I would rather fly commercial F every time for flights over 6 hours.

Well, I have flown F on some of the top carriers to Europe and Asia and yes its wonderful. I am still OK with J as long as its a flat bed. I will no longer fly Y overwater and its not because I am spoiled, its because im too old to bother with it. Im OK with domestic Y as long as I have exit row, aisle!

The doctor prescribes a round the world trip in coach. Please select middle seats and if possible throw in a few low cost carriers. Post on your return. ;)

You have never flown US Airways F domestic have you? :p

Pretty sure the poster was talking about real First Class, not what Americans call F domestically. ;)


The only thing I dont like about business class is that it can be depressing sometimes, because its mostly filled with middle aged men working/going to work. Rarely a smile to be found.


I have no problems flying Y - but I will use my brain and resources to get up front any chance I get.

Oh, how I wish I could know what F is like. To me, even J is a distant dream 99.99999% of the time. Being a government employee (U.S.), I have to fly whatever is the cheapest flights - and can be ticketed no more than 72 hours in advance, so never get even a good seat in Y. The OP makes me dream of how it would be to get jaded on J due to fabulous in F.

Key for happiness - low expectations...

The gap between International F and J isn't that big. Maybe a bit more privacy in F and the wine is a little nicer but otherwise I sleep the same in both.

I think this is carrier dependent. Having recently flown UA J to from the US to Australia, I can tell you that while it made a long journey barely tolerable, it was a far cry from F, even on UA, let alone on a higher-quality carrier.

We felt packed like sardines. There wasn't enough storage room for personal belongings and the seat configuration was awkward and inconvenient. It isn't a bit more privacy, it's a lot of personal space.

This was part of an RTW and the SQ flight from SIN to FRA also in J had none of these deficiencies. This flight was altogether enjoyable. For this reason, I find it hard to generalize about International J.

In terms of int'l flights, I have only NH and EK where I can compare F and J.

For NH, the F food is excellent, as opposed to J, where it is...still quite good.
There's barely a difference in the lounges at NRT.

For EK (HKG-BKK), there's a shower in F. That's different. But then, how much more "lie-flat" could the seat get? Though, J class seemed awfully crowded.

I have a vague idea of how the OP had started thinking. I think I have started to feel a little jaded about business class, too. Though it really isn't that much an incremental difference, and though I still have bad memories of international travel in econ and intellectually I know how lucky I am to be in business, having experienced international first a few times, it is tempting to upgrade to first now and then when the opportunity presents itself.

Bummer. I quite like the J lounge at NRT, so in my mind I was envisioning an amazing F lounge two floors up, hoping one of these days to book an F award through there to try it.

The F lounge has a different brand of shampoo and a few different food options. 'Tis all.

There is a lot more open space in F in NRT and it's no where near as crowded.

No, because I'd feel like an insufferable prat whining about #firstworldproblems when millions of people are suffering through any other number of things that are far more serious than whether or not you're getting Krug and caviar, or merely adequate champagne and a mediocre appetizer at 35,000 feet.

There's any number of news stories or volunteer experiences you can read about or do if your head's so inflated that a coach seat on an airplane feels like a violation of the Geneva Conventions. That might be the remedy for your problem. It's pretty valuable to keep that sort of perspective.