Difference in coach and first class fare
 

I was booking award travel on United for PDX <=> BOG next spring.

At checkout United offered the option to buy the tickets. What caught my eye was the first class fare was only (?) 25% more than coach. Specifically the class P fare was $2500 instead of $2000 (appx) for class X fare.

That seems like really cheap first class fare. But I never fly first or business so I don't know.

What is the normal markup between coach and premium classes?

How much sunlight is there in a day?

It varies on carriers, routing, current loads, time until flight, time of day you look, and where you are looking. There is no "normal".

If, and it is a big if, that fare includes first class on all segments, it would be worth it to me. The problem is that UA (and others) have a tendency to call it "first" but only actually give you first for one or two segments. I'd look carefully to be sure that isn't actually first class from PDX to LAX and coach from LAX to BOG or something similar.

Normal markup from coach to first on international flights is usually much more than 25%.

Excluding the polar regions and skyglow during twilight, 12 hours a day on average.

Sure it is highly variable. But there's some median. Truthfully, anecdotal responses work for my purposes. What are people's experiences?

Sometimes you get lucky. A couple of years ago, flying to BOG for a mission trip, I got the email saying book these flights and current economy cost was 1,200.00. So I went to book and discovered that business class was 900.00. We managed to get most of the group booked into business class.

Thanks for the warning. But, yeah, the seats are all in front of the dividing curtain. The UA illustration even showed the diagonal lay flat seats for the IAH <=> BOG segments.

See above, but apparently you don't want that particular anecdotal response. :cool:

You want anecdotal? Because I'm usually able to plan trips out 6-9 months ahead, I usually have the choice between full price Y and discount J/F. Discount J is almost always cheaper than a full price Y ticket for the places I fly.

There is no median in the sense you're asking. The question is ill formed IMO. That's my anecdotal opinion. YMMV. ;)

It sounds like you've hit upon an insanely high Y fare, not really a smoking deal on J.

If I wanted to fly any route in the world and saw a $2,000 price tag for Y and no other viable options, the first thing I'd do is query J. And if I saw $2,500, I'd likely buy it. (Assuming, of course, that *not* taking the trip was not an option and those were literally my only two choices.)

High Y price. Meh P price (actually, probably a bit high as well). That said, if you need to make this trip, I'd go ahead and book first given the price difference.

For what it's worth, I'm just guessing that United runs a two-cabin plane on this route. (?) I'm envisioning a basic business class service, even if they market it as "first". Standard call liquors, short winelist, that kind of thing...

This pricing is for both of our fares, and the current lowest price found via Hipmunk was $1700, again for both of us. And that was for tight connections in SF and IAH as opposed to the (preferred by us) PDX-IAH-BOG. With a long but not terrible layover in IAH in both directions.

Difference in coach and first class fare
 

PDX BOG for $2500 for two people sounds like a great deal. I'm sure the earlier replies would have been more helpful to the OP if it had been clear that it was 2 fares.

Last time I flew BOG IAH the business was bog standard US first class so bank on a wider seat and food and drinks. It wasn't a bed BOG to IAH and I'm not aware of it changing but others fly UA to BOG more often than I do

have no idea about that specific market and that route.

in my head, the threshold for longhaul (1 leg of 6+hr) is ~ 1k/3k/5k for Y/J/F.

those price or below is a fair deal to me.

As the thread title states I wanted to hear about the typical price bump from coach to first. Providing the background of my booking experience (hmmm, First costs just 25% more than coach, that sounds low) triggered comments on the relative value of the specific fares.