Long haul flight upgrade
 

I'm wondering what people recommend. Flying from LAX - Moscow 11 hr 40 min on Aeroflot and flying home from Rome to LAX 12 hr 50 min on Norwegian. Wondering on which leg the upgrade is worth it/ the better decision. On Aeroflot, the way there we would get Comfort Class (middle class, extra leg room/ reclining seats, upgraded menu, extra luggage piece). On Norwegian we would get Premium Class (6 inches more leg room than the comfort class on Aeroflot/ reclining seat), all drinks included and lounge access. Both upgrades are the same price. Would you recommend it for the first leg (help prevent jet lag on arrival?) or would you choose more comfort / amenities on the way home?

Thanks for the input

If you can sleep on the flight, I'd go with the eastbound leg so you can sleep through the night in the air. Being somewhat rested in to Moscow would be better than the return trip, where it is just a really long day and you can probably fall asleep at your normal time. I can't sleep sitting upright, so unless there is a lie flat option, its all the same to me.

I wouldn't compare the two upgraded classes. I'd compare the two UN-upgraded seats and then upgrade whichever is worse. You are going to be stuck in cattle class on one flight. Better to make it the better of the two.

where do you want to feel "better" at the end of your trip? in Moscow or LA? In general if this were for pleasure I'd take the departing flight, if it were for business I'd use it for the return, but lots of other factors.

My instinct would be to upgrade the Norwegian flight.

(1) It's an hour longer.
(2) Seat pitch in Y on the two carriers looks comparable, with Aeroflot being maybe an inch wider (?).
(3) Service in Aeroflot Y is presumably better than Norwegian Y, given that Norwegian Y is basically no service at all. (Been 20 years since I've flown Aeroflot...I'm kind of guessing here.)
(4) This is personal preference, but I prefer (by a small margin) being uncomfortable on an overnight flight than on an all-day flight. On the overnighter, I'll medicate with preflight booze and try to slog through a couple hours of sleep. The time will pass more quickly. On the daytime flight, I would just hate life for 13 hours in a 31" seat.
(5) Lounge access is a nice throw-in. Do you know which lounge? Plaza Premier is the FCO T3 extra-Schengen offering for Priority Pass and is actually quite good as PP lounges go. Wonder if Norwegian uses the same?

Is this a business or personal trip?

For personal trips/vacations instinct always says to upgrade the outward leg to start the holiday well but reality is that the return leg is the better upgrade as the excitement of going on holiday can outweigh the economy class issues much beter.

Business trips also factor in things like if you are going straight from the airport to the office or not on either leg, if you're seeing clients or collegaues etc.

Guessing a biz trip wouldn't involve Norwegian... :eek: If it did, this would belong in OMNI as the OP asked the forum to help him craft his resignation letter. ;)

Maybe not for those in the USA, budget airlines are common for business trip in the rest of the world

Home is LAX.

Obviously OP can come back and prove me wrong, but this one seems really unlikely to be a business trip. Sounds like a multi-person itin where OP is considering whether either or both upgrades are worth it in terms of his/her own money.

If it's a business trip and there was some really compelling reason to select Norwegian to begin with (only available evening nonstop), then I'd upgrade them both without thinking twice about it.

Whilst I've worked in the US and been able to fly everywhere business class, I have also worked with companies that were exceptionally strict and certain employees had to take the lowest cost fare no matter how long, additional stops, class of airline etc that required to achieve (worst of all is that one of the companies that did this was a US company who allowed US employees business class on all flights, western Europe business class on long haul flights, and rest of world simply the cheapest).

In one case someone from the Manila office had to take 2 connections and 24 hours to get to Milan in economy and straight from the airport into the office despite the UK team willing to pay for the 14 hour business class option because it was against company policy.

At this point I doubt we'll ever know anything more about kmeow's trip. Looks like a 1&done...

I typically prefer to upgrade the return portion as I usually need to go to work the next day so that better rest helps a lot.

Why is there so much hate for Norwegian? They are just as comfortable, if not more so, than UA in E- and you are pretty well guaranteed a 787 whereas UA flies an exotic range of ancient planes, with the odd modern one thrown in. The only significant difference is that you pay (or pre-pay) for food on Norwegian, and that you are less likely to get really bad service on Norwegian.

I don't hate ULCC's - in fact, I'm very glad they exist, both for the times I actually use them and the times they've had a positive competitive effect on a route I fly.

I stand by my original hypothesis that the OP (who hasn't returned) is flying for leisure, and flying Norwegian's evening nonstop FCO-LAX makes perfect sense. And all things being equal, an upgrade out of the ULCC Y- experience is probably a pretty good place to upgrade. I fly Spirit every once in a while, and always look to make sure that the BFS is available so I can buy it 1 minute after I have my ticket receipt in my hand. I would probably do the same on Norwegian if I ever flew them (or just buy it as part of the original booking, if that made more sense).