bitterproffit

I can do a 5-6 hour flight, but I don't want to. Since my travel is all leisure and optional, I just try to spend the money to get J or F.

So, I try to upgrade or get a premium seat or something for flights over 2-3 hours.

deniah

5hr sounds about right. Like LAX-JFK. Basically if the carriers offer a bed, I want to be on it.

Colesmore

I think it really depends on what aircraft you're on, who you're flying with and status. Going from Australia to Europe 14hr +7hr is painful in Y, but less so if there's a lounge in the beginning and middle to numb some of the pain and have a shower. I'd say narrow body's is 3 hrs, 777 is 6 hrs, A330 is 9 hrs and 787 or A380 is 14 hrs.

AlanInDC

Yes, I'm about 5 hours max too, so IAD-SFO. Though I have spent $ or miles sometimes to upgrade transcons. 3 hours or less I would not consider spending anything to upgrade. Transatlantic or transpacific nearly all business class.

Thysk

9 hrs is the absolute max. Anything above that, and I get sore/uncomfortable. Stretching my legs, doing a round in the airplane can only get me so much. I can entertain myself for about 9 hrs (which consists of about probably 3 hours of melatonin-induced sleep). Recently did AMS-MSP in Y+ and the last (half) hour was absolute pain.
I'd ofcourse like to say anything above 6 hours, but my budget can only tolerate so much .

Deckter

It really depends. I did MAD-NRT on IB A330, a 2-4-2, 13 hour flight and i was fine. I also did ICN-LHR in BA 787 and that was pure torture. That Y seat on BA is like paying someone to humiliate you in public.

YuropFlyer

While I prefer to seat upfront as much as possibly (the more to the front the better.. unless it's a B747 or an A380..) I don't think flying Y on a good carrier is that bad. I can easily make a 12hrs Y flight on SQ. 12hrs on a budget carrier, no thank you. But give me a good Y product (as good as it can be) for a price that's too good to be refused, and I'll happily squeeze myself into that seat.

I rarely book Y anymore, since often I can get a decent Y+ product (often with good chance for an OpUp) for not that much more and will definitely pick that, but there were flights where Y cost 500EUR and Y+ was for 1500EUR (RT) - so I picked Y. For the difference, I can snatch a C fare on sale. Or actually give myself a proper 5* hotel for a full week, rather than a slightly better product for 24hrs.

Unless you got (close to) unlimited funds, maximizing your travel budget is the way to go.

xychromosome

For me it's more a question of how much more than the price of an economy tix can you justify? 7-8hrs flight across the atlantic in econ is fine, and I can't justify paying $2-3k for a biz tix over a $500 econ tix. However a 14-16hr flight in econ to Oz, I'm happy to pay 2-3 times more the price of an econ tix, since arriving well rested can significantly affect the rest of my trip. That being said, econ seats aren't made for someone of my size (6'2"), so my tolerance of econ is prob a lot less than people of smaller size.

lhrsfo

I can’t really justify paying much more for PE on an 11 hour day flight but will pay £500 more for biz on the night flight back. If that’s not an option I will break it up to two day flights with a hotel bed inbetween.

gaobest

My travel is leisure so just paid F - I limit travel based on budget so I’ve not been abroad in years. For future work travel, I would just fly and sit where assigned.

Repooc17

TCON B2B (10 hours or so) is child's play. A Tuesday for me.

The_Bouncer

This is my strategy. Most of my long haul travel is in Y and I dislike overnight flights, because I am completely incapable of sleeping in a Y seat.

Recently I have started looking at splitting up my regular EU-SA flights in the Middle East. Something like ZRH-DXB-(overnight stop)-JNB, with daytime flights is so much more tolerable than a straight 12 overnighter.

Generally speaking, I am fine for the first 6-7 hours of a flight. After that, the physical discomfort, sleep deprivation and nicotine withdrawal get the better of me.

I will book J if I get a really super deal, but generally I don't feel it's worth it.

mctaste

I thankfully have not had to fly economy by choice in about a decade, but there have been flights only served by single class aircraft of 1-3 hours. If we were trying to fly coast to coast in the US and could only find economy seats, I would strongly reconsider the trip.

Hell, even some of Delta’s “first class” seats are terrible. I flew a red eye back from Hawaii to the west coast in DL F which resulted in over a year of back trouble. So I am not risking that again if I can avoid it.

MEABFlyer

If I'm traveling for business, anything over two hours is done in F. I can't comfortably work on my laptop in Y for much longer than that and any longer than that without working on something is just wasted time in my mind. Exceptions being Friday night flights to home.

Badenoch

The short answers to the question are I don't know and it depends. The longest I've gone in mainline Y is 12 hours and I survived. But seat location, carrier and daytime vs. nighttime would factor in the equation. If given the chance however I would rather take two 8 hour flights with a layover than one 16 hour marathon even though the total trip would take longer.