I worked for white shoe law firms and traveled in F. I was expected to work while flying, or sleep on overnight flights and go directly to depositions, meetings, etc. from the airport (and often go straight back to the airport and get on the next TATL flight home at the end of that day). That was the trade-off.

Anyhow, like you, I now fly F domestically if a flight is over 3.5 hours and I am flying by myself. My husband will fly international J (often gladly -- he is a huge fan of certain airlines' international product), but he does not like to pay for domestic F. I totally understand.

fully agreed. Also don’t forget that F includes baggage. Y usually has a separate fee for baggage. Of course tsa pre helps to negate tsa line unless pre isn’t available.
I rarely travel and when I do, no matter how short, I buy paid F. If it’s out of budget, then I won’t fly there.

This.

2-3hrs is the maximum I can bear sitting in coach, longer than that I will get J/F with miles/points or buy a reasonably priced fare. If I cannot afford it, I am staying home.

With most carriers charging $30 for the first bag and $40 for the second bag that is already good savings there, not to mention that J/F waives the $150 70lbs upcharge which has sometimes made the fare difference break more than even for me.

Something I haven't seen brought up that is important - OP, how big/tall are you? At 6'4" 215# I'm sure I appreciate FC more than some others. I often joke that my wife in (5'1" 105#) coach is how I feel in FC. If I were smaller I'd have no problem just sitting in smaller seats with less legroom but to me the extra room in more expensive seats has more value. Literally sitting with my knees buried in the seat in front of me is quite unpleasant.

This. As one who sizes in at 6'2", I've not flown too often in standard coach. Did it yesterday as a standby for LAS-LAX and, yes, my knees were in the back of the seat in front of me.

David

I fly only first class due to having to travel and being concerned about catching Covid; I figure that less-cramped seating at the front of the plane is relatively safe.

Although I have to travel, I can pick the days and times of trips, so I travel when a first class ticket is often less than coach would be at a peak time.

An exit row (10C on a former US Airways A321 in particular) can have a huge amount of legroom so first class isn’t necessarily more comfortable.

In short: flying, even first class, is a seat on a plane. I do it, but it doesn’t cost enough additional to make me think twice, and I do it to avoid the downsides of coach. Not because I am looking for luxury.

On a trans-Atlantic trip or other trip with lie-flat seats: that’s luxury and if you want luxury, that’s worth it. But figure out a way to get it for cheap- using credit card points or a discounter is the way to go, not paying full fare on the website. (I don’t use a discounter- I use credit card points or book on the airline website- but there are discounters out there.)

I wouldn’t pay that. An exit row or premium economy aisle can provide sufficient comfort.

I just booked a first-class ticket. It was less than $90 more than regular coach. That’s worth it. 10x more is not worth it. Unless someone else is paying for it.

First, it depends how much money you have. If its millions and you never have to worry about money again, then go for it. If it's not that big, and you've never had discretionary before, I would advise you to reconsider if you want to continue to do enjoyable things. If I inherited a bunch of money, flying first class would be so far down my list of things I want. Beach house, boat, more trips, nice meals, nice car, etc. I'd probably do a month-long world cruise right off the bat. Real memories.

I've told myself a bunch of times that I wanted to fly first class, then when I saw the price difference, I changed my mind. I think the size of a person does play a decent factor into it as well. I'm 5'10" and not spilling into the seat next to me. I can survive a seat for a few hours. Especially when I can ensure I can get an isle seat.

Legroom is only part of the difference. The lateral space in FC is a HUGE difference to cramming in side-by-side in PC or coach. I'm often trying to get work done on my laptop and typing, using my mouse, etc. outside is substantially better in FC.

Be careful about buying tickets from a discounter, especially the ones that advertise cheap business and first class. Many of these outfits are mileage brokers, not travel agents. They're selling you an award ticket from miles that were purchases or stolen from another person. You'll be stranded (with no chance of a refund) if the airlines catch this.

That's true.

True, although (and SeatGuru and Flyertalk feedback are your friends here) there are some exit row and premium economy seats that are significantly better than FC ones.

10C on a legacy US Airways 321 is an aisle seat with a huge, huge amount of legroom and nobody on one side of you.

The first row of Main Cabin Extra, on an aisle, on AA regional jets is sometimes huge as well.

10C and first row of MCE can be much better than bulkhead in FC.

But, true, coach seats themselves are narrower than FC ones.

As someone who sits upfront almost all the time and out of pocket at that, here is my humble advice.

Domestic.......NEVER.

Long haul international .......8+ hours all the time.

It can take some folks 1-2 days just to physically recover if they don't. Sleeping in a flatbed (non AC) is priceless.

It would be good to realize what is "a bunch" right now probably won't be a bunch 10 (put in your own amount of time) years from now. Make your way to Merrill Lynch or Fidelity, or another well known investment company, and invest with one of their financial advisors.

On flying coach or not, I don't. Comfort, or some level of it, is more important to me now than it used to be.

Consider a couple of things, because not just price but your choice of frequent-flyer program will be important. First, does your bunch of money allow you to retire and travel as you wish, or do you still have a day job around which to schedule vacations? If you're now retired and not constrained by time commitments, then figure out (1) how many international trips a year you plan to take, (2) the destinations, and (3) if a single airline or alliance serves both your home town and all or most of the destinations. Then price the international trips first as mid-range coach tickets and second as business- or first-class tickets. (I'm omitting domestic travel because it's priced differently.) For example, if you live in Atlanta and your favorite international destinations are all served by Delta or have good connections through a SkyTeam member, then if you're going to take 3 international trips a year, book them all through Delta and on either Delta or SkyTeam members. The reason is that if you're going to buy even two international business-class tickets (say $3000 to $6000 each round trip) then you want to get them on the same airline and in the same loyalty program so that you get a status level with the program. If you're going to take 12 or 15 international trips a year, then this point is even more important as you'll very likely qualify for the highest status level on whichever airline gets your business.
Then look at the price difference. Let's say for simplicity that you plan to fly internationally 3 times a year on routes that would average $1,000 in coach and $4,000 in business. Does paying $12,000 instead of $3,000 for the tickets make a difference to you? If it doesn't, then by all means fly lie-flat business on international trips. You pay more, but you also get one or two more usable days at your destination because you will arrive well-rested.
By contrast, if you want to take 12 international trips a year (lucky you!) and you're looking at $12,000 if you buy coach or $48,000 if you buy business, and you don't want to spend $48,000, then the art will be in buying business class on the routes that are hardest to upgrade, using those routes to earn status on your preferred airline, and then buying upgradable coach tickets for the less competitive trips and using your earned miles to get moved to the business cabin for those flights. In my peak two-year flying period I think I was on 52 flight segments in two- or three-class planes, was in coach only four times, but had paid for business or first only for six or eight of the segments. The other flights in J and F were all on upgrades, including one wonderful transatlantic flight where Mrs. Law Lord and I had bought coach tickets, I used miles to upgrade us to business on what turned out to be an oversold flight, and then United bumped two employees out of international first (it was a thing then) to move Mrs. LL and me even forwarder, so that it could move another family from coach to business. The combination of miles and my United status got us into first class seats from London to San Francisco on what had been $400 round-trip tickets.