It can be a simple math calculation. For example, if it costs $1500 more to sit up front on a TATL r/t (BaylorGirl: That's trans-atlantic round trip), and you're sitting on the two planes for 20 hours during that round trip, that works out to $75/hour. You figure out whether it works out worth it for less back pain, more rest, more productivity during the first day or two when you arrive and when you return, and how that relates to your billable rate or pay scale. For many people, that is a cheap price to pay for the benefits.

Most of the manuals I need came as .PDFs- but I like print for everything except the rare search. I tend to print 4pp/page, 2-sided, but when the chipset manual for something like an embedded processor is some 800pp, that's still 100 pages of print.

It is like everything else in life - because you can and want to.

I could outfit my living room with metal folding chairs, milk crate tables and a 13" black and white TV. I choose to have a comfy sofa, reclining love seat, REALLY comfy recliner and 52" LCD HDTV. I could also drive a '72 Pinto, but choose a late model SUV.

Oh yeah - the free booze too. If only I could figure out how to outfit the living room with free booze.

I have chronic pain. I cannot fly in coach anymore. Not with the kind of pain I'm in. At least I have less pain flying in firsty class than coach because of the seats.

I made the mistake of upgrading to business in one direction flying to London with my wife for her first trip across the pond as a treat. I've flown a few times in that cabin before. That was her first time being in business class. Now, it looks like, I'm having to end up paying for an I class business fare to Paris for our next trip!

Once you experience it, especially flying overseas, its hard to go back unless you are able to get a very good seat assignment that normally only elites can get.

I wouldn't pay for it, but it's nice. That said, if you are smart (and lucky) flying coach doesn't need to be that bad. E+ is great (although always full) - LH coach to Germany is a drag, but not if you get next to an open seat.

I'd say that most people that fly first don't pay themselves. It's mostly companies that send their higher ups on business trips and execs. And, as many have already pointed out, if you can sleep and have an important business meeting the day you arrive, it can easily be worth it.

Honolulu (HNL) is another.
First Class lane only; elites line up in the general queue.

I'm talking Main Terminal here.
I think the Interisland terminal has a lane for interisland airline (AQ & HA) elites.

My first suggestion is that, if you're doing research on flying first, you actually try it.

I fly for business, which means I'm not particularly excited about getting where I'm going to, my wife isn't with me, I'm focused on what it is I have to do once I get there . . . in other words, the trip isn't fun for me to begin with.

In First (and in no particular order):

1. I (usually) have more leg room.
2. I'm not sitting (literally) cheek-by-jowl with the person seated next to me.
3. My seat will recline further.
4. FAs will bring me alcoholic drinks when I want them.
5. I will get something to eat more often than in coach.
6. I'm less likely to be seated near a screaming baby or out-of-control toddler.
7. Most of my cabin mates are more likely to be fellow business-travelers like myself, rather than the Gomers ("Well, Gollllllllly, will you look at that -- they got a teeney weeney little toilet in here!"), Kettles ("Now, Muriel, you see if you can figure out those gosh-darn seat belts and I'll put our 27 bags up in these bin things."), high-school sports teams, parents taking junior to grandma, and other infrequent travelers who make the experience unpleasant for the rest of us.
8. I'll get to board first, which makes it less likely that I'm going to have encounter the Gomers, Kettles, high-school sports teams, parents taking junior to grandma, etc.
9. The F cabin, being far forward of the engines, is quieter.
10. The F cabin, being less likely to hold Gomers, Kettles, high school sports teams, parents taking junior to grandma, and other infrequent travelers is quieter.

Despite what you think (and what the parents of bratty kids in the F-cabin say), it's not just about getting from point A to point B. It's doing so in a little bit of comfort so that, when we get there, we're in reasonable condition to do what we traveled there to do. That means minimizing the noise, inconvenience, discomfort and chaos of travel, and the F cabin offers the best chance of doing that.

For these reasons, I fly Economy Plus on United when I have to fly coach. When I fly domestically, I buy Y-Up, Q-Up and A-fares, that let me buy a discounted F seat for, roughly the cost of a full-fare coach seat. When I fly internationally for business, I fly business class. I would fly first class internationally, but the cost is too prohibitive for my clients. I use upgrade instruments whenever possible and, if all else fails, I'll use miles to upgrade an international flight.

I'm a college student currently student abroad in the US, but my home is Dominican Republic. I manage to fly first class because if I fly coach then I don't get any service at all. Here are the main reasons that I have for avoiding coach:
- Booking sometimes gets hard because when I travel in peak season I can't get an assigned seat at all, and flights to/from the DR are always overbooked.
- Check in is a mess, you have to be at the airport at least 3 hours before so you can avoid the long line, for some reason AA flights are schedule with very little time difference.
- Boarding is just worst. When group 1 is called, passengers seating in group 6 (or group 7 when the airplane is an A300) just rush the boarding area.
- On board service is the worst of the industry, no FA attentions at all, you just get half of a can of the soft drink that you want, FA's are rude most of the time, and at the time of deplaning, you have to wait a lot to get off, just to find a very long line immigration.
- When I have to clear security for my connecting flight, I have to spend a long time to get through.
- My connections are hub to hub (usually MIA-DFW or MIA-ORD) and if I have a tight connection, I can end up getting late to the gate and loosing my seat assignment.

Same here. The majority of my flying in F & J are corporate trips paid by my company.

To be honest, many airlines would be suffering premium cabin revenues if it isn't for the corporate travelers since they are the majority of the consumer group in this type of high-end market.

Unfortunately I can only echo what others have said, but for me personally:

- I am 6'0" and the exit seat is fine for short flights, but for trans-con and international where I will have to work upon landing, it's night and day getting off these flights. I recently did a couple of ORD-NRT flights in First. I felt better getting off the plane than I did getting out of my hotel bed for the whole week I was there. When clients are paying $200-$300 per hour (I am in consulting), the extra $2000-$3000 for a Business Class ticket is pretty easy to swallow. You only have to make up ~10 productive hours to break even. I could have achieved that on the plane 1-way, whereas in coach I may not have been able to get my laptop open. Plus I would have had a sore neck, knees, and ankles, which would have inhibited me on landing.

- Of course I like domestic First as well, although I probably would not pay for it in most cases. The only thing I can say for this is that when you take 4 flights per year, you can put up with a lot. Fly 4 flights per week and see how you feel about coach.

Veggie Lover - "all flights between developed countries have a very respectable and well mannered clientèle"? I beg to differ. The manners are usually better up front (though not always by any means).

I'd love to fly up front but I'm broke right now lol. College student here also, but I live in California.

Just curious, where did the word "kettle" come from for referring to the vacation-bound infrequent traveler? Some infrequent and semifrequent travelers (I guess I'd fit in the latter category) know the rules well enough so that they can figure out how to work a seatbelt, open the exit doors in case they need to (I thank god every day that I never had to do that yet) and know better than to carry a gigantic rollaboard that takes over 3 bins.

Ma and Pa Kettle were the heads of the Kettle family, clueless but well-meaning hicks who were the main characters in a series of old (mid-20th-century) comedy movies. Pa Kettle was lazy and not very intelligent. Ma Kettle was better, but not much.

Ma & Pa Kettle's Math Lesson
Pa Kettle In Waikiki
Ma & Pa Kettle Find Uranium

Hilarious clips...and evidence that the nickname is apropros for the infrequent traveler.

Back to the OP's question - I've flown in First once. It was a "domestic" product (even though it was between the US & Canada) so that means it wasn't anywhere near as "fancy" as internationally but I absolutely LOVED it compared to coach, which I've flown a hundred times over. Bigger seat, first to board, first to exit, free drinks, and very attentive service. Now I'm plotting and scheming and trying to figure out the best way to become elite this year (or next) so that I can get upgraded more often. I've flown coach TATL (trans-atlantic) 4 times (2 R/Ts). The only time I was able to sleep was when I had a bulkhead ROW to myself on an American Airlines flight DUB-ORD. The three other times, I was simply too uncomfortable in coach to get any sleep. I would have had to be exhausted to even have a chance of sleeping on those flights. I can only dream of a day when I'm either working for a company that will pay to fly me internationally in business, or I can afford to myself.