enviroian

So the bottom line is your paying $5K more for soup in GF?

5khours

That what is sounds like Ani's criteria are. For me, it's really time, convenience and seat comfort. (Lounges, food, pleasant FAs, and the most recent movies are nice to have but not critical in my book).

And BTW, if you're paying an extra $5k, you're doing something wrong.

(Not a big fan of the PMCO seats or PMUA 747 UD, but that's mostly because of my height.)

enviroian

Well hard product I agree with you ...the seat is what 2" longer and it's a quieter cabin. Better lounge. Pleasant flight attendants? In my experience they are all unpleasant dinosaurs who should have retired 20 years ago. I was amazed at the difference in flight attendants when I flew SK and LH last fall.

Yes I agree the IFE is nice and has great content.

5khours

I actually find the FAs in UA GF for the most part to be very pleasant. Service is not always great but I think that has a lot more to do with management and corporate culture.

JVPhoto

A 747 nose window seat during take off, taxi, landing, circling is worth 5,000 miles alone.

ani90

The issue is the value one attaches to the seat. Of course, for example, if the incremental difference in fare between GF and BF was 100 USD then almost all business travellers would say it is worth it for seat alone, 500 dollars, most might still feel it is valuable, 1000 USD or more - depends who is paying and on personal resources etc, 10,000 or more - depends probably on one's sanity.

The issue to me is whether first class travel all boils down to a better seat. I personally do not think it should all rest on a seat (or mostly rest on a seat). As I said my very limited experience on other carriers has been that travelling first class is more of an experience than just a better seat to sit on.

As regards why I dont always buy a middle seat in Y, the incremental value of BF over a middle seat in Y is very different to most humans than the incremental value of a GF 'suite' over a standard flat-bed bussiness seat. The vast majority of business travellers I suspect (I may be wrong) are satisified with a flat-bed BF seat, wheras few, if any, would be satisified with a middle seat in Y. So while most business travellers have a desire to upgrade from Y to BF, the same does not apply that most will value upgraging from BF to GF to same degree.


Exactly. We are saying the same thing but expressing differently. Somewhere one has to decide how much incremental to spend on a better seat, more privacy but relatively mediocre service. For you the limit is 5000 USD, for some, that limit is lower.

My bottom-line from my experience is that if one could sit on a window seat in the upper deck of the 744, I did not see that much incremental value of GF. Space wise and privacy wise the UD window of 744 is not bad at all. However sitting on the lower deck in the middle of four seats, my incremental value (for GF) would go up greatly. In summary the GF experience to me did not seem outstandingly different to that in upper deck 744 with the only tangible difference to me was the seat. But take this all with a pinch of salt as this has been my only experience in GF and may not have been typical.

5khours

Depends on the person I think. I fly a lot so seat comfort is pretty high on my list of priorities.

Airline seats are like cars and stereos. You're happy until you get used to a better model.

phkc070408

How true that is in our experience.

lloydah

Also it depends upon the design of the "better" model. I'm a bit claustrophobic and the UA GF seats are just fine for me and one reason I pay extra for them rather than sit in BF. I hate the suites with the sliding doors on Middle Eastern/Far Eastern airlines and the ying yang business seats on BA. If I have some room around me that I can call my own I'll pay a bit more for it rather than sit squashed breathing heavily for hours on end. The F product - that also generally means less crowded check in and lounges giving you space to relax - is part of the seat price so altogether worth it for me.

agoldstein

Upcoming trip with DEN-DXB (via IAD) in BF. I can currently change my ticket for a total of $1,000 to make the leg DEN-DXB via FRA in F on LH. Would you say it is worth $1,000 extra for that?

lloydah

Well I would if you're not in immediate need of the $$$ for anything else, even if it's just for the sake of trying it. Could be your best flight ever.

zipo

Depends how much money you make,
For me, I could never bring myself to do it

EnvoyBoy

LH F for only a $1000 more? Jump on it!

StingWest

Me too! But, for me as well, it's all about the seat (nice!) and personal space.

Yes, AA also sometimes offers F for a small upgrade price when they are flying their non-lie-flat C seat! I found this out when booking to EZE recently.

Kacee

Yes. Huge upgrade in hard product, as LH flies old C both DEN-FRA and FRA-DXB. Plus you get the FCL in FRA.