GlobalFirst vs BusinessFirst game
 

You are flying 10 TPACS in a year. You must fly all ten TPACS in either GF or BF. Any difference in fare you get to keep because it is your money you are spending or the entity buying your ticket will give you the difference. The difference between the ten fares is
A. $0
B. $15K
C. $30K
D. $45K
E. I don't care I'm flying GF.

How much/much more would you pay/lose to fly all ten flights in GF?

I do more than 10 TPAC's and my best guess on the differential cities I fly to is C - $30k. I have paid for GF to Europe when it is close in price - but it is typically about $1,500 more per way to APAC IME - and when I can fly on the UD or in the center section of a PMCO 777 I choose those first... For me - if GF were about $500 more I would pay it every time for the better seat only.

B. If my company gave me $1,500 every time I chose BF over GF on UA, I would definitely pick BF.

^^

Or even $500 IMO.

I would have to pick A but I would pay somewhere between A and B.

It's always hard to evaluate these value statements, but...

for me, I would spend between $500 and $1000 extra for GF for a trip of 10 hours or more, the amount depending on how flush I feel at the moment.

GF is a very nice hard product, and I do like the privacy and extra storage.

I would agree with you totally unless the plane was a 777 8-across BF and the only seats left were D or G. Then I'd forfeit the $500. I've ridden GF all of 2 times. The experience is totally underwhelming and hardly worth much of price differential.

D.

Easy. 10 relatively comfortable trips to Asia + $45k cash in my pocket? Done.

or even $50 for me

If I may paraphrase the question, what is the lowest cash bonus my boss would have to pay me in order to get me to fly in BF instead of GF? In my case, that would be close to zero.

Or if I may paraphrase the question again, if my boss gave me a $100k bonus, how much of that money would I spend on upgrades to GF? Again, in my case, that would be close to zero.

I'd book tight connections and historically irrops-prone flights in J, then hope to be rebooked on a TATL LH fare and apply GPUs.

There are some on this forum (myself included) that would fly all 10 trips in coach (let's assume a conservative savings of $2K per coach roundtrip) if it meant $20,000 in their pocket.

At SFO, I have heard of CX offering travelers HKD$20,000+ in cash, payable upon arrival at HKG (for what I'm sure is tax purposes), to downgrade from J to Y when J is overbooked.

But wouldn't the fare difference be more than the approx USD$2500 paid out? Seems like they would also need to refund the fare difference. Otherwise, they should just sell too many J seats all the time and pocket the gain.

Of course, if they are just assuming that business travellers see this as a way to cash out their company paid ticket for themselves, that's another issue.

I'd book C and use GPUs to upgrade nearly all the flights. You would end up in GF 9/10 10 legs and keep the cash difference for nice meals and vacation hotels