zitsky

If you and I are both in Polaris, aren’t we both sitting in the same seat? I choose to be awake when I do it.

If I want to go in Polaris from East Coast to Bali in December it’s going to cost me $5000 a person. If you know ways to find cheaper flights, I’m listening.

findark

There have been plenty of deals to the nearby CGK recently, and I see low-ish SV fares to the region right now (around $3,000 to BKK). It's very early to be booking a December trip without a good fare.

But if you have to fly directly to DPS without a ticket split, and "in December" actually means "during the Christmas holiday when everyone else wants to travel", and must fly on a non-TK *A carrier, and... that's the kind of inflexibility that makes you pay premium prices. The point jsloan is making is that some of us would just stay home - or fly somewhere else, or at a different time - instead of paying that.

You're not paying $5,000 to "sleep on a plane" - you're paying to get on the very specific flight on the specific day to the specific city you want to visit.

Kmxu

It is too early to book a flight in December. You may want to book it in late summer/early Fall, when price is dropped.

friedablass

Because some of us can't sleep when sitting straight up in a can of sardines .

All kidding aside, most of us here will not pay that for a flight and will book with points or use Plus Points to upgrade or find alternatives to still fly in J and get to enjoy Polaris whether it's to be wined and dined or to sleep in comfort, whatever your preference is.

jsloan

Well, right. Put the price aside for a second, though. My primary point was that whereas UA's seat is among the best in its class, the soft product -- the service OP is going to get while awake -- is decidedly not. If someone is flying business class to enjoy the food and champagne, UA would not be my recommendation.

zitsky

I’m not sure why there is a problem with finding the best option and the cheapest price? Isn’t that what you folks talk about every single day?

Holiday travel is expensive. I already knew that.

jsloan

There's no problem with that. Who said that there was? Nobody is attacking you or your choices. We're just saying, most of us would not consider $5,000 on UA to be both the best option and the cheapest price, especially many months prior to departure.

zitsky

I think I started my question earlier with “Is this a reasonable price for travel to a specific location at a specific time of year.” I was not asking for someone to book a flight for me. I was asking “do you know a cheaper or better way to accomplish my goal?”

If $5000 pp for J is not reasonable to travel from East Coast to Bali at Christmas then what is reasonable? Because on some forums I’m told yes that’s reasonable. If someone has a better idea then I’m all ears. If there is a better time to book then when? 3 weeks before my trip? 3 months?

gmt4

I think maybe what's being said is that there's possibly a better value/more premium experience to be had on another airline, it's just too early to tell what airline it will be on. SQ, NH, CX, JL, EK, QR or other foreign or Asian airlines will offer a better experience at a potentially competitive price. I agree, $5k isn't bad for J especially if its the dates and connections/times you want. Personally I'd be looking to book later in the summer/early fall. There's many ways you could do it but google flights is easy to use to monitor prices.

Wiggums

Instead of booking at the last minute, I booked mine about 11 months before the trip. I had to fly out of SNA, didn't want to drive up to LAX. Initially, it was SNA-FRA-IST-SNA but it was over $3,000 in Economy when I looked. I removed the FRA-IST part and made it a two open-ended trip. It dropped to $1,800 so I booked that and bought a one-way $120 ticket to SAW (cheaper airport in Istanbul).

Just like I do for hotels, I regularly checked United.com's My Trips then Manage Trip to see if I could snag a lower price.

Prices kept changing, soon, it was $2,400 in Premium Plus if I did SNA-SFO-FRA-ORD-SNA so I snagged that one, very happy with the deal, and was waitlisted on both ways to Polaris.

Sometimes it pays to tinker around with the itinerary. Doing SNA-FRA-SNA was $5,750 in Polaris, but I saw that if I did SNA-FRA then AMS-SNA, it'd be $3,000 flat in Polaris. I think having an itinerary that was initially open-ended made it possible for me to select the return city to SNA.

Another benefit of paying more for a confirmed Polaris seat is being able to pick 1L or 3L, my favorite spot. I hate the middle seats.

Of course, I had to buy another one-way ticket from SAW to AMS.. front row seat on Pegasus for $100.

No longer waitlisted, it's confirmed. I'm now one of the big boys. Moving on up, moving on up to the east side of a deluxe apartment in the sky...

zitsky

Anything and everything is on the table.

Originally I was looking at Premium Economy then Business. The reason to book now is to get seats you want right now. More important in Premium Economy with limited seats and not as important in Business.

Problem with United is I fly RDU to west coast and get a Polaris seat with domestic service. I can’t find a use for my miles. All I see is waiting list.

Meanwhile Asian airlines are offering true business class for $5000 pp from East Coast to Singapore if not all the way to Bali.

findark

My broader point was that I have never spent more than about $3,000 on a ticket and never flown overwater in a class less than J - and then on DL out of a DL fortress hub because I didn't feel like splitting to a TP ticket during the era of COVID border restrictions. I suspect that will rise in my future as I value schedule more and dollars less, but that is also kind of my point here:

Without a deep dive into your flexibility or lack thereof, it's impossible to say whether you are finding the lowest price given your number of constraints, but for the abstract leisure traveler who wants to prioritize a low price, $5k is stratospheric. On the other end, business travelers with a fixed schedule that need to go to A on Monday and home on Thursday, no exceptions, routinely pay $10k and would think $5k a bargain.

In general, FT is focused around changing travel habits to save lots of money, whether that's finding cheap fares, available upgrades, gaming the system, etc. I think the nerve you struck here is asserting that $5,000 is just "what it costs" to fly Business, when that's obviously not true for many/most of us not on OPM.

Milwaukee

Thank you WineCountryUA for your comments! Having never watched this system in action before I am really surprised how little price movement I've seen in the offers presented so far (still T-9). Fascinating! I'll rest easy knowing that I did the best for my friend

Artpen100

As can the price for simply re-ticketing in F using change flight, but for the same flight in F (I’m talking domestic- have not flown UA international since pre-pandemic). I have found it is sometimes much cheaper than the upgrade offer. Who knows why the IT does that.

bob12403

Here's a crazy one. I'm flying nonstop IAD-LIS in April. Initially got a pretty good coach fare, and then later bought up to PP. Total cost around $1270. Current cost to straight up buy a PP fare is around $2600, so I think the total cost to buyup was OK.

Now comes the crazy part. I've been watching the cost to buyup to Polaris. It's been running around $3700, which is not in my wheelhouse. Today I took a look at the Polaris buyup cost, with 7 seats left, and the price has skyrocketed to over $10,000, even though the cost to straightup purchase Polaris is only $5,800!