Upgrading To Business Class - The Cheapest Way?

[RabC]

If on a short flight heading to a business meeting I can understand wearing a suit. Flying long haul in a suit is madness IMHO. For those that have made comments about it being a waste of money for a company to pay for a business flight, it is obvious you have not had to make long haul flights to attend a meeting. Most companies in my industry wil fly you business class for flights over 5 hours only. You try arriving in Houston from Singapore and go straight to a high level meeting if you have just spent the last 18hrs in an economy seat with no sleep.

Culturally we're all over the map on this one. Obviously we want those in control of machinery, which were it to malfunction and cause loss of life, to be very well rested - I'm thinking pilots here, but here are many other similar professions. Then again we think nothing of getting a spinal tap from a resident who's been up for 52 hours. We ask our military personnel to handle life-threatening activities over long periods of time, in uncomfortable situations with little rest or comfort.

I've worked at companies which had liberal business class air travel policies, and at companies where everyone, including the founder, CEO, President flew in economy everywhere (U.S. to India/Australia, etc.). In the case of the latter these folks closed deals, mergers and acquisitions after traveling 24 hours in economy. Honestly if you can't handle the travel, and do your job when you arrive you are a probably a bit of a p*ssy.

Guess you work for the wrong companies. If I have to fly to Europe and then conduct Business I am flown a minimal of Business but normally First. My employers abide by European Health and Safety Rulings and 12 hours in economy is classed as 12 hours work and I am entitled to time off before commencing work. I appreciate in the US that money matters but in the rest of the world people come first.

I guess you really can work for the wrong companies. I get to fly Business or First AND get a day off upon arrival to get my sh!t sorted out.

But I agree with lomatopo on being a pussy if you can't do your job after a mere half-day + on a plane. I mean, if you were paying for a family outing to say Paris and you all traveled Coach, are you going to insist that the family relax in their hotel rooms for the first day because the European Health and Safety Directive states....

To fly out to a rig isn't the same as wandering around Paris. And on family trips to the USA as a youngster, we normally arrived late afternoon and apart from dinner wouldn't do anything first night. Just witness the number of road accidents from disembarking passengers jumping into their cars or hire cars after a long haul flights at LHR.

[NanLaew]

My experience with onboard upgrades over 25 years of flying. It has happened twice, both on THAI and I wasn't charged. One of the instances was to help with reseating a large family group in Coach. I was ROP Gold so I assume they scanned the pax list, saw that I was probably 'most qualified' and through the curtain I went. I assume the other re-seating was similarly for expediency in group seating of some querulous mob of tourist pleb with their noisy spawn but I never hung about to see who benefited, or otherwise from my move to the front of the bus.

I have witnessed people paying for a move up front on United; flight services director/purser person with card reader taking the payment. I have also seen 'friends of the cabin crew', possibly airline employees themselves on vacation 'disappear' to the front of the plane for the bulk of the flight and only sit in their assigned Coach seats for take-off and landing.... oh yes, and feeding! That was on KLM.

[NanLaew]

Culturally we're all over the map on this one. Obviously we want those in control of machinery, which were it to malfunction and cause loss of life, to be very well rested - I'm thinking pilots here, but here are many other similar professions. Then again we think nothing of getting a spinal tap from a resident who's been up for 52 hours. We ask our military personnel to handle life-threatening activities over long periods of time, in uncomfortable situations with little rest or comfort.

I've worked at companies which had liberal business class air travel policies, and at companies where everyone, including the founder, CEO, President flew in economy everywhere (U.S. to India/Australia, etc.). In the case of the latter these folks closed deals, mergers and acquisitions after traveling 24 hours in economy. Honestly if you can't handle the travel, and do your job when you arrive you are a probably a bit of a p*ssy.

Guess you work for the wrong companies. If I have to fly to Europe and then conduct Business I am flown a minimal of Business but normally First. My employers abide by European Health and Safety Rulings and 12 hours in economy is classed as 12 hours work and I am entitled to time off before commencing work. I appreciate in the US that money matters but in the rest of the world people come first.

I guess you really can work for the wrong companies. I get to fly Business or First AND get a day off upon arrival to get my sh!t sorted out.

But I agree with lomatopo on being a pussy if you can't do your job after a mere half-day + on a plane. I mean, if you were paying for a family outing to say Paris and you all traveled Coach, are you going to insist that the family relax in their hotel rooms for the first day because the European Health and Safety Directive states....

To fly out to a rig isn't the same as wandering around Paris. And on family trips to the USA as a youngster, we normally arrived late afternoon and apart from dinner wouldn't do anything first night. Just witness the number of road accidents from disembarking passengers jumping into their cars or hire cars after a long haul flights at LHR.

Our contractors mandate that joining crews have a 24-hour shore break between touch-down and getting on the vessel. However, this is usually a 'drying out' exercise versus countering jet-lag as most crew, especially Norwegians like to fly 'Pished Class', this after having their 5 weeks off the boat! We strive to place them in budget accommodations, no bars or room mini-bars at the hotel and well away from any local pubbery and clubbery.

One contractor has the excellent idea of giving all crew a Priority Pass card givng lounge access so their layovers and transits through airports are less stressful which I reckon is a very good point... apart from the complimentary drinks for those inclined!

Edited March 25, 2013 by NanLaew

[RabC]

As a company man I wish more contractors would apply that 24 hour rule. I am sick and tired of turning up for a mob well rested to see the contractors arrive straight from a 12 hour flight and in to 12 hours had work, I don't believe as the client I am getting what I paid for and I certainly don't think it is safe.

[NanLaew]

As a company man I wish more contractors would apply that 24 hour rule. I am sick and tired of turning up for a mob well rested to see the contractors arrive straight from a 12 hour flight and in to 12 hours had work, I don't believe as the client I am getting what I paid for and I certainly don't think it is safe.

Only one of the contractors does this but it makes a big difference especially in the first 24-hours after the crew change where there are less operational errors and oversights. Whenever I am supervising another contractor and one of their new-arrivals makes a mistake that costs them, I like to chide them with, "This never happens with a xxx crew!"

[canman]

As a company man I wish more contractors would apply that 24 hour rule. I am sick and tired of turning up for a mob well rested to see the contractors arrive straight from a 12 hour flight and in to 12 hours had work, I don't believe as the client I am getting what I paid for and I certainly don't think it is safe.

As a contractor I quite agree with you. The issue however is usually getting the 'Company' to pay for the rest period. If companies made it clear in their tender documents that a minimum 12 hr rest period before commencment of work was a requirement then all bidders would be on a level playing field and would cost this into the bid.

[RabC]

If on my jobs like my next one, a whole crew is flying out I have already insisted they fly out at the same time as me 24 hours before the boats arrival. The oil company I am representing next time out has a zero alcohol rule from leaving home to returning home so this does help however, I have had occasion to turn people around at the airport as they were unable to follow this simple rule .

[tullynagardy]

I recently tried a strategy many advocate for upgrades - getting to the check in counter literally 5 minutes before it closes. Airlines typically oversell economy tickets and if they are all taken they will upgrade you.

Or that is the theory!

I arrived at Swampy late last year doing this very thing for my flight with Thai back to Heathrow. Sure enough she confirmed there were no seats in economy left and I thought bingo, business class here I come. Instead, what followed was a flurry of phonecalls which confused me, time was pressing on and surely they

could just print my business class boarding pass? After an increasingly irritating 30 minutes, where I picked up bits and pieces of Thai that was far from
complementary about me, they produced a hand written boarding card – for economy. By this stage I didn’t care and proceeded to board. On entering the plane I sat
beside 2 posh sounding young travellers who told me about “the weirdest thing that just happened, the stewardess came over and asked our friend if she would like to be upgraded!” Basically Thai didn’t want riff raff like me mixing with the hi-so types

I got upgraded on Air India just last month however on the basis the Indian lady beside me was so fat, the arm rest wouldn’t come down and she took up 50% of my seat! Despite all the bad reports about Air India it was a great experience and flights were on time as well.

[nisakiman]

Well, some interesting responses. I posed the question because someone on one of the threads here stated that the cheapest way to upgrade is to wait until you are on the plane, and I wondered if that was fact or b/s.

Personally, if I could afford to fly business I would. I had the good fortune to be upgraded once on Gulf, and it was bloody great. Decent food, nice wine and lots of room. But I just can't justify paying three times the price of econ for a somewhat more comfortable flight. If it was 50% more, or even double I would consider it, but the differential is so much that only people who have enough money not to worry about spending €6 - 7K for a flight can do it. I'm not in that position, unfortunately!

As we will be looking for flights later on this year, I was wondering if there was any way of upgrading without paying such a massive premium. Hence my interest in the idea (if it was possible) of upgrading on the plane for less.

Check China airlines, they offer business class (europe- BKK) for under 2000 euros.

Unfortunately I fly out of Athens, and I don't think China Airlines fly there. I might check out if they fly to BKK from one of the Middle East countries, though. Might be possible to fly econ to Dubai, for instance (3 - 4 hours), and then pick up a China Airlines business from there. I'll have to do some web crawling!

Just plugged in a Bangkok-Athens round trip for any date in April and 30-days duration using matrix. Late April travel came up lowest cost.

Etihad came up with an option for approx US$2000 round-trip but with the warning flag that not all sectors would be the same class. Their regular, all-business round-trip fare was around US$3000. All their Abu Dhabi layovers are decent length.

Other mid-east airlines lead the pack with Egypt Air and Qatar finishing 'on the podium' so to speak.

That's interesting. The only problem with not knowing which sectors are business is that Athens - Abu Dhabi would be about 4 hrs and Abu Dhabi - Bangkok would be about 8 hrs. Four hours in econ is not a problem, but the eight hour stretch would be far better in business. If I paid a premium and found that I got the short flight in business and the long one in econ, I'd be most put out!