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My friend Guy who is 85 and lives Ohio was traveling to visit his son in Seattle. I drove Guy to the airport (DTW) which is an hour or so north of us in Detroit on 7/11. His return flight was on 7/18 with a quick stop in LA. He arrived at LAX just in time for some computer nerd at CrowdStrike to press the send key that paralyzed businesses all over the planet.
Stuck overnight, Guy managed to get a bit of rest on a bench. Finally in the afternoon Delta loaded Guy on a flight to Washington DC, where he would be able to board a flight scheduled to arrive in Detroit at 2am Saturday. Shortly after arriving in DC Guy learned that the flight into DTW had been canceled. That news certainly didn’t break my heart, as I was his ride.
He found a hotel to stay in. There were no flights available at all on Saturday. Finally on Sunday he got a boarding pass for a flight getting him to DTW at 7pm. Great news for me as I’d not need to be out way past my bedtime.
Uhoh, flight delayed due to lack of flight attendants. Be in at 8. Than 9. Than 10:30. 11:30. It finally landed a bit after midnight. Exhausted, Guy needed assistance getting to the pickup area. Finally at 1:30am we had Guy in the car and were on our way home. Chris and I finally got to bed at 3am Monday morning, 7/22.
The silver lining, if you can call it that, is that Guy paid the extra money to fly first class, making the extra time spent in the plane much more tolerable. So is first class worth the extra money? Guy would tell you yes.
In 2018, I decided to never again fly coach if I’d be cramped in the seat for more than two hours. I drive when possible, but first class is worth the cost on my flights. It’s nice to arrive without cramped legs and bruised knees and in a terrible mood. Coach seats are tough for tall people even when the plane isn’t packed.
Having spent many years “on the road” earning miles and miles on airlines, I retired with over 1 Million Airline miles on two different airlines.
My last 4-5 years on the job I regularly upgraded to first class, simply to have more room and fewer weirdo’s to contend with. (Some of the most “entitled” people on earth fly in coach.) When there were meals in first class, they tended to be edible or at least more palatable than the “snacks” in coach, but those are primarily a memory these days.
As a frequent flyer, the airlines tended to be more polite and generally more accommodating, but even that “perk” has diminished greatly in the past 5 years of more.
Is first class worth it? $2,000 to LA from the east coast…NO! Unless it’s on points. First class to Hawaii or Europe? Absolutely. Those are normally few in a lifetime flights so why not enjoy them to the maximum? Or if possible, opt for Business Class…just as nice as domestic First Class, but less expensive.
I feel sorry for Guy, and his family was probably worrying about him until he finally got back home. I’ve had my share of delayed or canceled flights and the emotions can be very upsetting.
Most of my travels were in F/class, because it was a benefit of my employment. The seating is better overall, and you sometimes get seated next to a celebrity; a former POTUS or have the whole section to yourself. When there used to be meal service on domestic flights, the food was better in F/C versus the tv tray in coach.
I don’t live high on the hog, so I would never pay for F/class, or even business class. Goes along with my life style of not owning luxury vehicles.
I have never flown first class… Please can you give examples on how first class made this unusual even more tolerable.
On an international flight the premium is upwards of $2000 or more. The average flight time to Europe is 8 hours from my time zone. That is $250 an hour.
The mode flight time between cites in the USA is typically 1.5 to 2 hours. First class domestic upgrade is typically $500 and can be up to $1000. That is $250 to $333 per hour.
To answer your question… It does not seem like a good value proposition.
Cheers
For Guy extra space, comfort, ease of boarding, first to disembark made it worthwhile to him. Keep in mind that he is 85 years old and was totally fatigued by the experience, so he found value beyond the bucks.
I can see that.
William. Congratulations on the 1st use of mode I have seen on HD!
Well I am not sure what it means but it sounded smart. LOL 😂
Just joking
IMHO, First Class – No; Business Class – Yes (with FF miles as mytimetotravel says). I, too, have an airport-ride buddy. We give each other rides whenever possible. It’s both frugal and fun. Is this common for HumbleDollar readers?
Certainly has been for me. Now my usual ride and I live further apart I may resort either to public transport (would be slooow) or a taxi.
I live 90-120 minutes drive from the nearest international airport. There’s a train seven miles from me that connects to the airport, but it takes significantly longer because of the need to change trains. However, I have found there are some local people who do the airport run as a sideline to their regular jobs or as a semi-retirement job. They don’t advertise except by word of mouth and charge $120-150 each way. When airport buddies aren’t available, asking around might find people who are willing to do it for a fee.
That sounds miserable regardless of class, although access to an airline lounge would have been worthwhile. I don’t fly first class, but I take very few US flights. Traveling internationally I almost always fly business, on FF miles. Once I’ve arrived in Europe or Asia I switch to the train.