4 ms·

The price differences are not as stark as you say. Business class in particular has gotten quite cheap these days. In the past few months, I flew round-trip Cal

The price differences are not as stark as you say. Business class in particular has gotten quite cheap these days. In the past few months, I flew round-trip California to Beijing 3 times for $1,900 in business class. That's affordable to many people, and quite reasonable. There are a lot of perks even when you don't get an upgrade. The intangibles (being taken care of when issues arise — I've received amazing service, even when the issues were my fault) are invaluable.

PenguinCoder 8y ago
Most people aren't flying international to begin with, and certainly not people trying to stay affordable. In that price range, 1900 per ticket is out of reach and certainly insane tonthink 'affordable' to an average customer of airline service.
- gabriel-uribe 8y ago
  Agreed. I just paid $270 to get to China from California.
rconti 8y ago
Can you get a great fare? Absolutely; I flew business on miles from SFO to VIE for 127,500, roundtrip, all in. Is it common? Absolutely not. I check business fares every time I book a ticket and it's virtually always 5x for international. I've seen it edge down towards 3x on airlines that don't have Premium Economy, but what gets me is that Premium Economy is never less than DOUBLE what economy is. Absolutely insane. Domestically, business is usually 3x. I just booked my first ever paid-for-with-real-money business class domestic flight SFO-CLE for thanksgiving; it's not that it's cheap, it's just that thanksgiving demand drove coach fares up so much that business starts to look reasonable -- 1500 vs 750. The perks are invaluable? No, I think they can be valued, and I don't think hardly anyone paying their own dollars values them at even the price the airlines ask for, let alone infinite. My friends who travel to China on company business brag about "only" paying $3000 of company money for Business because they have such discounted fares through their employer, where it would normally cost $5k. $1900 is virtually unheard of, congrats to you, but it's far from normal.
- kenneth 8y ago
  https://www.google.com/flights/#flt=SAN.PEK.2018-11-15*PEK.SAN.2018-11-28;c:USD;e:1;sc:b;sd:1;t:f https://www.google.com/flights/#flt=SAN.PEK.2018-11-15*PEK.S... Take your pick of dates on the calendar: $1,900 to $2,200 is available pretty much any days. Sure, it takes a bit of knowledge and research to find the good deals, but there's almost always a way to cross an ocean round-trip at around $2k.

PenguinCoder 8y ago

Most people aren't flying international to begin with, and certainly not people trying to stay affordable. In that price range, 1900 per ticket is out of reach and certainly insane tonthink 'affordable' to an average customer of airline service.

gabriel-uribe 8y ago
Agreed. I just paid $270 to get to China from California.

rconti 8y ago

Can you get a great fare? Absolutely; I flew business on miles from SFO to VIE for 127,500, roundtrip, all in. Is it common? Absolutely not. I check business fares every time I book a ticket and it's virtually always 5x for international. I've seen it edge down towards 3x on airlines that don't have Premium Economy, but what gets me is that Premium Economy is never less than DOUBLE what economy is. Absolutely insane. Domestically, business is usually 3x. I just booked my first ever paid-for-with-real-money business class domestic flight SFO-CLE for thanksgiving; it's not that it's cheap, it's just that thanksgiving demand drove coach fares up so much that business starts to look reasonable -- 1500 vs 750. The perks are invaluable? No, I think they can be valued, and I don't think hardly anyone paying their own dollars values them at even the price the airlines ask for, let alone infinite. My friends who travel to China on company business brag about "only" paying $3000 of company money for Business because they have such discounted fares through their employer, where it would normally cost $5k. $1900 is virtually unheard of, congrats to you, but it's far from normal.

kenneth 8y ago
https://www.google.com/flights/#flt=SAN.PEK.2018-11-15*PEK.SAN.2018-11-28;c:USD;e:1;sc:b;sd:1;t:f https://www.google.com/flights/#flt=SAN.PEK.2018-11-15*PEK.S... Take your pick of dates on the calendar: $1,900 to $2,200 is available pretty much any days. Sure, it takes a bit of knowledge and research to find the good deals, but there's almost always a way to cross an ocean round-trip at around $2k.