air planes

For the first time I am traveling BusinessFirst, going from SanAntonio/Houston to Hawaii.

HOLY CRAP! I never knew there was such a difference.

"It's good to be the king!" -Mel Brooks

m4ff3w wrote: For the first time I am traveling BusinessFirst, going from SanAntonio/Houston to Hawaii. HOLY CRAP! I never knew there was such a difference.

Are you paying?

I priced airfare from Philadelphia to Sydney, Australia. Coach/pofolks class cost was about $9,000 round trip for a family of 4.

Business/first class was $68,000 for the same trip! And this was 90-day advance purchase, too. Hell, if I was going to pay that, I'd just charter a damn Gulfstream and really go in style.

We didn't go.

I used to install interiors on air planes. Yes, there is a difference. You should see some of the planes going to the middle east for their first class. The ones that bother me are generally the ones going to India. Coach class has the smallest seats FAA lets us install and yet 1st class has these huge opulent recliners and everything is very high class. Walking from one end of the plane to the other really is a pretty stark image of class-ism, especially when you consider this is a brand new plane and you'd expect everything to have a nice new shine.

I was bumped up to 1st on a trip to Singapore one time. Once you get a taste, it's hard to go back to slumming it with the peasants on the flight home .

A few times I have been bumped to first class for the final leg home--Atlanta to Daytona Beach. It's a 59-minute flight. Last time that happened, I made sure to enjoy those free drinks. My wife drove me home.

Johnboyjjb wrote: I used to install interiors on air planes. Yes, there is a difference. You should see some of the planes going to the middle east for their first class. The ones that bother me are generally the ones going to India. Coach class has the smallest seats FAA lets us install and yet 1st class has these huge opulent recliners and everything is very high class. Walking from one end of the plane to the other really is a pretty stark image of class-ism, especially when you consider this is a brand new plane and you'd expect everything to have a nice new shine.

Been there. In the economy of course!

Duke wrote: ...I priced airfare from Philadelphia to Sydney, Australia. Coach/pofolks class cost was about $9,000 round trip for a family of 4...

I looked into the prices for flights from LA to Hong Kong. You could get coach for about $750 (pretty reasonable considering the distance), 1st class....

...$9000!!!!

Those first-class sleepers are pretty cool - like having your own personal pod.

I got bumped on a flight from Dalls to Chicago, it's hard to sit in cattle anymore.

When I worked for ExxonMobil, I was moved to Malaysia (and back) and when we traveled my whole family flew "business first".

It was awesome! Some of the regular businessmen sneered at me and my 2 year old, but berkeley them.

I was once bumped to 1st class on a flight from Chicago to Boston. Turns out the guy sitting next to me was Michael Bolton's bassist (Skyler) who had partied too hard the night before, and missed the band's plane.

We proceeded to drink many, many double cocktails on the airline's dime. (Bloody Mary for him, Screwdriver for me) I was a bit wobbly by the time I got off the plane.

1st class is an entirely different experience. Hot towels before your meal (of good food), real glassware, and silverware (pre-911) and one flight attendant for 10 people or so. It rocked!

I can't ever see paying for a 1st class ticket though......well maybe on an overseas flight....

Right before Eastern went tits up, they were offering some kind of deal where you could fly first class for the price of coach. The company secretary fixed me up on a business flight. It was nice. Damn, that was a long time ago!

Headed to Germany soon, roughly $1000 for coach, $7000 for first class. So if a beer is $5 in coach, I am basically paying for 1200 beers by upgrading. No wonder those people as smashed!

Yeah, I can't understand how any private flyers can justify first class unless they're super-rich. Not "upper middle class", I mean genuine old-money private butler & live-in maid loaded. I always have to wonder when I walk through that section and see people (especially families) who just look like normal folks... BTW I love how the airlines parade the peasants through the first/business class sections when the plane is boarded. I'm sure that's intentional, "look what you could be having if you were worthy! Now go grovel in the mud."

I took 54 commercial flights last year, and I think 47 of those were on company dime. My company never flew me in "business" class...

I’ve applied the theory of constraints to airline travel and got:

Cost - Time - Space.

Play around with the interactions and see what you get.

For instance, what if you held cost constant but doubled time & space so your flight would take twice as long but you’d have twice as much room. Of course, the relationships aren’t exactly linear but they are approximate and the error tends to wind up in your favor.

If we made commercial aircraft much slower, they could operate out of regional airports sparing travelers a lot of commute time and reducing congestion. They’d also burn less fuel and make less noise “greener” and would be a less attractive target for terrorist as the systems would be less critical (more robust) and there’d be less of a bang if they were successful (F=MA).

Since you’re going slower, there is much less penalty for being big (drag is the cube of velocity).

Think Hindenburg sans the hydrogen…private berths like on a train (mile high club anyone), gym, showers, conference rooms, duty free shopping, casinos, tasteful piano bar to pay homage to the golden era of aviation.

Bottom line…same price, do you want to get coast-to-coast in five hours cramped up like a sardine or do it in ten hours being able to do pretty much anything you’d be able to do at a resort?

Because of my personal hatred of flying, people in general and the fact that I get a blood clot if I sit with my knees in my chin for more then an hour. I have to fly first class. I got booked on Airtran once. Never the hell again it's like the greyhound of air travel children screaming, fat people that need to buy 2 seats but don't to prove a point yada yada basically the fly anywhere for 47 dollar people. I wanted to shoot myself by the time I got to Denver. I actually took 3 days off work and drove back, because the would not get me a flight on a different airline.

Now that I'm more stationary I think I will try trains. Does anyone have any experience with traveling by train? can I just get a whole cabin and cut myself off from the rest of society, or is that not possible.

If they offered transatlantic zeppelin flights at competitive cost with planes I would take one EVERY TIME. I'm just saying.

I've taken Amtrak from Miami to Tampa several times. The freedom to get up and move around was great. Bar, a bit of food, and some very interesting people. Of course you get to see the seedy side of every town on the way, but no problem on the coach. It's not fast, but I could see traveling a long distance not being bad at all.

Point of fact: If you take an average airliner, shear off the wings and tail, put bigger wheels under it, and give the pilot a beer belly, what you end up with is a Greyhound bus.

In reply to 1988RedT2:

I'm not certain the wheels would really need to be bigger. A 777 has a 22" rim but the tires on them are huge. I don't have my coat or I'd run out and check.

Jay wrote: I took 54 commercial flights last year, and I think 47 of those were on company dime. My company never flew me in "business" class...

do you get the miles from all those flights? because i've used miles to upgrade to business first several times.

Luke wrote: I was bumped up to 1st on a trip to Singapore one time. Once you get a taste, it's hard to go back to slumming it with the peasants on the flight home .

I made the mistake of getting a PROPER hotel for my wife once.

Johnboyjjb wrote: In reply to 1988RedT2: I'm not certain the wheels would really need to be bigger. A 777 has a 22" rim but the tires on them are huge. I don't have my coat or I'd run out and check.

Please! Let's not muddy the waters here with actual facts! Sheesh!

I flew a lot for business 20 years ago, and back then if you had a ton of frequent flier miles it was pretty easy to get into first class seats.

I was bumped up to first class one time for a flight from Seattle to Taipei, via Seoul...for a flight that long, it was REALLY nice.