How do people afford all these UC flights?

Is nearly everyone here a millionaire, or have rather generous companies paying for everything? £4k or thereabouts for a flight to say NYC is nearly a 1/4 of my yearly salary so not exactly affordable.....

Originally posted by xenole
Is nearly everyone here a millionaire, or have rather generous companies paying for everything? £4k or thereabouts for a flight to say NYC is nearly a 1/4 of my yearly salary so not exactly affordable.....

I used to have a generous expense account to led to a lot of miles via Amex, quitting my job that is no more.

The other thing I do is I always fly discounted or via weird routes, so I end up getting the Z fares for around 1600 or so. (For example, you can get Z fares to Dubai for 1100 UKP, way cheaper than 4k!).

Cheers
sky

I kinda wondered this too, some people on this forum for instance, seem to fly somewhere every month almost, and almost always fly UC. Even PE for me seems expensive. But maybe that will change once I get a job [^].

[mcmbenjamin]

I fly UC and PE but have only ever bought Y. Normally I use Amex MR points mostly but earn about 35K in FC miles a year (via hilton and CO).

In the US of A you can buy MR points ($25 for 1000 points). So a UCS ticket cost $2000.00 so 1 086.95652 British pounds. I do not know if this plays out with the Amex Plat IDC (International Dollar Card) but I will bet millions that The Venerable and Honor Lord Richard will know.

Benajmin

[mcmbenjamin]

Oh and BTW . . . .

Never pay for it !!!


Benjamin

Originally posted by mcmbenjamin
I fly UC and PE but have only ever bought Y. Normally I use Amex MR points mostly but earn about 35K in FC miles a year (via hilton and CO).

In the US of A you can buy MR points ($25 for 1000 points). So a UCS ticket cost $2000.00 so 1 086.95652 British pounds. I do not know if this plays out with the Amex Plat IDC (International Dollar Card) but I will bet millions that The Venerable and Honor Lord Richard will know.

Benajmin

Is there a limit on how many you can buy? The IDC is splendid for UK citizens, I am in the process of moving to one!

Cheers
sky

[mcmbenjamin]

.5 million MR points a year for US MR ( that is 500,000 points)

There may be a difference between the UK IDC and the Offshore IDC but I am not sure. HSBC Offshore offers a Plat IDC (also in GBP and EUR)

Benajmin

[mcmbenjamin]

And HSBC Offshore rocks my world. Easy to open the account and access.

Benjamin

If flights are being paid for from your own pocket, never ever pay full fare.A little bit of research can save £1000s,still a very expensive hobby:D

[fozzyo]

The more frequent flyers on here have their companies buy their tickets and they pocket the miles to "pay" for their own flights. But there are a fair number of us here who are exlusively pleasure travellers - i am lucky if I fly long-haul twice a year. There is quite a bias in the TR's towards UC / PE flights though.

To get the PE and UC seats it is very much about playing the miles game, and searching out cheap fares. For example if you want to go to America on a cheap Upper Class ticket one way to do it is to start your journey in Amsterdam - there is a fare code you can use to get a reduced (but still expensive) UC Z fare.

For miles, the best way to build these up is with a Virgin Flying Club Credit card and use that instead of your Switch card. You don't pay any interest and you get 1mile per pound spent or 2 miles per pound if you pay an £80 annual fee.

Foz xxx

Hey Xenole,

I used to think the same thing .

I think you soon realise that a lot of the UC travel is mileage based as it by far the best use of miles (2*Y miles - no brainer).

Some of us are 'lucky enough' to fly on business but for me this is always PE. I have only had an UC ticket purchased once - although I have been upgraded at least another 4 or 5 times.

As fozzyo said there is a bias towards the premium classes on the TRs mainly because there is just more to write about. Maybe something could be done to encourage additional Y TRs.

Phil (Buffy)

[HighFlyer]

When i first started posting on this forum i used to think that too! .... and now i have become one of them [:I]

[fozzyo]

Originally posted by HighFlyer
When i first started posting on this forum i used to think that too! .... and now i have become one of them [:I]

aka another UpperClassItis sufferer. Well its more the bank balance that suffers.

Foz xx

Same for us, We fly to the USA once a year and I pay for the flights out of my own pocket (well, credit card)
If I cannot get UC at a decent Z price, then I look at alternative airlines promotions. The one thing I just cannot do is fly Virgin (or charter companies) economy. Nothing to do with snobbery or anything like that, but down to seat pitch and size. As we are 6 footers, with long legs, 8 hours in econ seats are torture, including bad backs. If that was the only way to go, then we would not go.
Sure its expensive, but so is the holiday, and to lose days due to bad backs is false economy.
PE would be and is an option, but I still feel VS short change PE customers by giveing really only extra leg room and nothing else

Originally posted by AlanA
The one thing I just cannot do is fly Virgin (or charter companies) economy. Nothing to do with snobbery or anything like that, but down to seat pitch and size.

Couldn't agree more. My family think I'm a complete snob, but that's not the case at all. It'll be my first time in the UCS this Nov (only been PE, WTP before) and that's becasue we're doing a RTW.

I'd rather spend an extra 6 months or whatever saving for the upgrade than travel longhaul in ecconomy.

Milliemoo

p.s I'm only 5f8 so can imagine how 6f+ people fit into an eccconomy seat! seat

Use to think PE expensive till I started to use it and now wouldn't think of travelling any thing else epecially as I am 6'2".
Both I and my wife also have Virgin credit card so we currenty have 40000 miles each to upgrade to UC next time and a free companion ticket so we are thinking of doing a long weekend to NYC for my 40th.

But I can still see some would see even a Virgin economy ticket as expensive not every one can afford this. I consider my self lucky to be affluent, both myself and wife earn above average and have no children. Most people I work with consider long haul to be a luxury and with the exception of my boss those that do fly longhaul do so because the have relatives abroad or who work for BA.

I think anyone who can afford to fly longhaul in what ever class should think them selves lucky to have the abilty to earn the money to do so.

I just work my preverbial nuts off for 48 weeks a year 24/7
and so think I deserve spoiling for a change the other 4 weeks of the year:D

The good thing about Virgin is you can go upper and still be a real person rather than look like you have your thumb up your ass[:I]

I also look out for triple miles offers which is sort of like 2 for one really.

Goin PE this time cause can't afford two UC trips this year, next year though I will make up for it:D

Originally posted by fozzyo

For miles, the best way to build these up is with a Virgin Flying Club Credit card and use that instead of your Switch card. You don't pay any interest and you get 1mile per pound spent or 2 miles per pound if you pay an £80 annual fee.

Foz xxx

Really no interest [?][:0]

Originally posted by Alan

Originally posted by fozzyo

For miles, the best way to build these up is with a Virgin Flying Club Credit card and use that instead of your Switch card. You don't pay any interest and you get 1mile per pound spent or 2 miles per pound if you pay an £80 annual fee.

Foz xxx

Really no interest [?][:0]

Not if you pay it off at once.

Cheers
sky

[fozzyo]

Originally posted by Alan

Originally posted by fozzyo

For miles, the best way to build these up is with a Virgin Flying Club Credit card and use that instead of your Switch card. You don't pay any interest and you get 1mile per pound spent or 2 miles per pound if you pay an £80 annual fee.

Foz xxx

Really no interest [?][:0]

The idea is you use it for your daily spend instead of your debit card. But they key is to make sure you stick within your monthly budget and clear it at the end of each month. So for £80 a year you could get 12,000 miles if you have an average montly spend of £500. Then you look for extra offers, Virgin Wine for example - 750miles per case ordered.

Or if like me you don't own a car but hire one occasionally at weekends you can do the sneaky thing. Enterprise offer a weekend rental for £30 (Friday - Monday) including insurance etc (£500 excess) and a refundably deposit of £200. So on the friday you pay £230 on your Virgin Credit Card to get 460miles, then on the Monday when you return the car they refund the £200. If you want to reduce the insurance excess this costs an extra £30 (I think). And if you budget £20 to fill the tank up with petrol then you can have 500 miles for £50 - not a bad little bonus.

Foz xx

I use my Virgin CC in exactly the way fozzyo says, like a switch card. Me and the Mrs buy virtually everything with it and pay it off every month (but perhaps not this month!) and just watch the miles roll in.

I even bought my car with it in March and have ammased over 100k miles plus a companion ticket in 12 months!

Regards

John

Well I always use to fly economy until i got upgraded (a classic) and now I always fly PE. A lot of the time I'm tempted to upgrade at check-in and do. Lately I've had some spare cash handy so have booked UC (why not?). I personally think PE price and UC prices are good. I am quite a big investor, sometimes things work out well and have lots of spare cash but sometimes I fly economy when I'm tight on cash. I feel very lucky that i can fly UC sometimes so just do it and enjoy it! I figure that as I'm moving in a year and wont be flying long haul for a while I may as well splash out a bit and enjoy!

Cheers

Originally posted by fozzyo
Then you look for extra offers, Virgin Wine for example - 750miles per case ordered.

Just to make a small correction - it's per order, not case

Cheers

Michael

[Decker]

Excellent GJ - bring on the TRs

we came back from Florida on Tuesday, having flown for the first time in ages, in economy. Never again. Half way through the flight my legs started to twitch and get pins and needles. I'm still suffering now. I don't fly upper because of the kids, it's too expensive,however PE is such a better experience for us. I'm no snob but for health reasons I think it will only be PE for us in future. I too collect point via credit card, have over 100k, but have yet to spend them as it all seems a bit confusing!