What determines your cabin choice if paying?

Sleep deprivation turns me into the psycho bitch from hell . As a purely selfless gesture to protect all those flying with me or joining me at my destination I elect to lightly singe the credit card and travel J, or for my hard core Australian trips I occasionally cremate it and go in F.

Very timely thread, given I just made my first ever holiday booking in club world. Historically in my family, our position (that is to say, my wife's position, and then my mother's before her!) was always that price was the single determining factor. Which of course meant Y, Y and more Y. Generally with the likes of Monarch. The rationale was always

1) The flight is only a small amount of time in the overall holiday, so why waste money on it
2) You can put up with a bit of discomfort on the way out because you have the anticipation of the main holiday to look forward to.
3) You're going to be miserable on the return anyway because the holiday is over so why bother polishing a turd there...

It didn't help that as I was growing up, the rest of my family were (relative) midgets, so Y was not quite as uncomfortable for them. In addition, my dear wife was very familiar with business class travel through work, so no hope of approaching it as being something 'special'.

As you can probably tell, I've always been a bit of a dissenting voice in this, the flight to me is a key part of the holiday and I want a modicum of comfort. Leg/Body room is the priority, all the other service bits and bobs are nice but not major determinants. I don't include lounge access in the calculation, as my status takes care of that (at least with Virgin) regardless of what class I'm flying. And I'm not going out my way to get into a BA club lounge either.

So the family compromise now is that I obsessively wait for sales and analyse every conceivable date/price/miles combo to come up with something I can 'sell' as being not a total waste of money. And yes, I'm making progress. Children are helping with pester power now as well, they are very keen on the 'big seats' Well done cherubs, maybe I'm turning you into spoilt brats, but daddy is proud of you

3) You're going to be miserable on the return anyway because the holiday is over so why bother polishing a turd there...

As we get older the benefits of no airport ques, lounge access, decent leg room and priority boarding are most definitely huge benefits. And worth the cost IMO for most trips.

For real long-haul trips we would most likely choose not to go if we did not fly business. I would prefer a short flight to Italy rather than a Y flight to Hong Kong or California.

Certainly the fripperies of premium cabins, be it PE or business, add significantly to the holiday experience and, like many on here I suspect, the flights are one of (if not THE) most important part of the trip But I do appreciate for more "normal" people it is a means of transport and little else

Up until a few years ago we used to do a long haul holiday every two years because we would rather do it in comfort.
The flight home is one of the most important parts for comfort because it's usually a night flight and a flat bed makes an enormous difference.
If I could only afford Upper one way it would be the return.
Dick D

Up until a few years ago we used to do a long haul holiday every two years because we would rather do it in comfort.
The flight home is one of the most important parts for comfort because it's usually a night flight and a flat bed makes an enormous difference.
If I could only afford Upper one way it would be the return.
Dick D

And that's why overnight flights tend to be the ones that are priced in the higher fare buckets, and have very limited redemption availability. Fine with me actually, as I'm not really a good sleeper on planes, so I'd happily take the day flight in the higher class and avail myself of the enhanced service.

Maximus, I think your comment about 'normal' people is spot on, and my family has historically worked to those norms. I blame v-flyer for turning me into a class obsessed freak :-)

Well, for us it used to always be determined by price. Generally we're flown to events by various companies, and it's usually economy that's offered (occasionally PE or the equivalent). When we fly ourselves we always opted for economy, until we went to Tokyo last year in PE and were totally ruined. We were warned by a friend who did the same thing the year previously--he said if we opted for the PE seats then we'd never look back, and he was right. We now grudgingly book the occasional economy seat, but opt for PE for special and longer haul trips. I'm not super tall* and can just about get comfortable in an economy seat, so sometimes I feel almost guilty about booking a higher class when there's "no need". With that said, we love the perks of comfort, priority boarding and baggage handling etc. I'm officially obsessed with collecting airmiles, and we've almost collected enough for our next Tokyo trip to be in UC. I know, I know... it's a slippery slope

* really not very tall at all!

As I have already written, it is about price for me, it has to be!!!.

If I was to booking today, my already booked September EY ABD to and fro Brisbane (via AUH and SIN) would cost me just over £1200 in Y, I paid under £800 a month ago. The J fare today, same flights, is above £6,000.

I am fortunate that I do have the perks others mention as J benefits, priority luggage, boarding and seat allocation as well as lounge access (and the London lounge is special).

As I wrote earlier, when I started doing these frequent trips to OZ they were all in J. However as they increased in frequency I started doing the 1 trip in J = 4 in economy sum. And, for myriad reasons, I want to do 4 rather than 1.

And I, with an initial "long haul in Economy,...Oh no Madam..DYKWIA" attitude, have discovered that I can sleep remarkably well in a chair (practising for those soon to be had days in the old folks home, I guess!!!). Also my ABD6 trip last December, in Y on VS , where I had none of the aforementioned perks was fine (allowing for the FSM I shall not mention..OOPS)

The prices for my soon to be booked Christmas ABD are interesting. EY Y fares are more than double what I am paying in September..over £1800 whereas the J fares haven't the same significant uplift, currently circa £4500.

And no, I am not tempted...no, I am not!!!!!

I have previously flown BA long haul, to Jamaica many years ago, and Seattle about 5 years ago, both in Y. The latter wasn't particularly comfortable as I recall. Then my OH and I, who up to that point had only holidayed together in Europe took our first long haul trip to Canada, flying with Air Transat, again in Y. The experience was okay, but not great. We had the usual a-holes who completely reclined their seats with no thought for those behind. Screaming kids was another issue, especially after a night flight where a child of about 3-4, not a babe in arms, cried throughout the flight with no effort from the parents to soothe it. They just "switched off" apparently. Pity the rest of us couldn't. It resulted in little sleep of course, with the knock on effect of me falling asleep driving and almost killing us. The food was terrible.

The following year we had a similar experience and decided we would start to look for PE to have a bit more space, better food, and hopefully, no screaming sprogs (not that I dislike children, I just couldn't eat a whole one).

We were looking at Air Transat again for YVR and discovered VS had opened a new route for the summer, so booked PE. All very excited, the product looked great and just what we were looking for. This also came around the time of an increase in income making the choice easier.

Well I never got to fly PE because I was offered a price to upgrade to UC which I thought was good value so we took it. The rest as they say, is history!

We are smitten with UC, the whole package not just the Clubhouse, and my OH, who is not the extravagant one, is now keen that when we fly long distance we fly in comfort, and style, preferably VS UC. All our trips are on our own dime, and I'm always looking for a good deal. We've become avid collectors of FC miles. If we fly short haul, it's going to be Y of course, there's little choice for anything else, although if a route had the choice, we'd probably try J. We absolutely can't go back to flying Y for long haul. However, we've still yet to try the PE cabin. I suppose that will happen soon as I'll qualify for 2 Amex PE reward upgrades soon.

For now, we're happy mapping our main holiday to the VS route network. There's plenty of places to go. We usually have 2 hols a year, 1 long haul and then a short haul somewhere in Eastern Europe, although this year it's 3 and 2 of them are long haul (lucky us!) Where possible we'll fly J as I'm also a believer that the flight is part of the holiday and to be enjoyed not endured. PE at least, if cost of J is more than I'm willing to pay or there are no reward seats available.

Oh, and I no longer drive to the airport. Train only, and even stay in a nice hotel the night before if possible.

I think there's a whole psychology of 'when does the holiday start?' that comes into play here. In my youth, it was always from the point you arrive at your destination, the the point when you left. Travel was not a part of it, not least because most of the time it was a case of driving rather than flying, and driving to Clacton on Sea could never be described as a pleasurable activity (it's debatable whether arriving there was either, but I'll give it the benefit of doubt that came from the rose tinted spectacles of youth).

But gradually we've introduced staying over at hotels before flights, lounge access, valet parking, which means the flight by default becomes a part of the holiday, and therefore something that needs to be more than just tolerated.

Plus I'm getting older, and probably not any smaller, so the 'tolerance' threshold is also rapidly being redefined

[honey lamb]

I think there's a whole psychology of 'when does the holiday start?' that comes into play here. In my youth, it was always from the point you arrive at your destination, the the point when you left. Travel was not a part of it, not least because most of the time it was a case of driving rather than flying, and driving to Clacton on Sea could never be described as a pleasurable activity (it's debatable whether arriving there was either, but I'll give it the benefit of doubt that came from the rose tinted spectacles of youth).

But gradually we've introduced staying over at hotels before flights, lounge access, valet parking, which means the flight by default becomes a part of the holiday, and therefore something that needs to be more than just tolerated.

Plus I'm getting older, and probably not any smaller, so the 'tolerance' threshold is also rapidly being redefined

I smiled when I read this as it resonated with me even though I've never been to Clacton on Sea. However I don't want to divert the main topic of this thread which is about cabin choices so I've started a new one here for this discussion

For us anything over 2 hrs HAS to be Business. My husband and I both have back problems and find sitting painful, even travelling in the car we have to stop every 2 hrs and walk around and as the passenger, I recline my seat. Because of this, if we can't fly Business, we don't go!

Even going to Monte Carlo and back from Barcelona in a few weeks, we just enquired about the upgrade cost and as it was £99 for the return, paid up and will be in Club Europe. The lounge and extra baggage is a bonus, as we'll be joining a cruise.

We pay out of pocket or use miles to upgrade and have had some great deals.

going to Monte Carlo and back from Barcelona in a few weeks, we just enquired about the upgrade cost and as it was £99 for the return, paid up and will be in Club Europe. The lounge and extra baggage is a bonus, as we'll be joining a cruise.

The seats in BA Club Europe (certainly on the A319's they use from LHR and LGW to most European destinations) are exactly the same as those in Euro Traveller. They just turn the middle seat in to a table and move the curtain forward and backward. This always seems a con to me. No extra leg room or recline. But a nicer meal and a wet towel

However, it gets worse

They are revamping the BA Euro cabins though- with reductions in both leg room and recline!!

In summary the press release announced:

All Heathrow and Gatwick short-haul Airbus aircraft to be refitted

New seats will be super-slim to allow for additional seat rows to be squeezed in. A320′s gain six seats to 168, A319′s gain 11 seats to 143.

Seat pitch in Club Europe to be reduced from 34 inches to 30 inches. No change to the Eurotraveller seat pitch of 30 inches on most aircraft (a handful drop to 29 inches).

Club Europe seat width is to be reduced from 18 inches to 17.5 inches.

Built-in tablet holders on the back of seats to hold an iPad etc

Club Europe seats to have a built-in centre console table in the unused middle seat

Seat recline restricted to make it easier for customer behind to use laptops – Club Europe from 4.5 inches to 3 inches and Eurotraveller from 4.5 inches to 2 inches

Baby bassinets to be removed

No additional storage space to cater for the additional seats

Multi-coloured LED mood lighting to be introduced



Which all goes to re-affirm my reasons for not flying Club Europe- unless someone else pays!