Are you kidding? I go coach trans-atlantic UNLESS I have to walk right off the plane to a meeting (with me, that's never now). But transpac... did coach with Jessie this past fall to Tokyo... I don't really want to do that again.
I just can't understand how your company (given their size and global nature) will not pay for a biz class ticket...
Cheers,
-Andrew
I don't know how you do that in coach. I've had to do the Europe overnight in coach a couple of times (grrr... Delta... grrrr) until I learned the trick that you don't book the ticket until the upgrade is assured. I will do coach coming back... especially if it's an empty plane like it was on CO from AMS this past fall (so light they made us move for W&B issues). Thank goodnes for Expert Flyer.
They used to. Before the market tanked in 2000 Business Class was standard procedure across the Pacific. But to Europe? No way. Way too expensive. SEA to NRT or LHR is about the same time in the air.
Which is really funny because it's dirt cheap to go to London right now, even in biz. A bit more expensive since EOS and Max went T.U., but still pretty cheap from NY.
I'm doing a mileage run on AA in the near future to take advantage of the double qualifying miles. $500 RT to London in coach. With AA you can upgrade at $300+miles each way (I have no eVIP's to burn), meaning that it will cost more for the upgrade than the base ticket.
Other cities on the continent are siginificantly more, but if you fly biz to LHR and take a short hop on BA in coach, you're still ahead of the game.
Oh, and Saturday night stays are back, big time. If you price a Fri-out, Sat-return it's like $1700. If you price Fri-out, Sun-return, it's $500. For transPac (I've been looking at NRT & HKG recently), it's a 3 night stay - $2000+ for 1 or 2 nights, $700 for 3 nights. I THINK you can manage a couple of hotel nights for less than that.....