Jealousy?

[HighFlyer]

Have any/many of you experienced, as i have, some amount of criticism/jealousy about flying in premium classes and having regular holidays?

The main thing i like about this forum is the feeling that many of you share my habits for jaunts in PE over the water. I used to post over at 'thedibb' but i was frequently criticised for disliking Economy travel and for the fact that i have more than one holiday a year. This is something echoed by many friends i have. I only know one other couple who travel in anything other than Economy, and most of our friends rarely travel, except for the odd week in Bournemouth.

I just wondered if anyone else had felt this?

The way i see it, i dont smoke, dont have children, dont go out every weekend on the beer, and have a good combined household income, so the one thing we like to splurge on is our trips away. But i seem to find that people resent us for having these nice trips. If they could see the travelling that some of you on here do, they would be really shocked.

Admittedly, my travelling has changed. I used to do the Economy package deal, but we wouldnt touch it now. Id rather spend wisely on a better suite and nicer flight to enhance the whole experience.

Im so glad to find a group of people i can share my thoughts on VS travel, Premium travel and trips away with, without them thinking ill of me. Am i the only one who finds this group quite unique in this way?

I'd have to agree with you there!

I don't have kids etc like you and often get stick from people for hols (I like to go abroad 3-4 times a year). The fact that I don't think a holiday is a holiday unless you get a stamp in a passport really endears me to people

I came back from a 3 week RTW in June, doing a MAN-DXB-KUL trip in September and planning time in States in December.

My view is that I'm now at the stage in life where I have the ££ to have more than 1 holiday a year so I'll do whatever I please!

Regards,

Sahajesh

[Decker]

Water finds its level... Socio-demographically a lot of the people here share the same or similar tastes. This could make quite an interesting treatise actually. The amount of soft top driving 30-50 somethings is incredible. RM is a freak . Interestingly the group polarises politically. I suspect the majority wouold view themselves as centre or left thereof but we also have some vocal right of centre members. In fact we could all go to http://www.politicalcompass.org and report back!

As a complete aside it feels very like the software development community I work in where most people use non Microsoft development tools. As a community they exhibit many of the characteristics of this community. I suspect this is an "underdog" approach - people who think individualistically tend to prefer non mainstream solutions but also tend to polarise along political lines. So perhaps we view VS as the underdog to BA and support accordingly. Having said that I never choose to drive Avis.... it's Hertz or cheap....

Thanks for making me stop and think so early in the day!

It just shows the world we live in today when people can't be happy for others. At the moment with 4 kids and putting them through education we manage Florida every couple of years. Soon I will enjoy the benefits of being able to travel childless and travel in the way we could not have done before. I love reading the trip reports on UC and PE etc because theres nothing very interesting in Y !!!
Sianxx

I get some jealousy at work, and mostly dumfoundedness from the family - they can't quite believe that I take so many trips a year. Strangely, some folks (home & at work) think that I'm always on holiday for some reason - I don't quite know why that would be

I have no children, smoke 2 packs a day, go out a bit, and have an ok salary - only been a convert to "nicer living" over the last 2-3 years, but heck, it's worth every penny

BTW Decker, this is me:
Economic Left/Right: -2.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 2.05

Cheers

Michael

After my wife and I lost our son to a terminal genetic condition, we vowed to live life as we see fit. That includes Europe every year-and-a-half, New Orleans 4-5 weekends a year, New York one or two weekends a year, a beach weekend once a year, and usually a few other cities where friends live. We're not rich by a long shot, but we always stay in luxury hotels wherever we go and fly business or upper class when when our flight is over 5 hours. As far as we're concerned, vacation isn't vacation if it is on the cheap. We both love food, so we budget most of our trips for nice restaurants. You only live once, and there's no reason to die with money in the bank.

Interesting topic.

I've certainly had a similiar reaction form a lot of people. The incredulous look that you can travel UC.

We haven't got any kids, a pretty high disposable income and an intention to dispose of it! I guess this is linked to the lack of kids. I think I had a realisation about four or five years ago that I could afford to do a lot of things that I'd previously only aspired to. Flying J, staying in great hotels in city centres, rather than budget ones in the sticks, eating out at Michelin starred restaurants etc etc. I think the turning point was going for dinner at Gordon Ramsay and really understanding value for money, twice the price of any meal I'd had previously, but at least double the enjoyment.



I think most people have no idea how much it costs to travel J, they have never even considered it. They certainly don't realise that PE or WT+ can be so affordable. My last two trips to the states have been with some old friends, in both cases they are over 6' and I persauded them to splash out 600GBP to go PE, rather than 350GBP for Y. They are now both converts, they had no concept that it could be that cheap, they thought it would be thousands.

From a few threads on here I think a lot of us have tried PE, and decided we'd never go back to Y, then you get the wonderful OpUp and you move into a whole new ball game. That's when you start to think about those points, and what is the best way of spending them.

VSlf
A champagne socialist (Ruinart 'R' as a preference)

To add: -4.0 and -4.96...I seem to be a bit more extreme than I thought!:D

[HighFlyer]

Vslf, i think you have coined it perfectly! (Im a Laurent Perrier Rose myself, although Roderer's Cristal is most excellent if you can afford it!!)

Im so glad that others have experienced this (sort of!). We are by no means rich either, but we stretch to those nice jaunts. We have three or four trips away each year, and like Sahajesh, i also dont consider it a 'proper' trip unless i get a stamp in my passport.

At least next time i meet the green eyed monster from someone (roughly about September when i get back fom BGI i should imagine) i know that im not the only one to encounter it


And for Decker and others ...

Economic Left/Right: -0.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.56

Which i guess makes me a pretty well rounded individual? Im miles away from both Hitler and the Dali Lama!!

[Bazz]

Having a grown up family means we can behave pretty much as we like in terms of holidays. If we don't have a holiday (overseas) once every three months we get withdrawal symptoms

We get the of't spoken "on holiday again" or "always on holiday" criticisms same as the previous posters - water and duck's back comes to mind. We both work hard for our dosh and intend to enjoy it.

After having tasted the Forbidden Fruit (PE and esp UC) we have vowed not to travel in Y again, but who knows we may at some time.

We enjoy fine dining and sometimes not so fine (but the wife has to cook sometimes) just kidding before all you girls start hating me . We adore travelling and if we had more money (c'mon lottery) we would do it continuously.

[soapbox mode]
The one thing about this forum is everyone is there for everyone else, it doesn't matter if you have an FC Au card or haven't joined the FC, it doesn't matter if you always travel in UC or can only afford coach, it doesn't matter if you travel several times a month or only once a year, everyone is on here to have some fun, learn more about our favourite airline and to help each other - and it's great! [/soapbox mode]

Oh and Decker, I scored (if that's the right description) a -2.12 and a 1.08 so that makes me, ehh, confused [:o)]

[Decker]

I'll retest - it's been a while since... I know they were both minuses and responses so far confirm my initial theory.

Slightly bucking the negative trend here, i scored 1.12 and 1.03 which is pretty near the centre point and more or less where they place Gerhard Schroder, the German chancellor.

Well I think a forum where everyone had the same sort of profile would be a very boring place, the wider range the better. Echoing Bazz's comments I've yet to see someone berated on here for posting an innocent question. It may have been answered a hundred times before but people are still happy to point them in the right direction, rather than flame them.

That's pretty unique for an interwebby forum.

VSlf

[Nottingham Nick]

What a brilliant thread, (and a great website Decker).

I have just totally amazed myself by getting a result showing me a good way left of centre. Not too surprised to be slightly above the authoritarian line, but my closest 'ally' is Pope John Paul II. [:I]

I will post my comment about the original thread theme (premium class jealously) later.

Nick

[Decker]

In the spirit of fairness

Economic Left/Right: -4.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.49

Funnily no results so far have shocked me - one or two made me double take but when I thought about it yes...

Perhaps doing this on a larger scale and then targetting marketing at that group might be an idea for VS?

Spooky how many of the "recommended reading" for my group I've actually read. Mind you I suppose it's no real surprise!

I'm also surprised that my peers consider it odd that we rarely travel Y these days, never on long haul.

My boss who earns twice as much as me and is a similar age with no dependant kids etc travels extensively for leisure wouldn't dream of paying for better seat/service on a plane.

Economic Left/Right -1.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian -2.72

The latter didn't surprise me but I thought my economic views had veered sharply to the right as I frequently find myself agreeing with editorials in the Telegraph lately!

[mitchja]

Economic Left/Right: -1.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.31

nothing surprising there I guess.

Very interesting topic though!!!!!

In regards jealousy - I've not really experienced this much, OK I get the odd joke at work about owning shares in Virgin (just beacuse I fly on Virgin Atlantic, book holidays thru Virgin Holidays, have a Virgin Mobile, drink Virgin Cola and have a Virgin credit card ). I'm 31, single, reasonably paid job with stacks of over-time (if I want it), drive a nice drop-top car, dont drink much but do smoke.

I have to admit it but now I'm a J class junkie and love turning left - an economy flight would not be my first choice now but, say for example, I was travelling with friends who were in economy, I would fly with them in the same class and definitley would not fly in a higher class pure and simply because I could.

Regards

Hhhhmmm, interesting thread.

Very few people know that we fly paid J travel on longhauls: I either don't mention it, lie or say "I used airmiles" (sometimes, but not always the case).

In general, the only people who know we fly Business Class are my parents: my Dad thought we were mad (and dead lucky - even getting upgraded to first class on United both ways across the Atlantic last Xmas), my Mum thinks it's great (she would do the same given the choice). Whose genes did I inherit...???

We do get a lot of comments about taking so many holidays, but we just laugh it off. We currently have no children (hhhmmm, how do we cope when we DO have them?!?) and tend to travel across to the US four or five times a year (visiting family, skiing, summer holiday) and several trips within Europe.

I compete at a sport internationally - so have to travel for that. However I do all of my flying for that, apart from a trip to Australia in 2002, in economy. Even when I flew to Australia, I went to great lengths to try and conceal that I was travelling in Club World from my team-mates - didn't want any jealousy...

Boo

[RichardMannion]

Decker, What do you mean freak?

Great topic - one that does strike a chord with me. I get the premium travel and always on holiday comment regularly - I don't really care to be honest. Yes I stick out like a bit of a sore thumb in terms of my age-group, but then I work damn hard and travel is one of my rewards. But then to add, Success only comes before Work in the Dictionary.

Lets look at it in reality though, most people that I know have not flown business, nor if they had the money would pay for it either. If I remember the statistic, the average English person goes on 1.4 holidays per year - and even then we're talking to some place in the Spanish isles that is basically like being in England but warmer. Not being elitist at all, bbut put me in any airport and I can spot your typical English person a mile away.

Saying that, I still book travel in Economy for some of my shorter trips - I have nothing against it at all, I've had some fabulous flights in Economy with Virgin.

I don't come from a wealthy or upper class background - I just paid attention at school, and then decided to head off to the world of work at 16 as I didn't see the Further education and University route for me - it was a bit of a gamble in some peoples book, but thankfully I had supportive parents and my hard work paid off.

Oh and on the scale:
Economic Left/Right: 4.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.08

I think Decker nailed it with 'people who think individualistically tend to prefer non mainstream solutions' - I've never been one to follow the crowd.

Irony is that I hardly need the legroom of Upper Class - as I am not the tallest of people!

Thanks,
Richard

quote:Originally posted by RichardMannion
I don't come from a wealthy or upper class background - I just paid attention at school, and then decided to head off to the world of work at 16 as I didn't see the Further education and University route for me - it was a bit of a gamble in some peoples book, but thankfully I had supportive parents and my hard work paid off.

OT: Mutual backslapping

Did exactly the same here too

Cheers

Michael

Like Richard i'm young and like to travel, most of my friends think i've lost it when i spend the money i do on a nice holiday and dont go to ibiza with them but i work hard for it so i'm going to enjoy it.

I have around 4 hols/short breaks a year but 2 of them are for work and i stay on and have a few days R+R i travel in econ for three of them and my main hol i travel in PE (UCS next year:D)

Vslf nice choice on the Ruinart i was given a ltd edt bottle of Ruinart l'exclusive buy a client of mine in a nice mahogoney pres case:)

Economic Left/Right: -1.62
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.23

The Cat and the Kitten are young (err..ish), no kids, two London incomes and take around 4-6 holidays (usually long haul) a year. It helps that both of us have (a) fairly flexible jobs and (b) 30 days holiday allowance from our companies.

On the Caribbean routes we get a little bit of snobbishness from the people in blazers, but nothing too overt. Amongst our peer group most friends and colleagues already have kids so don't have the sort of holidays that we do... not jealousy but many do have a little element of living vicariously through our travels.

Oh, and on the compass the Cat seems to be the most extreme leftwing libertarian there is, unsurprising given his Champagne Communist credentials:

Economic Left/Right: -7.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.46

BC

I personally think if you can afford it go for it!! you only live once!!

In terms of people thinking your mad for spending 'that much' on a ticket two things:
1/Its your money
2/If that's important to you then its good value!

I have only bought a UC ticket once, I personally justified it to myself and was more than happy with the 'value'

It secured my AU card
VS have given me a fair few op/upgrades over the years so it only seemed fair to buy one for a change

Also if you devide the Z fare by the number of op/upgrades I have had its very good value indeed:D

Maybe I should start a new thread "Ways to justify the J fare"!;)

I got a bit confused when catching up on this thread , and thought for a moment that all this left/right stuff had something to do with which way you turn when getting on a plane For those interested, Left/Right -7.38, Libertarian/Authoritarian -5.64

I get a generally positive attitude form people about travelling. Many of my friends have young children and think I'm sensible to take the opportunities that I have. I work in the non-profit sector, which limits income for spending on jaunts, but I'm a great bargain hunter and generally manage to strike a balance between amount of travel, comfort and expenditure. I did a long weekend in Prague last year flying by Easy Jet and staying somewhere with a shared bathroom, and a fortnight on the West coast flying a mixture of UC and PE (on miles) and staying in some very comfortable places. If I could afford it, I'd have few qualms about travelling UC all the time.

My first job was working for a millionaire who flew nothing but economy, which must have been particularly uncomfortable as he was very tall. I guess those sort of choices had something to do with him making millions, but I've had been more inclined to give myself a bi more comfort and leave less to my children and the Chancellor.

What amazes me is that many of my friends automatically assume that luxury hotels or private car service or other such travel niceties are too expensive or out of their price range. In other words, they don't even hunt for bargains. My wife and I routinely book hotels several months in advance (hey you can always cancel if your plans change) and always get great rates. We continue to check for even better rates along the way. Last summer, my wife and I spent a weekend at the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans at their boutique hotel Maison Orleans. (The rooms have wood floors, half-canopy beds, sunken tubs, plush bedding, etc.) One night we walked down to Harrah's Casino and ran into some friends who also had flown down for the weekend. They were complaining about their room at the Doubletree Hotel, calling it a dump, but said at least they got it cheap, only $160 a night. They were incensed when they heard my wife and I were paying only $175 a night at the Maison Orleans, which included a full breakfast. Moreover, I'm still amazed that many of my friends catch more-often-than-not uninhabiatable taxis at LaGuardia Airport in NY when a private sedan with terminal pick-up is less than $20 more. With the internet and especially with travel forums like this one, bargains are easier to find, not harder. Some folks could upgrade their traveling significantly if they just explored more for bargains.

I come from a working class mining family as did nearly all of my friends.
Never really get jealousy from friends they just think we are mad spending lots of money on premium travel. It is something wife and I enjoy & since the recent premature death of my Dad I have realized you have to live for today.I always try to find good rates that to me offer value.
I tell very few of my customers we travel up front usually saying its miles we are using; thanks to FC this is true a lot of the time.
We do travel down the back and with the benefits of the AU card its ok but the space is more of an issue than it used to be.


Economic Left/Right: 0.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 0.82