Lordosis style poll: First class?

[White.Beard.Doc]

I'm curious, does anyone flying with an infant feel bad about upgrading to first class? I feel like one of the benefits of upgrading (or of the free upgrade, as is the only way I end up there) is that I'm less likely to listen to a kid crying all flight. I feel like if I forked over $10k I'd be pretty bummed if then I couldn't sleep because of a baby crying.

I worked as an ED doc for too many years, such that I have selective hearing. I no longer hear infants crying as my brain has filtered out that sound at this point.

[Lordosis]

Tangler style poll

What is worse to have in the seat next to you?

A Bulky person taking half your space
An unhappy toddler
Someone chatty

[Tangler]

I have another question. At what net worth would any of you consider flying private? As in NetJets?

I have never tried it; I am too cheap.

As I mentioned before, I am still fare hacking, but now my fare hacking is for the cheapest, best business class flights to some far flung, international destination. I am headed to Europe soon to ski the glaciers in the Alps. I got a direct United Polaris suite round trip for 3k.

Never going to get there. At least not this guy.
I cannot imagine what that must cost.

[Tim]

Tangler style poll

What is worse to have in the seat next to you?

A Bulky person taking half your space
An unhappy toddler
Someone chatty

Which is better?
I have no objection to someone talking to me as I snore. Someone chatty, hands down.
A toddler smacks you and wakes you up and half a seat makes a nap impossible. I bite and swing when I get disturbed. Sorry about that. Leave me alone.

[Shant]

Tangler style poll

What is worse to have in the seat next to you?

A Bulky person taking half your space
An unhappy toddler
Someone chatty

I'll one-up you a pair of newlyweds who spoke not a lick of English but insisted on displaying to me every photo in the wedding album they inexplicably already had with them.

[ACN]

I would definitely spring for a seat for the kiddo. That is quite a generous income, unless you live in San Francisco. Having the child on your lap for the entire flight can get pretty tiresome for both you and your child.

Do you feel first class with a toddler on your lap is better than economy or economy plus with an extra seat? If there are three of you, would you consider 3 seats in economy plus over 2 seats in first?

My spouse and I sometimes reserve 3 seats in economy plus for the two of us, particularly if the best scheduled flight is on JetBlue with no first class.

My flight is paid for by my work trip. For some crazy reason (inflation, gas, whatever), tickets are $1-2k for this dumb flight when it's normally $500. We're already in extra leg room seats.

So, wifey ticket $1k. Kid on lap. Upgrade to first $350/pp...or buy kiddo seat for $1500 now. So two first class seats with kid Or three seats in economy?

[CordMcNally]

I worked as an ED doc for too many years, such that I have selective hearing. I no longer hear infants crying as my brain has filtered out that sound at this point.

But I'm sure the telemetry alarms still drive you up the wall.

[CordMcNally]

Tangler style poll

What is worse to have in the seat next to you?

A Bulky person taking half your space
An unhappy toddler
Someone chatty

Ranked from worst to...least worst.

Unhappy toddler.
A bulky guy wearing a "Where's the Beef?" shirt.
Someone chatty.

A talkative person is easily fixed by putting ear buds in. You don't even have to be listening to anything for it to work.

[MaxPower]

Tangler style poll

What is worse to have in the seat next to you?

A Bulky person taking half your space
An unhappy toddler
Someone chatty

Least is chatty person. In any break in the conversation I just put my headphones on, even if I’m not listening to anything and pretend I don’t hear them.

Next is the unhappy toddler. I’m not sure why you’d fly in this day and age without noise canceling headphones. The only difference between this and the chatty person is the toddler May encroach into your space on occasion.

The worst is the bulky person taking half your space. I don’t know if I believe that people who really fly wouldn’t choose this as the worst option. You can’t get away from it unless you spend the whole flight in the toilet. Space eaters are the worst to sit by. You’re contorted the whole flight and end up with some ache or pain because of how you had to sit so you weren’t constantly rubbing up against them.

[triad]

I have another question. At what net worth would any of you consider flying private? As in NetJets?

I have never tried it; I am too cheap.

As I mentioned before, I am still fare hacking, but now my fare hacking is for the cheapest, best business class flights to some far flung, international destination. I am headed to Europe soon to ski the glaciers in the Alps. I got a direct United Polaris suite round trip for 3k.

don't those planes crash way more often than the commercial flights?

[HikingDO]

Tangler style poll

What is worse to have in the seat next to you?

A Bulky person taking half your space
An unhappy toddler
Someone chatty

Chatty person isn’t a problem. Wait for a break in the conversation and pop in the ear buds. The other two are equally annoying.

[doctorbone]

We have 3 kids (9–4 years old). We like flying economy plus because of larger seats and priority boarding. We would consider buying business class seats for transatlantic or Asian flights. Probably not worth it for any domestic flights unless Hawaii.

[White.Beard.Doc]

don't those planes crash way more often than the commercial flights?

I like it. Good excuse never to even consider NetJets. WCI was pondering whether he should check it out, but he’s still flying mostly economy when he doesn’t get a free upgrade.

[Tangler]

Ranked from worst to...least worst.

Unhappy toddler.
A bulky guy wearing a "Where's the Beef?" shirt.
Someone chatty.

A talkative person is easily fixed by putting ear buds in. You don't even have to be listening to anything for it to work.

I think that is probably correct. A fat dude is bad, as is an unhappy kid……….not sure which is worse.

[CordMcNally]

don't those planes crash way more often than the commercial flights?

I don't think NetJets has any higher of a crash rate than commercia jets. Most of the small plane crashes are from amateur pilots who typically make amateur mistakes. NetJets are piloted by professional pilots and I have no doubt the fleet is always up to date on maintenance.

NetJets - Wikipedia

That seems like a pretty good track record. ************************, the last incident was in 2006 and wasn't the pilot's fault.