From Economy to Business Class: What First-Time Luxury Flyers Need to Know

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The Perks of Business Class

Thirty-six hours is a long time to sit in a chair. This is what I faced as I planned my trip to India this summer, and although I had made this trip before, the last time I did so, I was twelve years younger. The idea of sitting upright for four flights, each averaging eight hours, made my 40-year-old bones scream with terror.

Naw, not doing that.

Fortunately, I had the means to take advantage of a service that, quite frankly, should be offered to everyone who flies on trips longer than six hours.

The most significant perk of flying business class is, of course, the seat and the ability to lie flat in “bed mode”.

The reason my face has this expression in the above photo is that the seat is narrow, and I’m unhappy about that. It’s not entirely uncomfortable, but as a bigger person, it’s not the seat I would have designed for maximum comfort. I could’ve used two more inches of shoulder space.

There is a significant variation between airline carriers, as well as within airlines (different models of planes may have different seating configurations), in the types of seats they offer customers. Still, almost all business class seats allow you to stretch out and sleep horizontally. Some business class seats are entirely enclosed, fitted with a sliding door, and some are less private. Still, all offer a general level of comfort you won’t have in premium economy and economy seats.

The second-best perk about flying business class for me was the airport experience, namely the complimentary lounge access and priority check-in and security lines. Part of what makes air travel stressful is navigating the airport, making sure you allow yourself enough time to check in for your flight, and passing the time during layovers.

Because of the premium business class customers pay for their flights, airlines provide them with additional benefits to ease their travel experience, and this part of the product is almost as important as the onboard experience, in my opinion. Flying Delta out of JFK is one of the best customer experiences I’ve ever had in my life, including dining at the Delta One lounge, where I had one of the top five meals of my life.

Flying out of Delhi on a business class ticket for any airline gives you access to the Encalm Privé lounge, where I had my first massage ever. The sixteen hours of flying home were much easier on my body than I had anticipated, and I attribute that to the incredible deep tissue massage I treated myself to before my flight.

Dedicated business class security and check-in lines are a significant perk as well, especially when flying during busy times of day, which, for international travel, may not be the most intuitive times to anticipate. For example, my flight back to the U.S. departed at 4 AM, and the lounge was packed until I had to walk to my gate at 3:30 AM. Passport control and check-in times were a breeze when business class lines were available, and it took a lot of stress off my plate.

The last time I left India, I was detained for three hours under suspicion of being a Nigerian drug smuggler. Which was slightly less stressful than another time I was leaving India and wasn’t allowed to board my plane because I didn’t have the proper paperwork associated with my research visa (totally my fault).

The last significant perk of business class flying for me was the onboard dining experience. I’m not going to pretend that airline food is spectacular, because it’s not; at least not what Virgin Atlantic and KLM serve. The food is good to okay, but there’s generally plenty of it, and any kind of drink you want is available.

Being served a meal at 38,000 feet with a tablecloth, metal flatware, and glass or porcelain drinking vessels is dope AF, though. And sometimes the meals are quite tasty and creative, like this dessert KLM served me on my flight from Delhi to Amsterdam:

All airlines offer amenity kits to their business-class passengers, typically containing essentials such as a toothbrush, face cream, socks, lip balm, and an eye mask. This is nice, I suppose, but kind of a waste, especially if you’re flying multiple business class flights. KLM’s signature gift to business class passengers is unique and unforgettable. On each flight, passengers get to select a hand-painted miniature porcelain Dutch house. They are collectable AND, get this, each one is filled with gin! I fell asleep for almost my entire flight from Amsterdam to JFK, and the flight attendants were friendly enough to give me one anyway!

Business class passengers also tend to get larger entertainment screens, but that’s not a huge perk in my book, even though it’s nice.

The Drawbacks of Business Class

The cost, and that’s about it. I paid $3,000 for my round-trip, four-flight business-class ticket from JFK to Delhi, which is a significant amount of money. I plan to soon be in a tax bracket where spending three stacks on an international flight isn’t something I have to save up for over several months, but that amount isn’t cheap.

The price I paid was also a discount from the regular rate because, for whatever reason, the dates I flew coincided with dates Delta decided to offer a discounted rate for what is usually a $5,000 ticket. Generally speaking, if you find an international business class ticket for under $ 3,500, it’s a discount.

The other drawback is existential and, for me, faded in and out of consciousness, but was most apparent during boarding. Resource inequality makes me deeply uncomfortable, and I felt a degree of guilt that I was among the few on a given flight who were able to enjoy the best that the airline had to offer. Everyone should travel in comfortable seats, have access to high-quality food in the airport, and just generally be treated well throughout their experience, and flying economy just isn’t that.

Yes, just being able to fly is a privilege that puts any given person in an elite category of humans in the world, but it still sucks to know that more people don’t have the best of what is on offer. I can hear some of my friends’ eyes rolling as they read this (LOL y’all know who y’all are), but I can’t help how I feel.

Is It Worth It?

Yes and no, but mostly, absolutely yes!

Currently, I don’t earn enough money to travel regularly in business class. This experience was a treat that worked out because I was able to find a 40% discount. There’s no way I would have paid full price for this ticket and felt like it was worth it. And without complimentary lounge access, I don’t think the discounted price I paid would have been worth it.

I also wouldn’t pay for business class on a flight shorter than six hours. The primary perk of business class is the ability to sleep comfortably during the flight. Given that two hours or more of any long-distance flight is spent on takeoff, landing, and/or food service, paying $3,000 to take a 3- to 4-hour nap is not worth it, in my opinion. I’ve taken direct flights from the US to India and Australia and would give my right kidney to take those journeys in business class. A flight from New York to London in business class is nice, but if that’s as far as you’re going, paying full price for business class is not worth the cost, in my opinion.

All that being said, there’s a lot to like about traveling business class internationally, and I’m grateful for the experience. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I plan to do it again. Flying is hard on the body, and I wish businesses and governments could collaborate to offer more comfortable travel options to a broader audience.

There’s an entire art and science to luxury travel that involves credit cards, travel rewards points, corporate alliances, and peak vs. off-peak travel times that you can immerse yourself in to find the best deals. As a result of this trip, I am one of those sickos now for better or for worse. It’s like a game, the rewards can be substantial, and yes, I’m already planning my next trip to India on a different carrier to compare their product to Virgin Atlantic and KLM.

I plan to create a series of videos on my YouTube channel, where you can see and hear about my travels from this past May, which is another way I plan to make this $3,000 ticket worthwhile. I don’t plan to become a travel vlogger, but I do love that kind of content, and whenever I travel, I plan to bring those experiences to you.

The Wild Kitchen and Luxury Travel

I’m not going to pretend that air travel isn’t somewhat antithetical to the goals of the Wild Kitchen. The amount of carbon dioxide and industrial toxins I contributed to releasing into the world, along with perpetuating systems of inequality, global capitalism, and exploitation, is significant.

I love air travel. I always have, ever since my first flight at the age of five. I love airports and the excitement of encountering new people, places, and experiencing different foods and cultures. I think travel makes me a better person, but there is a tremendous cost to the mode of travel available to us that I’m not sure outweighs the individual benefits a small minority of us receive.

I can stop flying, and it would not have much of an impact on the things I’ve just mentioned, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that I am willfully participating in a system that endangers our species’ survival on this planet.

I don't know what else to say, except this is the world we live in, these are the systems we have at our disposal, and each of us has to decide how we interact. My goal is to be more informed about the world I live in and to make well-informed choices.

For better or for worse, it is what it is.

I had a lot of fun!

CONSIDER THIS

The MVP of my trip was a flashlight?!

My favorite YouTube creator is Maurice Moves. If I were to pick one person whose content structure I most like to emulate, it’s this guy. He travels a lot, and I implemented a lot of his suggestions for this trip to India. The most surprisingly helpful tip he gave was to pack a dedicated flashlight, and it couldn’t have been more useful for my travels.

Power outages are common in Rajasthan, India, so when the lights went out during a sandstorm my second night in Bikaner, I was glad to reach for the Nitecore T4 I purchased and packed on Maurice’s recommendation.

The turbo-mode feature on this light was incredible and so bright that several members of my host family thought the power had been restored when I turned on the 4000 lumen brightness. True to Maurice’s logic, having a dedicated flashlight that isn’t your phone saves battery life and gives you peace of mind.

This light is not cheap, but its features and practicality are well worth the price. I’m never traveling without this thing!

NEW ON YOUTUBE!

I’m excited to share this video with you because of the practical information it shows, but also because of the historical context. This past December, I was privileged to participate in an annual pig slaughter by a group of Black families who have been carrying on this tradition since emancipation. During this experience, I learned about my own family’s tradition of an annual pig harvest and the significant role that raising pigs has played in Black subsistence in the U.S. for centuries.

There’s a lot to unpack here, so much so that I had to break up the footage into two parts. Let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading!

-Jonathan