Arriving in a new timezone after a 13-hour flight feeling like a functioning human being is the real value here. Look, if you're trying to figure out if upgrading is worth the cash or points, here is how it usually plays out for me, along with how to avoid paying retail.
Sleep > Champagne
People get way too obsessed with the champagne brands or the size of the TV screens. I literally do not care about any of that. If I'm spending points on a premium ticket, I am doing it exclusively so I can lie down.
I've been on 10-hour flights where I didn't even look at the food menu. I just got on the plane, made the seat go flat, and passed out until the wheels hit the ground in Europe. That is the entire point. Once you realize you can just sleep through the worst part of traveling, sitting upright in economy feels like a literal punishment.
But you have to be careful when booking. I strictly check seat maps for a "1-2-1 layout" now. That just means nobody is trapped by the window. Years ago, I got stuck in an older plane where the guy next to me took a sleeping pill and was dead to the world for eight hours. Trying to hurdle over a stranger's legs in the pitch dark just to use the bathroom is infuriating when you paid a premium for the seat. Now, I don't even care if the airplane food is terrible, as long as I have my own aisle access and the seat goes 180-degrees flat.
The food is obviously better than economy, though it can still be hit or miss. Last month flying Air France out of Paris, the roasted chicken was served on proper porcelain plates with heavy cutlery. It tasted good, but let's be real—your taste buds are dulled by cabin pressure anyway. I appreciate the pacing more than the actual food. The crew doesn't just throw a plastic tray at you and disappear. They serve courses individually and keep your water glass full.
They also hand out amenity kits before takeoff. I mostly ignore the cheap socks and earplugs, but keeping the tiny tubes of high-end moisturizer is completely worth it. The cabin air gets brutally dry on long flights, so actually having good lotion makes a big difference.
Surviving the Airport
Before I started booking premium tickets, I would show up to the airport completely stressed out just anticipating the lines. There is a specific kind of panic when you walk into JFK on a Friday evening and see the economy bag-drop line wrapping all the way back to the sliding doors. Now I just walk past all of that to the empty premium desk and drop my bags in two minutes.
I actually check bags now. Before this, I would literally sit on my carry-on to force the zipper shut just so I could avoid the baggage carousel. It was exhausting. But the priority tags they give you in premium cabins actually work. I'll get through immigration and my suitcase is already sitting there on the belt. Now I just bring a massive suitcase and let them deal with it. I haven't fought for overhead bin space in years.
Lounges are totally hit or miss. If you're flying domestically in the US, half the time you walk in and it's just a packed room with bad coffee and people loudly taking Zoom calls. I've literally had to sit on the floor in a Newark lounge before.
International lounges actually matter though, mostly just for the showers. If you have a late departure, you usually end up sweating through your clothes while dragging a backpack around a city all afternoon. It's miserable. Just being able to lock yourself in a clean airport bathroom and stand under a hot shower changes everything. You don't have to spend the next fourteen hours trapped on a plane sitting in your own grime. The free food is whatever, but getting clean right before you fly is the actual luxury.
How I Cheat the System (Points & Upgrades)
If you look up the cash price for a business class ticket to Tokyo right now, it's probably sitting around $7,000. Unless your company is paying for it, spending that kind of money on a single flight is completely insane to me. I refuse to do it.
I just use credit card points. By putting rent, groceries, and pretty much everything else on a travel rewards card, I accumulate points and transfer them directly to airline partner programs. Booking an ANA flight to Japan via Virgin Atlantic points cost me 90,000 points and about $250 in taxes.
It takes a lot of patience to learn how transfer ratios work, and honestly, finding award availability is frustrating. Sometimes you have to check the airline's website every day for a month. And it doesn't always go smoothly—I accidentally transferred 60,000 points to the wrong airline partner once and had them stuck there for two whole years. But saving six grand makes the headache worth it.
If dealing with points sounds miserable, keep an eye on airline upgrade auctions. When flying TAP Air Portugal from Lisbon to Newark recently, they sent an email five days before departure offering a bid for an upgrade. I threw in a bid of $450 over my original economy fare. I was checking my email every hour the night before, completely losing sleep over whether the bid would clear.
The cabin wasn't full, so it eventually cleared. It’s a gamble, but it works often on off-peak routes.
Why Any of This Actually Matters
I really don't care about the luxury aspect anymore. I just pay for it so I don't lose the first day of my trip. Every time I fly economy, my back is completely wrecked by the time I land and I end up sitting in a dark hotel room until dinnertime. But if I actually sleep on the flight, I don't have to do that. I just dump my suitcase at the front desk and immediately go find food.
It completely ruins your tolerance for being miserable, though. You eventually realize you don't actually have to drag a heavy suitcase onto a packed subway train just to save a few dollars. I just pay whatever the Uber costs now. I don't even care if the price is surging. I just want to sit in a quiet car.
