Has anyone travelled on Business or First Class before because of a conference etc?

[reinhard]

Any of you ever needed to travel outside your city because of research? Did any of you ever get to sit on Business or First class? I am just asking out of curiosity. 

 

I am guessing the answer is "no" because supervisors prefer to use their grant wisely?

[MidwesternAloha]

Most travel awards will only cover an economy/coach ticket.

[reinhard]

Most travel awards will only cover an economy/coach ticket.

 

Is this true even for professors?

[MidwesternAloha]

Depends if they're using their own funding. My boss has a $12.4 million private grant and still have to request special permission from the University to purchase a first class flight

[dr. t]

Is this true even for professors?

 

Depends on who's paying. I've heard of a British prof who won't fly to the US to lecture etc. on a coach ticket. He's well-regarded enough that people are willing to shell out.

 

The easy alternative is to rack up enough miles to get it as a perk.

Edited February 28, 2015 by telkanuru

[fuzzylogician]

I've been upgraded a few times. But my fellowship won't reimburse anything that doesn't clearly say "coach" on it, so I can't actually purchase business class or first class seats. 

[TMP]

I have frequent flier status so I get upgraded.  If you're talking about using school's money to purchase tickets, you need to pay for coach if you want to be fully reimbursement.  I agree that if you want/need a non-coach seat for purchase, you'll have to ask.

[TakeruK]

Almost all schools will only reimburse for economy or coach class tickets. But as others said, if you get elite status with airlines, you can get upgraded. Grad students don't usually travel enough in 1 year to get elite status until their final year(s) but professors are often get upgraded. Sometimes, if you are lucky, your advisor will purchase your ticket with theirs (on the same reservation) and they will allow a companion fare upgrade too, but this doesn't happen very much. Usually, when I travel with my advisor, we both get economy seats but then they get upgraded at the gate!

[Crucial BBQ]

Southwest does not offer first class and their business class just means you get to board first. 

[reinhard]

How do you guys get these "upgrades"...? Do you have to buy some membership with the airline?

[fuzzylogician]

How do you guys get these "upgrades"...? Do you have to buy some membership with the airline?

 

You join a frequent flyer program with one of the airlines that is convenient and flies out of your local international airport (it's free). You book all your flights with this airline or others that are in the same alliance. You fly a lot. Eventually, you gain status with the airline, which means that you may occasionally get selected for an upgrade. You could also pay for one, but sometimes you get it for free. You also get the chance to board earlier. 

[TakeruK]

In addition, sometimes you can accelerate your airline membership "elite" status if you do things like get a rewards credit card that grants you miles/points with other purchases. This usually means you have to pay an annual fee though. You can get around it by just having it for the first year (first year usually free) and then canceling it.

 

Also, although things are changing, elite status usually means something like X miles or Y flight segments per year. Some students I knew do "mile runs", where they purposely fly for 24-48 hours straight, in a series of very short flights that take them back to their hometown. They do this during a really good seat sale and they might get something like 8-10 flights for a few hundred dollars. They do this to gain a ton of miles/points for free flights (some airlines guarantee something like 500 points/miles no matter how far you actually fly) and  elite status which then means free upgrades for all other flights as well as increasing the ratio of miles/points earned. The people that do this are mostly people that need to travel really far (e.g. international students). They told me that for less than $1000, they can earn enough miles/points to redeem for a $1500-$2000 flight home, and as a bonus, get an upgrade to first class too. However, it seems like airlines are wising up to this system, because a lot of airlines are now adding a "Minimum $$ spent" to reach elite status too, not just flight segments!!