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Comment by p1esk | Hacker News Reader

I just googled a week-long vacation in Paris in the first half of June: a non-stop business class round trip from LAX is $2,100 per person, and the most expensive hotel I found in the center of Paris is $1,500/night. So for me and my partner this vacation would cost ~$5k for plane tickets + ~$11k hotel + say a grand per day on shopping and dining. The total is $23k. That would be less than one month salary after taxes. Definitely not something I'd fret over.

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Are you talking about a hypothetical scenario or do you actually do this? I am asking because as people start earning more money, lifestyle creep introduces new types of expenses. So they also have expenses to think about other than business class tickets. Most well-to-do folks that I know tend to spend more hotels than on the travel. Very well-to-do folks do spend on business class tickets though, but a $500k job doesn't fall into that category in my opinion.

I make 250k, and I'm actually tempted now to book that business class flight to Paris - I expected it to cost a lot more. I would not spend 1.5k/night on a hotel because I'm sure I can find a good one for 1/3 of that. So it's not entirely hypothetical for me. If my salary doubles, this becomes a much easier decision. But I don't go on long distance vacations often, so when I do it's easier to justify the costs.

I mean I have spent a month's take-home from a not-too-dissimilar tech industry position on a year's travel, but that was 7 trips and compensating for the 2020 lockdown. On one vacation it's a lot!

That is really cheap, definitely pandemic pricing. You usually can’t get biz class seats for just $2k round trip.

I agree. But the point is - even if it was 30k or 35k, I would still do it without thinking twice about it. I’m perfectly content with spending one month salary on a vacation.

That’s more than my yearly salary was in 2017 (23k), just to put that in perspective.

If biz class is $10k and economy is $1k, I'm taking economy even though I make enough money to afford $10k. I just can't justify it. Same with a hotel at $500/night vs. $1500/night...The former I can justify (barely), but the latter just seems insane. If I was a multi-millionaire than things would be different, but normal people luxury is good enough for normal people like me.

I've taken biz class before when it made sense (e.g. $1500 from Beijing to LA one way when economy cost $1000 for the same trip). I've also stayed in a $400/night pool villa in Bali (with a $900 round trip biz class ticket from Beijing via Hong Kong...but that was a steal, RIP Hong Kong Express Airlines), both worth it, both seemed really luxurious to me, I can't imagine doing more than that (though I guess with today's high inflation, it is inevitable that the $400 pool villa will cost $1000 soon).

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