Hacker News Reader

Comment by pinaceae | Hacker News Reader

was flying longhaul business for years, doing consulting. then joined a startup which rocks its space - but has a strict internal frugality policy - coach at all times, no matter how long the flight (we have offices in US, EU, CN and JP).

flying ZRH-SFO every couple of months in coach really, truly sucks once you know how it feels to fly the same route in business. being able to lie down and stretch your legs...

still the best decision of my professional life :)

View on HN

Business class certainly costs a lot, but I imagine you can be work-productive much more quickly after stepping off the plane if you've flown comfortably. Have you ever considered a cost/benefit analysis of this decision? I'd be interested to know the results.

oh, i agree completely and basically know the results. business class allows you to work in the plane, as you have power outlets and more importantly, space. once the guy in front of you leans their seat back in coach, you can't work on that presentation any more.

stepping off a 12h flight and working the next day is possible in coach though. your body doesn't like it, but it is manageable, however super inconvenient.

Even Google doesn't let execs (up to a certain level) fly C class (but you can, sometimes, if you're smart about bookings).

Pretty sure they've done the analysis. :)

Out of curiosity, what is the startup? Not trying to pry, but I'm curious what industry you're in and whether you're profitable or funded, since it is a bit strange to have the money to run four offices so far apart, insist on in-person travel and yet still have these problems.

won't name it, but all international expansion is self funded (and it is more than 4 offices). we focus on a single industry, delivering enterprise products in a SaaS model. we're not public yet, so sorry for my dancing around.

think Workday, but profitable, growing 100% YoY ;)

and frugality is a mindset, not a problem. overall it is a very good way to keep the business successful, our founders are all industry veterans and have seen all the mistakes of the various bubbles before. our kitchens in the bay area offices have coffee, soft drinks, some granola bars and bananas - nothing crazy like chefs or a starbucks.

that business class thing is my only point of disagreement.

No worries and thanks for the reply. It's really impressive.

Yes, some companies have stupid decisions

This policy is good most of the time, but really, flying coach on long flights is uncalled for.

Sure, fly business on the cheapest carrier, still...

I just checked how much Japan Airlines charges for a 1-week round-trip from Tokyo to Paris in the middle of February. ¥97,420 for "lowest coach" vs ¥1,174,490 for "normal business." A 12,514 dollar difference at the current exchange rate. That's basically 7 months rent, or 35 Nexus 4s, or 25 iPads, or 50 shares of Amazon stock, or really just a lot of money for a nicer seat on the same plane arriving at the same time.

The alternative is to fly on an airline with a decent economy class. I was astounded how much better British Airways World Traveller Plus was than the basic World Traveller, for not very much money at all.

Yes, Coincidentally I just heard that 'Economy plus' is considered by BA to be a different class, rather than 'Economy with better seats' so that's a good option

$12k is an absurd price

I just did this search, you can find it for around $3k (yes, business class NRT-CDG) with a stop, cheapest without stop around $5k

You can get 1st class with a stop for 10k, but really, Business class is more than enough =) Especially for a meeting with clients that may pay itself in a short time.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com