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Heading down to that there London, and it was only a fiver to upgrade to First Class.
Best fiver I've spent in ages. Comfy, spacious, decent wi-fi.
Almost makes me want to come down to London more often. Almost 😉
Even during the week you can get some bargains on the early trains if you can plan your journey in advance.
First Class rail travel is an excellent way to travel.
Especially if you travelling North/South and not crossing the Country.
Bloody expensive to buy at short notice though!
I was back over a couple of Christmas's back and got a non resident rail pass, only an extra £150 quid to upgrade the 20 days of travel to first 🙂 Such a pleasant way to travel.
I used to do a weekly commute from Glasgow to Warrington god advanced first when I could but I think it was £90 on the day so got that a few times, considering it was breakfast, guaranteed table and loads more plus a free bar and dinner on the way home it was certainly worth it.
It's brilliant but only works off-peak I think.
I was coming back from an international flight once when I was young and skint. Hot day, struggled from Heathrow on the tube and then the train was rammed and boiling. Then I noticed the little sign offering first class upgrade for a tenner. Peaceful, loads of space, cool, free drinks.. well worth the money 🙂
We aren't allowed it for work but I have heard that people have successfully negotiated it because of the guaranteed table which means you can do billable work.
Value varies a little. In the South East first class is often just the seats at one end of a carriage and the only tangible benefit is that you actually get a seat
Only worth doing if you can upgrade, astonishingly expensive if you can't.
Where there is a reasonable upcharge you can justify it because you also get breakfast on the Manchester - London route.
Plus a seat, some space and wifi.
You think it's good on a train, you should try it on a plane 8)
in our young, care-free, pre-children days, when we used to go darn to that London all the time, we did this as a matter of course. Cheepy pre-booked tickets, then an upgrade to what used to be called Weekend First
You think it's good on a train, you should try it on a plane
When my bike shopping trips require a plane, I think First Class will be my default mode of travel 😉
I've been using virgin 1st class a few times recently to do london-liverpool. Tend to go down standard, back first. It is, in a word, excellent. First booze comes round before you've reached the platform end!
I still can't work out when the food is the full on meal though. Plus it's a long trek at liverpool from coach J! Last time I walked through 1st into std to shorten the walk (tight connection) and was actually quite shocked at the conditions in there 😉
You think it's good on a train, you should try it on a plane
Never flown First but used to fly Business all the time.
Long haul Business is great, even on the crappier airlines.
Company took it away last year. Back to Economy now. ****ing awful. 🙁
I used to work for virgin, book in advance and there are some amazing deals. £20 upgrade at weekends but no brekkie. Always worth checking 1st class when booking standard tickets too, sometimes they are actually only a few quid more on some trains and you can land lucky.
Long haul Business is great, even on the crappier airlines.
Not always. American still run some old rust bucket 767s with seats that don't even go fully flat. Delta are also pretty average at best. #firstworldproblems
My current favourite is Cathay, window seat.
Re trains - if you can get a cheap upgrade, the difference is huge. Comfy, space, and quiet.
The last time I went to Glasgow, just after Preston I had a full cattle class carriage almost to my self, with an absolutely ace trolley guy regularly coming up and down with snacks and drinks. The best bit was the Virgin pendulino breaking down in front and delaying us for 40 minutes total, so with that refund it cost the princely sum of about £12 and only about a 5 minute wait for my connection
Its one of the reasons we like booking eurostar by phone rather than the web. Sometimes they tell you about upgrade offers you wouldn't have seen otherwise
Hmmm, realised why it was so cheap when I trekked all the way along the platform to coach G for the return journey. Think I actually boarded the train somewhere near Luton Parkway!
always travel first class to london. makes train travel almost bearable
Delta are also pretty average at best.
I flew to the US with Delta, brand new aircraft and the Business cabin was excellent. I have been told that this is unusual!
Its great for pre planned early long distance commute. Rock up to a leather seat, bacon rolls with coffee , more unlimited coffee and snacks, even beer and wine in the return trip. . In the midst of that your are in a mobile office with a guaranteed table set and enough phone signal disruption to have a good enough reasons not to answer it.
As said before, book in advance. The only place this doesn't work is the London/Bristol line which is continuously prohibitively expensive.
Jeez. They've let some of the [i]plebs[/i] in here tonight. One of them even tried to pay for his sparkling mineral water!
I mean, you bought a standard class ticket - go sit with the crates of chickens as you are disturbing my cider and lemon drizzle cake!
Great if you get some interesting people on a late one.
Virgin First Class would be my default if I could afford it for all trips. If only for the lounges at Heathrow.
Virgin First Class would be my default if I could afford it for all trips. If only for the lounges at Heathrow.
Assuming you are referring to air travel, Virgin do not operate a first class service, merely business with trinkets. The lounge at LHR is OK, I suppose, but nothing like as good as the BA First at T5 and both pale in comparison to The Pier, one of Cathay's First lounges in HKG. The service is a little slow, and they're trying too hard to have different "zones" in the lounge. Just make it better. Oh, and the bloody mary last time wasn't good. At all.
Also, Virgin still operate "coffin class" herringbone seating in their business class seats. Not good.
As above, Cathay have the best business class seat, IMHO. Very excited, as I've just booked my first business trip on one of their A350s!
Try and go First Class if we go to That London and it's a nicer experience.
Never flown First Class, but my old man paid for our honeymoon (standard class) flights to HK on Emirates and it was like being in 1st - free drinks, decent food and a bottle of Champers when we told them why we were flying - oh and an overnight in the Dubai Hilton for our connecting return flight
I definitely found Virgin's First to be better than BA's Business class. Haven't flown with CP.
Not sure what you mean by coffin? They are herringbone layout, but then, I like that.
Usually go first class on my trips to the smoke, start off early so gets me sorted with coffee and a bacon roll.
Standard class return is a totally different experience...yesterday they were almost up to fighting over reserved seats, which were showing as available...
Southwest trains down our way, sometimes get 1st class on deals to London but it's nothing special, just a slightly bigger blue seat and certainly nothing like free meals/drinks. Friends tell me southern trains are even worse and far less reliable.
my old man paid for our honeymoon (standard class) flights to HK on Emirates and it was like being in 1st - free drinks, decent food and a bottle of Champers when we told them why we were flying
Champagne was more than we got. ****s (not you, them)
As for the rest, standard fare when you fly anything more than a few hours, even BA give you free drinks.
redstripe - Member
Southwest trains down our way, sometimes get 1st class on deals to London but it's nothing special, just a slightly bigger blue seat and certainly nothing like free meals/drinks. Friends tell me southern trains are even worse and far less reliable.
You are right SWT are indeed Gawd Damn Awful. So too Southern Trains, as witnessed by the vast majority of train users over the last 18mths. Both have a deep down disregard for paying passengers, and we're treated like an annoyance and disturbance. There really is no point in paying for 1st class, whether you get it at knock down £5 additional charge or not, you simply get a blue cloth seat and a dirty white bit of cloth over the head rest. Quite pointless and fitting of a "service" that still thinks itself as running a proper class system, in the 21st century.
I do see the point for proper train companies who do provide a distinct difference of service though, longer haul where it's worth paying the uplift.
As is the UKs train network is still stuck in the 60's with a lot of the diesel multiple units from that era still in service today.
1st class on eurostar- now your talking!