When I booked my flight to Stockholm a few weeks ago (about 7 days prior to departure), I was offered an option to upgrade all four legs of my trip.  For the two domestic legs, I’d be in United First and for the international legs, I’d be be in Business First.  Sounds so generous doesn’t it?

How Generous!

So for only $10,126 round trip, I could have a comfortable, spacious seat and free booze?  I will admit, I do like the BusinessFirst seats — they won’t compete with some of the great seats that international carriers have, they are quite the improvement over those old recliner style seats.  Just how much complimentary booze would I need to consume to earn my $10K back…let’ do the math: Beer and Wine on this flight cost $7.99 each – which means to get enough “free” booze to offset the cost of the upgrade fee, I’d need to have 1,267 beverages. Or if I chose to have a cocktail, billed at $8.99 each, I’d need to have 1,126 min bottles.  Yeah, I get it, I’m totally discounting the added benefits of the seat, but that’s much more of an intangible expense.

In case you were wondering, I did not choose to upgrade this flight.  I really can’t imagine who would think this option was worthwhile.  Please tell me I am not alone here. Would you have taken the upgrade here?