In the US federal civil service, business class is only allowed under very specific criteria (like a very long flight with a business need to be on duty soon after landing). (edit: https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/41/301-10.103 )
The crux between your employer and private sector could be volume discounting. The US Government, for example, gets massive discounts on authorized economy fares—but because business class is rarely authorized, gets no discount on business class.
My guess is that if the UK government authorizes business class on certain flights categorically, it’s getting a steep discount—creating a better value for the employer’s business objectives per pound than the private sector can muster. Thus, it’d be less perk, more business expense.
I wonder how much this is a US/UK thing because of the types of flights people are taking. My assumption is that in the US the vast majority of flights are domestic, and I’d agree that business class just isn’t worth it on those planes (aside from the length of the flight, the planes are also not that nice!). The equivalent would be UK-Europe flights, for which business class definitely doesn’t seem worth it. But most UK travel in my experience ends up being very long haul, normally transatlantic — and on those, business class is clearly much, much better than economy because you get a lie-flat bed. And on a night flight (especially coming back from the US), that can be the difference between sleeping or not, and that then gets you an extra day of work when you land.
In the US federal civil service, business class is only allowed under very specific criteria (like a very long flight with a business need to be on duty soon after landing). (edit: https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/41/301-10.103 )
The crux between your employer and private sector could be volume discounting. The US Government, for example, gets massive discounts on authorized economy fares—but because business class is rarely authorized, gets no discount on business class.
My guess is that if the UK government authorizes business class on certain flights categorically, it’s getting a steep discount—creating a better value for the employer’s business objectives per pound than the private sector can muster. Thus, it’d be less perk, more business expense.
I wonder how much this is a US/UK thing because of the types of flights people are taking. My assumption is that in the US the vast majority of flights are domestic, and I’d agree that business class just isn’t worth it on those planes (aside from the length of the flight, the planes are also not that nice!). The equivalent would be UK-Europe flights, for which business class definitely doesn’t seem worth it. But most UK travel in my experience ends up being very long haul, normally transatlantic — and on those, business class is clearly much, much better than economy because you get a lie-flat bed. And on a night flight (especially coming back from the US), that can be the difference between sleeping or not, and that then gets you an extra day of work when you land.