How much longer do you get typically? I never have to wait that long to board as economy so I am curious if my economy boarding is atypical. I could totally see how an hour sitting in first class might be nicer than poking about a terminal. Is it ever that long?

It is not a question of how long after business does economy board. It is a question of how much after economy starts will business board if order was reversed.

I have done some business travel and some premium economy travel, and I have seen airlines take 40-60 minutes from "formal" boarding time to takeoff. When they require 60 minutes, it usually is a big plane and the difference between business and economy could be 20 minutes easily (assuming the seating was reversed).

I have wondered many a times if boarding last would not be better? But there is a joy to leaving the lounge and directly walking into the plane if you time it right. Otherwise you end up waiting for others to board first. Also, I could afford to be late and still get in, not so if my boarding group was the last.

These are minor luxuries, but each has some value. In the bigger scheme of things, and given that it is hard to afford business travel all the time on personal dime, I would say it does not matter much :)

It really depends on the size of the airplane. Just a couple weeks ago I was one of the first 10 people to board the plane and was in "Premium Economy" on a 777-300ER for a full flight from Eastern Europe to the Midwestern US. I'd guess I was on the plane for nearly an hour before we pushed back from the gate. But this is for a plane with 300 people that boarded through a single door.

That is mindblowing. Even on an A380 that was only boarding through a single door I've never experienced an hour on the ground in the plane before pushing back. That would be super annoying.

It sounds like you just normally board well into the boarding process. The standard for many domestic flights is to start 40 mins prior to departure. International is 1hr+.

In the US. I fly Ryanair fairly regularly, and European flights are fully boarded within 20 minutes often.

I've typically had 20-25 extra minutes before they finally close the door. It's enough to get a head start on a podcast or watch a short TV episode.

There's nothing stopping you from watching that in the airport.

The only thing that comes to mind is worrying about listening for boarding info and making sure I don't miss it. Once my butt is in a seat, I'm no longer worried about making sure I get onto a plane at the right time.

It is still much more pleasant to do it sitting down with a drink, than breaking focus every 30 seconds to check your boarding status.

I have lounge access through my credit card but even if you don't, it's way cheaper to pay the airport lounge day rate than to fly biz class.

No, there is one thing. Once I'm in my seat I don't have to pay attention any more. This is worth a lot because they won't know whether you're the guy who's missing. And if you're in the lounge there's no way you make it to the gate on time unless you time it yourself.