I love to travel and usually prefer to spend less on flights so that I can stretch my budget and take as many trips as possible.

That usually means looking longingly at more comfortable seats in the front of the plane while I make do with standard economy in the back.

However, my family and I recently tried United's Premium Plus, an offering between economy and business class, on a long flight.

Although I'm still not planning on regularly splurging on upgrades, I now understand why some passengers spend hundreds (or thousands) of dollars for comfier seats.

When planning my family's July trip to South Korea, I was pleasantly surprised to find some great flight prices.

I could get my family from Washington, DC, to San Francisco and then onward to Seoul for only 55,000 miles, or about $550 a person. I'd expected to pay at least twice as much.

Even better, I found a mixed fare that would allow us to fly in United's Premium Plus for the longer leg of our trip from San Fransico to Seoul for only 10,000 additional points each, which is roughly equivalent to $100.

This felt like a steal considering upgrading from economy to premium for some of these flights cost over $500.

Typically, I'd save my points and go for the cheapest ticket. However, our flight from San Francisco to Seoul was nearly 13 hours.

After factoring in the flight from DC to San Francisco, a layover, and time spent getting to and from the airport, I realized that we would've been traveling for close to 24 hours by the time we arrived at our hotel in Seoul.