The Best Seat in the Plane

Remember when first-class seats meant the best on the plane? That’s not always the case anymore. In the last decade, some airlines began eliminating first class, while keeping the amenities that make their highest-paying passengers feel like the most important people on board. They just call it by a different name. Delta Air Lines, for example, calls its prime seats BusinessElite class on international flights. Continental Airlines calls them BusinessFirst. The airlines themselves were in part responsible for the declining number of first-class seats. Once they improved business class — with bigger seats that open into fully flat beds, menus by celebrity chefs, individual entertainment systems and airport lounges where first- and business-class travelers rubbed elbows — “it became more difficult for travelers to justify the additional exorbitant price of first class,” said Peter P. Belobaba, manager of the M.I.T. Global Airline Industry Program. The recent rise of all-business-class airlines has just added to the pressure on first class.On a trans-Atlantic flight from New York to London or Frankfurt, a typical round-trip business fare would be about $5,500. A so-called true first-class seat would run about $8,500 and up.“With corporate business travelers demanding the most comfortable ride possible but not willing to pay the price, the demand for first class shrunk,” Joanne Smith, a senior vice president for Delta, said. “So it made no financial sense for us to continue it.” By stepping down to business class from first class, travelers lose the additional space separating seats, a higher ratio of flight attendants to passengers and that intangible amenity, prestige.This is not to say that first class is disappearing. A few airlines showcase a new first class that humbles traditional first, in which passengers find privacy in enclosed suites or pods, with ottomans, tables, double beds and designer amenities to satisfy the most affluent traveler. SOURCE OF THIS STORY