Is There Such a Thing As Too Much First Class, and Not Enough Business?

Lucky says he doesn’t want to fly first class.

What I think he’s saying is that he’s made travel decisions based on in-flight products and lounges, and chosen to visit some places at the expenses of others he might have wanted to go as a result. And since he’s accomplished most of his inflight goals — the First Class Terminal, the Thai First Class Spa, the Turkish Suites, etc. — it’s time to move on to visiting places he’s neglected because of the lack of quality first class products to get there.

That’s reasonable. And I have advice for him. It’s two-fold.

(1) Don’t despair, the amazing thing is htere are always new products to try! Just a year or so back there wasn’t a new Swiss first class product. Turkish didn’t have suites. And there will be new products still to experience in the future, and even ones he hasn’t yet gotten to (and sadly, products I haven’t yet tried either).

(2) Choose great cities to visit. But don’t self-immolate in business. (Hah!) Figure out the best ways to get to those cities, even if it means a short hop in business. You don’t have to fly LOT Polish long-haul to get to Warsaw. Book each and every JFK – Frankfurt flight in first class on Lufthansa for this summer, and one of them is bound to get swapped for the new Lufthansa A380 First Class. And then continue with the short hop to Warsaw. Bam, both needs solved — a visit to Warsaw and a new product to try, one that doesn’t even exist yet!

One never need get blase’ about first class travel, after all….

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »