Tag Archives for first class.
American Airlines is the last remaining U.S. carrier to sell a true ‘first class’. Ever since Continental Airlines began selling a ‘premium business class’ that they called BusinessFirst, and dropped first class, the trend has gone in that direction. Delta has had a first class cabin in years, and United’s top product is now business class.
Now American plans to eliminate first class, too. Or do they?
A husband and wife were traveling with two kids. The husband is in first class, wife in coach with the kids. An hour and a half into the flight, the husband heads back to coach and tells his wife, “your turn.” They trade seats every hour, and their kids run back and forth between the cabins.
Bethenny Frankel was a ‘Real Housewife of New York City’ and a ‘Shark Tank Shark’ but she’s also a travel connoisseur. She reviewed the Virgin Clubhouse Newark last summer declaring it “garbouj” and she’s an investor in award search website Point.me.
She flew to Australia for business the long way – routing via the Mideast on Emirates – and brought her daughter in first class.
Last June, Qatar Airways announced a plan to eliminate its long haul first class product, which is currently only available on Airbus A380 aircraft and on ex-Cathay Pacific 777s. But then the airline’s CEO was out under mysterious circumstances. And now the Doha-based global carrier has reversed course and plans a new first class product for new planes they’re considering ordering.
American has become very aggressive in making upgrade offers, especially on flights that don’t appear to be selling in domestic first class. But it’s not just buy ups where American has gone down market. Looking for a one-way trip from Washington DC to Austin that I need in the coming weeks, the first 9 options all had first class just $100 more than coach.
Passengers express frustration as pilots receive upgrade priority over them, prompting a reassessment of the value of top-tier elite status versus the advantages of mid-tier benefits.
While there’s a tradeoff upgrading pilots versus passengers along a certain margin, that’s not the reason most elites are sitting in back most of the time – just a visible lightning rod. Still, re-evaluating loyalty and status makes sense.
American Airlines is planning to retrofit its Airbus A319 fleet to include more first-class seats, enhancing the premium seating options available to passengers – but, it appears, only on those planes that still have seat back entertainment screens. They’ll be taking those out.
American Airlines is in the process of rolling out what’s being called a “complete refresh” of domestic first class meals. Many routes are already seeing new offerings, and it’s expected that these new meals will be served on all meal flights by February 14th – American’s Valentine’s Day gift to premium cabin flyers and those with status receiving upgrades.
Air France has shared updates on its plans for a new first class, and it looks to be amazing. They’ve dropped some new details on the product that will debut in 2024 and begin flying in 2025 in their Investor Day presentation.
All in all, if I hadn’t flown this aircraft configuration a dozen times and hadn’t flown it just a week before, I’d call it ‘the flight of a lifetime.’ It was honestly perfect, and I still believe that the Etihad First Apartment is the third best hard product in the sky – behind only the Emirates new first class and Singapore Suites.
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 »
