Airline First Class Used to Hang Up Your Jacket. Now They Often Won’t—Even If You Ask

A decade ago, “first class” often meant small, effortless service touches you didn’t have to request—like a flight attendant offering to hang up your jacket when you boarded in a suit. Today, even on upgrades and paid premium tickets, that basic gesture is getting harder to count on: you may have to chase a crewmember, wait while your jacket sits on your lap, and then remember to ask for it back on the way out. The decline isn’t about one airline—it’s a snapshot of how U.S. premium cabins have become less premium in the ways that actually matter.

This is truly a first world problem, but hanging jackets was one of the nice things about getting upgraded while traveling for work and wearing a suit.

• I can still get a jacket hung up, usually. But it means flagging down a crewmember and asking. And they’re usually annoyed, snapping back that they’ll come get it when they have time.

• But if you wait until they have time, you won’t get their attention, plus you’re sitting there waiting with your jacket in your lap like an idiot for a long time.

• And sometimes the response is, “sorry sir, the closet is full.”

That’s most often on American, for me, but here’s a flyer complaining about several United flights where they didn’t offer to hang his jacket.

In business and first class.. the crew would offer to hang a suit jacket… in the four united flights I have taken this month, not a single one has offered. And if you go to try and hang it up yourself you will find it it full of crew hand luggage. I have also taken four Qatar flights this month. All of them offered to hang it up.

Of course, back when there were still real closets on planes, management took away tags for flight attendants to write down seat numbers in order to track whose jackets were whose. Crew still tried to get the service done sometimes, even without the tools, using paper napkins shoved through the hangar with seat numbers handwritten on them.

And when they do take your jacket, they often do not remember to return it. You need to ask for it as you deplane. And that means remembering! I need to be vigilant as it is to remember to take my carry-on with me when I have one, because I often travel with just a laptop bag. One more thing to keep top of mind and not screw up!

Airlines have less space in closets than they used to as they squeeze all space possible to add seats.

It was nice flying Delta where I was proactively asked for my jacket to hang up, and it wasn’t just returned it was presented to me folded over as a gesture. That was impressive and felt first class. That’s certainly not every Delta flight attendant, but a testament to that crewmember.

Many foreign airlines will not just hang your jacket in business, or your clothes if you’re changing into pajamas, but may even have a coathanger at your seat. You’ll notice this in Air France business class:

Some people excuse United flight attendants for providing poor service by pointing out that they haven’t had a raise in five years. The value of their wages has been eroded by inflation since then. They overwhelmingly rejected the new contract their union negotiated for them.

I’d point out, though, that American Airlines inflight service did not improve when their flight attendants got a new union contract with big raises a year and a half ago. I still see cabin crew wearing their ‘W.A.R.’ paraphanelia (‘We Are Ready’ to strike).

Ultimately, I think the lack of offers to hang jackets is just part and parcel of an overall decline in U.S. airline service culture, and U.S. service culture more generally. It’s simply tough to provide a premium experience.