The coach experience matters as much as business class for an airline – even (and especially) an airline that wants to maximize its premium revenue.

American Airlines is investing in its premium product now, but has a long way to go. Their new Boeing 787-9P suites are gorgeous, even if the cabins are dense and galleys small for serving 51 business class passengers. Premium economy is much-improved. They’ll be introducing new business and premium economy seats on the Airbus A321XLR, expected to go into service in December. They have new lounges in the pipeline (the design is gorgeous).

The investment isn’t universal – domestic first class remains unchanged, and there haven’t been corresponding improvements in coach. Becoming a premium airline isn’t primarily about premium cabins. Alaska Airlines and United both offer fantastic buy on board food for sale programs. United, Delta and Alaska all offer far more extra legroom seating for sale than American does. United, Delta, and JetBlue all have seat back entertainment screens.

That’s important for two primary reasons.

1. Most passengers are in economy. Economy isn’t just a way to fill the aircraft after selling premium seats. In fact, American used to concentrate primarily on selling commodity seats to coach passengers, even removing business class seats from Boeing 777-200 and Boeing 787-8 aircraft.

2. Economy is how passengers get to know the airline, and buy ups happen slowly. American ‘gets this’ with basic economy, offering the least-draconian restrictions (still awarding some miles, allowing buy into seat assignments, not banning carry-on bags) – so that the experience doesn’t feel punitive and chase passengers away. They understand that it’s a gateway to the airline. But so is standard coach. It’s how passengers get started, how the brand is built, and eventually how customers ‘move up’ to premium.

People move from coach to extra legroom, buy up to premium economy, and eventually to business class. Delta Air Lines President Glen W. Hauenstein explained it at the Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference on Thursday.

[W]e have a lot of programs in place that are specifically designed for [attracting a younger cohort] and trying to understand the life cycle of a consumer. And usually, they don’t start in the premium products, they start in coach. And I think that’s why it’s very important for us to make sure that we have best-in-class products and services across the whole spectrum, not just at the top end because we need you to fly us when you’re young and that money is much more important and harder to come by that we have the best products and services and fly to where you want to fly.

You enroll in our programs. The average age for a Delta One customer is 61. So when you think about how long it takes from when I start flying with Delta to when I’m actually buying those most premium products, there’s a 30-, 40-year cycle in there that you have to have value all across that spectrum and continuing to make sure that we’re doing relevant things.

That’s why American Airlines needs to invest in more than just lounges and business class. Those are long-term investments, and they’re starting with ‘quick wins’ but those aren’t going to be enough over the long-term.

• The coach experience: More extra legroom seats in coach, ideally seat back entertainment, and better food for sale (recent additions are nice but quality isn’t great). And this affects all cabins – improve checked baggage delivery. American leads the industry in mishandled bags, and takes longer to deliver the ones they don’t lose to the carousel.

  

• Improved policies: The customer should be at the center of every policy. Making passengers collect and recheck bags on separate tickets even when both are American Airlines tickets (or when buying an American Airlines flight to Los Angeles because award space wasn’t available to connect to a business class mileage award on Air Tahiti Nui – spending more money on American!) is just a terrible experience. Not allowing routing changes with same day confirmed changes – letting customers benefit from American’s vast hub network – is a terrible experience when it means not getting home earlier.

  

• Quality messaging across the company: How employees treat customers – all customers – matters. Leadership needs to sell a premium vision, and explain the role that employees play in its success going forward – getting the front line on board to deliver an elevated experience to all passegners. The airline is actually improving in a lot of ways, but employees don’t realize it.

  The messaging also needs to reach down to middle management, where employees haven’t been incentivized to sweat the details of product. A decade ago there was real thought put into the airline’s boarding and deplaining music. Getting the details right across the board is how you get the most out of each dollar of investment.

Becoming a premium carrier is a decade-long process. It stretches across the entire product offering, not just premium products. It takes investment and it takes a huge change in culture and mindset. It’s a journey not just for the airline, but for customers as well – who build their perception of the airline through the lens of experience in the back of the plane before considering whether to graduate to more expensive offerings.