Boarding a cross country flight as a perhaps 10 year old unaccompanied minor, I remember thinking that I would never fly first class. I’d never be rich enough to afford it, and even if I were, why would I spend more money for a bit of comfort that lasted only a few hours?

Little did I know that about a decade later I’d start flying first class, even though I wasn’t paying for it. I had graduated college and was flying for work and earning elite status, and had figured out how upgrades worked even for a lowly United Mileage Plus Premier member (now MileagePlus Premier Silver). Back then I was earning a salary in the $20s, and certainly wasn’t wealthy.

Over a quarter century later, commentator Richard Hanania observes that domestic airline first class isn’t for the wealthy, that the product is accessible to many, and occupied by those who choose to pay rather than strictly who has the most money.

People who sit first class don’t from my experience seem to be the wealthiest on the plane. I see groups that tend to be poorer: fat people, tattoos, etc. Seems to select as much for willingness to splurge or other traits as it does objective ability to pay. Value is subjective.

— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) June 20, 2023

Sex worker-turned data scientist Aella chimed in on the discussion to suggest that first class is also… upgrades.

im def not the wealthiest; i just fly so often that i get upgraded a lot

— Aella (@Aella_Girl) June 20, 2023

• Flying private is for the wealthy, although not exclusively so. In fact it’s just as much for teams of Walmart middle managers who can visit multiple rural stores in a day instead of spending a day on travel in each direction per store.

• Upgrades are less of a thing than they used to be. Historically first class was populated by upgrades, received by the most frequent flyers who tended to be.. middle managers not even top executives. However with first class prices far less of a multiple of discount coach than they were two decades ago, more seats are being purchased leaving fewer unsold for upgrades.

• First class just isn’t that expensive much of the time on domestic routes, so there’s no reason to expect it to be the province of the wealthy – unless you’re already defining wealthy in a way that encompasses the median airline passenger to begin with.

• Domestic first class isn’t that good. It’s a bit of extra elbow room, and a small bit more legroom than ‘main cabin extra’ or ‘economy plus’ seats. It basically means that you can work, cheap wine and cocktails are included, along with a meal that you wouldn’t ever consider eating under normal circumstances.

  Indeed, it isn’t as good as it used to be. There’s less legroom and the meals are far cheaper too. An American Airlines Boeing 737 has 3 fewer inches at each seat than it used to. My first domestic premium cabin meal on United was an almond-dusted shrimp appetizer, followed by a proper steak entree at lunch.

  

Like Gordon Gekko said in Wall Street, wealth is not having to waste time. Domestic first class doesn’t get you that. It doesn’t get you to the airport, through the airport, or out of the airport materially faster. You’re still boarding half an hour before your flight for no reason other than to avoid having to gate check your carry on bag.

There are things many of us do to improve our efficiency, like CLEAR and PreCheck, like airport lounge access. But these are things of bourgeoisie bohemians rather than the wealthy as such. The closest most of us can come to avoiding the queuing hassles of travel is JSX, and American Airlines and the major pilot union want the government to outlaw it, once again making flights you show up for only 20 minutes prior to departure something only for the wealthy.

So Hanania is right that airline domestic first class isn’t a marker of wealth, since a large subset of passengers able to pay for air travel can pay for first class as well as it often isn’t that much more. But it hasn’t really ever been a marker of wealth.

Twenty years ago 90% of seats up front were going to upgrades, which frequently meant business travelers who weren’t poor by any stretch but often in the middle rungs of the corporate ladder. Who is flying up front has changed a bit, especially with managed business travel still down, but it hasn’t matched the mythology of the product in decades.