Tag Archives for business class.
Delta Air Lines confirmed during its second quarter earnings call a plan for ‘basic business.’ Just like they have ‘unbundled’ economy class, offering basic economy that doesn’t allow changes or mileage-earning and where you don’t get to pick your own seat, they view ‘unbundling’ of the features of business class a new step in maximizing revenue from customers.
I have a bit of an idiosyncratic preference for the bulkhead seats at the front of the cabin when I’m flying business class. And most people would disagree. In fact, in many cases the first row of business class is going to be unpopular when it’s right behind the galley and right behind the lavatory.
A woman sitting in business class was approached by a flight attendant before departure. The passenger says that the flight attendant asked her if she’d switch seats with a six year old in economy.
American Airlines is publishing roundtrip business class fares between Denver and South America – Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Santiago and perhaps elsewhere – from $898.
The FAA has decided that the workload in ensuring business class suite doors are in their correct position is significant. These doors generally have to be open during taxi, take-off, and landing. And that extra work means that airlines have to staff cabin crew beyond otherwise-required minimums (of 1 flight attendant per 50 seats) for planes with doors.
An American Airlines passenger flying from Charlotte to Munich purchased a business class ticket that they say cost them $4,600. Once they boarded they discovered that their seat did not move. It did not recline. It did not turn into a bed. It was just a seat – not the thing they had purchased.
A New York City-based family filmed the start of their vacation flight, departing Newark on United Airlines. They brought their Yorkshire Terriers alone, buying each of the two dogs a seat in business class. The dogs, Amy and Emily, are “task-trained service animals” according to their owner. Do you believe them?
Within the confines of what American Airlines is going to be willing to do – space on the aircraft comes at an incredible premium, so I while I wish the space for midflight snacks was larger I accept certain tradeoffs – they’ve clearly gone much further in working on the details of this product.
Of course I haven’t seen it in person yet. The first plane hasn’t been delivered, and we’re a couple of months until the first Boeing 777-300ER goes in for retrofit to create a model for future work. But the imagery that’s coming out is exceeding my expectations.
The ideas United is currently surveying for their new business class offer a window not into ‘how might business class be improved’ but ‘how much more money could we make if we offered certain improvements’. They’re taking a commercial approach to a premium product, which is smart, even if some of the current brainstorming ideas like a champagne button seem a bit unlikely to come to fruition.
A mother shared to TikTok the story of borrowing money so that she and her husband could go on vacation with their baby – flying business class. She says they’ve taken out two loans in a year in order to travel “and don’t regret it at all.”
They’re doing this because they feel like they’ll regret not traveling when they’re young, and because flying business class will motivate them.
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 »
