A first-class airline ticket typically costs three to five times more than an excursion coach fare. If that strikes you as quite a premium, you’re not alone.
A growing number of passengers have been voting with their credit cards and passing up the carriers’ traditional first-class offerings, which generally comprise 10 percent of a plane’s cabin.
As a result, ever eager to accommodate business travelers and more well-heeled leisure passengers, some airlines have introduced changes in their service, which include replacing first class with a business class that provides a raft of amenities that approach, but do not equal, traditional first-class service.
At the same time, because many travelers still want first class, other airlines are upgrading their first-class service, hoping to capture fliers willing to pay up for pampering.
The result: Travelers have more options to consider when facing the dizzying task of deciding which class to fly on which airline.
At one end of the spectrum, many airlines have devised a compromise intended to strike an affordable balance of price and perks for business travelers.
Scandinavian Airlines System and Finnair dropped first class for business class a few years ago, and more recently Continental Airlines did the same.
A big rival in the trans-Atlantic market is Virgin Atlantic Airways, which has offered a business class called Upper Class instead of first class since Virgin started flying in 1984.
Next month, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will drop its first-class service for business class, resulting in only two classes of service.
Some airlines, on the other hand, are trumpeting their first-class service louder than ever, with a growing list of amenities.
Japan Air Lines now offers passengers in its premium classes a noise-canceling feature on their headsets to block engine noise.
United Airlines has upgraded its first-class menu to include Dom Perignon Champagne and beluga caviar with Absolut vodka. Its business-class travelers are served sevruga caviar canapes.
Generally, these changes are all geared to attracting international passengers whose employers, because of the length of the flights, are willing to pay for some level of comfort beyond economy class.
And business travelers buy up to 85 percent of all first-class tickets, according to some airlines.
The domestic market is hardly being ignored, however, particularly on coast-to-coast flights.
Continental decided last month to replace first-class service with its Businessfirst class on transcontinental flights.
Some other startup airlines, including MGM Grand and Ultrair, have tried unsuccessfully to market their luxurious cabins on domestic flights at a discount from first-class prices.
Overall, these changes to first and business class were prompted largely because of record losses posted by airlines in recent years, causing many carriers to consider how best to use their front cabins.
Although airline executives decline to discuss it publicly, there is broad agreement that first class is no longer fulfilling its mission of providing a service with a generous profit margin.
Much of the problem stems from the fact that with the sluggish economy, managers of travel budgets at large corporations are more reluctant to pay for traditional first-class service for their executives.
“There is very little demand for first class, and we think it has everything to do with the economy,” said Odette Fodor, a spokeswoman for KLM.
Passengers who use frequent-flier mileage to upgrade their tickets and move into a first-class seat also have eroded profits in the front cabin, as have travelers who get around the system.
Some airlines offer ways to give frequent travelers free upgrades to first class if there are any such seats available when the plane departs. So some people make several fictitious reservations in first class to better the chances that seats will be available.
“First class has become dysfunctional,” said one airline industry executive.
The many changes taking place are transforming an aspect of airline travel that has seen many innovations and experiments through the decades.
Who can forget-or, more realistically, who can remember-those first-class transcontinental Foreign Accent flights on Trans World Airlines in 1968, on which service was styled after a particular country?
Italian food, for example, was served along with Italian magazines by flight attendants wearing Italian-style paper dresses.
Recent innovations pale in comparison, but here is a sampling of the broad changes under way for passengers paying a premium.
More flexibility. Many airlines say they customize first class.
Want to eat and get right to sleep rather than experience the drawnout service of a multicourse meal? Many carriers now will serve your inflight meal quickly, whenever you ask.
First-class passengers on British Airways can eat the meal they would have had on the plane in the airport lounge before their flight.
Virgin Atlantic Airways offers a similar service.
Expanding business class. Airlines that no longer see profits in more traditional first class have devised a range of business-class services to replace it, and it is an increasingly competitive field. Virgin has bought full-page ads in the last year that reprinted a Continental Businessfirst advertisement but added Virgin’s commentary to challenge Continental’s claims.
At first blush, it is not always easy to tell first class and business class apart on many airlines.
Business-class offerings generally have video screens that swing out of armrests of recliner seats with extra legroom, amenity kits and better food.
Industry executives say that passengers also can expect to see more changes in the seats in first class.
Scandinavian Airlines started offering Euro Sleeper last year, which, for a $300 premium on a business-class ticket, gives you a seat in business class that reclines so far that the carrier cannot sell the seat behind you.
Boeing is developing seats that quickly can expand the business class if there is demand for more expensive seats on certain flights.
The seats can be widened or narrowed in seconds, adding two inches of seat width by squeezing a six-across row of seats for coach class into five seats across for business class.
More services on the ground. British Airways, for example, spent $2.4 million to upgrade its arrivals lounge at Heathrow’s Terminal 4 this fall, installing 23 private shower and wash rooms, with valets nearby to press a suit while its first- and business-class passengers wait.
In addition, the lounge offers breakfast to those who prefer to sleep until the plane lands. United also offers showers and breakfast at Heathrow.
Virgin took a more offbeat approach for its Upper Class passengers, opening an equally costly new lounge at Heathrow’s Terminal 3, with separate areas to accommodate travelers’ moods: The Bar, The Library, The Games Room, The Study, The Music Room and The Observation Deck.
