Timeline for Why is international first class much more expensive than international economy class?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
18 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 17, 2019 at 22:01 | comment | added | reirab | @ZachLipton haha - Indeed. Some of Delta's flights from ATL to FL have gotten to the point that they need 767s for capacity on some of the frequencies, so I have an ATL-MCO flight coming up that's scheduled to be a flat-bed seat. For a while, they were actually flying 757s on the route every 30 minutes during certain times of day, so they eventually just upgauged to a 767 so that they could back off to 'only' once per hour. | |
| Oct 17, 2019 at 21:09 | comment | added | Zach Lipton | @reirab Good point! And Hawaiian Airlines does run flat-bed seats even from the West Coast, which shows what a bit of competition can do. There are also occasional oddball exceptions where airlines run wide-body international configurations on continental US domestic routes, sometimes for extra capacity, repositioning for maintenance, or familiarization flights for new aircraft. And then there are the international destinations that US airlines treat as domestic for the sake of providing less service, even most of northern South America. Airlines are weird. | |
| Oct 17, 2019 at 20:31 | comment | added | reirab | @ZachLipton Yep. The other common exception is domestic flights to Hawaii from places other than the West Coast. Those routes do typically have the flat-bed seats and all, largely due to only wide-body aircraft having enough fuel to fly those routes and most airlines not wanting to have a specific cabin configuration just for those flights. Not to mention that those flights can be 10 hours or more in some cases, so a lot more people are will to pay more for those flat-bed seats than on the 5 or 6-hour flights from the West Coast. | |
| Dec 19, 2016 at 5:04 | history | edited | Zach Lipton | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 284 characters in body
|
| Oct 29, 2016 at 15:49 | comment | added | Ben H | This is a good answer, but it only explains why the airline's cost of providing the product is higher for international first class. What's missing is that the value to the customer is also higher on international flights, because you're usually sitting in that nice comfy seat for much longer. Products are generally priced based on the value to the buyer, not the cost to the producer. | |
| Oct 28, 2016 at 1:54 | comment | added | Zach Lipton | The main exception are a few premium transcon routes with lots of frequent business travelers and high competition, where you get premium cabins more like intl business class. In addition, flights from the US East Coast to Europe tend to be redeye flights, where a company may pay for an employee to have a flat bed so they can arrive more rested and ready to work in the morning. | |
| Oct 28, 2016 at 1:49 | comment | added | Zach Lipton | @gsnedders True, but there are a few factors at play. The same aircraft are used on many different domestic routes, so outfitting MIA-SEA flights with flat beds would mean having those same beds flying on a shorter flight like SEA-PDX next segment. There's also more customers willing to pay through the nose for international premium cabins (some of these customers will just go private for domestic flights), while domestic F seats tend to go more to free or low-cost upgrades. Also, those routes don't normally have much completion, so there's not much pressure on the airlines to offer better. | |
| Oct 28, 2016 at 0:39 | comment | added | gsnedders | With regards to domestic flights being "only a few hours", an international flight of BOS–SNN is 6:05 and therefore deserving of a bed, but a domestic flight of MIA–SEA is 6:46 and therefore you only need a few inches more. | |
| Oct 27, 2016 at 20:51 | comment | added | user4188 | I got a very cheap KLM transatlantic business class ticket far ahead of the time and it had 450 usd change fee! Cheap and flexible doesn't come together. | |
| Oct 26, 2016 at 22:31 | history | edited | Zach Lipton | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 74 characters in body
|
| Oct 26, 2016 at 22:30 | comment | added | Zach Lipton | @Johns-305 Generally just on a couple of flagship transcon routes, which I noted in the answer. | |
| Oct 26, 2016 at 22:27 | comment | added | DTRT | You can get fully lie-flat seats on premium US domestic flights as well. | |
| Oct 26, 2016 at 20:38 | comment | added | user19474 | @LemuelGulliver Basically, he is saying that on international flights you are getting a bed, AND that the airline can make more money with this price structure than with the domestic price structure. | |
| Oct 26, 2016 at 19:53 | comment | added | Zach Lipton | @Crowley I was trying to illustrate the differences between domestic first and international first, so I used pictures from different planes. Pictures from one plane wouldn't show that (and I had to stick to CC-licensed images here). That said, it's easy to google up pictures of pretty much any airline seat if you're curious. | |
| Oct 26, 2016 at 19:52 | comment | added | Zach Lipton | @LemuelGulliver That flight is operated by BA, but yes, here is BA first class on a 747 (I'm not 100% certain they have the same layout on all their 747s, so don't come after me if it's not, you could ask about that as a new question though). You'll get a flat bed. You could get a 15 minute free treatment in their spa at LHR on the way back if you book in advance. Domestic first doesn't have any of that. | |
| Oct 26, 2016 at 19:49 | comment | added | Crowley | It's a pitty that there are not pictures of different classes taken in one plane. :) | |
| Oct 26, 2016 at 19:48 | comment | added | Lemuel Gulliver | Ok, so basically you are saying the Internation First Class on AA 747 will be a bed, so I would be paying for a bed and massages and stuff that domestic does not have? | |
| Oct 26, 2016 at 19:36 | history | answered | Zach Lipton | CC BY-SA 3.0 |