Until this week, I had never flown first class before. But on my way back from North Carolina, I was given an unexpected upgrade to Seat 1F, and treated to the full premium air travel experience. Given that first class seats seem to cost about three times as much as economy seats, I suppose I expected a fair bit of luxury. As it turns out, these are—as far as I could observe—the perks you are granted:
If there were other differences, I did not notice them. I have been told that you are also given “free alcohol.” The alcohol itself isn’t special, since you can purchase it in coach, so the perk is more accurately characterized as “the illusion of free alcohol” or “alcohol priced into your ticket rather than bought on the plane.”
On the whole, an underwhelming list. It is not immediately clear why you would pay $500 or more for this assemblage of tiny extras. But there is one more thing you get when you fly first class, a feature they don’t list on the airline’s website: you get to know that you are in first class. A distinction is made between you, the first-class passenger, and the steerage passengers, who file past you one by one seeing exactly who you are and where you are sitting. (This is not always the case, but even when everyone else doesn’t parade past you, the fundamental aspect remains, namely the knowledge of having separated yourself from the majority of your fellow travelers.)
First class tickets are obviously not “worth it” in the sense of providing anything that can reasonably be called value for money. The seats aren’t actually much more conducive to rest or spinal health, having a glass instead of a cup isn’t exactly decadent luxury, and even the expanded range of available biscuits doesn’t alter the fact that airline snacks are airline snacks. There are two reasons, then, why one might purchase a first-class ticket. First, one is so stupendously wealthy that no price is too high to pay for even small improvements, meaning that if an airline charged $500 to passengers who wanted tea instead of coffee, you wouldn’t think twice about paying it if tea was what you wanted. The second explanation is that the improvements aren’t what’s being bought. What is being bought is status.
- The seats are slightly less uncomfortable, and you are able to move your legs.
- You are offered drinks when you get on board the plane, instead of only when you reach cruising altitude.
- These drinks are served in glasses rather than plastic cups.
- When they come around with snacks, instead of just handing you a packet of biscuits, they allow you to choose which packet of biscuits you would like out of a basket containing multiple different types of biscuits.
- You have exclusive access to the forward lavatory, though it is the same as the rear lavatory.
- You board early, so that you can spend time sitting on the plane that would otherwise have been spent sitting at the gate.
- The flight attendants address you by name, and make a somewhat greater effort to pretend to like you.
If there were other differences, I did not notice them. I have been told that you are also given “free alcohol.” The alcohol itself isn’t special, since you can purchase it in coach, so the perk is more accurately characterized as “the illusion of free alcohol” or “alcohol priced into your ticket rather than bought on the plane.”On the whole, an underwhelming list. It is not immediately clear why you would pay $500 or more for this assemblage of tiny extras. But there is one more thing you get when you fly first class, a feature they don’t list on the airline’s website: you get to know that you are in first class. A distinction is made between you, the first-class passenger, and the steerage passengers, who file past you one by one seeing exactly who you are and where you are sitting. (This is not always the case, but even when everyone else doesn’t parade past you, the fundamental aspect remains, namely the knowledge of having separated yourself from the majority of your fellow travelers.)
First class tickets are obviously not “worth it” in the sense of providing anything that can reasonably be called value for money. The seats aren’t actually much more conducive to rest or spinal health, having a glass instead of a cup isn’t exactly decadent luxury, and even the expanded range of available biscuits doesn’t alter the fact that airline snacks are airline snacks. There are two reasons, then, why one might purchase a first-class ticket. First, one is so stupendously wealthy that no price is too high to pay for even small improvements, meaning that if an airline charged $500 to passengers who wanted tea instead of coffee, you wouldn’t think twice about paying it if tea was what you wanted. The second explanation is that the improvements aren’t what’s being bought. What is being bought is status.
by Nathan J. Robinson, Current Affairs | Read more:
Image: uncredited
