MK82Man
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The Wall Street Journal, 2 March 2004
By Ron Lieber
Is First Class still Classy?
As Prices (and Perks) Drop, We Do a Cross-Country Test; Paying $2, 000 for Five Flights
HOW FAR MUST first-class airfares fall before people decide it's actually worth it to pay to sit in the front seats? In recent weeks, the nation's airlines have decided to find out. Alaska Air Group's Alaska Airlines kicked off the deals a couple weeks ago by cutting some first-class fares to less than a third of what they cost a year ago. America West quickly followed with the introduction of a new type of non-refundable, advance-purchase ticket: First-class round-trips from New York to Los Angeles are now available for roughly $1,000. All this is happening because carriers are getting tired of giving away their first-class seats to people who are using their elite status to upgrade. Fewer than 10% of domestic first-class seats are actually sold for money. With the airlines fighting for every dollar, they've now decided that they have nothing to lose by lowering fares to see if more people will pay money for a confirmed seat rather than buying in coach and hoping for an upgrade.
Bigger, airlines, including AMR Corp.'s American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Continental Airlines, are already matching the price cuts on some routes. US Airways says it is matching other carriers' cheap first-class fares to Las Vegas. Meanwhile, the low-cost carriers keep raising the stakes. ATA Airlines Inc. said last month that it will add premium cabins in its planes by the end of the year. Its plan: Cap domestic fares at $399 one way for coast-to-coast flights-$100 less than America West's cheapest first-class ticket. But does "first class" still mean first class? Prices aren't the only thing being cut. Airlines have been dropping meals for first-class passengers on many domestic flights, and legroom is now just slightly better than in coach on many domestic flights.
To assess whether and when it's worth forking over actual money to get out of steerage, we set out on a two-day, six-city, 18-hours-of-flight marathon. The trek took us from New York, to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas, Atlanta, and then back home. The first thing we learned is just how much prices have tumbled. With just a half-hour of shopping around online, we were able to line up five one-way first-class tickets for a total of $2,022.50. We also quickly found out why most people weren't willing to pay the old inflated fares. We were served meals on only two of the five first class flights. On AirTran, we had so little room in our first-class seat that we couldn't work on a laptop. This problem is more common than one might think in domestic first class, particularly if the person in front of you reclines, since first-class seats lean back farther than, coach seats. In fact, in our experience, all of the first-class seats in our test actually provided less legroom than most emergency exit-row seats in, coach. True, coach seats are still a few inches narrower than first class. But still, if you can sit in an exit row you can always unfold your laptop if you need to work-without having to pay more money, or cash in a bunch of miles, for the privilege.
The-trip started with an early-morning America West flight from John F. Kennedy airport in New York to Los Angeles International. It's a new route for America West, and it goes up against American, United, and Delta-all of which had been in the habit of charging sky-high fares to the Hollywood types who frequent the route. We paid $507.60 for our one-way fare, including taxes and fees. Bigger airlines sometimes charge more than three times as much for a similar ticket, but they also still have some advantages. For one thing, our America West flight was on a narrow-body Airbus A319. But American, United, and Delta fly widebody planes on the route, which cuts down on claustrophobia during six-hour flights like these. America West served a sizeable fruit platter, plus granola and a croissant. We asked the flight attendant for one of the egg sandwiches on sale for $5 back in coach. While we did have to pay for it, we got the added bonus of having it heated up in the first-class oven.
Next we hopped United from Los Angeles to San Francisco. At $407.10, it was the priciest flight on a miles-per-dollar basis, even though Alaska now travels the route in some cases at less than half that price. Once airborne, we were impressed when the flight attendant passed out business cards with a written message from the captain: "Welcome aboard." Even though he misspelled our name, it's clear Capt. Mark J. Hitchcock isn't taking any passenger for granted these days. "A lot of flying these days is very impersonal, with people packed in like sardines," Capt. Hitchcock said later.
Next, we flew Alaska Airlines up to Seattle on a dinner-hour flight. Price: $259.10. The big glitch here was, in fact, dinner. The counter agent said there'd be no onboard meal, so we chowed on a burger only to score a freebie chicken sandwich and pasta salad after takeoff. An Alaska spokesman said a recent revamp in catering may have caused the mix-up. One day down, one to go. For relaxation, we took a dip in the outdoor pool at our hotel near the Seattle airport in 45- degree weather. The next day: Vegas. We paid $178.10 to fly down on Southwest (which has no first-class). Unfortunately, Southwest does “party” style seating in the sought-after exit row, meaning two rows of three people face one other with their legs tangled up. Since Southwest doesn't have assigned seating, a standoff ensued when a late-boarding mother and son couldn't find seats together. The flight attendants offered free drinks to passengers willing to swap.
Our real reason for hitting Vegas was to try out AirTran's premium cabin on the next leg. It doesn't serve meals, even on the three-plus hour noontime flight we took from Las Vegas to Atlanta, for which we paid a modest $300.60. Its seats were the best of the bunch--or the worst depending on your needs. The seats recline very far, which is great for snoozing, but not so great if you are behind a napper. When this happened to us, we couldn't open our tray, let alone work on a laptop. A company spokesman said the seats aren't supposed to go back quite that far. The final leg of our marathon was a $548.10 flight from Atlanta to La Guardia on Delta, the most expensive fare we paid. It was also very pleasant and even old-school, with wide leather seats, doting flight attendants (and several rounds of drinks before takeoff). We felt like we were sitting in first class.
WSJ, By Ron Lieber, 2 March 2004
Have a complaint about the consumer experience? Write to [email protected]
By Ron Lieber
Is First Class still Classy?
As Prices (and Perks) Drop, We Do a Cross-Country Test; Paying $2, 000 for Five Flights
HOW FAR MUST first-class airfares fall before people decide it's actually worth it to pay to sit in the front seats? In recent weeks, the nation's airlines have decided to find out. Alaska Air Group's Alaska Airlines kicked off the deals a couple weeks ago by cutting some first-class fares to less than a third of what they cost a year ago. America West quickly followed with the introduction of a new type of non-refundable, advance-purchase ticket: First-class round-trips from New York to Los Angeles are now available for roughly $1,000. All this is happening because carriers are getting tired of giving away their first-class seats to people who are using their elite status to upgrade. Fewer than 10% of domestic first-class seats are actually sold for money. With the airlines fighting for every dollar, they've now decided that they have nothing to lose by lowering fares to see if more people will pay money for a confirmed seat rather than buying in coach and hoping for an upgrade.
Bigger, airlines, including AMR Corp.'s American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Continental Airlines, are already matching the price cuts on some routes. US Airways says it is matching other carriers' cheap first-class fares to Las Vegas. Meanwhile, the low-cost carriers keep raising the stakes. ATA Airlines Inc. said last month that it will add premium cabins in its planes by the end of the year. Its plan: Cap domestic fares at $399 one way for coast-to-coast flights-$100 less than America West's cheapest first-class ticket. But does "first class" still mean first class? Prices aren't the only thing being cut. Airlines have been dropping meals for first-class passengers on many domestic flights, and legroom is now just slightly better than in coach on many domestic flights.
To assess whether and when it's worth forking over actual money to get out of steerage, we set out on a two-day, six-city, 18-hours-of-flight marathon. The trek took us from New York, to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas, Atlanta, and then back home. The first thing we learned is just how much prices have tumbled. With just a half-hour of shopping around online, we were able to line up five one-way first-class tickets for a total of $2,022.50. We also quickly found out why most people weren't willing to pay the old inflated fares. We were served meals on only two of the five first class flights. On AirTran, we had so little room in our first-class seat that we couldn't work on a laptop. This problem is more common than one might think in domestic first class, particularly if the person in front of you reclines, since first-class seats lean back farther than, coach seats. In fact, in our experience, all of the first-class seats in our test actually provided less legroom than most emergency exit-row seats in, coach. True, coach seats are still a few inches narrower than first class. But still, if you can sit in an exit row you can always unfold your laptop if you need to work-without having to pay more money, or cash in a bunch of miles, for the privilege.
The-trip started with an early-morning America West flight from John F. Kennedy airport in New York to Los Angeles International. It's a new route for America West, and it goes up against American, United, and Delta-all of which had been in the habit of charging sky-high fares to the Hollywood types who frequent the route. We paid $507.60 for our one-way fare, including taxes and fees. Bigger airlines sometimes charge more than three times as much for a similar ticket, but they also still have some advantages. For one thing, our America West flight was on a narrow-body Airbus A319. But American, United, and Delta fly widebody planes on the route, which cuts down on claustrophobia during six-hour flights like these. America West served a sizeable fruit platter, plus granola and a croissant. We asked the flight attendant for one of the egg sandwiches on sale for $5 back in coach. While we did have to pay for it, we got the added bonus of having it heated up in the first-class oven.
Next we hopped United from Los Angeles to San Francisco. At $407.10, it was the priciest flight on a miles-per-dollar basis, even though Alaska now travels the route in some cases at less than half that price. Once airborne, we were impressed when the flight attendant passed out business cards with a written message from the captain: "Welcome aboard." Even though he misspelled our name, it's clear Capt. Mark J. Hitchcock isn't taking any passenger for granted these days. "A lot of flying these days is very impersonal, with people packed in like sardines," Capt. Hitchcock said later.
Next, we flew Alaska Airlines up to Seattle on a dinner-hour flight. Price: $259.10. The big glitch here was, in fact, dinner. The counter agent said there'd be no onboard meal, so we chowed on a burger only to score a freebie chicken sandwich and pasta salad after takeoff. An Alaska spokesman said a recent revamp in catering may have caused the mix-up. One day down, one to go. For relaxation, we took a dip in the outdoor pool at our hotel near the Seattle airport in 45- degree weather. The next day: Vegas. We paid $178.10 to fly down on Southwest (which has no first-class). Unfortunately, Southwest does “party” style seating in the sought-after exit row, meaning two rows of three people face one other with their legs tangled up. Since Southwest doesn't have assigned seating, a standoff ensued when a late-boarding mother and son couldn't find seats together. The flight attendants offered free drinks to passengers willing to swap.
Our real reason for hitting Vegas was to try out AirTran's premium cabin on the next leg. It doesn't serve meals, even on the three-plus hour noontime flight we took from Las Vegas to Atlanta, for which we paid a modest $300.60. Its seats were the best of the bunch--or the worst depending on your needs. The seats recline very far, which is great for snoozing, but not so great if you are behind a napper. When this happened to us, we couldn't open our tray, let alone work on a laptop. A company spokesman said the seats aren't supposed to go back quite that far. The final leg of our marathon was a $548.10 flight from Atlanta to La Guardia on Delta, the most expensive fare we paid. It was also very pleasant and even old-school, with wide leather seats, doting flight attendants (and several rounds of drinks before takeoff). We felt like we were sitting in first class.
WSJ, By Ron Lieber, 2 March 2004
Have a complaint about the consumer experience? Write to [email protected]
