First Class Airfares - why so expensive?

Rotty said:
I hyst got home from the US yesterday and flew economny with Virgin, first time I have flown economy lang haul for ages and it was a bit of an ordeal TBH , business/first is nice but for mr premium economy represents the best compromise

my brother joined me out there and he got Virgin Upper class ( he had to go via LA ) for £1400 return which was a good deal
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I agree premium economy is a fantastic compromise :)
 
Others have clearly already hit the nail on the head that 1st class is for people who can afford to pay the prices and business travelers.

Also bare in mind that you are flying from one business centre to another. If it was traveling to somewhere a little obscurer than LA, its likely to be a lot cheaper.

Also look and when and who you fly with. I once flew to Vancouver with Air Canada on a really early flight and it was so empty in economy that you could just sleep across a row of seats.
 
LordSplodge said:
Even if I could fly First or Business I would not as I would spend the whole flight wanting to punch the god damn snobs in their rich faces.
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I think you have summed up quite nicely why they price the peasants out of first class.
 
I've flown Emerites and BA economy long haul and they were great, i got everything mentioned by Hate, didn't have to pay for anything and the entertainment system is amazing.

I've heard so many stories about how bad economy class is, so either i have been extremely luckly or airlines have part there act together recently
 
Ask very politely if you can 'have an emergency exit seat, if its not too much trouble, as my legs are pretty long and I can find some flights uncomfortable.... if its any hassel don't worry about it but its possible I would really appreciate it! :)'

Has worked 4 times, and was life saving whilst traveling to Hawaii!
 
If there are two flights by the same airline in the same day I always take the later flight. Everybody always cram on the early flights. I have flown to the USA about 9 times now with Virgin and always managed to get a row of 4 seats to myself.
 
Business class costs so much because they aren't paying, it's all expenses and who cares how much it costs the company?

First class is expensive because it's for people who just don't care about the zero's. As they say, if you need to ask you can't afford it.

I don't believe for one second that economy makes a loss, they need to fill that air frame to maky money and if they could do it all with business class they could - but they can't. My best guess would be they pay for the flight with economy and make hay with the higher classes.

I can't see the big turn off for long haul economy though, compared to cinema seats or coach seats airline seats are great, roomy, and recline enough (for me - disclaimer). Long haul economy also has back of seat screens with on-demand movies, music and video games.

My last trip back from oz was a stint from singapore, I got 8 hours sleep, landed in mancester at 8am wide awake and went straight to work - why pay more?
 
LordSplodge said:
Even if I could fly First or Business I would not as I would spend the whole flight wanting to punch the god damn snobs in their rich faces.
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I think if you did have the funds in order to fly First it would have soothed your jealous such that you'd not need to punch them :p
 
robgmun said:
I've flown Emerites and BA economy long haul and they were great, i got everything mentioned by Hate, didn't have to pay for anything and the entertainment system is amazing.

I've heard so many stories about how bad economy class is, so either i have been extremely luckly or airlines have part there act together recently
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Emirates first class is the nicest I have been in and you also got a limo to pick you up and take you to the airport (Dubai). For a long haul flight its worth it definitely.
 
The biggest bonus is you don't get a chav kid kicking your seat from behind for 11 hours (usually) - I personally wouldd never pay the extortionate prices (although my company has - and I was once upgraded for free)

I spent an 10hour long-haul flight in Economy with a 4 year old boy behind keeping me awake and pulling his food tray up and down every 10minutes & tugging on my hair while I was trying to get some kip. I politely asked his drunk father twice if he could do something, whereby I was basically told to F-off, so requested a move.
 
Scuzi said:
When doing a familiarisation course with British Airways, the head honcho of operations told us in a presentation that the first and business class air fares are what make them money. The economy seats make them very little or no money at all and often operate at a great loss.

The airlines can and apparently have to charge those prices if they want to make a route worthwhile.
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Frankly its to keep the riff raff out.

also 8k pounds for any airline ticket is ludicrous and unbelievable, its generally x4 for business and x8 for first.

Nowadays airlines make their money on last minute seats.

The first few seats they sell will be dirt cheap, to break even the cost of running the plane, as seats gradually fill up they charge whatever they can get away with, because it doesnt matter, they have covered their costs.

I know lots of rich people and a few very very rich people and very few of them travel first, in fact I only know of one family flying first regularly.

It's aimed at business customers who don't want any crap, they want to get on the plane and arrive at their destination in the same state they got on, leave the plane, do their work, stay 1 night, and come back the next day, it's basically for people who don't have time to fly.
 
I travel all over the world on a regular basis for work purposes, typically at other peoples expense and normally I will go Business if the flight is longer than couple of hours and have been fortunate enough to get upgraded to first on more than a few occasions :)

For me the main advantage is that its quiet and relaxing on the plane, and you also get the lounge access at the airports, somewhere to sit the couple of hours before the flight where you can relax and in many cases get some work done is invaluable to me.

I do agree though, the extra cost of the tickets is incredibly high. But like others have said, its priced that way for a reason and while I'm not paying for it I'm more than happy to fly that way! :D
 
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