On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 10:57:22 +1100, Qanset wrote:



VainGlorious wrote:

So, let's say you paid £1600 for Business class: roughly 10x what the
commoners pay. You have an empty seat across the aisle from you.
Because some "drunken green grocer from Luton" decides he'd be more
comfortable up front, you get to spend 9 hours in abject horror as
this hideous, foul-smelling idiot drones on and on about how the Pakis
are making England a desert and coughing up phlegm, some of which
lands on your Simon Carter cufflink.


Rich people dont get drunk or misbehave???? I find that hard to believe
As for a foul smelling pax, coughing up phleghm, could be a slight
exageration on your part..

Of course it's an exaggeration. You can't look at the policy in
isolation or anecdotally. As an airline, you must look at the big
picture. Where's the value in business/1st class? Is it bigger seats?
Is it better food and service? That's part of it, sure. But five more
cm of seat width are not worth 10x the airfare, nor is a poached
salmon. The real value is primarily a psychological one: you are a
"VIP", and the amenities are an indication of your status. Once you
compromise that value, no one will pay for it anymore. In VIP seats,
you are more likely to have sedate seatmates and a less stressful
flight. It's not a guarantee (as anyone who's flown Alaska Air 1st
class will tell you), but you are statistically more likely to have a
civil flight in business or 1st than you are in steerage. VIPs like to
think of themselves as more refined and they like to display their
refinement. Airlines take advantage of this.

Yes, there ARE yahoos and boors in 1st class seats. It happens. But
not as much as in steerage. The airlines count on this and make
efforts to maintain this. They have no vested interested in giving
away upgraded seats to the common scum. There is no advantage in it.

- TR
- a common scum who occasionally flies business/1st class.