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Passengers exit their business class seats on an American Airlines flight at London’s Heathrow Airport on August 14, 2018.
Jeff Greenberg | Universal Images Group | Getty Images
Cheap seats are no longer enough for airline passengers.
Since the pandemic, passengers have shown airlines that they are willing to pay to sit in the relatively spacious front of the cabin. This means many seats are already full, making it harder for frequent flyers to get free upgrades at the front of the plane.
And the levels frequent flyers they are growing with elite status airport lounge to the first boarding group filled, it means more competition for those seats. Even more crowds are expected during the year-end holiday season, which airlines predict will set another record.
Even outside of the 2025 opening season, executives anticipate high demand. U.S. airline capacity will rise about 1% in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to aviation data firm Cirium.
“We’re probably seeing our best unit revenue on the transatlantic (routes), for example, in the middle of winter,” he said. Delta Air Lines Chairman Glen Hauenstein at an investor day in November.
The price difference between first class and bus varies, of course, depending on distance, demand, time of year and even time of day. For example, a return ticket running United Airlines The Newark, New Jersey, hub to Los Angeles International Airport in the first week of February was $347 in standard economy and $1,791 in the carrier’s Polaris cabin, which has reclining seats but no international business class lounge access. .
American AirlinesA nonstop flight from New York to Paris during Easter week 2025 was $1,104 in coach and $3,038 in the airline’s Flagship Business class.
A view of the Delta Sky Club at Los Angeles International Airport on September 2, 2022.
AaronP | Bauer-Griffin | GC Images | Getty Images
The billions of dollars that airlines keep at bay are on the balance sheet. Corporate loyalty programs are cash cows, and the key is to strike the right balance between perks like free upgrades and cash back.
In recent years, airlines have changed the conditions for earning status, rewarding spend and not just flight distance. They have also increased the amount that airlines have to spend in order to be anointed with elite status. Next year, customers will have to spend more on to earn United status. On Thursday, however, American said it would keep its requirements the same for the next earnings year, which starts in March.
From gifts to payment
About 15 years ago, passengers paid for seats in 12% of Delta’s domestic first class. Now, it’s closer to 75% and rising, Hauenstein told investors last month.
“We gave them out based on a frequent flyer system,” Hauenstein said of first-class seats in 2010 and earlier. “The incentive was to spend as little as possible, fly as long as possible and climb as much as possible. This led to a position where our most valuable products were loss leaders.”
That has now reversed for Delta, he said, as more money goes to the front of the cabin. The carrier gets 43% of its revenue from premium economy cabin tickets, down from a 60% share in 2010.
The trend is shrinking across the industry, from Delta, the most profitable carrier, to discounters Frontier Airlinesthat is, more room is being added first class seats at the front of its Airbus fleet in 2025. on wednesday JetBlue Airways He said he would put in two or three rows home business class Its top-level Mint with lie-flat seats on non-business class aircraft, dubbing it “Junior Mint”.
A day before Alaska Airlines announced that he would renewal because some of its planes are gearing up for new international flights with premium seats after it bought Hawaiian Airlines earlier this year, pushing revenue from higher-priced seats past standard economy.
“You see the Airbus 330s and the Boeing 787s are indexed in business class and they don’t have an international premium economy cabin,” Alaska Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Harrison said at an investor day in New York on Tuesday. “So beyond 2027, we expect our premium mix to continue to grow.”
The Delta Sky Club passenger lounge inside Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on September 5, 2019.
Jeff Greenberg | Universal Images Group | Getty Images
Bigger business
Airlines are racing to add larger first-class sections or international business class, with larger screens and closing doors for flat-bed seats.
“We’ve seen more paid demand for the premium cabin than ever before the pandemic,” said Scott Chandler, American Airlines’ vice president of revenue management. “More people want the premium cabin experience.”
Chandler said American has worked in recent years to make it easier for customers to purchase more expensive cabins with post-purchase options to upgrade to first class or other cabins, such as premium economy.
he is american renewal some longer-haul aircraft to accommodate more seats, like other carriers, sometimes ditch first class altogether to add larger international business class cabins that will have new seats with sliding doors. Delta and United have it too they increased their premium offering to keep up with customers who want to pay for more expensive seats.
“They’re doing everything they can to get them to pay for their premium products. That’s absolutely what they should be doing,” said Henry Harteveldt, founder of travel consultancy Atmosphere Research Group. Customers don’t buy a store-brand item at a department store and then expect “the salesperson to call that item and give you a free designer bag.”
Southwest Airlines he has taken his own approach. In 2026, it plans to fly with multiple rows leg seatsRenovating the standard coach-only cabins it has flown for more than half a century and removing the open seats.
CEO Bob Jordan said it’s partly a “generational change.”
“What we’re seeing is that our younger customers are looking for a little more premium,” he said in an interview this week. “A lot of that is a change in mentality, a willingness to spend more on travel and less on other things.
But the airline decided to keep the number of seats on its planes the same and is not adding a first class like other carriers, after surveying customers and weighing the cost of losing space for more seats on board.
For the first class, Jordan said, “You’re talking about ovens, you’re talking about meals, you’re talking about supplies. It’s a big capital investment and a big jump.”
“But never say never,” he said.
