| Not at all. Let's say coach is $1600, premium economy is $1800, and business is $4000. I'm definitely going to buy premium economy, totally worth $200 because on transatlantic flights it's a lot better than coach. (I've done this before) But $4000 for business? I might do it for $2000. Law of diminishing returns and all that. I'll pay 20% more for something that's 50% better, but I won't pay 200% for something that's 60% better. Now let's look at some real prices. Say you wanted to fly from SFO to CDG in September on a nonstop flight. Economy: $710. Premium Economy: $2222. Business: $8600. First: $9427. I promise you Premium is not 3x better than normal economy. I've tried it, it's 1.5x better at most. And business for 12x the price? Yeah, fuck that. PS: The calculation changes when you work for a Fortune 500 and they mandate/allow business tickets for flights longer than 6 hours. I imagine this is the real market for those tickets because those customers aren't paying with their own money and don't care. |
Interesting point. I've noticed that when I fly Qantas economy, before I fly they give me the option to bid for a Business class seat. Their economy seating & service has deteriorated so badly that I was tempted to just buy two economy seats, so I could have enough elbow room to use my laptop & get some work done... and sure enough, the minimum bid for Business is just a bit higher than buying a second economy seat.
I'm sure the business class seats sell for higher than that, but they definitely aren't filling the seats at rack rate if they're sending out seat auctions.