First class is nice! More legroom, free beverages (alcoholic and not), sometimes blankets, pillows, and TV screens. Hey, now many first class seats are in private suites and the chairs lay flat and turn into beds. That’s nice!
Have you ever flown first class on a commercial airline flight? If so, do you always fly first class or was it a one-time deal? Perhaps you used to fly first class for work? If you’ve never flown first class, would you like to or do you not really care? Answer those questions in the poll below and feel free to elaborate in the comments below.
Flew all the time in first class around the world in many different configurations of aircraft. The only problem is I’m now retired and and I have to fly at that level still because I’m spoiled!
Being in the Air Force I have flown C-130s, C-141s, C5s. Jump seats and airline seat. Commercial have many hours plain clothes and upgraded to 1st class as well as family members. It’s the only way to travel. My first was from training station up the east coast in 1st class that set the pace I think the hardest is a jump seat sideways on a C-130.
I’ve never flown at all, actually.
My husband’s 40th birthday was spent in a gulf coast hurricane evacuation..with…me, his daughter, sister in law, neice and nephew, grand mother, mother, disabled sister, 2 dogs and 3 cats. Hours of gridlock sheparding his flock to safety. His BD cake was a microwave lava cake. I vowed that his 50th BD would be unforgettable (like this one wasn’t?) I began using my delta Amex card for everything….EVERYTHING! Over 10 years I saved enough points to buy first class service round trip Houston to Rome for a 16 day trip to Italy for his birthday. We did everything 1st class that trip…it was the best ever..I love to treat him well! I’ve treated us to first class a few times..because he deserves to be treated like royalty!
was only seat available for a flight from Fla to MN. sat along side Jim Plunkett of Raiders fame.
I love airplanes and flying (I earned my Sport Pilot cert. about a dozen years ago) but I detest the airlines. My mom passed in 2013 and made several trips on United between IL and FL during her illness that preceded her death. The first flight was in coach with the remaining flights in 1st class. THAT made those trips a bit more tolerable.
On an economy class trip with change of planes in Dallas, from the east, the airline was looking for people to give us seats. There was 5 of us and I negotiated that they could have the 5 for guaranteed upgrade to 1st class along with meal tickets while we waited.
Anyone old enough to remember student standby $50.00 fares in the late 1960’s? I flew first class a few times when that was the only seats available. Imagine first class for fifty bucks?
Back in the 60s 70s Delta put military, traveling in uniform, in 1st class if there was any empty seats.
“Yes, Rarely,” as in once. It was for one leg of a three-leg international trip. DW had the misfortune of lots of air miles as a routine aspect of her work. She upgraded us both to first-class on an international trip. Unfortunately, it was the first of three legs and the succeeding two seemed a bit unpleasant after enjoying first class. Still, given the cost, I don’t expect to ever be in first class again (and DW is now retired and bereft of frequent-flyer miles). All things considered, I’d rather see her more than ever fly first-class again. (No, she will not ever read this comment.). 🙂
I doubt it as I’ve only flown on a commercial flight once, when I was 12 in 1969. Been up in a Cessna a few times sitting next to the pilot and that was a great seat.
I have flown first class exactly once. I had enough frequent flier miles to do it essentially free.
Alliegent offers a seat. Period. Sodas are $3 Mixed drink $8? Chips are$3. Does that sound like first class? Suffer it out, you’ll be there in 3-4 hours
I got bumped to 1st class once when a mother wanted to sit with her kids. It was nice.
Way back in the early eighties I was flying back home from Oakland, CA to get married to my blushing bride. The only time I could get leave from the Navy was late December. I was booked on Frontier Air Lines (always the cheapest then) to Wichita, KS via their hub in Denver, CO and Denver had a MAJOR snow storm that shut them down for several days. You know it’s bad when they shutdown. Anyway, they had to get me replacement flights through Dallas and that leg was first class! I didn’t know what the heck to do since I had never experienced it before having only flown with normal people in the back. They kept trying to hand me stuff I thought I had to pay for, the flight attendant took pity on me and started giving me a clue when she came by with something.
I hate flying so when I do I’ll only fly first class. I hate being squished in between strangers.
I traveled extensively across the world for business. Northwest auto-bumped us to 1st Class on smaller planes…business class on planes that had three service levels. In addition, I had Platinum level membership on four airlines due to all the flying, so upgrades were common.
I haven’t flown since retirement a while back, but my advice is to skip the US based carriers, if you are in coach class, when flying overseas. The US carriers jam you in like sardines and could care less about your comfort. I found non US carriers, especially the Asian carriers like JAL and Singapore Air, to still treat you like flying was decades ago.
100% agree. JAL, Emirates, Singapore are all great. Like flying in the 70s when service and comfort mattered.
We usually fly first class but the first time I flew first class was in the 70’s when I was a college student. My college sent four of us from Oregon to Washington DC to represent the school at a college Congress. This was the same week Life Magazine had skyjacking on the front cover. Airport security sees two scruffy, long haired white guys and two black guys with Afros and beards and all four of us carrying briefcases (hey, we were going to DC, we wanted to look important). Security pulls us into four separate rooms, searches us and our briefcases and asks a lot of questions. As a result we missed our flight so the airlines put us in first class on the next flight. Then we really felt important!
Flying is no longer the joy it used to be; people are treated like animals, seats are uncomfortable and incredibly small with no leg room! We took Amtrak into Minneapolis/St. Paul., then lst class on Delta to Fairbanks, AK then the AK RR all the way to Seward where we celebrated our 50th Anniv. in 2016. The first class treatment from TSA pre-check to in-flight service and comfort was excellent both ways and worth the extra $2,000. price. The whole trip was outstanding and unforgettable! Also, if you haven’t experienced lst class on the Ak RR – you have missed an outstanding experience! (Bags even put in our motel rooms!)
Don’t confuse the front section business class cabin with first class. For example, the BA 747 flights from North America to the UK have (had) four classes: tourist/economy, world traveller (bigger seats), next class up was a pod (can’t remember the name), and then there was first class. First was upstairs. Seventeen large pods as I remember. Pajamas were issued. For dinner, I joined my wife in her pod and we sat across from each other at a table set with linen, crystal, and silver to enjoy a multi-course meal. For wine, the flight attendant left me a full-size bottle of Margaux. That’s First Class.