Airlines spent decades cramming as many seats into coach as possible. Now they’re focusing on adding roomier seats in a worldwide chase for high-spending travelers like Natalie Rasmussen.
“I’m not going to fly to Europe in 36B. 36B is a bra size, not an airline seat,” said Rasmussen, an application scientist who lives in near San Jose, California.
Rasmussen said she won’t fly in standard coach on long-haul flights. Instead, she opts for business class or premium economy, a newer cabin that sits between business and coach and offers more legroom, a bigger seat-back screen and other perks but not the lie-flat seats of front-of-the-plane fame.
Premium seats yield many times standard coach fares, making them even more important to carriers as ticket prices, generally, fall and business travel’s rebound from the Covid pandemic levels off. Airline executives have said customers have shown a willingness in the wake of the pandemic to pay for more space on board.
Rasmussen said she recently paid $500 to upgrade on her way home from Europe to ditch premium economy and fly in Delta Air Lines‘ highest-end cabin, Delta One, which comes with a lie-flat bed, large entertainment screen and a privacy door.
“I clicked ‘yes’ so fast,” said Rasmussen, 43, who visited London, Germany and the Czech Republic on her latest trip and purchased a ticket in Virgin Atlantic’s premium economy class on the way over.
Pricey tickets
Airlines are in an arms race to outfit thousands of new aircraft with high-end seats — and more of them.
Economy seats account for 79.3% of seats between the U.S. and Europe, down from nearly 81.9% in 2018, before the pandemic, according to aviation data firm Cirium. Business-class seats’ share of seats sold has grown slightly, from 12.9% to 13.5% though premium economy’s share has increased even more, making up 6.4% of seats sold, up from 4.2% five years ago, while first-class seats’ share fell.
Delta, JetBlue Airways, United Airlines, American Airlines, Finnair and…
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