Must be nice to spend your vacation being lavished with seven-course gourmet meals, pampered with gifts by Ferragamo and Bulgari, and swaddled in Australian wool blankets—at 35,000 feet.
Ah, the luxuries of first class flying… how I wish I knew thee. Actually, I’ve had the great pleasure of flying first class a couple times in my life, unfortunately both experiences happened in the mid 80s, long before first class flying included access to fully flat beds, silk sheets, and a three-to-one passenger-to-crew ratio. These days the first class cabins in most airlines are akin to luxury spas. To say some carriers are creating an over-the-top experience for passengers is an understatement.
For about $7,000 (one-way) there are a handful of European and Asian based airliners that are striving for that “wow factor” by providing big spending passengers with out-of-this-world amenities.
For example, Qatar Airways not only offers its first class flyers a meal fit for a king (think champagne and caviar for starters) is also gives them access to a new separate $90 million terminal in Doha that resembles a five-star hotel with marble floors and cascading waterfalls. Passengers are catered to as soon as they arrive at the airport. An attendant takes their bags and checks them in (no more waiting in long check-in or security lines) and leads them to a lounge, which sports a spa with a sauna and Jacuzzi. Once on board passengers are given their choice of 79-inch long seats that sport 15-inch LCD screens. They are then given full-size pillows and luxury linen mattresses, which they can enjoy as soon as they are done dining on a 7-course gourmet meal on a 23-inch meal table, which lets two passengers, eat across from each other, like in a restaurant.
Yes, all that and more for the low, low price of $15,000 (roundtrip). Despite the steep price tag the airline says first class is more of a marketing tool than a moneymaker.
Still, that hasn’t stopped Australian carrier Qantas from fitting their first class cabins with seats that transform into beds 7-feet long, and TVs with 400 video on-demand channels. The airline also gives its first class passengers designer silk toiletry kits to use onboard.
Must be nice.
When was the last time you rode first class?
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