All-business class service sounds good at first. But Forbes gets to the heart of the matter by reminding us that a caste system requires lower castes in order to confer status to those more exalted.
Class Conscious - Forbes.com
In late 2005, two new air carriers, MAXjet and Eos Airlines, launched all-business-class service from New York to London, one of the busiest and most profitable routes in commercial aviation.MAXjet and Eos offer very different products–the former, more modest; the latter, pricey and accordingly pampering. But besides their business class billing, they have one big thing in common: They aren’t really business class, because they don’t have coach class.
Let’s be honest. Part of the point of premium travel is that you are a step up from your fellow passengers. Sure, you’re eating airplane food, but you’re eating several restaurant-quality courses served with china and silver on a linen tablecloth, while everyone else is struggling with their sporks. And yes, you may be sleeping in a glorified chair, but at least your seat reclines and your footrest extends so your body is horizontal. At the gate, while other customers swill vending-machine Coke and sit on polyester chairs, you sip Champagne in the airport lounge. Best of all, you board and disembark well before your coach-class counterparts.
Not so when business class takes up the whole bird.
You may get many business class perks, but priority boarding isn’t one of them. Neither is better service than the rest of the plane.
MAXjet is targeted at a coach customer looking to upgrade for a discount. Its planes, second-hand Boeing (nyse: BA - news - people ) 767s, are configured to seat 102 passengers but carry only eight to ten crew members, a service ratio that isn’t much better than what you’d get in coach.
Seats enjoy lots of legroom but recline only 160 degrees, as opposed to the flat 180 of premium business class services. MAXjet’s personal digEplayers, in-flight entertainment devices with on-demand programming, are not distributed until well after take-off. The dining options are certainly competitive with other commercial business class products, though, and so is the price: Round-trip fares start at just $1,500.
We say skip the security lines and fly in a private jet. There may be only one class, but there is no doubt about which one it is.
Yes, it’s heavy. But it’s not as heavy as others like it.