It’s a nice problem to have, I suppose: choosing which of the three different first-class seats you’d like to sit in on a long-haul flight. That’s the dilemma that will face the lucky cohort of passengers who will be buying the best tickets on Lufthansa’s new “nine-class” Airbus A350s.
In fact, the German carrier isn’t the only airline that is looking to offer a barrage of new options for premium passengers. Just last month, the US airline Delta – a codeshare partner of Virgin Atlantic – announced it will be introducing new “basic” business and first-class tickets which will come with fewer perks.
British Airways is doing a similar thing. The last time I looked at Club World tickets on the BA website, I was confronted with no fewer than four separate options, from standard “Business” to “Fully-Flex”, all of which had a different itemised breakdown of benefits.
Obviously, I’m all for consumer choice. But was there anyone really crying out for this sudden deluge of different premium options? And more importantly, can we really be sure it won’t end up with some customers inadvertently losing out as they become bamboozled by dozens of different options?
The rise of ‘unbundling’
Assuming you’ve flown a low-cost airline over the past decade, you’ve probably become acquainted with the concept of “unbundling” – i.e. the practice of airlines like Ryanair stripping out all of the additional perks and then selling them to you separately.
Unbundling hasn’t been popular with everyone (certainly not when full-service airlines like British Airways started doing it). But it does mean – assuming you’re not bothered about seat selection or checking in a bag – you can often get a BA economy ticket (short-haul) for well under £100.
That justification works with economy class, where removing perks can take a significant chunk out of the headline ticket price. But for business class, where long-haul tickets can easily fetch up to £1,000 each way? There’s no way that removing perks like checked-in baggage can make a serious dent in the cost of the ticket.
It also risks creating confusion. For the average punter, business class is a byword for luxury, stress-free travel. But imagine the look on the faces of the poor honeymooners who splash out on a front-end ticket to the Maldives only to find out that they get last dibs on choosing their seats – and have to sit apart.
That’s exactly what can happen with BA’s Club World. If you want to be able to choose your seats immediately, you need to pick at least a “Semi-Flex” ticket. If you want to make do with a “Standard” business-class ticket (likely over £1,000), you’ll have to wait until check-in time, when the best seats will be gone.
You can see why that might cause problems for anyone lucky enough to have business-class travel in their employment contract. Unless they can persuade HR to cough up an extra £100 or so for the right type of Club World ticket, they risk having to make do with sleeping in the aisle suites.
Yes, I realise this is very much the definition of what the internet used to call “first-world problems”. But that doesn’t mean it’s not an issue: if long-haul airlines are going to start routinely unbundling their business-class fares, they can expect plenty of those kinds of grumbles coming into their inboxes before long.
Expect things to get worse
Don’t be surprised if more unbundling wheezes come along. We’ve seen from economy tickets that these things tend to ramp up over time. How long before we see business-class tickets being offered without lounge access, for example? After all, that’s already the case with US domestic flights, where business class doesn’t entitle you to use the lounge beforehand.
And what of the plethora of seating options that are set to be unleashed on the new Lufthansa jets – and perhaps on other airlines before long? Is it really such a good idea to expect premium travellers to choose between different models of seats, with confusing nomenclature like “thrones” and “suites”? Surely, the obvious risk is that it leaves some premium passengers feeling like they made the wrong choice and spending the whole flight looking enviously at their neighbours.
Realistically, of course, it’s always going to benefit those who travel often and know how the different suites work. But isn’t that always the case? Most people who fly regularly in premium cabins will have their preferences as to exactly where in the cabin they like to sit.
And it isn’t as though some airlines don’t already have different types of business-class seats.
If you’ve flown Virgin Atlantic “Upper Class” on certain leisure routes, you may have had the misfortune to get stuck with “coffin class” – the outdated business class layout on some of its older planes, which is known for being much more cramped than its successor suites.
So, yes, it isn’t as though business class travellers don’t have to do their homework already when it comes to scouting the best seats and deals. But all the signs are that things are about to get even more complicated in the years to come – whether the rest of us like it or not.