Originally Posted by
EWR764
The airlines with top-end first class products tend to have one primary longhaul hub through which all premium traffic can be consolidated. Much more difficult to do when traffic flows are very fragmented and can be distributed over major international gateways at six sites. The investment to offer that kind of a product (ground service, greater number of airframes to fit out, more empty seats, etc.) is staggering.
The business has changed. It's not a sCO thing.
This is a good point. The airlines that are held up as the "gold standards" when it comes to F products are generally limited to single hubs with pretty limited route networks when compared to legacy airlines. The market for F seats is very small compared to J and the big guys (UA, AA, LH, etc) have clearly made a decision not to bother with F when the market for J is much more robust.