I would stop buying F tickets for travel to/from LAS and other airports where there are serious line problems, but a First Class only lane. At LAS, concourse "D" the lines can get very long and there is no "Elite" line, just a First Class line.

However, most airports which have an express lane allow for Elite status passengers and F passengers.

Flying a carrier such as NWA and having Plat status, there is a good chance I would get an F upgrade anyhow flying out of LAS, but with the line situation, I don't want to take that chance -- especially if I am leaving on a heavy departure day or at the end of a convention. I will purchase an actual FC ticket at a premium fare to ensure I have access to it -- if that benefit was eliminated, I wouldn't care so much.

The F fares I buy for LAS are typically advance purchase, discount F, but the fare is still more expensive, sometimes twice the price or more of an economy ticket I can buy on a carrier such as NW and have a good shot at an upgrade -- but it's guaranteed F. It's peace of mind I won't have to wait two hours in line if I'm departing on a bad, heavy traffic day.

When I last purchased an F ticket for LAS, the regular line was running between 90 minutes and 2 hours for the security checkpoint. For the FC line, I just walked up and was through in less than 5 minutes.

FWIW, in several markets there are discount F fares which are reasonable from a price standpoint. If economy is running $250, discount F is running $600, and I'm flying to/from an airport during a peak travel period, I am likely to jump for the discount F fare. While many of these discount F fares are non-refundable, some of them are changable free of charge, and the flexibility to change flights free of charge has value to me if I'm not 100% set with my schedule as well.

Let's face it, First Class is no longer a First Class product anymore as a general rule for US Domestic flights. You may get a bigger seat & free liquor, but when it comes to meals, service, etc., it's not what it used to be. Continental, FWIW, has managed to maintain a decent FC product, but on most other carriers lunch could be a cold sandwhich with no choice of meals, desserts suck, some carriers no longer provide pillows or blankets, even in F, or availability is spotty depending on flight, magazines are no longer available, and complimentary newspapers are not available upon boarding. Service has gone downhill and unless you have other reasons, there really isn't much to justify purchasing an F ticket, especially if you can easily get an upgrade on many carriers. First Class is not First Class - on most carriers, it should really be renamed "Business Class" or "Premium Economy" as there is nothing First Class about the product.

Thankfully, for international flights, products like World Business Class, BusinessElite, and BusinessFirst are good products, much better than the domestic FC offered on the respective carriers. When you go to Asian carriers, they have great Business Class products and their First Class products are true first class (try Singapore or Malaysian Airlines as examples).

Speaking of premium international, carriers like Malaysian Airlines also offer "Fast Track" immigration services to their premium passengers at participating airports (i.e. Fast Track for LHR T4) or if you enter Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at their hub (KUL / KLIA in Sepang) you get to use special fast track & diplomatic immigration lanes; luggage for premium passengers comes off first and they'll take care of you from beginning to end. While no security short cuts with Malaysian at their hub, what they do instead is call the Premium cabins from the lounge, but they only make the call from the lounge after all economy passengers have been boarded - you then have no wait at the security checkpoint at the gate, and you board the aircraft last. Great care is taken to ensure you have room for all your carry-on baggage when board last. Two jetways are typically used, one for economy, one for First & Business. When you board, an FA personally sees you to your seat. When you land, if only one door is being used on the plane to disembark, all F & J passengers are allowed off first and economy is held back.

You pay good money, but they take care of you from the beginning of your journey with them to the end of the journey. Malaysian long-haul first, let alone business do not even measure up to First Class on domestic US carriers. International premium service on Asian carriers such as this is worth every penny.

In the end, if the few additional benefits for US domestic FC are taken away, I would never, ever, purchase a domestic FC ticket. I'll use free upgrades when I can for the extra space, but I couldn't be bothered paying for it. If upgrades were limited on cheaper tickets, I couldn't be bothered to pay more for an upgradable ticket --- unless US domestic FC provides me something of real value, which includes Fast Track at security. I personally believe airports like SDF which have no FC lane should get one; that would at least be another incentive for me to purchase an F ticket. If I buy FC, I want to be taken care of from beginning to end of journey, as some international Asian carriers do.

If the govt was smart, they would mandate an FC lane at every airport which lets FC pax jump to the front -- it won't cost the govt anything, which I should note has bailed out airlines with govt money, and in return it would another benefit to encourage people to purchase FC tix --- it's the premium passengers that make flights profitable and everything should be done to attract more premium passengers.

My 10 USD, ~5 GBP, or ~40 Malaysian Ringgits worth; The govt can keep my .02 cents.

SDF_Traveler