I mean, after all, we have First Class..doesn't that make Business class "Second Class" and Economy "Third Class"?

And if there is no Business Class, does that make Economy "Second Class"?

Is it just a marketing thing? Who would want to be reminded that are getting the third and lowest tier service. Calling it "Economy" works much the way it does for cars..to imply a clever frugality. And this applies I think to the retention of "First Class" in the top tier of service, where people who use it DO want to be reminded that they are getting the highest available service.

No matter what you call it, that's what it is though, isn't it?

Train systems in Europe still do this, but airlines so far as I remember phased out the phrases "Third Class" and "Second Class" in the early 60's I think.

Soft Seat & Hard Seat

"Economy" is a euphemism for "steerage."

I actually haven't heard "Economy" in a while, for exactly that reason. Is Economy (i.e. cheap) better than 2nd or 3rd.

I usually hear either Coach or some airline-specific Marketing name.

You're a Yank. Yanks use "Coach." Brits use "Economy." In the UK, a coach is a bus. Someone who travels to the U.S. in [a] coach will get very wet, also very cold this time of year, and probably not complete the trip.

Lone time ago, ships had three classes: Cabin, Tourist and Third. (At one time there was also Steerage, but it was eventually phased out. What remained of those rooms became low-end Third Class.) The marketing types tried to make customers feel good by renaming Third class as Tourist, then renaming second class (previously Tourist) as Cabin, and renaming first class (previously Cabin) as, you guessed it, First. I don't know if it made any difference when people decided what rooms to pay for, but it may have impressed some non-travelers when they heard "Yes, we were in Cabin Class on the Mauretania" or whatever.

My father calls Economy/coach/whatever is at the very back of the plane "Reverse". He drives a manual.

Getting from Point A to B at a fraction of the cost is more than just an implied frugality, no?

Depends on what you value. For most travelers you're correct - e.g. I'm not willing to spend an additional $50-200 per hour for meals and a more comfortable seat. But a small fraction see that as a bargain.

The UK has "First Class" and "Standard"[1], but most of the rest of Europe has retained first class and second class, except Thalys which euphemises with "Comfort 1" and "Comfort 2" for some reason best known to its marketeers.

[1] Which is actually third class - second class was abolished without "moving up" third class prior to its renaming to "Standard".

Neil

Maybe they value it highly, but that doesn't change the definition of frugal.

Are you sure about this? I'm certain I remember "second class" (as the lowest class) in the 80s.

Pretty much. Remember that until the late 70's, (1979?) business class didn't exist. It was just first class and coach class. And coach was pretty good too, with 2-4-3 seating in B747s and great service. (That's what I read anyway - I'm as old as business class has been in existence ) I take it airlines didn't want to call business class "second class" and still don't.

In my ideal world, premium economy would renamed as main cabin. And economy would be renamed as cattle class, at least for international flights with business class.

Frugality is always relative. Discounted J is a steal compared to a private jet

That's true. A discount economy fare is super expensive compared to, say, hitchhiking.

AFAIK only Americans use "coach". In Au it is always economy, it would never be referred to as "coach"