Hi,

I am 6' 4" tall and have arthritis. If I can't fly first class, I won't fly. And since that is that standard for myself, I can't in good conscious ask any of my family to fly coach. So, we fly in paid first. Fortunately, as my knees have gotten weaker, my checkbook has gotten stronger, so this is not a problem.

In the last five years, we have always flown AA. My daughter had an accident a few years ago that gives her motion sickness when she flies, and she has expressed a very strong desire to avoid connections. So, I will book her flights on other airlines. Sometime earlier this year, I started noticing Delta charging only 40-50% of what I would consider a "normal" first class fare.

Well, my wife and I frequently fly from Orlando to Denver, and always on AA with a connection. I know United has a direct flight, but they always wanted about 150% more than we paid with AA (we have Aairpasses with AA). Last week, I looked and saw that United would sell us first class seats for about what AA charges us with our Aairpasses (about a 60% discount from the cheapest first class seat I've ever seen United offer on this route).

Is charging about 60% less than they used to for paid domestic first a new trend in the air travel industry? I sure hope so, because these prices are pretty astonishing to me. Or is this just a bunch of sales, and not a long term trend?

Some routes have a fair amount of a discounted F seat bucket. Rest assured, when the flight is close to full up front, the fare will be a lot higher. It can be route and airline specific, although many airlines match the fares, to some degree. (As you can see, a nonstop may not match a connection.) I recently flew LGA/BOS/SFO on a codeshare in discounted F and paid a fraction of what the operating carrier was charging on either the entire route (the first segment was on the codeshare partner) or what just the BOS/SFO segment would have cost.

I think the airlines are figuring they'd rather fill a % of their seats at a decent premium over Y, but less than full F - probably a fair % of what they think would go to complimentary upgrades.

Retail vs. airpasses.. different products..

But a way for airlines to fill their seats with revenue.. better a seat filled with some revenue, then a seat not filled..

If F fares are declining, its just to go along with the quality of service declining and the hard product declining in quality

During the current recession in the US.. consumers have become increasingly price sensitive..

So the lower price offerings is due to a decrease in demand..

Many of Delta's first class fares are actually coach fares with an immediate upgrade. This should be fine if you maintain your original routing, but in the event of any IRROPS, you are not guaranteed your first class seat. Something to keep in mind.

My experience has been that if you are willing to wait a while, you will still get first class. You just have to wait until a seat is available with that inventory. Not to belabor a point, but for a very tall person like me with arthritis, waiting a day or two in a nice hotel room is much much nicer than a single flight in coach.