Kingdom

Yup I'm fairly positive that FA's look down on folks in the back compared to the premium cabins.

Proudelitist

Not a good job. a better job than some minimum wage hot work.

YEGcg

In Canada, it’s “Economy” and “Business”. Although “Coach” (reminds me of a horse drawn carriage through a park) and “First” (think: unlimited Champagne) sound superlative, despite the hard product being mostly the same as Economy and Business north of the border. Perhaps this is some sort of American Exceptionalism at play or, more likely, the marketing department hard at work.

krazykanuck

Well to call anything on an Air Canada "First Class" would be demeaning to first classes around the world, the best of which are not flown by US airlines either

ysolde

In the US, it's often First and Main Cabin, with variations. When you are traveling internationally on a US airline, there may or may not be a First class (many airlines have been removing them, in favor of variations of International Business Class). AA still has First Class (along with Business) on some routes. But you will note that Delta has Delta One, United has Polaris, and so on. Anyway . . .

Carnforth

It's a two-way street. I've never had any indications that premier cabin look down on economy - few of us, I suspect, started their flying experience in the front of the plane.

I tend to think of economy passengers, holidaymakers in particular, allocating their resources in a different way and, if they prefer up-market resort hotels to paying for a premium cabin then they may well spend as much money, or more, on their trip than I do.

However, I have been aware of, shall we say, some sensitivity directed towards C & F travellers from Y pax. This has ranged from calls of "Make way for the privileged class' when passing through the gate crowd, to '"Well, none of them are paying for it anyway" (a misconception).
Then there are those who feel that business class passengers should be and look like business people (why?)

Proudelitist

This is known as "Reverse Snobbery". For some reason, it is tolerated way more than regular snobbery in our culture. While taking jabs at the uneducated poors and general trash by their betters is considered classist and elitist, their taking jabs at their betters is nearly universally accepted.

I once had a base econ-peon yell at me early in the morning while waiting for TSA to open up. There were two lines. F, and Cattle. The cattle line was 40 people long and the F line was empty. I took my position in the F line and when TSA opened the officer rightly motioned me to come over first.

Some cig smoking, ball cap wearing 65 year old who probably uses "I says" instead of "I said" when he speaks got enraged, asking why I got to go first. I waved my F BP and pointed at the sign. This got him even more angry. Perhaps he couldn't read the sign. I ignored him and he began to complain to everyone within ear short about how unfair it was.

It's not unfair. I bought my UG fair and square. Where does it end? Does the guy in the beat up 1997 Sentra get to have my 2018 S-Class Coupe out of fairness?

Fredd

It brings to mind an experience I posted about in 2006:

"Cheater," she hissed at me across the security line rope.

AStarr

I don't judge by which part of the plane people are sitting... or how they got their tickets (paid themselves, paid by miles, paid by company, gift from a friend (or special friend), whatever) - just behave? Certain airlines I won't fly because I find the overall mood and attitude of passengers to be awful... and it's probably of no coincidence that behaviour correlates with low cost carriers. Some experiences have been better than others (JetBlue I don't think is a true LCC but is sold as one and I adore them - but Spirit, Ryanair, EasyJet, Spirit, Frontier - all can just... ugh, nope, never or never again. Southwest is acceptable. Haven't had the opportunity to try Norwegian yet).

As far as legacy carriers though, I think the more an airline makes a visible difference between classes... the more passengers will act like there is a difference and thus behave and think differently. And passenger demographics play a huge role in that as well. I fly between Scandinavia, England, and the US regularly and the difference is stark. People really do live up to stereotypes sometimes... I'm actually a big fan of free-for-all boarding (minus assistance for those who've made legit prior arrangements for pre-boarding ahead of time due to disability - they do not mess around with that over here; they go first before boarding of any kind is announced and it's quietly done without a fuss). The absurd number of boarding groups and hierarchies is... well, absurd. That sort of thing definitely encourages a "well first class people gotta be first, must think they're special and better than everyone else" sort of thing. I like the dedicated boarding lane to board whenever for those with whatever elite status/cabin and one dedicated for everyone else - two groups, done... rather than 20 different boarding groups based on ticket class and elite status. Also, having economy class passengers walk through first/business class? Oi. It's a logistical issue for one, but also, and while I get it's like free advertising to show off the product or whatever, it's also sort of rubbing it in their faces to see what they're missing when they get to the back and are squished together and pay $12 for a pile of mush between two soggy pieces of bread-like substance at some point. Generally, when I'm sitting up front, I feel bad for the people in the back. They have my sympathy and I'm one of them pretty often.

As for the reverse - those in the back mocking those in the front as if they think they are all high and mighty, I do encounter a fair amount of that. I fly up front and in back, it's hit or miss, because I'm paying for all of my flights myself. But really, I judge people on their behaviour regardless where they are in the plane - cabin or staff. I'm judgey about behaviour.

Sjondorn

There was a time 3 - 4 years ago I was considering flying in economy only, seeing business class as something I don't need (until the first upgrade popped out). Then about 2.5 years ago my company changed their travel policy and allowed business class on long-haul (which were all of my flights and it was quite a bit of them) and so I got used to it and whenever I fly today (holiday or business) it's pretty much only business / domestic first class only (since I usually fly longer routes).

Honestly my view about flying in economy hasn't really changed. I don't really mind on short haul (really, don't care about flights < 90 minutes), would fly domestic first only if the price difference is really small. On medium-haul and long-haul I rather see it as "not going to have to squeeze myself on that tiny seat", "don't have to worry about storage space", "don't need to care about the queues" and on long-haul (or HNL-SLC on Delta's A330 red-eye) "flatbed seat, sweetness". Or simply said travel without the hassle that you have to go through when flying economy.

When we had overnight IRROPs at Kona, me and other first class passengers went to the hotel first (to Hilton in Waikoloa) and we were debating that we rather feel sorry for economy passengers as we arrived at our hotel by midnight and they still had like 150 pax to accomodate (was a red-eye flight).

84fiero

Some people look down on others for all sorts of reasons, so I'm sure there are some premium passengers who feel superior to those flying economy/coach/tourist/cattle class (a rose by any other name!). I doubt it's a large percentage in general but in any case, I wouldn't worry about it either way. People will think what they will and I don't see it having any impact on me personally when I travel in Y.

separatepeace

Forget class distinctions, whether they are propagated by airlines, tax bracket or zip code. I think the issue is that today the experience of flying magnifies the low levels of civility and consideration for the people next to us.

I'm just old enough to have memories of traveling as a shared human experience. Now, The Screens own us, social media has sold us unattainable and perfected realities, and public displays of entitled dissatisfaction are how we express ourselves.

To be fair, I'm not sure what the solution is besides taking the personal initiative to be considerate and connect with the people I encounter as I travel. I'm not always good at it, but if everyone did . . .

edvasquez

No, I don't think so. But what draws attention is the way that you are dressed or the way that you conduct yourself. And that goes for any class.

RRDD

https://goo.gl/images/iHWF6y

rbwpi

Agreed.