Airlines Woo Frequent Fliers

Filed in archive Business Travel on March 26, 2008

The troubled airline industry is looking to business travelers for a boost. While competing in the economy class price wars has put more than one major carrier in jeopardy, business and first class prices have remained steady. Airlines are now focusing on how to win these high paying customers. This means it's a great time to be a business traveler. Domestic carriers are well behind international airlines in terms of business class service. Seats that lie flat or at least 160 degrees and personal video screens are the norm. The in-flight service seems more like first-class.

Matthew Daimler, founder of SeatGuru.com, thinks the war for customers is making business class better: "What first class was five or 10 years ago, that's what business class is now becoming."

With seats getting wider and wider and service getting better and better, we have to start wondering where it is going to end. There is talk of converting planes to all business class seats on busy routes. Eos Airlines has 757s that contain 48 personal "suites." Fliers have 20 square feet of their own personal space. So the day may be coming soon when economy and business classes are not in separate sections, but on separate planes.

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