Check out what readers had to say in our chat. Can First Class Get rid of first class and use the extra room to make sardine class a bit more tolerable. Violet Horvath, like many frequent travelers, has watched economy class devolve from a cheap but civilized way to travel to the trash compactor it is now. Few Luxuriate at Expense of Many Get rid of those oversized seats, space the economy class seats further apart and for goodness sake treat passengers like people instead of animals.
Airlines know that it's the right thing to do, but they're hiding behind a number of tired excuses.
They claim their frequent fliers wouldn't tolerate the elimination of first class and that they couldn't turn a profit with a one-class configuration. So convinced are the carriers that first class is indispensable to their operations that they're actually expanding the front of their planes. The airlines are hyping the upgrades in newspaper and magazine ads. There's no mention, of course, of the fate awaiting the unfortunate majority that doesn't get a preferred seat. I ran my idea of zapping first class by a few frequent travelers.