Airlines in the U.S. have gotten much better at squeezing every last dollar out of their premium cabins. With business travel still lagging behind pre-pandemic levels, airlines have pivoted to selling more first-class seats to leisure travelers who want a bit of extra comfort—rather than just rewarding frequent flyers with upgrades.
United Airlines has fully embraced this shift, with premium leisure travel becoming a major driver of its revenue. According to an internal presentation, United is making record profits even as traditional business travel fades.
But here’s what I can’t wrap my head around: Who is actually paying these prices?
I recently booked an economy flight from Orlando to Newark using United miles. Right after checkout, I got the usual pop-up offering me a chance to upgrade. No big deal. But then I saw the price.
$1,520. Per person. To upgrade to United First on a three-hour flight.
They can’t be serious.
And yet, maybe they are—because the cost to book first class outright was a staggering $2,025. No wonder the cabin was still almost empty.
Apparently, four people had already booked first class. I have a hard time believing they actually paid that much, but hey, maybe I’m out of touch.
As someone who never even considers paying cash for domestic first class, I must ask: Are these prices normal? Do people really shell out this much to sit up front?
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3 comments
I’d like to see that $1,500 used car move from A to B.
People are far wealthier than you might realize. I’m a travel advisor, and the most expensive domestic flight I booked was US$2,000 for EWR-MIA in First Class. People who can afford to spend that much money value their schedule over anything else.
Let’s restate what we all probably already know, looking at the seat map tells us little about how many seats they have sold on that flight.
It could already be oversold.
There might also be other reasons why they may expect to need the seats. Perhaps they expect to cancel other flight(s) so they are protecting this one by raising the price.
Or maybe as you surmise they just expect to find people with more money than sense!
Airline pricing algorithms are and are intended to be a mystery 🙂