I read reviews of business class flights for one reason – to shake my head at the complaints the reviewers dredge up. Even as a guy who loves air travel, I’d never miss reviews of business class flight if they fell into oblivion, never to return to earth. Here’s why.
The Writing is Awful
Here’s a passage from a recent review of a business class flight: “The giant GE-90 engines powered the Boeing 777-300ER off the ground and into the air for the scheduled 13-hour, 30-minute flight to Taipei.”
That is some of the nerdiest over-writing ever. And believe me, it doesn’t end there. Reviews of business class flights are filled with horrible shorthand like “pax” (passengers); jargon like “hard product” (I could joke about this all day); and over-analysis of each course of the dining options, with photos included. Speaking of photos, almost every business class flight review I see has way too many of them – stuff like seats, amenity kits and (I’m dead serious here) video screens. Yes, photos of video screens. SMH, as the kids would say.
Nobody Should Have Any Complaints
Look, no matter what airline you fly, a business class seat is going to be one of the nicest transportation experiences you will ever have. Fact. That’s it. Some of the nitpicking I’ve seen is absolutely revolting.
One knock I saw on an airline’s business class was “not enough privacy.” Another was “poor location for the seat remote control.” Oh, and cheap plastic cutlery. The horror!
I can’t believe how people can be so whiny about not being pampered enough. One hundred years ago, we were getting around on steam engines. Fifty years before that, covered wagons. And here we are traveling at 38,000 feet and spanning the world – can we no longer endure two meals with cheap plastic cutlery without sniveling as we polish our monocles” And don’t even tell me that business travelers need to know what they’re getting for their money: Most of the time, it’s either their employer’s money, or an upgrade.
Reviews of Business Class Flights Are Irrelevant
Most people travel in economy, maybe in economy plus. The differences back there vary much more widely by airline. I’ve flown domestic airlines and experienced them as just adequate – nothing horrible at all. But the foreign carriers I’ve flown really step up their game. There is a huge difference in economy class among the airlines I’ve flown.
And that’s really the bigger, more relevant story that travelers need to know: which airlines bring the A Game to economy class. Some will be willing to pay more for the better airlines, while others would prefer to lose a measure of comfort to save a few clams.
Related articles
This post just might contain affiliate links. Fear not, they’re non-spammy and benign. Hey, I have to keep this thing running somehow!
Haha, well, having to eat your deluxe dinner with cheap plastic cutlery, that is really awful of course! You are completely right, what do they even complain about? Better to compare the economy class reviews indeed.
Absolutely right. I categorize this in first world problems. I have flown a couple times business class between the US and Europe and mainly on Lufthansa. I have to say it was an amazing experience.
The next problem is, most of the people who fly business class dont even pay it themself, company pays for all of it and they behave as they would own the plane.
Go pay it for yourselff and then you will see what you get for your money. I prefer to fly economy, because you meet way nicer people there and i made a lot of good friendships. Business class everybody pretends to be better than everybody else on the plane. And as I said, pay for yourself the full price for a business class intercontinental trip. No miles upgrades or discount/error fares.
That’s definitely the feeling I get from first/business class, Peter. And it’s great that you’ve made some friends in the air … the miles pass by a bit faster when there’s a friendly person in the next seat.
I’m always happy just to be flying … especially if I’m headed somewhere fun. Some people actually complain about the business class seats. Now, I’m pretty tall at 6’2 – but I’m seldom uncomfortable even in economy class!