Racing Toward Average

Racing Toward Average

American Airlines has decided to eliminate first class seats on international flights because, according to the CEO, “customers aren’t buying them.” They will expand business class seats, which will mean less individual space and less individual service.

Perhaps customers “aren’t buying them” because the first class service simply doesn’t measure up to the competition or the price point. (United abandoned first class internationally some time ago.) I’ve never been on an Emirates flight or a Singapore Air flight internationally where first class wasn’t sold out.

I once thought that banks and newspapers had the worst leadership of any industries or businesses. But now I think the domestic airlines have overcome them. I remain big on Delta and Jet Blue, and I miss Virgin America. Despite many Australians’ antipathy toward Qantas, their first class has always been very well done.

Sometimes I feel like we’re in a race toward mediocrity, where the Olympic cry would be, “Let’s go for the bronze!!”