Last time I flew first on BA from SFO to LHR
... it was an upgrade. And I had a cubical with a footstool for my manservant.... I calculated that I had something like 15 sq ft to myself. There was even a curtain to hide me from the other 'special people'.
The best part by far was that they turned off all the lights basically immediately after takeoff and there are no announcements - in fact, I got the following msg on the screen "In-flight entertainment has been paused for an announcement in another cabin" ;-)
I did lookup the fare after I got home, it was $18,000. This was in 2006-07 IRC. As far as my upgrade, I was flying 150k miles/yr and buying a lot of 'full fare' tickets. On this flight, I paid $4000 for an economy (plus? don't remember) ticket for a 4hr meeting in Cambridge.... I don't think anyone up front ever paid full price for the privilege of sitting there. Most are/were probably poor shlubs like me that traveled too much.
I also seem to recall that BA had 4 classes at the time and the class below 'first' (which you might refer to as 'business') had basically the same seats/configuration as most other airlines 'first' (e.g. partitions, fold flat, large screen, large trays in the armrest etc). 'Economy plus' (or whatever BA called it) used what on other carriers were 'business class' seats. The food on 'first' & 'business' was effectively the same (e.g. very good), and both 'economy' classes got the prison fare.
All that said, I don't fly much any more other than for the occasional vacation. With the 9/11 changes & the growth of air travel, it's just too much of cattle experience, not to mention that for overseas travel, the prices from the US seem to have doubled or tripled.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
