yetanotherjohn: Round trip on Continental from SFO to EWR is $2100 for business and only $1200 coach. The airline would more than recoup their costs. Anyway, the point is not to make a net change in the number of coach vs. business and first seats, but simply to rearrange them so more of the business seats are on one flight. There are already flights on Emirates that are entirely first class (and first class on Emirates means a 150 sq ft cabin).

Do this simple math test. Take a continental flight (which is 3 seats on each side). Removing 1/3 of the seats minimum (no extra leg room) for business class seats would say they would have to increase the cost of the flight by 1/3 to break even. If they removed every third row, to add leg room, another 1/3 cost.

If the plane has 150 seats now (25 rows of 6 seats), then we end up with about 76 seats to fit in business class. So in rough numbers, you have doubled the price for them to break even. They save a little for weight and needing fewer people who need to buy tickets to fill the plane, so they are probably money ahead if they can fill the plane. But they are now selling the same destination for twice the price as the cattle car. The $350 flight costs $700.

I agree it would be wonderful, from a flying on other people's money. But how many who are making the buying decision would pay double?

One thing I would like to see is a plane consisting entirely of first or business class seating. Think of how fast the aircraft would board and alight with only high-paying frequent fliers, and how peaceful the trip would be without kids and babies.

The market was not there for Eos, which flew between JFK (I think) and Heathrow. They just went out of business a few weeks ago.

Silverjet is still around. They fly from Luton to Newark. Unfortunately, Al Gore has conned them into adding a "carbon offset charge" to each flight. But when the flight is 5 grand round trip, a couple of bucks to keep Al Gore happy isn't going to make much of a difference for most flyers.

One thing I would like to see is a plane consisting entirely of first or business class seating. Think of how fast the aircraft would board and alight with only high-paying frequent fliers, and how peaceful the trip would be without kids and babies.

One fact of life that you can count on in comparing the foreign vs US flag carriers on international flights is that the US carriers put the wide bodies on the wide bodies. I suspect that the average age of the stewardess on the international US flag planes is my age or higher while the average age on foreign flag planes is about half my age.

It has been noted for years that international carriers bend over backwards to make flying family-friendly whereas American carriers cater to the business traveler.

Actually, the charge-for-everything practice and the catering towards individual consumers has been well-established in Europe for years.

Try taking Ryan Air or EasyJet the next time you're over there. Those carriers are basically glorified buses. Tickets are dirt cheap and you have to pay an extra charge for EVERYTHING!