Questions and Answers

Lucky, I keep seeing posts about great business class deals originating in Europe to the U.S., but rarely in the opposite direction. Why is this the case?

It’s not like the UK, Germany, and France are poor, third-world nations where people can’t afford to buy business class tickets. At least, they don’t seem any different from the U.S. in that regard.

And every time they sell a cheap $1,500 J class ticket from Europe to the U.S., they are taking up a seat that a U.S.-based passenger might have had to pay $4,000 for.

I bet if the airlines would lower the U.S. price to, say, $3,000, they’d get a lot more U.S. travelers to buy tickets. And that’s better for the airlines than having those $1,500 European travelers taking up seats.

Anyone who has worked at an airline maybe care to explain why there is such a wide discrepancy based on from where you originate?

This has been the norm for years. And as someone who takes several trips to the EU each year on US carriers, it’s uncommon to see Europeans in Business Class. Many however, travel in economy.

At the moment, the US carriers are not having a problem filling their premium cabins with American revenue passengers for these routes.