£20,000 per seat? First class is getting more extreme – but it still makes sense

Singapore Airlines offers double beds in Suites Class on its Airbus A380 superjumbos

It looks like a hotel room, with a double bed and en-suite bathroom, but there is one crucial difference – it is aloft at 39,000ft.

Airbus has unveiled a new First Class Experience concept – a room with chairs that recline to form a double bed, its own lavatory and changing area, and even a small bar. It builds on the success of Airbus’s new Allegris first-class suites adopted by Lufthansa and SWISS.

A first-class reprieve

The luxurious launch marks a U-turn in air travel. Even before Covid grounded jets, airlines were racing to dump first class. Companies that used to fly their top executives up-front had downgraded them to business class, and leisure travellers were limiting themselves to premium economy.

The Airbus First Class Experience includes a room with chairs that recline to form a double bed

But revenge spending after the Covid lockdowns were lifted, coupled with a growing sense of YOLO (you only live once) and FOMO (fear of missing out), have pushed up demand for the big seats. “Appetite for top tier-travel has exceeded our expectations, and travellers aren’t blinking at first-class fares,” says Sir Tim Clark, the Briton who runs Emirates.

Across the Atlantic, analysts at consultancy Morningstar note that “premium revenue growth outpaced economy sales by seven percentage points” in 2025 at American Airlines, and that the carrier “must now reconfigure some of its jets to accommodate more premium seats.” Ed Bastian, boss of AA’s rival, Delta, is already doing so – some 80 per cent of new seats installed on his jets will be in premium cabins.

It is tempting for those of us more used to the cheap seats to disdain the race to pamper the lucky few. But fares which start (start!) at £10,000 return and rise to £20,000 are of greater significance to the rest of us than you might realise. Put simply, airlines typically make three-quarters of their profits in first and business class, and this subsidises low fares at the back of the bus.

“A long-haul first-class passenger may generate 10 or more times the profit of that discount fare economy passenger. If long-haul premium cabins didn’t exist, economy fares might be even more expensive – and the seats and onboard experience even more dismal,” explains Henry Harteveldt of US-based Atmosphere Research Group.

The best seats in the sky

Lufthansa and SWISS are neck and neck. On their Airbus A350s, there are just three Allegris suites across the cabin, including the central double suite, which boasts the biggest double bed on a commercial jet – 6ft-long and more than 4ft wide. This enables a family of four to book the entire cabin. Their closest rival, Air France, has four separate seats in its La Première cabin.

The Allegris central double suite on Lufthansa and SWISS Airbus A350s jets

Emirates, meanwhile, has refreshed the design of showers on its A380 double-decker superjumbo – and added a table to the bar so four people can dine together. Singapore Airlines has moved its Suites cabin – the name it gives to first class on its A380s – from the lower deck to the upper deck. There are now only six suites, and four can be converted into vast double suites with a double bed. An all-new first suite will be unveiled shortly for Singapore’s Airbus A350s.

Singapore Airlines has moved its Suites cabin from the lower deck to the upper deck - Singapore Airlines

Etihad, on the other hand, has configured its Airbus A380s with a single aisle, allowing it to install the First Apartments which run perpendicular to the walls of the jet. Each has a 30.3-inch wide seat – which faces forward next to the window – and a separate bed. The partition between suites can retract to create a partial double bed.

But best of all is Etihad’s The Residence, a 125 sq ft, three-room suite in the sky on the upper deck – although this is not really first class, but rather an offering which sits in a category above. Its “living room” is big enough for two adults to sit on seats upholstered in Poltrona Frau leather. There’s a large dining table and a private chilled mini-bar with Cipriani’s signature Bellini and Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame 2018 champagne. A corridor leads to a bathroom with a shower with Espa soaps, shampoo and fragrances. The 7ft by 5ft double bed sits in the jet’s nose cone.

Etihad’s Residence offers a double bed with a shower and a living room - Jamie MacFadyen

Closer to home, British Airways will next year launch its new first-class suites on its A380s. The new seat is 3ft wide, and the bed is 6ft 7in long. In the centre suite, BA has done away with the conventional retractable divider at waist height for customers travelling together. Instead, the entire dividing wall – from the floor to the top of the suite – retracts to create a shared lounge space that you can walk through from one side to the other, making you feel as if you’re the only two people on the plane.

BA has done away with dividers in central First suites to make for a more intimate experience for couples travelling together

From 2027, the first cabin on the Qantas Airbus A350 (to be used on the airline’s 21-hour non-stop services from London and New York to Oz) will feature six large enclosed suites, arranged in a 1-1-1 formation across the front of two rows of seats. Each will come with a 2ft-wide reclining seat, a separate 6ft 6in-long bed, a wardrobe, a 32-inch TV and a dining table that can comfortably seat three people. The colour palette is light with eggshell seat fabrics and sage green trim to create what designer David Caon calls “an authentically Australian aesthetic. In your beach house you don’t have dark and moody. You have lighter, fresher colours.”

The Japanese carriers have pushed the envelope to bring more technological “firsts” to the air. ANA’s The Suite introduced the first 4K personal television screen to a commercial flight. Japan Airlines’ new Airbus A350 first class marks the first time a commercial carrier has ditched headphones in favour of personal speakers at each seat, which by some miracle I cannot fathom, cannot be heard by others in.

All in the details

Food and wine are a key battleground in the race to the top. Emirates offers unlimited caviar and has sole rights to serve Dom Pérignon Vintage 2013, Dom Pérignon Vintage Rosé 2008 and Dom Pérignon Plénitude 2 2004. Clark deals directly with top vineyards. “We buy en primeur and invest to lay down millions of bottles until they are at their best,” he says. “People are frequently surprised at the amazing vintages we uncork onboard. Some are so rare and desirable that top restaurants would charge the price of an air ticket for a bottle.”

Emirates offers first-class passengers rare vintages and unlimited caviar - David Copeman

The luxury war is being fought on the ground, too. At its Changi home, Singapore Airlines has a private terminal entrance where Suites passengers check in and clear security. An escalator leads directly up to the Private Room, the lounge reserved solely for top-tier customers. Total time from kerbside to bar-side is less than five minutes. At Paris Charles de Gaulle, Air France’s La Première customers are driven across the tarmac to the jet in a Porsche.

The first-class race will intensify when the much-delayed Boeing 777X long-haul jet finally takes to the skies next year. It will be the widest long-haul plane in the sky, enabling early adopters – Qatar Airways, Emirates, Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific – to unveil even bigger new suites. Qatar Airways promises to “combine the experience of flying commercial and in executive jets” at the pointy end. Expect a private room with an onboard chef cooking meals to order and spa-like bathrooms (but no showers) with limited-edition Giorgio Armani amenities.

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