First-class passengers above the clouds
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By Chang Soon-hee
Having my family in New York, I sometimes make the trip to JFK International Airport. It takes 13 hours to reach New York and 14 hours to return to Incheon International Airport as the plane flies against the westerlies.
Upgraded by my cumulated air miles, I was sitting in a business seat in the upper deck which was fully occupied when a cabin attendant or CA approached me. "Excuse me, madam. I’m sorry to bother you, but will you please gather your things and follow me,” she said cordially. I didn’t do anything wrong and I knew I was holding the right seat ticket stub. But I followed her, stepping down the stairs and walked into the first-class cabin in the front.
"Our computer overbooked the business seats and we would like you to take a seat here, if you don’t mind.” Mind? "Not at all, if I don’t have to pay extra fare,” I told her. "It’s the airline’s gratitude. Please just enjoy your flight, madam,” she smiled. There were only two elderly businessmen scattered in the large cabin containing a dozen huge individual compartments. A new CA quickly came to me and introduced herself. She was taller than the other.
I felt uncomfortable holding my business seat stub. A round trip ticket between Seoul and New York in economy class costs 5 million won at the regular price, and about 1 million won at the discounted fare. It’s 10 million won at the regular fare and 8 million won at the discounted price for the business class. And it costs about 20 million won for a seat in first-class, which has no discounted rate. The fares are different by airlines and flexible by the seasons.
If you are squeezed into an economy seat, don’t be troubled that you are missing Bordeaux wine and Russian caviar, but consider yourself lucky you are saving 19 million won on your flight. Unlike the sailors of the sunken Titanic, the airline staffers do not discriminate the passengers by their cabin classes in case of emergency and they don’t treat the rich passengers to parachutes. But they do discriminate on the ground in the boarding process. Yet it’s the same plane. Then, you wonder why people sit in such exorbitantly high priced seats in the same fuselage that flies others as at much cheaper rates ― because their fares are paid by their companies or organizations. The money does not come from their own wallets and they can sleep on a flat bed.
Now I realize why Madam Heather Cho of Korean Air was so concerned about the quality of the first-class cabin service. Just carrying one rich passenger equals boarding of 20 economy passengers, who usually carry heavy luggage. Space wise, fuel consumption wise and insurance premium wise, carrying one first-class passenger is far more profitable than a group of 20.
Noticing there was only one passenger in the rich people’s cabin at JFK, she might have quickly calculated the loss of 20 million won multiplied by 11. She probably had discharged her great disappointment onto an innocent bag of macadamia nuts as it happened to be there unopened. Being the director of cabin services for the airline, Cho was only trying to improve the quality of the service in the life-or-death competition to invite the money-making first-class passengers above the clouds. She deserves lenience and return to her twin babies.
The writer is a frequent flyer. Her email address is ham1940@gmail.com.