[304065]

Steve,

Actually, there's a pretty good reason why there's a separate line for first class. It's so the airlines can differentiate between types of service and further justify the higher prices for those tickets.

Far from being a bad thing, this differentiated class of service is pure margin for the airline (or nearly so: first class catering isn't free and you could carry a few more coach passengers with the extra space), and is the last bastion of travel comfort for the business types who pay last-minute "walkup" fares, and who purchase refundable, changeable tickets.

Since Jimmy Carter signed deregulation into law, the airline industry has been in a perceptible decline, with 20% of the market operating under Chapter 11 at any one time and therefore able to enjoy an artificially low cost structure. The result has been greater downward pressure on fares, and the industry as a whole isn't making it. Air travel, while democratized, has replaced the greyhound bus in terms of price AND quality of the experience.

If you eliminate differentiations in class of service for first class travelers, you remove the incentive to use airlines, and away goes the higher-margin business. Since the introduction of fractional jet shares in the last few years, more and more business travelers are turning to private jets. No TSA, no mingling with tank-top-wearing sweathogs, no schedule issues, availability of suburban "reliever" airports, point-to-point navigation at FL 410 or higher where traffic and weather are minimal. . . and the list goes on.

So, if you want to further erode the margins of the airlines, just eliminate their ability to offer higher-priced services. Cutting the first class line is a step in that direction. Pretty soon, conditions will get even worse, and yet the Bush Administration (AND Clinton's, for that matter, before any of you lefties get up on your hind legs) has FAILED to pull the plug on two-and three-time Chapter 11 filers, which would result in a permanent reduction in capacity, and therefore the ability for a price increase, which airlines desperately need.

Economic growth ain't driven by people hopping on Song and jetting down to Wally World. It's driven by entrepreneurs who recognize that business relationships aren't forged over the telephone. If you make it harder, you cut back economic growth, which hurts everyone.