Ask Robb: What the Hell Is Happening to First-Class Seats?

Welcome to Ask Robb . At Robb Report, we’ve assembled a crack team of the world’s best travel specialists, our Travel Masters . Their expertise and insight in luxury travel of all kinds is unparalleled.

So we’re tapping into it directly for a new series, where our readers—that’s you—pose the pickiest travel problems to the panel. These aren’t workaday issues, whether wrangling a refund or booking a guide, but rather the unique, specific challenges that only veteran globetrotters face. Dear Robb Report: I am a very picky traveler when I fly commercial, and I refuse to book anything other than a true first class seat.

But my travel specialist tells me it’s getting harder and harder to find them on my routes, as it seems that first class cabins are being removed by many airlines. Is she telling the truth, or just not trying hard enough to find what I need? And if I want to stick with first class, come what may, which offerings still truly offer service that stands apart from business? Yours, Pointy-End Pamela Firstly, you can trust that specialist 100 percent. It’s true that first class seats—that’s international long haul, rather than whatever an airline dubs its domestic options—are becoming harder to find.

Last year, American Airlines announced that it would refit cabins to remove the priciest, roomiest seats, justifying the decision by simply saying customers’ interest was waning. Cathay Pacific just decided to nix first class as a cabin when it ret.