Last week at the boarding gate, I saw first class passengers board the plane first, and all I could think was: You guys spend tens of thousands of dollars to get in the cage twenty minutes earlier than others? Isn’t that crazy? Shouldn’t it be the other way around — the cheaper tickets board first, and first class passengers only come out last from the VIP lounge, with the door closing and then taking off? That’s what true prestige is.

I posted a rant about it, and it turned out to be a guy who’s been working in the airline industry for twelve years. He said, this plan was tried back in the early 2000s. Guess what? Customer complaints quadrupled. Not complaints about service, not complaints about food, just complaints about boarding order. A platinum cardholder at the counter threw out a sentence, and I’ll never forget it: “I’m not paying to wait for others.”
That’s all he said.
I got goosebumps listening. That guy spoke very calmly, like he was talking about something unrelated to himself. But he paused here and added, “They’re not buying early arrival. It’s that when they come in, the whole economy class looks up at them. That look is part of the ticket price.”
I held my phone for a long time without saying a word.
So you see, the first class seat isn’t the product. We are. We, the people rolling our eyes in line, are what the airline is actually selling.
Let me ask you a question:
If tomorrow the rules change and first class boards last, no one will watch you complain, no one will mock you — would you feel more comfortable, or would you feel a little disappointed?