Cheap seats are no longer enough for airline passengers.

Since the pandemic, travelers have shown airlines that they are willing to pay to sit in the relatively spacious front of the cabin. This means that many of the seats are already full, so it is harder for frequent flyers to get a free upgrade at the front of the plane.

And the grades of frequent travelers with elite status they swelled all the way from the airport lounge to the first packed boarding group, which means more competition for those seats. Expect even more crowds during the year-end holiday period, which airlines predict will set another record.

Even in the early 2025 off-season, executives were predicting strong demand. US airline capacity in the first quarter will increase by about 1% from a year earlier, according to aviation data firm Cirium.

"We're seeing probably our best unit revenue on transatlantic (routes), for example, in the height of winter," he said. Delta Air Lines President Glen Hauenstein at an investor day in November.

The price difference between first class and coach varies, of course, depending on distance, demand, time of year and even time of day. For example, a return ticket on United Airlines from its hub in Newark, New Jersey, to Los Angeles International Airport during the first week of February was $347 in standard economy and $1,791 in the carrier's Polaris cabin, which features seats that- flat, but not access to the international business class lounge.

American Airlines' a nonstop flight from New York to Paris during Easter week 2025 was $1,104 in coach and $3,038 in the airline's Flagship Business class.

Billions of dollars in revenue that keeps the airlines afloat is in the balance. Airline loyalty programs are a cash cow, and getting the balance right between perks like free upgrades and cashback is key.

In recent years, airlines have changed the requirements to earn the status, rewarding spending and not just distance flown. They also raised the amount flyers need to spend to be anointed with elite status. Next year, customers will have spend more on United to earn status. On Thursday, however, American said it would keep its requirements the same for the next earnings year, which starts in March.

About 15 years ago, travelers were paying for seats in only 12% of Delta's domestic first class. Now, that's closer to 75% and climbing, Hauenstein told investors last month.

"We gave them out on the basis of a frequent flyer system," Hauenstein said of first-class seats in 2010 and earlier. "The incentive was to spend as much as possible, fly as much as possible and upgrade as often as possible. This led to a position where our most valued products were the biggest loss leaders."

This is now reversed for Delta, he said, as more money will go to the front of the cabin. The carrier generates 43% of its revenue from main cabin economy tickets, down from a 60% share in 2010.

The trend is cutting across the industry, from Delta, the most profitable carrier, to discounters like Border Lineswhich is adding roomier first class seats at the forefront of its Airbus fleet in 2025. on wednesday, JetBlue Airways he said he would introduce two or three rows of domestic business class on planes that don't have its top-level Mint business class with lie-flat seats, and it's called "junior Mint."

A day before Alaska Airlines he announced that he would retrofit some of its planes with premium seats as it prepares new international flights after acquiring Hawaiian Airlines earlier this year, with revenue from higher-priced seats exceeding standard economy

"You see the Airbus 330s and the Boeing 787s are under-indexed in business class and they don't have an international premium economy cabin," said Andrew Harrison, Alaska's chief commercial officer, in a day for the investor in New York on Tuesday. "So we expect that beyond 2027, you will see our premium mix continue to grow."

Airlines are now racing to add first class sections or larger international business classes that feature larger screens and close the doors to the flatbed seats.

"We've seen more paid demand for a premium cabin than we ever did before the pandemic," said Scott Chandler, vice president of revenue management at American Airlines. "More people want the premium cabin experience."

Chandler said American has worked over the past few years to make it easier for customers to shop up to pricier cabins, with post-purchase options to upgrade to first class cabins or other cabins like premium economy.

American is retrofitting some of its longer-haul aircraft to include more premium seating, like other carriers, leaving first class entirely on some to add larger international business class cabins that will have new seats with doors that slide Delta and United have too have increased their premium offerings to cope with customers who want to pay for the more expensive seats.

"They are doing everything they can to entice you to pay for their premium products. That is absolutely what they should do," said Henry Harteveldt, founder of travel consulting firm Atmosphere Research Group. Customers don't buy a store-brand item in a department store and then wait for "the sales person (to) ring up that product and give you a free designer bag."

South West Lines she took her own approach. In 2026, it plans to fly with several rows of seats with extra legroomrefitting its standard cabins only with the coach that has been flying for more than half a century and removing open seating.

CEO Bob Jordan said it's partly "generational change."

"What we're seeing is that our younger customers are looking for a little more premium," he said in an interview this week. "A lot of this is a change in mentality, the willingness to spend more on travel and less on other things.

But the airline has decided to keep the number of seats on its planes largely the same and is not adding first class like other carriers, after issuing a customer survey and weighing the -cost of losing space for more seats on board.

For the first class, Jordan said, "You're talking ovens, you're talking meals, you're talking provision. It's a huge capital investment and a big leap."

"But you never say never," he said.