Hello and welcome to the death of first class edition of Slate Money Travel,

our special Slate Money Miniseries all about the economics of of travel and this week we have Charles Reed from

the economist to talk about something which you might not expect in a world of

increasing inequality which is that the first-class cabin in

planes is basically disappearing. What happened to all of those people who used to

fly in first class.

We're going to find out with Charles with Charles.

Charles, welcome.

Hello.

And tell us who you are and how you managed to wind up learning

about all of this. Well, I recently wrote a piece for the

economist about the decline of international first-class flights. Many airlines are

getting rid of their first-class flights on international long haul flights completely.

In America, for instance, a decade ago, virtue all planes crossing borders had first class seats. there's only about 20 left and the big

free all want to eventually get rid of it completely in America and so I wrote a piece

answering that question why is it disappearing?

Okay, so we will answer that question coming up on slate money travel.

So Charles, I have this idea, tell me if I'm right about this,

call it the death of first class.

Is first class a thing that used to exist

and is now becoming an endangered species?

Well, first class used to be the only class there was in the sky.

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