The first batch of first class reviews is up – featuring 73 reviews from seven sites covering 12 airlines. This is an opportunity to look at how the different airlines compared to each other, as well as other interesting alpha first class reviews analytics. Note that this is a limited data set, and these analytics are more for fun than definitive truth. As the data in our system expands, more meaningful insights can—and will—be drawn in the future.
General Alpha First Class Reviews Analytics
The newest review was April 15, 2019, and the oldest October 29, 2014. Overall the level of detail of the reviews was fairly good, scoring an average of 2.34/3.00. This gives us reasonable confidence in the data. The lowest level of detail was 2.00/3.00 (Qantas), and the highest 2.60/3.00 (Korean Air). A total of 23 reviews came from The Points Guy, followed by 16 from One Mile at a Time, 12 from Live and Let’s Fly, 11 from Travel Codex, five from Sam Chui, three from Points Hacks and one from Thrifty Traveler. This largely is reflective bias from Premium Travel Insider in our alpha collections as we favor some of the bigger sites. The beta release in a few months will have more viewpoint diversity.
Quality of Flight Analytics
Interestingly, the average overall review and the “Big 5” review closely mirrored each other – 2.73/3.00 and 2.72/3.00, respectively. It is interesting and potentially validating to see that these factors are consistent, as one would expect. Overall, first class experiences were pretty darn good. The range was from 2.30/3.00 (British Airways and Korean Air) on the low end to 3.00/3.00 (ANA and JAL) on the high end. Even as a “low” score, 2.30/3.00 is a very good experience. Interestingly, when it came to Big 5, British Airways scored a 2.32/3.00, but Korean Air had a 2.48/3.00. This was driven by superior service and IFE. This is a prime example of why we score both “overall” and “Big 5” averages for you.
Big 5 Analytics
In general, the quality of first class carried over to the Big 5 characteristics. The range of Big 5 was tighter, from 2.32/3.00 on the low end (British Airways) to 2.90/3.00 on the high end (Emirates). There were some notable low categories to discuss. Standard deviation for the Big 5 was interesting per the chart below.
| Big 5 Average Standard Deviation | .16 |
| Seat Standard Deviation | .33 |
| IFE Standard Deviation | .39 |
| Food Standard Deviation | .18 |
| Drink Standard Deviation | .15 |
| Service Standard Deviation | .24 |
Seat and IFE both had comparatively large standard deviations for this data set, although still relatively tight overall. For seat, the lowest score of 2.00/3.00 (Korean Air) was due to the fact that most Korean Air planes use the same seat for business and first class. Reviewers did not like that, nor can we blame them. IFE had two 1.75/3.00 (British Airways and Swiss) – driven in both cases by reviews older aircraft which had not been upgraded. It will be interesting to see as we add data if those low scores hold or come up.
Food and drink had very tight standard deviations – this shows that the “soft product” is fairly competitive in the skies. With drink service in particular, it seems clear that most airlines understand what they need to stock to be competitive. Although not always captured in the data, some air carriers differentiate themselves even beyond the quality of liquor by having cocktail menus or extensive tea menus on board.
Service was also fairly consistent, with the one outlier at 2.25/3.00 (British Airways) being notable. Again, at this point we will see what the longer-term data says before jumping to conclusions.
Alpha First Class Analytics Summary
Overall, the airlines featured in our alpha launch are quite competitive. There are no real “bad choices” among these airlines based purely on reviews. There are, however, clearly “better choices” to be made based on route and availability. And, of course, price plays a big factor. If all other things are equal, however, you can always use our airline reviews to find the best value for your points or dollars.