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The Absurdity of Business Class travel on short haul flights in Europe

When selecting a seat in economy it is an Imprecise art to know where the business class section will end. So on occasions like today one is unfortunate to be sitting in the row immediately outside business class meaning that the ridiculous curtains get pulled across . This is not the happiest nor optimal view of a flapping curtain a few inches in front of ones face. But even this today reached hithertoo unfathomable heights or depths because each time the curtains opened a millimetre the air stewardess rushed towards them to rescue the curtains and pull them closed. This presumably is to protect the business class passengers from visually having to witness their foul economy class cousins or maybe to prevent some supposedly plague ridden air entering the cabin of the elite. This of course is utter nonsense. Business class is dead in short haul and frankly anyone who wastes money on this needs counselling .

  
What do you get for your extra money? You get exactly the same seat as on this Airbus 321 operated by Iberia the seats are identical. You might get a spare seat next to you. Where I sit in row 6A I have two spare seats next to me as do many on this empty flight. You get a meal of some sort normally a salad related affair and on Iberia free drinks too. But is this really worth paying for? Usually an extra £100 per flight maybe more. All the frills of easier check in become pointless as most are done now on the mobile phone. But even if checking in luggage there is no preference over the frequent flyers  who use the same check in and indeed board the same time. So the reality is you get a curtain drawn behind you and food and drink . Not terribly special and uplifting.

Meanwhile my view is almost claustrophobic  but I do get to count the number of times the rushing sprinting stewardess recloses the badly behaved curtains. Somewhere in the region of once every 10 minutes on this Madrid bound flight. Comedy and cabaret are free to all on board. However I was able to sneak a view into business through the gap and I could see 30 seats occupied by 4 customers.

 These curtains do actually swing back and forth and I can imagine that folks seated in the aisle seats might not enjoy being continuously massaged by the errant flapping curtain.

 Business class for short haul is absurd as is the thinking behind it now.