Originally Posted by
FlightDetent
Upgrade to business is triple the original price (+200 %), based on 2019 EU to Asia rates.
True today, but if you look at the fares from the 1960's and 70's (and correct for inflation), Business/First is similar in price (or even cheaper) than a coach ticket back then. The cabin service in First isn't quite what it was back in the day (I got bumped to First on a Pan Am flight Seattle - London back in the 80's - the meal service was a full blown seven course dinner
) but they didn't have the wonderful lie-flat seats or the inflight entertainment systems back then.
Further, the range of today's aircraft mean that many flights are non-stop rather than making a fuel stop somewhere so you still get there quicker even though the cruise Mach is a couple hundredths slower.
People tend to look at jet travel 50 years ago through rose colored glasses - but if we returned to that I doubt many people would be happy about it.