First class passengers

“Attention please! Emirates flight EK450 is ready for departure. Passengers travelling on business class and first class please board the plane from gate number 42, all other passengers please remain seated”

A group of select few move towards the gate to board the plane and disappear out of sight.

“Attention please! Emirates flight EK450 is ready for departure. Passengers travelling on Platinum and gold class please board the plane from gate number 42. All other passengers please remain seated until further notice”

Another group of select few move towards the gate and disappear out of sight.

“Attention please! Emirates flight EK450 is ready for departure. Passengers travelling on Silver and Bronze class please board the plane from gate number 42. All other passengers remain seated until further notice”

Another group of people now get up and line up to board the plane.

“Attention please ! Emirates flight EK 450 is ready for departure. All passengers are requested to board the plane from gate number 42.

And a huge throng of people gets up and lines up to get on board.

It is sad that I only had to add one class (the bronze class) to the number of classes above but what I fail to truly understand is why we need classes to sit on a chair in the sky fitted to a metallic bird that travels at 600 km/hour. and its not like the passengers on first class are going to reach sooner than the ones on economy.

The plane I boarded twice in a month was an A380, the world’s largest aircraft at least as of the writing of the following full stop. The aircraft has two decks, the main deck and upper deck. I say this because I got to know the business class and first class passengers get to board the upper deck. What is so special about being 10 feet above other people who are already several thousand feet above the ground eludes me altogether.

And the last parable that I am going to share with you guys is that what classes in air fares remind me of is the Hindu caste system which was much prevalent in ancient India. For purposes of comparison it should be noted that both the systems are called classes.  

However I am sure there are many people who would disagree to my idea of an ideal world where airlines would offer only one class of fare but I am sure everyone can see how unnatural and artificial this particular divide is. Makes me think humanity thrives on creating hierarchies like these. Indeed sad.

But truth be told, the view from the upper deck of this particular A 380 is fantastic.