Has First Class Become Boring?

For years, I planned trips backwards. Instead of choosing a destination and then finding the best way to reach it, I often found a flight I wanted to experience and built the trip around that seat. First Class award space or a new premium cabin could put an entire itinerary in motion. The destination still mattered, but sometimes it was simply an endpoint rather than the real reason I was travelling. I have no regrets about this approach, as it created some of my most memorable experiences and showed me how differently airlines interpret premium travel. After flying many of the top premium products several times over, however, my priorities have shifted towards the destination. I still love aviation and will travel for the right flight, but the journey must now be truly unique to justify the additional time, cost, and effort.

This blog post traces the evolution of my points and miles journey, from the years when First Class FOMO shaped my trips to the destination first approach I take today, where only a truly unique First Class travel experience is worth building an entire trip around.

Act 1 – When the Journey Was the Destination

When I first got my feet wet with points and miles, I wanted more than a comfortable way to travel from Point A to Point B. I wanted to experience the best premium products, including Etihad Apartments, Singapore Suites, Lufthansa First Class, ANA First Class, and Air France La Première, to name a few. The service, seat, aircraft, lounge, and routing all mattered, and points gave me access to travel I would rarely have purchased with cash.

Etihad First Class Apartment, Singapore Suites, the previous Air France La Première, ANA First Class, and Lufthansa First Class

Flying such illustrious products often meant positioning to another city or country, adding unnecessary connections, or spending an extra day travelling. The routing did not always make practical sense because practicality wasn’t the objective here. Over the years, as I had opportunities to fly these products, each first experience brought a genuine sense of discovery, whether it was my first enclosed suite, a shower at 35,000 feet, or an airline’s most exclusive ground service.

Top: Etihad A380 Apartment, Bottom Left: Air France La Premiere Porsche Ground Service, Bottom Right: Emirates A380 shower

However, over time, premium cabins became my baseline rather than a special treat, a phenomenon psychologists call hedonic adaptation.

Act 2 – When the Flight Alone Was No Longer Enough

When the Excitement Began to Fade

The more I travelled to far-flung destinations aboard the best of the best, often returning to hubs such as Tokyo, Singapore, and Paris, the more I got to know the cities and countries beyond their airports. Those repeat visits allowed me to explore these places in far greater depth than I otherwise might have. They also made me realize how much there was to experience in the destinations my premium flights had taken me to.

At the same time, the excitement of flying in premium cabins began to dwindle. I went from being giddy when boarding, taking photos and videos of every detail, and being unable to sit still, to simply enjoying the product and eventually treating it as a normal way to travel rather than something special; hedonic adaptation had fully set in.

JAL A350 First Class

On the plus side, having flown many of these products repeatedly has allowed me to write more objective reviews without being overly influenced by airline marketing or carefully edited social media reels. Frankly, those reels are often created by folks who may have experienced a premium product only once or twice. Repeated experiences has given me a better understanding of what is consistently excellent, what is inconsistent, and what simply looks better in marketing than it feels in reality.

The Experiences That Changed It All

A couple of years ago, I finally had the opportunity to experience Air France La Première, one of the few major First Class products I had not yet flown, with close friends. It remains one of my top flights, if not the most memorable flight I have ever taken. The flight alone was not what made it so special; it was the entire experience. Travelling with close friends, enjoying the exclusivity of La Première, and having the entire cabin to ourselves made the occasion unforgettable.

Air France La Premiere Ground Service

Then, last year, that same sort excitement returned when I flew halfway across the world to position for Etihad’s A380 inaugural flight from Abu Dhabi to Toronto. I flew all the way to Abu Dhabi only to turn around and return to Canada, travelling in the Etihad First Class Apartments in both directions.

Etihad A380 First Class Apartment

While the outbound was the usual exceptional Etihad First Class experience, the inaugural occasion was what made the return flight worth chasing. An inaugural happens only once, and the excitement among the crew, airline staff, media, fellow aviation enthusiasts, and the commemorative touches made it fundamentally different from any other Etihad flight I had taken. I was not simply flying home to Canada; I was participating in a moment that could never be recreated.

Etihad A380 Abu Dhabi-Toronto Inaugural Flight, June 2025

Act 3 – Letting the Destination Lead

The Journey Has to Earn the Detour

The first time you fly international First Class, it’s something you’ll probably never forget. By the tenth or eleventh time, it’s still an incredible experience, but it no longer carries that same sense of excitement. There are only so many firsts, and eventually even the most luxurious experiences start to feel normal. The product hasn’t changed, but your perspective has.  Has First Class become boring? Not exactly. It has simply become familiar, which means a flight now needs to offer something genuinely distinctive to recreate that earlier excitement.

As that novelty faded, other factors started to become more important, especially time. Positioning flights, long layovers, and unnecessary connections can make sense for something exceptional, but they are harder to justify for a product that is only marginally different from one I have already flown. I no longer feel compelled to chase every new premium cabin or repeat a familiar First Class product simply because award space becomes available. In fact, I would now even choose Premium Economy on a direct seven-hour transatlantic flight rather than add a connection merely to fly Business Class.

I haven’t stopped travelling to fly a specific flight, don’t get me wrong, but it has to be the right opportunity, one capable of making the journey genuinely memorable. My recent Etihad A380 inaugural flight from Abu Dhabi to Tokyo Narita was exactly the kind of flight I am still willing to chase because it combined a product I love with a one-time aviation milestone. I did not need to fly in the Etihad Apartment again simply to review the seat, but the airline’s first A380 service to Japan turned the journey into something that could never be repeated. Sharing the occasion with a great group of aviation enthusiasts made it even more memorable.

My upcoming trip to Tibet is another example. I am deliberately choosing to fly Air France’s new La Première product, even though the most direct route from Canada to Tibet would not take me through both Paris and Tokyo. I will fly Air Canada Premium Economy to Paris, continue from Paris to Tokyo in La Première, and then position from Tokyo to Beijing before travelling onward to Lhasa.

created using gcmap.com

For those wondering, the Paris–Tokyo segment cost 350,000 Flying Blue plus CAD $1342 in taxes and fees. It is an elaborate routing, but the new La Première represents a genuine evolution of one of the world’s most distinctive First Class products. Having already flown the previous cabin, I will also be able to make a meaningful comparison rather than treating it as simply another minor variation of a familiar product.

Air France “new” La Premiere, source: airfrance.ca

My relationship with aviation has therefore not shifted from loving the journey to ignoring it; I have simply become more selective about when the journey deserves to lead. Years ago, almost any new premium cabin could dictate an itinerary. Today, I ask whether the flight is genuinely special enough to earn the additional time, cost, and complexity, or whether I am forcing the trip to serve the product.

Letting the Destination Create the Journey

Prioritizing destinations hasn’t stopped me from trying new airline products. In fact, it has introduced me to flights I never would have chased independently, allowing the journey to remain interesting without controlling the entire trip. My recent trip to Iguazu Falls, on the border of Brazil and Argentina, is the clearest example of this. The destination had been on my bucket list since childhood, and the waterfalls were unquestionably the reason I travelled. American Airlines Flagship First award space happened to open just a few days before departure for both the outbound and return journeys, allowing me to experience it without inventing an entire trip solely for the cabin. I booked each flight for 93,000 Qatar Airways Avios.

American Flagship First

The destination came first, and AA Flagship First became an organic part of the journey rather than a product I would have pursued on its own.

My trip to South Korea and Japan this past March with my family created a similar opportunity. We would not have chosen a long-haul Air Canada flight simply to experience a product none of us particularly prefers. On this trip, however, the routing and timing took priority over flying a more aspirational airline.

Air Canada Business Class

The flight was my first Air Canada long-haul Business Class experience in a real travel context, after about 17 years. The flight was not great, but that did not make the experience worthless. It gave me the basis for a broader discussion about why Air Canada Business Class is merely “fine” and why accepting “good enough” has become a problem in North American premium travel. I recently wrote about this: Air Canada Business Class Is Fine. That’s the Problem.

Not every new product needs to be excellent to provide value or perspective. An underwhelming experience can reveal as much about an airline as an exceptional one.

Making a Familiar Product Special Again

I’m writing this while on board my Emirates First Class flight, a splurge I recently made to fly with my daughter on our return journey from Africa, travelling from Cape Town to Toronto via Dubai. As an Emirates Gold member, I managed to secure a First Class seat, although the taxes and fees were quite high.

Emirates A380 First Class Cabin

I had flown Emirates First Class many times before, but I knew that sharing the experience with my daughter would make the journey memorable rather than just another Emirates First Class flight. That made the points and cash outlay easier to justify. For curious minds, I booked the itinerary before the award-chart devaluation for 178,750 Skywards miles plus USD $1,234 in taxes and fees per person, for a combined block time of 23 hours and 20 minutes in First Class. Not a bad deal, particularly because booking two Emirates segments softened the blow: adding the Cape Town–Dubai segment cost only another 15,000 Skywards miles, an absurdly small incremental amount. I previously wrote about the booking in What Did You Book? – Emirates First and Etihad Guest Miles.

Allowing the destination to guide my travels has let me explore new premium cabins or enjoy the thrill of familiar ones without unnecessary travel complexities just to tick off another cabin. Interestingly, prioritizing destinations has kept my journeys engaging, broadening the range of products I fly and making each experience feel more authentic. Instead of solely seeking out the most obvious First Class cabins, I’m now discovering new airlines and lounges that fit the trips I already plan. The flight is no longer the main focus but part of a larger story.

Final Thoughts

I don’t regret the years when I travelled primarily for the journey. Those flights created unforgettable memories and gave me the experience to write honestly about premium travel. I will still make exceptions for inaugural flights, groundbreaking cabins, and aviation experiences that genuinely cannot be replicated.

What has changed is the order in which I plan. I increasingly begin with where I want to go and then look for the most comfortable, interesting, or sensible way to get there. Sometimes that still leads to First Class, while other times it introduces me to a product I would never have chosen on its own. I still believe the journey can be the destination, but it no longer has to be. The best trips are now the ones where the flight adds to the story without becoming the only reason the story exists.