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Comment by sokoloff | Hacker News Reader

Can you find any three-cabin service where First class is the middle tier of cabin? (In a two-cabin service, whether the one that's not economy is called Business or First is not helpful in determining whether business or first is higher; we both agree they're better than economy.)

Here are airlines offering three-cabin services on a single aircraft where First is the highest tier:

Air France - La Première (First), Business, Economy

American Airlines - First, Business, Economy

Cathay Pacific - First, Business, Economy

Emirates - First Class suites, Business Class, and Economy

Etihad - First Class private suites, Business, Economy

Japan Airlines - First, Business, Economy

Lufthansa - First, Business, Economy

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Happily, here's one from Delta as I described above https://i.imgur.com/wwYQXy1.png. Sadly (for me, at least), I've never flown above "First" on such a configuration from Delta though :). Like you had noted, they call it 4 cabin classes... but the economy classes ("Main" & "Comfort") are both treated as a single cabin in terms of service and the difference in economy seats is an inch or two of leg room. So it's really a 3 cabin of: business, first, economy.

Again, hbosch said ATL<->SFO... and you aren't going to be flying Air France or Japan Airlines for that route. My list, as far as I'm aware, was exhaustive for that route. It was not a cherry picked search of airlines which do it that way or global claim of what all other airlines do, only a response to the particular claim. On other routes/airlines the statement could, or rather "would", certainly have been true. Honestly, I think those airlines have it the right way around, but, having flown the exact route and the same airlines internationally, it did not match my experience for the route - which agreed with the labeling for all airlines for that route according to the links above. Unless, perhaps I'm missing that American or similar does actually have a ATL<->SFO to be compared with?

Where is the label of “first” anywhere in that image or in Delta marketing on that flight?

It literally says "first" in the upper right hand corner of the image indicating the red seats, which are clearly not as nice as the purple seats, aka Delta One?

That is a composite image, with screenshots from two different pages (and I'm virtually certain from two different flights), not a legend of the seating chart and a seating chart.

I can't find an ATL-SFO flight offering Premium Select and in fact couldn't find a domestic Premium Select flight at all, but on flights where I can find Premium Select, such as BOS-AMS on May 10, 2026, here is the fare selection screenshot from that flight, and the seating chart screenshot, including the legend on a single page:

https://imgur.com/a/Nz1FxOT

Notably, neither of those use red for "First Class" and there's no confusion between trying to use a legend from one page/flight as a key to understand a seating chart on a different page/flight. In fact, they both use red for "Premium Select" and booking Premium Select on that flight gives you a fare class of "A", which is specific to Premium Select (and NOT to First Class/Delta One, which share J, C, D, I, and Z, because Delta One is just a branding of First Class, rather than a cabin distinct from first class).

Delta fare class codes: https://www.nerdwallet.com/travel/learn/delta-fare-classes

I'm not saying that there was a specific intent to deceive with that prior imgur link, but I think the end effect was deceptive.

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