More complicated because of the way first class travel works. Somewhere between* 10% and 50% of (domestic) first class seats are filled by paying passengers.

More complicated because of the way first class travel works. Somewhere between* 10% and 50% of (domestic) first class seats are filled by paying passengers. So the other 90% - 50% are either empty, or filled with elite flyers who paid for an economy ticket and got upgraded. So in almost every flight, the real cost to AA is the cost of having a golden ticket passenger filling a 1st class seat, vs. having either an empty seat or elite upgrade passenger filling that seat. In either case, the actual cost to the airline is far far less than the actual cost of a 1st class ticket. *http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2014/12/12/many-domestic-first-class-seats-actually-sold-versus-left-upgrades/ http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2014/12/12/many-dome...