first class travel

With its lack of premium amenities and upgrade options, Southwest has been an airline that many business travelers try to avoid. But after it absorbs AirTran next year, those frequent fliers will have almost no choice on some routes.

It's every business traveler's dream never to fly coach again. Nicholas Kralev's On the Fly seminar promises to make that dream a reality. In four short hours, he says he'll teach attendees how to maximize the power of their frequent flyer miles to fly in luxury on a coach-class budget.

Airlines are hiring celebrity chefs, putting designer skin-care items in bathroom kits and racing to redo seats in business and first class cabins to lie flat in an all-out push to attract premium passengers. Carriers breathed a collective sigh of relief earlier this year when an international...