My brother is a pilot and has just told me about Last Class, yes Last Class, has anyone heard of it, no, not First, nor Business, nor Premium Economy or even Economy.

My brother is a pilot and has just told me about Last Class, yes Last Class, has anyone heard of it, no, not First, nor Business, nor Premium Economy or even Economy. Last Class.

It has unofficially been around for some time. A number of airlines (budget and legacy) offer different economy options where you pay for frills (including seat type and location) and if I am correct, Philippine Airlines offers (or was considering) an economy minus product, seemingly aimed at migrant workers.

Coincidentally, the Sydney Morning Herald covered Last Class on Wednesday last.  I would post the link but it will take a while to clear.  You can find it easily enough with a Google News search.  As Richard indicates, it is not an official term but loosely refers to the worst economy seats or economy seats with no frills. 

Last class features such innovations as seats with no windows, seats that hardly recline and seats right next to busy toilets or right near screaming baby bassinets. All the things economy passengers hope to steer clear of. Just on thickness of seats, can anyone remember years ago, economy seats had about 12 inches of padding, they were magnificent, these new seats are wafer thin and hard as rocks and are sold as 'streamlined', (grin).

Yep, all part of the race to the bottom! 

Just imagine being upgraded to economy if you had booked last class, (shock).