Upon boarding a plane, I’m mostly likely curled up on an economy-class seat when I fly. If I’m close enough to the bulkhead seats, you’ll likely catch me wistfully gazing into the rows of seats before those belonging to the upper class, whether business or first.
I’m often only offered a peek before boarding is completed and the plane is about to take off, signaling the flight attendants to draw the curtains and crush my daydreams.
“It must be a privacy issue,” I think to myself as I wonder why curtain dividers are a thing. As it turns out, I was right.
“Curtain dividers are designed for privacy and to separate different classes of service—like economy and business or first class,” Maddi Bourgerie, travel expert at RVshare, told Thrillist. “They help create a sense of space and exclusivity for passengers in premium cabins.”
That all makes sense until it doesn’t. What’s the point of having these curtains when they ultimately provide no separation whatsoever? On TikTok, a video recently went viral expressing this exact concern.
“I wish I knew what was happening in first class,” reads the sarcastic overtext. The video then pans to a ridiculous-looking mini curtain, the failed purpose of which seems to be a visual separation between first class and economy class: “Darn this curtain divider.”
That curtain is pointless if the goal is privacy or a class separation. So why is it there, then?
Apparently, it’s the result of years of mutating plane designs, which had to conform to new safety measures and standards while keeping their original and authentic flair. In short, those curtains were initially conceived as full-on privacy dividers, but then they had to adapt to new standard practices.
“Back in the ‘Golden Years’ of travel, the mid-’50s saw an introduction of multi-configured cabins, aka first class and coach, and a way to divide the cabins and create a sense of privacy was with curtains,” Katy Nastro, travel expert at Going, explained. “Traditional, thicker curtains were used, but over time and following 9/11, the thin, almost mosquito netting we often see today has that physical barrier between classes yet still allows the crew to maintain visibility into all cabins for safety reasons.”
Plus, even if they’re not fully functional in the way they were first intended, they can still be a pleasant addition for some passengers looking to have some sort of compartmentalized division between all different sections of the plane.
“They might be a nice thing to see for some travelers who want a little peace from other passengers,” adds Bourgerie. “We’ve all seen the viral videos that spread like wildfire of the unruly passengers and chaotic flights.”
Or maybe, as one TikTok user playfully said in the viral video’s comment section, it’s a way to protect the higher class-flying passengers. “It’s so [first class passengers] don’t get spooked when they turn around and see us poors.”
