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Airlines around the world are dumping the fanciest cabin at the pointy end of the aircraft, because costs are rising, demand for the pricey seats is falling and the vast majority of upmarket international fliers are more than content to sit in the gussied-up business classes that most carriers now offer.

"I don't think there will be a return to first-class travel," Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker said earlier this month. His remarks perfectly bookend comments last year from Lufthansa's then chief executive, Christoph Franz, who said other airlines "thought we were mad" for operating so many long-haul jets with first-class cabins.

Al Baker and Franz, who left Lufthansa this month to run the Swiss pharmaceutical firm Roche, put their fleets where their mouths are. Al Baker's comments were part of his announcement that Doha-based Qatar would eliminate first-class cabins on all but its newly delivered Airbus A380s. Franz's comments came as Lufthansa told the world that it would maintain first class only on 75 percent of its long-haul fleet, down from 90 percent. The world's largest operator of first class, Lufthansa had already slashed its inventory of top-class accommodations by reducing the cabin size to eight life-flat beds, down from 16 older-style seats.

But as it exits, first class is going out in grand style. Earlier this month, Air France announced that it would upgrade first-class accommodations into spacious suites, complete with privacy curtains. More than anything, the new Air France arrangement mirrors the golden age of post-war air travel and the fancy railroad staterooms that preceded it.

But Air France's elaborate set-up was trumped by Etihad Airways of Abu Dhabi. It is rolling out new arrangements called the First Apartment and an over-the-top experience called The Residence, a three-room, two-person, 125-foot cabin that has a sofa in the living room, shower in the en suite bathroom and gigantic double bed in the bedroom.

And don't forget that even as it trims first-class capacity, Lufthansa still operates what may be the ultimate perk: a dedicated first-class terminal at its Frankfurt hub. It permits Lufthansa's top customers to wait for flights in private offices or bedrooms, dine in an exclusive restaurant and even clear security and reach their departing flight without ever interacting with the hoi polloi in business class, or, perish the thought, coach.

The disconnect between the airline industry's lower number of first-class seats and increasingly luxurious accommodations in those pointy-end cabins is actually a reflection of modern life on the ground. Fewer travelers can afford to pay the freight for luxury, but those that do pony up an eye-popping premium. Two examples: a first-class roundtrip between New York/JFK and London on British Airways costs about $20,000, nearly 20 times the cheapest roundtrip coach passage between the two cities. And if you want to cosset yourself up in The Residence on the flights between Abu Dhabi and London next year, be prepared to part with $44,000 roundtrip.

When you pay that much more to fly, the airlines will do something special to win your business. Even if you are few in number.

Reliable figures are impossible to come by, of course, and the airline industry people I talk to disagree. But most say as much as half of an international airline's total revenue comes from the 10 or 15 percent of customers who book a premium class. Airlines that still offer first class may generate a third of their premium-class dollars from those precious few who still book first.

Or as one U.S.-based executive of a major global carrier told me last week: "First-class fliers are our whales," a reference to what casinos call their super-spenders. "In markets where the whales still exist, you must have a superlative product, in the air and on the ground, to get their attention."

The first and most important part of the first-class product remains in-flight accommodations, which revolve around increasingly private "suites," some with their own doors, and larger and more comfortable sleeping arrangements. The new beds being installed on Singapore Airlines' Boeing 777-300ER aircraft\ measure 35 inches wide and 82 inches long. The bed in Etihad's Residence is designed to sleep two and will measure 82 x 47.5 inches.

Ironically, it was the introduction of first-class beds by British Airways in 1995 that also signaled the contraction of first-class cabins. When BA rolled out the then-outrageously large 78-inch-long beds, it reduced the number of first-class accommodations to 14 from 16. First class has been offering more space and more amenities to fewer and fewer guests ever since.

All Nippon Airways, for example, reduced its first-class capacity to eight from 12. There will be only four of the new Air France behind-the-curtain suites per aircraft and they replace the eight seatbeds that the airline currently flies in first. And there'll only be one Etihad Residence per Airbus A380, a double-decked aircraft that can be configured with more than 800 coach seats.

There are so few flying whales around that many international airlines have chosen to dispense with first class entirely. Delta Air Lines makes do with business class as its premier product. US Airways, now part of the American Airlines Group, has no first class on its international flights. The same week that Qatar Air announced its first-class contraction, TAM of Brazil dumped first class. A partial list of other international airlines that don't bother with first: KLM, SAS Scandinavian, Alitalia, EVA Air of Taiwan, LOT of Poland, Iberia, Air New Zealand, Aer Lingus, Virgin Atlantic, South African Airways, LAN of South America and Air Canada.

Even carriers that remain committed to first class don't fly it everywhere anymore. British Airways trails only Lufthansa in the number of first-class-equipped aircraft it operates. But it launched Austin-London flights last month using Boeing 787 Dreamliners outfitted only with business class at the pointy end. Cathay Pacific's new nonstop flights between Newark and Hong Kong began in March and omitted the carrier's much-admired first-class suites. And when Japan Airlines expanded its route network to Boston in 2012, the long-haul Boeing 787 flights to Tokyo were outfitted without a first class.

As far as I can tell, even sophisticated business travelers with high standards don't really miss first class when it's not available. The reason? International business class is so good—and a much better value than first. There are lie-flat beds in most business-class cabins now, airport-lounge access, priority check-in, palatable meals and better-than-you'd-expect wines. Besides, companies that would never approve a first-class ticket for a road warrior might sign off on a ride in business.

I haven't flown a paid first-class flight overseas in years. The last time I was up front was when an airline offered me the chance to interview the carrier's hard-to-pin-down chief executive during an overnight run to Europe.

The chief executive, his public relations guy, another journalist and I commandeered the back of the first-class cabin. I felt guilty the arrangement until I looked around. Except for another dead-heading executive of the airline, the rest of the pointy end was empty.