Why are business-class seats on planes so expensive, yet companies yet business discounts on hotel rooms?

Business discounts on hotel rooms = generally the smaller rooms with less ameneties (and generally a hotel room is a hotel room)

Business class seats on a plane = less density, cost more per passenger-mile to operate.

However, if you are a frequent enough flier, you can generally get free upgrades to business/first on most if not all your flights. So the discounts do exist, just not for you =)

Supply and demand, and as @grumpyfish, “marketing” has something to do with it, too.

On a plane, especially the long route ones that normally fly closer to “full” than not, there are a limited number of ‘business class’ seats, and they are deliberately limited and disproportionately served with cabin attendants compared to seats in coach. So they command a higher price because of scarcity and actual / perceived luxury.

There are a lot more “business” hotels (as opposed to “resort” hotels) than airplanes, and for that reason most of them typically have a much higher vacancy rate. So the rooms themselves can’t command the premium prices that planes can, because many hotels may serve a given city or locale, but relatively fewer planes. (Notwithstanding that not all travelers travel via plane.)

Then as @grumpyfish stated, “business” means something different in a hotel: business travelers don’t spend all day in the room, as a rule, and don’t demand excessive service. They spend the night sleeping in the hotel, maybe using the restaurant and bar (big money makers for the hotel—generally money-losers for the airlines) or room service, then leaving during the day for their business.

I haven’t found that to be the case. Business Rates at hotels are usually much higher than AAA, senior and reserve in advance rates, just as they are on airlines.

There is no reason to try to compare airline rates with hotel rates. They have different drivers.

Fact from fiction, truth from diction Another reason to become a wealthy capitalist and have your own private jet, you ride 1st class everytime and no screaming babies unless they are your own.

You don’t really have to be a wealthy capitalist. Being a wealthy socialist works too. Wealthy is the key word, and certainly the preferred option. Hotel rooms and business class airline seats are totally different markets with different pricing models.