Is it me, or is there a lot of projecting going on in the first class dress code question?

Half the answers read to me like "They're a better sort of people. Some day, perhaps I will join them in the rarefied air of rows 1–4"

I would make a snarky comment about "the finest Tropicana orange juice for your pdb" except I don't know if Delta even does pdb consistently

That is half the crowd, the other half says 'they might sit up front but they are no better than I.'

Which might mean 'if I had the money I would sit there.'

I have had one upgrade, to the front most section of an Iceland Air plane and while the seat was very nice and the food and service nice, I would not pay extra for it.

Right. We're not talking about JFK-LHR on the Concorde here, or even EWR-LAX where you will get the occasional Hollywood celebrity or F500 executive. I feel bad that the OP is in for a let-down.

I had status with Air Canada for a couple of years and got a lot of upgrades. It was nice. But I didn't dress differently than I did for the back of the bus.

We paid for an upgrade on YYZ-LHR for our 25th anniversary (surprise to my wife) and that was a really nice experience. Again, didn't dress differently. :)

But lay-flat beds on an intercontinental flight, that's definitely a pleasant thing

My first time was when I was about 25, IAD-MSP using 500-mile certs. I rarely traveled for business, but was flying to a lot of weddings, and had made Premier on United for the very first time, just on personal trips.

I admit I was self-conscious about looking too much like a noob, fiddling with the seat adjustment buttons and taking a while to find the iGo power port. While I could have gone for a third beer, I stopped after two.

But it never occurred to me that anyone would care how I was dressed on a midday IAD-MSP flight. I was in sandals and shorts and a baseball cap.

One of my lasting #firstworldproblem memories from that era is choosing the afternoon LAX-IAD flight. Normally I preferred the redeye, or to fly out of SNA, but this was on the 763 and my upgrade had cleared, so I was looking forward to the UA business class "barcalounger" as they had in those days

But it was the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and to cope with the volume, they swapped out the 3-class 767 for a 2-class 777, which was 2-4-2 in F. And I got a middle seat.