Why Flying Stopped Being Glamorous

[vanNostrum]

[Big Pistons Forever]

When I started in aviation flying was dangerous and sex was safe. I miss those days…..

[Nark]

I used to think the entailment generation was a new concept. It isn’t.

I see it daily when I head to work. People want all the perks but don’t want to pay for them.

I think the best graph is the average cost over the years. It has gone down.
Recently someone was complaining that it would cost $650 round trip from Milwaukee to Tampa.
I suggested to drive, it’s only 1245 miles, 1992km’s to you folks who haven’t landed on the moon.
I doubt you could make that in a day, so let’s add in a hotel stop halfway: $150 at the La Qwinta in Nashville.
Public school math tells me it’s about $715 to drive, round trip with a vehicle that gets 30ish mpg. I also didn’t add in food. Probably $50/day on a budget.

Ergo: flying is faster and cheaper.

Delta has “business class” if you want 35” of pitch. $978 for biz class on their A320, with a stop in ATL. The only direct flights are the ULCC and LCC.

[digits]

I used to think the entailment generation was a new concept. It isn’t.

I see it daily when I head to work. People want all the perks but don’t want to pay for them.

I think the best graph is the average cost over the years. It has gone down.
Recently someone was complaining that it would cost $650 round trip from Milwaukee to Tampa.
I suggested to drive, it’s only 1245 miles, 1992km’s to you folks who haven’t landed on the moon.
I doubt you could make that in a day, so let’s add in a hotel stop halfway: $150 at the La Qwinta in Nashville.
Public school math tells me it’s about $715 to drive, round trip with a vehicle that gets 30ish mpg. I also didn’t add in food. Probably $50/day on a budget.

Ergo: flying is faster and cheaper.

Delta has “business class” if you want 35” of pitch. $978 for biz class on their A320, with a stop in ATL. The only direct flights are the ULCC and LCC.

Maybe, but unless you are flying privately, you still have to go through the same security line (possibly with a small shortcut), and still have to deal with immigration and customs on international flights etc, having to deal with airport parking tickets etc.

it's those things that take the glamour out of it to me. Not so much the actual airplane seat.

I'd be happy to spend 200 dollars extra to not have to deal with that. But that's fairly impossible. You can only pay 200 dollars for slightly more leg room. Or 10k for a sleeping cabine. Or 40k for a private jet.

[Scudrunner]

It is by far more efficient and cheaper than ever before which has opened up travel to the huddled masses.

I know this will sound elitist but I like to equate it to the “type” of people travelling. Their is a reason the cheap seats at a hockey game are much more entertaining.

Not to many brawls or derogatory chants come from the club seats or box suites.

With airlines if you have a whole plane filled with cheap seats that will attracts a certain demography of travellers.

I’ve never had a fight on any of my business jets but I can recall a few on crew changes to the patch in the 1900D and King Air.

I flew Easyjet once never again I’ll pay triple to
Avoid that mess.