Because Americans have no class consciousness
Cuz first class used to be the only class.
Because we don’t own the means of production.
As far as I know, economy seats are still sold at a loss. They make up for it in the higher classes. I don’t fly through Doha often but when I do, I do like getting on Qatar Airways.
Airliner ticket prices used to be regulated. So when all airlines had to charge the same price, they had to find other ways to be competitive in order to bring in customers. Deregulation in the 70s brought ticket costs down but that means ticket cost is now the primary point of competition between airlines and amenities now come at a steep premium.
Yep, you can have it one way or the other…cheap flights or super luxury and only the rich can fly. Planes are not cheap to operate and fuel isn’t free.
Frankly for short haul flights it makes sense. Would it be worth paying double or triple for a three hour flight just to get a full meal? Anyone who truly wants a taste of old time flying can get that with a first class ticket, both in terms of cost and quality.
And CEO bonuses and shareholder dividends must always be high-flying.
But even with that margins are tight, so 99.5% of why your flight is expensive is that planes are not cheap to operate and fuel isn’t free. But we can pretend it’s all the other thing to maintain slave morality.
So tight! Can barely afford to keep the plane in the air what with all the stock buybacks.
Also when was the last time an airline stock paid a dividend?
Delta is paying a dividend of $0.15 per share in August. Southwest paid $0.18 this month. Spirit used to pay $0.10 but I don’t think they do any more.
But on the plus side normal people can use air travel now.
I’m not so sure that is a positive. Airplanes are huge emission drivers and our dependence on the convenience of air travel has caused us to cease investment and innovation in other more efficient and environmentally friendly methods of travel.
No doubt there’d be a lot more support for high speed rails if airplanes weren’t as accessible. IMO airplanes should only really be used for intercontinental travel.
When you factor in the number of people the airplane carries, they are about 3 times more efficient than a car with one person in it.
Note they mentioned rail as the desired alternative, rather than cars.
Just saying, compared to driving, airplanes are usually better. Also trains in the US suck. Much slower, and almost comparable in price to air travel.
Also trains in the US suck. Much slower, and almost comparable in price to air travel.
It doesn’t have to be that way, many other countries have solved those issues. But because we’ve leaned so heavily on air travel to get us to places only a few hours away by land there hasn’t been any incentive to innovate or invest in other forms of long-distance mass transit.
Seeing as I can see my family and not be homeless, I consider it a positive.
Are you saying a high speed train to your destination wouldn’t also solve that problem? It would likely end up being cheaper to travel via rail considering the lower costs of maintenance and fuel, meaning further accessibility than we have today with our dependence on air travel.
Yes I am, as most trains don’t cross oceans.
That’s fair, and please note that I mentioned air travel has its place in intercontinental travel in my previous comment. The whole point I’m trying to make is that domestic flights between areas that could support high speed land travel infrastructure are wasteful.
Even within continents, high speed rail is expensive, many cities and towns aren’t large enough or near large enough cities to make it practical. This would mean distant connections on slow trains and very long journeys.
So I remember taking a flight 10 years ago and they gave us pretzel pieces from snyders. I thought, great, we don’t even get whole pretzels…
Next flight, they give us generic “trail mix” in clear bags. The kind the old folks down the street would give out at Halloween because it was “healthy.” but that contained approximately 2 pretzels the size of quarters, 3 peanuts, 3 generic m&ms, and 2 raisins…
It gave me the impression that airlines are like schools, where the flight staff are the ones bringing in the snacks because the airline is too cheap to supply them.
My teacher friends live in big houses and travel all over the world but you know whatever. I don’t.
Liar.
My grandparents were both teachers and are rich. Granted one was a professor, but the other a public school teacher.
In any case, anecdotes do not and cannot disprove the actual statistics.
Also, if you live in a country that actually respects intelligence, I’d HOPE your teachers are actually paid well. Sadly, the US despises intelligence right now…
In dying rural areas in the US teachers are generally some of the best paid. Its mostly in cities where their pay lags. But no, they live in the US in LA(CA, not the state). Also, FYI just because I live in one country doesn’t mean its the same my grandparents live in.
Ahh yes, California, a state that pays more, AND in LA, where wages are WAY higher because cost of living is way higher…
Thank you for describing why your anecdote is an outlier and DEFINITELY doesn’t prove any norm.
Thank you for describing why your anecdote is an outlier and DEFINITELY doesn’t prove any norm.
Where did I say it was the norm??? You called someone a liar for giving an anecdote. Outliers do happen…
Fuck you. Not lying.
No thanks, you’re probably terrible in bed.
Someone clearly doesn’t understand how much it used to cost to travel by plane 50 years ago.
It was like 135 bucks for the cheapest unrestricted ticket in the usa in 1975, which comes out to around 814 bucks today. Where as I can buy a round-trip ticket right now for 220, which is the equivalent of 38 bucks in 1975.
And to really put that into perspective, an average house in 1975 cost 39k, and if you take out a 20-year lone with 9% interest, you are looking at 193 bucks per month for your rent. So a single plane ticket in 1975 was 69% of the average monthly rent for a house.
Idk why I did all this, but my adhd told me I had to.
For the OP of this meme, you know you can still pay for food services on flights today, right?
Ehh…
The bottom line
Proportionally (inflation considered), flights are much cheaper now than they were 50 years ago. Consequently, flying is a more accessible mode of transport for many and has resulted in the soaring popularity of air travel, which began after deregulation. However, despite the cost drop, the base cost of flying has increased as airlines operate small profit margins and seek to remain competitive.
Yeah but it sucks.
If you want you can go first class you know. It’s more or less as much as it was in the 50s and you get possibly even more luxury. Just be ready to pay 5k instead of a hundred bucks
Also this image is bullshit
Tray tables are about half that size now.
Not on longer flights. It doesn’t benefit airlines much to make smaller tray tables
Save on weight means save on gas. Multiply that by thousands of flights and it adds up. United printed their in flight magazines on lighter paper and saved hundreds of thousands of dollars, just by using thinner paper.
They only eliminated 5kg per 737, but that added up to $290k savings.
By using lighter paper to print their in-flight magazine, Hemisphere, United Airlines saves up to 170,000 gallons of fuel, which cuts about $290,000 in annual fuel costs.
One magazine is now one 29 g lighter and weights 195 g which will make a usual 737 plane that carries 179 passengers 5 kg lighter on average.
https://www.kiwi.com/stories/united-prints-lighter-magazine-saves-170000-gallons-fuel/
United makes 50B in revenue a year. I’m guessing that stunt gave them more value in marketing than actual savings.
You clearly do not understand basic math nor how rampant greed in capitalism works. Sad.
If it saves them money, they WILL do it. (or even appears to save money)
Or do you think Scrooge types aren’t literally known for penny-pinching when they’re already rich and wouldn’t even notice the pennies going missing?
Good example, aviation is probably the most penny-fucking business in the planet, it’s a life and death fight between the companies, trying to keep costs low.
It’s a shit post
Life’s been tough since Biden dropped out, hey?
But back then the price was regulated so they had to compete on service.
That might have been more that 50 years now.
Would probably be better if it still was. Less people would fly.
My father’s generation thought planes would just get faster and faster and by now we’d be able to fly from NYC to Tokyo in 40 minutes
Concorde wasn’t far off that sort of speed. But it was too expensive. Such speeds will probably return in some form one day.
Concorde wasn’t far off that sort of speed. . .
The concorde took 180 minutes (3 hours) to travel from New York to London (3,000 nautical miles).
Ignoring range limits, a trip from New York to Tokyo (5,861 nautical miles) at that speed would take 351 minutes (5.8 hours).
Sadly, missile technology usurped bombers, so there was no reason for the government to pay for the development of large, ultra-fast aircraft after the early 70s
Just put seats on the missile then? I don’t know I’m not an engineer
Look at Mr. Moneybags over here, getting a drink that’s not water.
Indeed, I do prefer a can of cola, some pretzels and five crisp hundred dollar notes.
capitalism. next question?
actually, don’t bother! just assume the answer to why things suck is always capitalism unless you find hard evidence to the contrary.
Totally, soviet planes where known from luxury and totally not from accidents /s
Look, I’m basically a communist most of the time, but I don’t think this is a good take. I’ll admit I don’t actually know the numbers but I know air travel is expensive and not great for the planet.
It could be better, sure, but I would argue that cramming people in and offering the barest of amenities is a good thing when it comes to air travel. Yes, it sucks to be in a plane but it sucks to pollute the air too. It’s good that more people have more travel options now, and it’s good that we can get more people to more places with less fuel than ever before. We shouldn’t bitch about that, we should accept it as a necessity for getting what we want: to arrive someplace far away in an amazingly short period of time, allowing us to see more of the planet than any of our ancestors, while minimizing the harm as much as we can.
this lemmy gold earned my upvote.
Yeah, generations of people hunting for a deal and these companies responding to demand with cheaper options. So capitalism maybe but more so human behavior.
Planes are three times faster, five times longer range and 95% cheaper per mile, in real terms, than those early days.
The consumer was given the choice and they chose this. Honestly, air travel is great.
Yes, capitalism sucks. I hate being nickle and dimed for hand luggage, lottery tickets, snacks, hidden booking fees and all that shit. Some gentle regulations would be really nice.
saying consumers were given a choice is a bit generous.
also standing planes incoming.
They were and still are given a choice. I can fly from London to New York on British Airways first class or Easyjet. Consumers consistently choose the cheapest headline price.
You can also buy a Ferrari over a Honda, doesn’t mean everyone can afford it making it not a choice at all.
Virtually no one could afford air travel prior to the 1960s, that’s a very large part of my point. It got affordable in the 70s and very affordable in the 80s.
At some point during the 80s it became normal for almost every single working family to get on a plane and go somewhere sunny once a year for two weeks. Every year. Minimum.
Ok, fair point. Just came off a little weird to me.
Sorry, I know I’m not always the clearest. :)
Because what are you gonna do? Take a boat to cross the Atlantic? Like you’re some puritan running from Anglicanism?
Like you’re some Greta Thumberg trying to make a valid point.
Stupid. The cost for flights then was more like beyond first class prices now.
Stupid. The cost for flights then was more like beyond first class prices now.
And a lot more smoky.
Don’t like the smoke? Then sit on the other side of the aisle in the non-smoking section.
This reminded me of that one flight as a kid, when I was seated in a row with two smokers. I literally couldn’t breathe. I’m happy that my kids don’t have to experience shit like this.
It can be extremely luxurious if you pay.
I’d rather get to my destination with my wallet still in tact, but you do you.
Because you always buy the cheaper seats. It’s not your fault, I do the same. Flying was literally for the wealthiest of people at that point in history, it was literally a luxury to fly instead of taking a train, bus, or a boat.
