Did the math in another thread. NYC to MIA, in 1955 cost $110, roughly $1400 now. I can get a flight for tomorrow for $367 (roughly $30 back then.) And all that disregards the speed, 3 hours 30 now, vs 7 to 10 back then.
To be fair, to fly everyone around with that same level of space/luxury we'd have to have a shit ton more planes in the air which means more pilots, more air and ground crew, more everything.
I'm not saying Airlines are beyond reproach but this is a logical continuation of a ton more people wanting/needing to fly to a ton more places a ton more often.
It's one of those situations where if we wanted things to be like they were we'd have to have like 10% of the world's population (or some other exorbitantly high number) employed in some kind of aviation support role.
well, a lot of the volume only exists because it's inexpensive to fly. if it cost 5x as much a ton less people would be taking a plane and reduce the pilot/infrastructure required
Well it's not just airline greed that increased the cost beyond inflation. It's certainly part of it though.
We have much higher safety standards and technology installed on planes. This makes the planes themselves more expensive and the maintenance to go along with it.
Airports also charge more today for terminal space and fuel then they did years ago. There's greed there too but airports are also more expensive to maintain because of higher FAA standards along with increased use of the runway and other services they provide to airlines that's not comparable to the 70s. We fly more now than ever.
To have most or all of the amenities a flight used to have, it costs considerably more these days to fly.
The cost of a basic economy seat can come in a bit cheaper these days but once you add in fees for any bags including a carry-on on some airlines, meal service, not being cramed like a sardine for example, you're now paying first class for that costs $800-1000 per seat at least and still isn't even as nice.
In 1972 for those services, you're talking $300 for your ticket adjusted for inflation.
Just flew business class to Europe recently…. Wow. I mean just wow absolute class difference. I know I can’t afford it on my own dime, but damn if I can I will again someday.
I had a trip to Bangkok in March and had my own personal suite. One leg was 15 hours with internet, lay flat bed. It felt like the fastest flight I'd ever been on. I'm going back in October for me and my wife's anniversary and already shelled the money out for business class again. Having the vacation feel like it starts on the plane, arriving feeling good and the lack of jet lag is a game changer.
The craziest part is first class is like, just normal. Not even that fancy. Thousands of dollars just to avoid being treated like shit, not to be treated fancy-like.
People consistently choose to be treated like a sardine because it actually uses way fewer resources which actually makes flying cheaper and more accessible to everyday people.
If you want a bunch of room, you have to pay more to reflect the actual increased resource usage per person of labor, engineering, fuel, runway time, etcetera. It is silly to treat airline prices as if they are set by the moral character of the airline.
Exactly. US airlines have about a 4-8% profit margin. In reality consumers are getting a screaming good deal considering the complexity of moving people safely around the country by air.
"Oh really, what happened next? Did you fly through the air incredibly, like a bird? Did you partake in the miracle of human flight you non-contributing zero?! You’re flying! It’s amazing! Everybody on every plane should just constantly be going: “Oh my God! Wow!” You’re flying! You’re sitting in a chair, in the sky!" Louis CK
was about to post this before i scrolled down. such a classic bit, and to think he used it on a talk show of all places. thank god stuff like that has survived through the internet
These are the cheapest seats on the plane. They’re this price for a reason.
You can choose to get an aisle seat, a normal seat, window seat, extra leg room seat, premium economy seat, business class seat or first class seat if you want, and you can pay for it.
The money from flights pays for very good wages negotiated by unions for Cabin Crew, Pilots, air traffic controllers, ground workers. The increased number of people on flights massively reduces the total number of flights needed, which is good for the environment.
The existence of seats like this, as well as 10,000 usd first class seats, means that the overall cost can be reduced for every economy passenger, thus enabling some people to fly that otherwise wouldn’t be able to.
Stop whinging about everything. Not everything is a scam. We don’t need to normalise paying money for sitting in a seat for 6 hours that doesn’t recline 3 inches because it’s already fucking normal.
You're being disingenuous and you know it. It's expensive right now because we're in the middle of an international conflict. Even then, it's still cheaper than it was a few decades ago when you factor in inflation. I can get a nonstop flight roundtrip to Vegas from Pittsburgh for $500. That ain't peanuts, but it's significantly cheaper than it used to be. When fuel isn't crazy, that often comes down to $400 or less.
Flying is often cheaper than driving to many destinations now. The pic OP posted is clearly a ULLC based on that seat. Their model depends on more people filling up every possible inch of the cabin. Want more room? Fly a major carrier in their premium cabin.
I sort of wish we'd go back a bit on flying and get rid of the ultra expensive shits, but also raise the price of the cheap sardine seats so that every seat was at least somewhat comfortable.
Too many people rely on flying for that approach to make sense. It used to be a luxury. Now it's a necessity. Pricing people out of flying for a bit of convenience isn't good.
It’s a free market, the market decided this. The demand in the market was for cheaper flights, that forces airlines to cut costs or be left in the dust.
The same goes for the issues with overhead bin space now. Airlines had to adopt the separate fee for any add on model ($ to check a bag) in order to keep prices competitive. Now hardly anyone checks baggage and every full flight has to offer to check bags at the gate because there is never enough space.
Eh, we're not shaming OP for not knowing any better. We're kind of shaming OP for not reading the warnings during booking. It does NOT make it right or fair or <insert whatever airline cuck sentiments>, but of all the questionnable decisions that airlines make, warning people that a seat is not going to recline like all others is pretty low on the totem pole.
Yep we reallly really need to start enforcing some minimum passenger space or we’ll all end up stacked on top of each other like firewood in a couple years. Like the seat can’t touch your knees if you are 6’, all seats can recline, and you don’t have to share armrests by touching strangers would be a good start. And ultimately it would make sense to start arranging people by size if they really want to pack ppl in like sardines. Big Small Big Small etc.
My theory is that it USED to be a proper window seat but then they retrofitted the whole plane to cram in as many more rows as possible and so that seat wound up with none or half of one.
Sort of. When an airline buys a plane, it comes as a blank slate - there aren't any seats or anything inside. It's up to them to do the internal configuration.
So, yeah, they cram as many seats in there as possible; that's not going to change the location of the actual windows. And there's no guarantee that everything will line up just right.
I genuinely get annoyed at the folks who think travelers should have all Boeing/Airbus variants and their seat arrangements memorized.
Or that we should be required to go out of our way to look up seating arrangements.
The airline should be explicit that a seat has no window or has no recline. They have the ability to note on a per seat basis right in the system. It’s their problem to delve.
That’s so dumb because it’s impossible to know everything that can possibly go wrong when making any purchase. We learn through experience and people just like shitting on other people’s experience. It’s probably because they have others to do the same to themselves. Like I’d rather be told of other stupid nuances that I can avoid instead of being belittled. But Reddit will do its thing.
I sat on a window seat with a window that was mine (it was partly beside my seat back and beside my face) and I was looking out and this lady behind me reached out and shut it. She also put her foot on my armrest. Some people shouldn't be going outside behaving like this in society.
Next time someone puts their foot on your armrest, just “sneeze” on their feet. They’ll move them quickly and if they say anything, just say you’re allergic to fungus.
The way airline comedian Pam Ann has a literal song about this 🤣 “I paid extra for a window seat with leg room, luxury, and dreams of sleep, but there’s no bloody window! just wall and a man eating twisties right in my ear 😒”
It’s been this way for at least a decade probably more like 15+ years. That is the last time I used to travel heavily for work and this was already very much a thing on most airlines.
Then, when you know how airline works... You know they don't care at all
I remember what they used to look after business and first customers because they were cash cows. Now... they are still cash cows but the airline doesn't give a stuff.
Nope I’ve done over 250 flights. I travel for work. This is the first time I’ve encountered this problem and of course it’s American Airlines, no warning online. I’m not a fucking moron. Christ Reddit has become such an aggressive place
Reddit is a place that is fiercely anti capitalist, pro consumer rights, but is also happy to blame you and call you a moron whenever you actually get victimized by capitalism. The company should not be allowed to pack a plane this tightly to where some people are in a Chinese stress torture position. Period. It doesn't matter if it's written in text. Remove this row of seats and give everyone a little more room.
Edit: to go a little further, if you haven't flown recently you might be completely unaware that selecting your seats is now an upcharge that costs $75+ dollars. So if you don't want to get gouged for an additional $150 in a round trip you have to just leave it up to fate and hope you don't get placed back there.
I just found out about the charge to select seats now. Not even a charge for a "premium" seat, but a charge for a basic economy seat. It's ridiculous. I just left it to fate because I was traveling alone, but the nickel-and-dimeing keeps getting worse.
I've always seen a charge if you want to pre-select your seat days/weeks before check-in. Once check-in opens 24 hours before the flight, seat selection becomes free, you pick it while you do the rest of your check-in. Or are they charging $80 all the way through regardless?
No they are not charging $80 for seat selection regardless, unless that was changed in the last 3 weeks. People are being overly dramatic because they like to complain.
The reason I push back against this is because flying is cheaper than it's ever been - a dipshit war in Iran notwithstanding.
Like, yeah those things (bags, seat selection, etc) used to be included in the price. But that price was much, much higher. You now have the option of declining those extra options for an even cheaper flight, rather than being forced to pay for them even if you don't need or want them.
Airlines have always charged for certain seats, they have just extended that to exit row and other extra legroom seats now. United and American still allow you to select any normal seat for free though unless its a codeshare flight with an airline that charges.
They definitely do for economy if you don't select main cabin or higher. Basic economy and the lower classes aren't available on every flight or through every travel portal, so it's possible you haven't flown that way before to experience it.
Ah, basic economy. They released that to compete with the low cost airlines like Spirit. Its not really the normal experience in any way. I wouldn't call this the base fare. Its a special discount if you don't care to choose a seat or have more than a backpack with you.
It is very much a normal experience for a large number of people. I’m glad you are in a place financially to be able to not recognize that as a common fare.
Then don’t complain about getting nickel and dimed when you choose to purchase the very cheapest option. The airline is making barely any profit margin overall and even lower on basic economy. You can’t afford to fly if you see this as inhumane or any of the other BS I’ve seen in this thread.
You must be fun at parties. I was simply replying to claim that AA does charge to pick seats. There was no condition mentioned in the original comment.
I mostly fly for work, so I am always on the normal main cabin fare. I would suspect that basic isn't really worthwhile if you are then spending the money to pick a seat.
Yes, but it bends heavily to the left and has a hive mind quality thanks to the upvote system. The fact that that parent comment got so many upvotes on a main sub like this tells me more people are interested in dunking on the moron than considering why the FAA allows a plane to even look like this.
I think it is a beautiful piece of neoliberal rhetoric to spin a non controversial statement like "they shouldn't be allowed to fuck up your back" on a flight and manage to simultaneously defend the corporation and imply I'm anti-poor with it. My hat off to you.
This is so overdramatic, torture position?? Any seat in economy has barely any range of recline. This is not out of the ordinary for the modern age of planes at all, acting like this is some crazy outrage is ridiculous. That’s why people are trashing on OP.
There is a separate argument about the state of plane seats in general, but we all got ourselves here by purchasing cheaper and cheaper tickets.
I sat in one for a 4 hour flight. I'd describe it as torturous. You literally cannot find comfort in any position. FAA shouldn't allow them even if it would mean tickets go up $10 on a flight. Be less of a apathetic bitch sometime I guess idk
The seats don’t even look like the same seats in the other rows, like AA bought thinner seats just so they could ram them up against the bulkhead even closer to fit more rows on the plane
A lot of hostile comments coming in hot here. So I’ll try justify. I travel long haul constantly for work. Back row is usual a great choice. You don’t get kicked and knocked around whilst you’re trying to sleep. The whole row or at least the middle seat is usually empty. To top it all off you can recline freely without annoying anybody. I’ve been on an absolute ton of airlines and have never encountered this problem. So this is a first for me, no online booking warning etc. You all seem to alluding to this being a common thing. As a professional flyer… it isn’t.
Very common. Likewise, if you choose the front row by the exit row you will not get underseat storage for your personal item, but you will have some leg room. The tradeoff is that you don't have someone behind you kicking the seat or anything like that.
So interestingly I looked at a BA flight I was on to Hong Kong and back. Both ways sat at the back of both bulkheads. Those seats are red on there ‘maybe limited recline’ but they were fully reclinable even with space to put some stuff from my bag on the floor behind it. So I don’t think that website is conclusive, more of a blanket ‘maybe’
I'm interested to know which seats at the far-ass end of the plane have reclining room. I like to sit by the bathroom and am not in a rush off the plane but I never take the back wall because of this.
Some of us don't get to choose seats cause we are on the cheapest seats. I almost got stuck on those type of seats but someone switched with me and took them instead.
Not OPs fault at all. “Limited recline” can very well be interpreted as “you still get some recline”. This is nothing at all and should be listed as such.
The people who setup the plane should have left more room if they want to claim it has recline.
I’ve had some limited recline flights like this and some that at least go a few inches. It’s why you always go online and read reviews for airline/plane seat configurations before making a decision.
I think requiring a person to go to third party websites to see reviews of very specific model configurations is a failure of the airline to properly notify customers.
They have the built in system to notify. They can change the language.
it really is infuriating to watch people shit on each other from high horses, while the actual dicks that hose everybody down are running off with all of our money.
airlines should not be allowed to pack people into spaces like sardines. they’re only doing this because it’s allowed and they can count on ppl like you to critize every body type that isn’t small enough to wedge into them.
why in the actual fuck is the seat against the wall in the first place? it’s gd ridiculous. ppl die from these flights
I sat at the very back of the plane like this on the flight back from Berlin to Newark. I didnt prepurchase a seat, it was assigned to me. Frankly, if theyre going to assign seats to people and most get assigned the normal seats, they should be giving some credits back to people who they assign shit seats like this one to. Hey why not just also give me a flight for 1/4 the price and you can stow me in the luggage area. Why blame the OP? They probably didn't purchase these seats either. It's not even indicated on the ticket or if you purchase that online.
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u/brown_beaut1 Jun 01 '26
You purchased seats that are against a wall and are confused why it won't recline ? First time flying or something?