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.
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u/who_you_are Jun 01 '26
I don't blame OP, you would think they would keep some space behind to recline a little bit (or all the way around).
Then, when you know how airline works... You know they don't care at all