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If You Can Afford a Plane Ticket, Thank Deregulation
Flying was a luxury because it was expensive, and it was expensive largely because of detailed federal economic regulations governing how air carriers could operate and, importantly, what they could charge. (reason.com) Ещё...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Your $315 dollar airline ticket in 2018 would have cost you $100 bucks in 1980. I see two ways: if this dollarama seat pricing is offset by jamming more sardines into the can and you want to make more money you either get a bigger can or smaller sardines! I prefer the 1980 scenario where there was a unwritten dress code, and at least 33” seat pitch. You showed up rwo hours before dep and grabbed a drink/snack and away we went. Now you show up 3 1/2 hours, sit in the bar for 2 hours, get plastered, no dress code, no manners or respect, take your whole wardrobe in carry on and then get belligerent with everybody you come in contact with; or demand a better product/service from the airlines and pay a ticket price commensurate with that product/service. Deregulation was a race to the bottom!
You have ignored the swelling population explosion of the past 40 years. Many of today's services have suffered just because of that.
None of which a corresponding hike in the price of a ticket wouldn't have resolved. Didn't cause the TSA problem either.
I'm tired of the nickel and diming. I'm tired of seat pitches and widths designed to comfortably accommodate children, not adults. I'm tired of paying $2.00 more for a beverage on one side of the TSA checkpoint than on the other. I'm tired of carryons that could hold a baby hippo being crammed over my head and under my feet. I'm tired of having a federal officer (other than my wife) fondling my junk. I'm tired of surly, overworked cabin crews. I'm tired of boarding and debarking taking 15-20 minutes because only one door on the aircraft is used. I'm tired of multi-hour ground holds instead of returning to the gate. I'm tired of FLYING, and that's sad because all my life until the last 10-15 years, flying was something I loved.
Yep the deregulation of the airlines was the worst thing to happen to them and US as public. Sure it may have been more expensive but what other modes of transit have been ignored because the airline lobby(no pun intended), has made sure that congress won't fund other ways, such as coast to coast high speed rail, better high ways, or other such things? Here in Florida they are starting to work out a hyper loop route between Tampa and Orlando but, why stop there? Why not connect Jacksonville to Daytona, to Miami? The answer: The airlines. They don't want ANYTHING else cutting into their profits. I am an aviation nut and I love airplanes and aviation history, and I can tell you this, I no longer fly airlines because even at it's lower cost, it's no longer worth the headaches. I drive mostly now, and the last time I flew was in a friends King Air C90. The unions have ruined both the pilots and the flight attendants, and the executives have ruined everything else, and all three only care about one thing: money.
I will always prefer the old way. Prices may have lowered some but at the cost of unbearable travel hassles. I thank God I can fly myself and avoid airline travel like the plague it is. If I have no other way and must take the airlines, I would gladly pay 4 times the ticket price to actually travel in comfort again with passengers that have respect for themselves and others.