By flying I assume you mean flying in the USA because I don't have any issues with Australia, Asia or Europe.
Buying something in the duty free shop, only to have them take it away at the next airport on connecting flights.
On some flights they don't even serve drinks anymore (unless you pay). Great recipe for dehydration.
Seats are so cramped that more and more people suffer from thrombosis after flying.
There's no space for your hand luggage because the airline charges extra for checked baggage and everyone takes the biggest suitcase they are allowed to take on the plane.
Ridiculous forms you need to fill out online (hoping you don't fall for a scam website), where you can pay only by credit card (not so common in many countries), just to fly through a country that is visa free? Flying via US or Canadian airports has become a major hassle...
Flying used to be different.
I remember that on one flight you could just walk to the front, and watch the pilots fly the plane through the open cockpit door.
If you're dehydrated tell a hostess, free water will be provided (costs them a lot less than being sued).
Flights that don't serve free drinks tend to be (at least in my experience) SUPER cheap budget airlines. In the bygone age of luxurious leisurely air travel, you weren't flying from San Francisco to San Diego for $50 or from Paris to Barcelona for 30€.
Yeah, it was. Expensive.
Robert Gorden in The Rise and Fall of American Growth:
surprisingly, the period of most rapid decline in the real price of air travel occurred before the first flight of a jet plane. As shown in figure 11–10, the price of air travel relative to other goods and services declined rapidly from 1940 to 1960, declined at a slower rate from 1960 to 1980, and has experienced no decline at all in its relative price between 1980 and 2014. The growth rate of passenger miles traveled has mirrored the rate of change of the relative price except with the opposite sign, because lower prices stimulate the demand for any good or service.
And sadly, that's the only change that matters. Cockpits are now closed and locked.
I remember that on one flight you could just walk to the front, and watch the pilots fly the plane through the open cockpit door
I recall a trip in the late 1990s flying Aur Canada (maybe YYZ-SFO) and while in Canadian airspace, I was invited in right behind the copilot to hang out for 20 minutes or so. I was surprised how much air traffic could be seen just with the naked eye.
Essentially you ask their service desk for a companion pass and tbeu run your ID and print you our a ticket to go through security. I use it because I have family that do not speak English test visits me and I walk them to their gate...but if you just want a hug you can, they don't need a reason to issue one.
But I understand what you are saying, and the ability to be at the gate to drop off or meet domestic passengers brought back old memories.
Last time I flew in Australia domestic flights allowed non-passengers up to the waiting area, yes.
Or cancelling flights for 'bad weather' reason, when all other flights departed just fine from the airport - in this case, airline doesn't have to compensate anything (freakin' Easyjet - I realized I am not rich enough and don't have enough extra vacation to use such a crappy random-quality services).
It actually literally happened to me in November 2001, even for an international flight: I missed my flight due to a 3-hour line at MDW, but my luggage had already boarded. I was assured by everyone concerned that it would be offloaded, but it flew ahead, and was (somewhat miraculously) still waiting for me at the luggage claim when I got there over 12 hours later.
They distributed us and our luggage across a couple of planes flying out to Vienna.
My luggage arrived on an earlier flight and had to hear from the Austrian police, while I explained that it was Lufthansa's own doing.
It happens all the time that bags get to a flight that the passenger misses and passengers get to a flight that bags miss. Not remotely unusual. It's happened to me recently too.
This happened to me in 2007. Arrived at a regional airport at 6am bleary eyed and without my wallet. Had to jump through some hoops and I assume some regulations might have been bent/broken but I made my flight. Someone made a judgment call and waved me through.