Ever since 9/11, there was a steady decline in comfort of regular passengers. Now airlines actually have to court those few remaining passengers. I fully expect to see of the room to come back ( even if it is with a fee ).
While what’s going on is terrible, personally I’m much happier that I don’t need to get on a flight every couple weeks. We’re finally realizing that being in the same room for certain meetings offers little value when compared to the cost of personal and environmental health incurred by a flight.
Remember 3 months ago when everyone was worried about global warming? We really need to take this as a forced opportunity to actually do something about it. We should not return to “normal” because normal was disastrous for the environment.
If planes are going to be empty anyway, and the ticket prices have to go up anyway, the airlines may as well differentiate themselves with better customer service.
Sheesh. I'm a lefty too but not everything has to be class warfare.
Is that really a good thing? The market has spoken: people clearly prefer money in their pockets than a few inches of extra space for a few hours.
So to answer your question. I don't know. Time will tell.
But you are, overall, wrong. The goal is, and always has been, milking. Extracting maximum of milk with a minimum of moo. The current breed of travellers are docile and compliant ( I honestly don't know my parents would have been able to pull some of things they did today ).
Consumers are idiots. I sometimes wonder if they even saw how things could be.
Absolutely. Over the past few decades budget airlines have made it obvious that there's a certain (fairly large) class of passengers who will endure significant inconvenience and discomfort is it saves them a couple of dollars.
The traditional airlines certainly have the option to say "Nah, we're not going there." But, for example, business class-only airlines and routes generally haven't worked out for airlines.
There were no lines at security. Three of the 4 airplanes I was on were nearly empty, there was a minimum of crowding around the boarding area, and due to middle seats being blocked there was plenty of overhead bin space on the one flight I had that wasn't empty. All in all, it was fantastic.