Adjacent to this topic, I was recently thinking about how little commercial air travel has changed in the past 50 years. You can no longer smoke on an airplane, which is great. Security is a nightmare, which is less great. Has anything else changed?
https://news.aviation-safety.net/2017/12/30/preliminary-asn-...
1. Ticket prices have come down in real terms (especially with the advent of low cost airlines)
2. Fuel economy on newer jets has improved
3. Increased number of routes and frequencies
4. Lie flat seats in business and above on long haul
5. WiFi on planes
6. In-flight entertainment - both seatback units and video over WiFiIn general, travel information is a lot more frictionless. Flight cancelled, bags lost? There's an app for that. And in general, clothing expectations mean I have to check bags a lot fewer times.
As you say, seating is better if you're willing to pay for it but I've never bought WiFi on a flight. It's one of the few opportunities I have to really read anyway.
[1] Well, we were supposed to pick them up yesterday. They actually arrived today. 10 hours late on an afternoon flight is like that.
Like they used to sell life insurance at the airport because of both the perception of how unsafe things were and the reality of it - per Wikipedia, in 1969 there were 21 air crashes or incidents - the vast majority of which had fatalities, in 2019, there were 12, the vast majority of which had none - this on top of an order of magnitude more flights in 2019 vs 1969 - the disparity grows even further when you look back into the 50's.
They don't offer peanuts because the increasing numbers of people developing peanut allergies have made it too deadly.
Passengers used to dress up for air travel, but now they dress for comfort.
Alcohol used to be served for free.
Passenger violence has increased.
They started making people pay for bringing luggage in the 2000s, first with checked bag fees and then carry on bag fees.
Between those two forces (airlines cutting services in order to make flying available to more people, and airlines turning once standard features into high priced "premium" features to line their pockets at the expense of most travelers) the effect is pretty much the same: Most people who want to fly have no option, but to find the most affordable rates where they can expect to get substandard service while only a small number of very wealthy people get what used to be granted to everyone with a ticket.
Air travel was once a luxury experience at a luxury price, and things had to change to open it to more people, but things like standing seats (https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/standing-up-airplane-seat...) and fees for carry on bags are certainly not necessary and are just airlines abusing passengers for profit.
The “decent medium” market segment is actually fairly small. Hence why there aren’t really 100% premium economy cabins, they wouldn’t fill.
Bin space used to be plentiful in the back, so I'll give you that. And maybe you're checking bags. But here are some things you're missing out on in coach in 1980 that you get up front today:
- You're first-on.
- Drinks before takeoff (it doesn't have to be the champagne that comes by on the tray, you can ask for anything).
- Followed by a real service: drinks, appetizers, entree, dessert.
- Pillows and blankets that are actually comfortable. More than you'll know what to do with.
- Amenity kit, robe, slippers.
- A smoke-free environment.
- The brass ring, a 100% lie-flat bed surrounded by a privacy partition.
- You're first-off.
No international flight has charged me for alcohol. Now, I've had national flights even try to charge me for snacks.
One cool thing about coach back in the day were the center seats that folded forward to use as a table for drinks or cards. Planes flew at such lower passenger loads that this made sense. Imagine the likelihood of anyone being able to take advantage of this weird feature today!
YMMV. I love being able to stay in touch with my folks or scroll HN/Reddit while I'm in the air with nothing to do but read a book or try to nap.
> take showers at airline clubs
That video is about Emirates First Class, where one can take a shower during the flight. This kind of convenience costs somewhat obscene amount of money, most people here I guess aren't the target audience.
Sleeping upright in a chair, even a very comfortable chair, sucks. Lie flat seats are a significant change in improvement, such that flying business today might actually be a better experience than first used to be.