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Comment by amadeuspagel | Hacker News Reader

How is a system that enables cheap airline tickets for everyone by selling expensive sandwiches to people who can afford it evil?

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It's luring people into flying more than they should (which is polluting), and then trying to make up the difference by trapping those people in an area where they can only by ridiculously overpriced stuff.

The right thing to do would be more expensive airline tickets that account for the total cost of flying (including the pollution they cause) and then charging an honest price for the sandwiches.

I mean, this sandwich costs almost as much as some airline tickets.

Hey just bring your own food! Oh wait, I guess you can't thanks to security theatre. Guess you'll starve or fork over $15 for a shitty sandwich

Too bad we can't have nice trains. I mean Amtrak is okay but it doesn't even compare to the rail systems in other countries. Guess we're stuck polluting too. Thanks, Elon

I’ve never been denied bringing food through security for US domestic flights. Do other areas prohibit that?

Iirc it has to be sealed and new to get past security as long as they notice it, but I may be misremembering. I've never been able to bring food or drinks

I've never had problems bringing food, but drinks are banned as part of the liquids ban of security theater

Only drinks are secured. Not food. And water is free at airport and airplane.

What??? I bring burgers, sushi, homemade sandwiches, anything except soup is fair game. Just put it in a backpack or something.

And this is flying through hundreds of airports, not just major coastal ones...

Even soup would probably be possible if you had a dehydrated “just add water” version that was solid at the time of crossing the security checkpoint, and in airports with free water refill stations (or potable bathroom tap water) inside the security perimeter you wouldn’t even have to pay for water.

This idea would work best for soups that are good to eat cold, of course, but those do exist.

I've definitely put an entire pizza in a box through the scanner before and had no questions or pushback. If anything I've had more questions when I've flown with packaged food.

Foods I've flown with:

Apples

Two sub sandwiches

100 fresh tortillas

An entire 20lb uncooked brisket

3 loaves of bread

A frozen 8lb pork roast

I'm pretty surprised they're ok with frozen stuff, but yea, never had any issues bringing entire bags full of food, raw or prepared, packaged or not.

> they’re ok with frozen stuff

You can’t take a big jug of water through security unless it’s frozen because the rule prohibits liquids, not solids.

Hard cheese has always given me problems. The density matches that of a solid explosive like C4 on their x-ray. So I always plan for a secondary screening with a full unpacking and swab down of my bag if I’m bringing back a block of special cheese.

Yea, I've sometimes had them swab it, but that's pretty quick and not usually a big deal.

This list is hysterical.

Yet my baby formula was tossed by TSA. Turns out baby formula is not a thing sold at airports either. Then again this was in a state hostile to born children, so I wasn't too surprised.

That is incredibly shitty. How do they expect people to feed their babies? Or do they expect babies to starve?

To be fair these were larger than the permitted size but according to the TSA website formula is exempt from the limit. But, I wasn't going to argue with the agent.

I always bring a couple of burritos. No problem.

I once flew back with an entire brisket from Franklin BBQ in Austin. They were a bit worried about it because it looked completely opaque, but they let it theough.

Yeah, that is all false. You can bring food. The only restriction is on liquids. I have taken a chipotle burrito through (covered with sauce and guacamole, wrapped in aluminum foil) without issue. I have taken pizzas, sandwiches, and hamburgers. You are even explicitly allowed to take solid water through airport security.

Food is not forbidden. I passed security gates with food multiple times on multiple airports - still sealed food like peanuts or candy bars, but also homemade sandwiches.

Drinks are the problem, but water is not that expensive, and some airports have drinkable water for free near toilets.

And in the toilets.

The sandwich costs more than many airline tickets in the EU.

For example Brussels -> Vienna for 13 euros and it runs weekly.

https://www.google.com/travel/flights/s/KLAA2UnyrkmuH8Kv7

This is wildly misleading. And, it is a one way ticket and does not even allow a carry-on. Google flights tells me:

    Ryanair allows passengers to board with 1 small item, such as a purse or laptop bag.

Hmmm, so if I am normal human being and need to carry at least a small bag, how much will that cost? 30 EUR for one carry-on bag. Or 50 EUR for one checked bag. Ouch. So realistic minimum roundtrip is (13 + 30) x 2 = 86 EUR.

For a weekend trip back to visit the family one small (40x20x25cm) can work. A carry-on costs 13.5 euros extra.

Doesn't change the fact that the ticket price itself is ridiculously low. Not misleading at all; it really is that low.

But nobody is popping into an airport for a quick sandwich and then leaving the airport. The cost to the average passenger is the same.

At the end of the day you're just arguing that there should be a carbon tax on flights

> flying more than they should

How do you know how much they should fly?

Our society uses the price system to allocate those transportation resources. The price already factors in alternatives and discourages the activity relative to its burden on society.

> How do you know how much they should fly?

When it doesn't hurt society through its externalities (noise, pollution).

> The price already factors in alternatives and discourages the activity relative to its burden on society.

Not really. It doesn't kerosene isn't taxed like other fuels in many places. The pollution isn't cleaned up. Ticket prices are ridiculously low and have been widely advertised to encourage people to fly more.

There are already many taxes on all kinds of fuel for that reason.

It sounds like your real complaint is that the ticket should be taxed more, but I'd guess that your opinion extends to other kinds of transportation as well.

My complaint consists of many parts. I want externalities like pollution to be accounted for, but I also don't the bait-and-switch business practice of loss leaders where you're drawn with with a low price for the thing you want, and then struck with lots of additional costs that are plainly unreasonable. I want them to charge a fair price for every individual part.

I also believe in 30x’ing the price of children’s food and clothes, because they cause far more pollution than air travel does and this will dissuade people from having them.

It's nickel-and-diming.

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