This morning my wife and I were reminiscing about commercial flying. Forty years ago ordinary tourist class flying was a pleasant experience. Flight attendants, invariably young, attractive women in highly tailored uniforms, were unfailingly courteous and at least appeared to be genuinely concerned for your well-being and grateful for your business. Seats were far enough apart that you could rise, turn, and cross in front of adjoining passengers without disturbing them or jostling them or, in some cases, rousing them from their slumber. Flights tended to be on time.
Most passengers were travelling for business. Most people dressed to travel, beyond what would be considered business casual today.
Flash forward forty years. Flying first class today is roughly what flying tourist was then. Flying tourist today is more like riding the Greyhound Bus.
I can’t stand to fly any more.
I wonder, in terms of purchasing power parity, if a tourist class airline ticket today is cheaper or more expensive than a bus ticket was 40 or 50 years ago.
I don’t see much to complain about personally except for the price gaming where cheap tickets are offset by huge fees on baggage and other crap. Sure, riding in coach sucks, but one can always pay for a business or first-class ticket. A few hours of unpleasantness is typically better than the alternative. For example, my family and another family are going to Disneyworld this summer for a week. With 4 adults and 7 kids total, we decided to fly because that is better than spending two days driving in a car each way or taking a bus. It’s probably cheaper too.
I thought competition via deregulation was supposed to usher in a golden age of air travel. Not a pyrite age.
We’re taking our kids on their first plane ride this summer (also to Disney World), and I’m trying to figure out if I should give them a talk about being “touched” by security. We’re taking Southwest, which I don’t think has First Class seats, but I’ll take about 2 hours of discomfort over 2 days of discomfort any time.
PD,
Yeah, we are contemplating that same talk. That recent video of the TSA “patting down” a 6 year old girl pissed me off on a number of levels.
Southwest doesn’t have first-class, but they have, IMO, the most pleasant coach experience and the flight attendants are friendlier than almost every other airline. With no assigned seating, however, you need to make sure to check-in early (or pay the fee for automatic check-in) so you can pick good seats together. They make accommodations so that children won’t sit alone, but better to check-in early if at all possible.
Oh, and if you want to relive some of the “good old times” of air travel, just fly Virgin if you can.
@PD
“We’re taking Southwest, which I don’t think has First Class seats, but I’ll take about 2 hours of discomfort over 2 days of discomfort any time.”
No first class, business class on Southwest. There are no assigned seats. SW uses an ABC seating arrangement (A getting on first, C last). To get the best seat you can, at exactly 24 hours before departure time (no sooner), go to the Southwest website and go to checkin (upper right-hand corner of the page). Follow the directions. Print your boarding passes. I notice SW now has something called “Early Bird Checkin” (+$10 one way), dunno what that’s about. If you have small children, you might be able to jump the line completely.
Andy, I haven’t seen the full video, but after I watch it I think I might show it to my kids. (We’re also going to show them some Youtube of the rides they may be uncertain of riding)
BTW/ When are you going, we’re going the first week of June, Gay Days.
Thanks sam and Andy for the tips. I paid the Early Bird Checkin fee, which I think essentially has the computer print out your boarding pass before that option is made available on-line. I don’t think we’re guaranteed “A” seating though if everybody does it. So, it could be like bribing the bus driver to board early and finding out that the bribe is customary just to get a spot.
Southwest was essentially the only airline around here that was offering direct flights to Orlando.
PD,
We’ll be there for a week beginning June 4th.
We’re arriving June 4th also, leaving the 9th. So my clever plan to see if we can arrive before school closings on the East Coast has been penetrated by others. If I see you, I’ll be sure to say hi. I’ll be the tired, middle-aged father, carrying an itenerary downloaded from the touringplans website.
Lol, PD, your description is what I see when I look in the mirror!
Was it a better world when stews were fired for the first wrinkle or surly word? 😉 Or, can we charge a premium for Mad Men flights?
Other than that, yes, planes are the new buses. Correct.
I fly almost weekly. In fact, much of my posting is done from airports while waiting for delayed flights. As jp points out, its like the bus used to be.
Its also interesting to observe how a plane loads and unloads. If you are on a mostly businessman flight – think Sunday night Chicago to NY – its badda bing badda boom in they go, in their seats lets go. Tourist flight? People wandering aimlessly with half their lifes possessions packed trying to find overhead space, confused………..it takes a half hour to load. And if you are in an aisle, you’ve been pummeled half bloody by time everyone is loaded.
Fun, fun, fun not on the autoban…….
I think the question is better for whom? Honestly, I think it was better for customers the old way but the way it is now is undoubtedly better for cabin service personnel.
My experience is that Southwest, where the personnel tends to be younger (at least partially due to lower pay rates), is more pleasant to fly on than United.
I don’t fly nearly as much as I used to and when I fly at all it tends to be a long haul. Long flights tend to dominated by older cabin service personnel (combination of seniority and the value to them of getting your monthly hours over with as quickly as possible so you can spend more time at home) so that’s what I tend to experience. My observation is that cabin service personnel who are fifty are more really are bored with the whole thing and wish you would just go away. YMMV
By my rough calculations, it would cost my family of four as much to drive to Orlando (17 hours or 2 long days), as to take the Greyhound (one day and two hours), or take the plane (two hours and twenty-minutes). These assumptions change based upon length of travel, flexibility of terms and proximity to major travel hubs.
But I have to assume that air travel is more like bus travel because price elasticity is relatively high. I feel that I spend less per person than I did 25 years ago, but back then I used something called a travel agent and may not have been fully informed enough to weigh the different travel options against cost.
Travel agents? Bueller?
Andy, if only there were licensed Glittering Eye t-shirts with which to recognize each other and well, avoid sitations where tempers flare, knives are drawn and long form birth certificates demanded.