I’m not exactly a deregulation fan, but this race to the bottom also democratized access to air travel. When the prices were fixed, they weren’t exactly fixed at anything near the cheap prices we have now (when adjusted for inflation).
Yeah exactly, people talk about how flying used to be so glamorous like it’s somehow not the same as international first class is today. I walked through the first class section on a transatlantic flight once and they had fully reclining lazy boy style seats with blankets and nice food/booze. All the seats were staggered so they could fully recline and had privacy screens you could draw shut. But those tickets are thousands of dollars, like $1000-$1500/hour of flight time at minimum, if you want to spend 20k USD you can basically cross the ocean in a flying hotel.
I’m not exactly a deregulation fan, but this race to the bottom also democratized access to air travel. When the prices were fixed, they weren’t exactly fixed at anything near the cheap prices we have now (when adjusted for inflation).
Yeah exactly, people talk about how flying used to be so glamorous like it’s somehow not the same as international first class is today. I walked through the first class section on a transatlantic flight once and they had fully reclining lazy boy style seats with blankets and nice food/booze. All the seats were staggered so they could fully recline and had privacy screens you could draw shut. But those tickets are thousands of dollars, like $1000-$1500/hour of flight time at minimum, if you want to spend 20k USD you can basically cross the ocean in a flying hotel.