Air travel has basically remained the same in the last 15 years and the experience might actually be worse, amirite?

I've mostly heard people complaining that it's getting worse, who thinks it's better?

by onie18 1 week ago

Never mind getting absolutely smoked out by chain smokers. I swear, back then you could get addicted from the second hand smoke on a short flight

by Anonymous 1 week ago

The food was definitely extremely bad in the 90s and the 00s. It's much better these days but honestly not much else improved. Alitalia was one of the worst airlines every though.

by Aliciakrajcik 1 week ago

I've never seen wifi or screens on short range flights in Europe. Maybe you're flying the more expensive airlines or intercontinental flights?

by whitehassan 1 week ago

Exactly, it has gotten way better. Used to have a 6+ hour flight? Just gotta sit there and read a book maybe. Now you have Wi-Fi, movies, smartphones to listen endless music. It's just better now.

by camillahowe 1 week ago

They should just give everyone 2 edibles, a Xanax and a cheap fire tablet with unlimited internet. It will make the experience a 100x more tolerable.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

International flights have terrible WiFi. I just got done with a 14 hour flight from the US to the Middle East, and even though I paid for WiFi it was trash.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

It depends on the flights. Middle East flights are probably a problem in that way. I flew to Europe from the US and I had wifi good enough to stream shows. On the way back though there was 0 wifi lol.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

lol! Imagine boarding a flight expecting to actually be productive and get stuck with no WiFi.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I got an important work email right before take off, I'm like eh I'll take care of it when we get to cruising. 9.5hrs later… lol

by Anonymous 1 week ago

First class has become incredibly luxurious while economy has gotten worse. Airlines are incentivized to make economy suck to encourage you to upgrade.

by OrdinaryCreme132 1 week ago

Check every influencer showing off how great their business class seat is. Or, how they are drinking $5 champagne out of $1 glass.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

So the people getting paid to advertise it? I don't watch those people

by onie18 1 week ago

They dont want to anger (possible) sponsors. And a lot of them are too young to remember pre 9/11 airtravel

by anabel50 1 week ago

No real person says that air travel has improved. Drop the parasocial relationships and talk to some real people.

by Weston59 1 week ago

People hoping to or already get money/perks from airlines saying positive things is not a valid source.

by Ok_Network 1 week ago

No tech upgrade to make flying faster hence airlines have made the journey more tolerable instead?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Sounds like there is no incentive to build faster planes

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Nobody wants to spend twice as much to make their flight a few hours shorter.

by shannon09 1 week ago

Well, they tried with the Concorde. We all saw how that turned out.

by SeaworthinessSame 1 week ago

Had nothing to do with speed.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Are you talking about speed of travel, quality, safety, meals, etc...? Those are all very different things. When it comes to speed, airplanes aren't getting faster because of the law of diminishing returns the more you increase speed and quickly losing efficiency and becoming costly. So you're right about that. For a lot of things like meal, services, cabin quality, perks, etc...that completely varies from airline to airline, and on the class you fly. Some are getting better, some are getting worse. If you fly Ryan Air or Aeroflot it's gonna be like day and night compared to Singapore Airlines of Qatar airways. Aeroflot doesn't see much improvements in the last decades, while Singapore sees vast ones. Also, if you fly coach, there's gonna be some aspects that are getting worse over time, while flying business and first class has usually improved for many airlines over time. I've been flying since the late 80s, and even compared to the 90s and early 2000s, business and first class have vastly improved in the last 15 years. But overall, there aren't as many technological improvements as you would expect. Even the computer terminals used to check in at airports are still ancient.

by ProfessionalLow4482 1 week ago

Maybe I'm the exception, but I'd rather pay to get to my destination faster than have 4 more inches of space on my seat.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

How much more would you be willing to pay? Would you pay double the price to shave off 5% of the journey time? 10%? I certainly wouldn't

by shannon09 1 week ago

Yea that's been the issue. You have to pay significantly more for increases in speed. It's not like it's gonna be just a few hundred dollars more to fly super sonic. You'll pay a couple of tens of thousands of dollars extra. Even if you have the money, I think a lot of people would rather spend the extra time sleeping or watching a movie on the plane. Granted, for long haul flights like across the Atlantic, you could go for from 7 hours to 3 hours.

by ProfessionalLow4482 1 week ago

So should you be charged extra or refunded after the flight depending on the intensity of tailwind/headwind - if present during your flight? You can have the fastest commercial aircraft and still get beat down by headwind, or get home half an hour earlier to an hour thanks to tailwind and there's nothing technology can do about it.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

That would be a very popular scheme

by Anonymous 1 week ago

This is an interesting point that I wonder in the future if it will be made available to pick the faster flight for a more expensive option. For instance I'd rather fly a 3 hour flight to Europe than a 8 hour flight in first class.

by Elmoredaniel 1 week ago

Flying is cheaper and more reliable. You can't have it all, especially not without any real technological breakthroughs

by Next_Umpire 1 week ago

I have often though the price jump from coach to business or god forbid 1st class to outrageous. My Nephew flew from Atlanta to Toyoko in an upgraded class but not 1st class a month opr so ago and the ticket was expected to cost $18,000. He got a deal on it but this is just a seat that folds flat and personal TV & drinks in a glass cup. the difference is something like 15 fold increase in price from coach to a seat that is comfortable.

by ssauer 1 week ago

There are faster aircraft (remember the Concorde?), but they aren't used in part because of sonic booms.

by Weston59 1 week ago

Replace air travel with "most things" and you're getting closer to the truth.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

In europe air travel is fantastic, the time is not a problem at all, it's cheap and relialable

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Is it faster than what it was 10 years ago?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

No because the plane are literally the same, you can't go faster without using more fuel so the ticket will rise, it's not worse at all, it could be better yes but my mom always says that when I was young in the early 2000s you couldn't go everywhere in the world with a cheap tickets like now

by Anonymous 1 week ago

No one says is getting better

by Ok-Exit6454 1 week ago

I find flights expensive. I'm in Canada and it would cost $400 each to fly from Toronto to Thunder Bay in the same province lol. And if I wanted to go to Europe it's like $2k each

by LeadingBackground 1 week ago

Flying domestic in Canada is a joke - it's 1/2 the cost for me to fly internationally to Calgary from Detroit vs flying domestically from Windsor. It's basically the same flight.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I would say that international flights experiences have gotten much much better, (coming from emirates and Etihad) but the last time i was in the US, the continental flights were pathetic (a it harsh perhaps) and the business class was awful (LA to DC on american) compared to the emirates which brought us to California (DXB to LAX). The American flight was comparable to that of the emirates premium economy and the emirates business was (in my opinion) leagues ahead of even the American's first class.

by Erosenbaum 1 week ago

United business class is worse than an Uber Pool

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Not unpopular

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I think the plane experience is better now, but goddamn airports are getting way worse.

by Livid_Arugula 1 week ago

I would gladly give up electronics and wifi if we could return to the days of pre-9/11 travel. Bring a book, take a nap. It used to be so easy to fly...walk up and get on the plane....no 2hr advance arrival, no security. Planes were rarely full, middle seats were often empty. Seats were roomier. I used to fly 30-40 trips per year in the 80's and 90's. Flying today is awful. I would travel more if flying wasn't such a hassle.

by WrongCartographer 1 week ago

I have heard literally no one before now make a claim it's gotten better. Only complaints about how ass it is.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Considering every flight is like Lord of the flies now, I think it's safe to assume it's gotten worse

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I traveled extensively in my work, and I found that 99% of planes are smelly and dirty. I must be the only person who complained about going to Hawaii too many times - I'm from NYC and it takes about 13 hours if you fly direct. For local travel I almost always opted for Amtrak.

by Curt16 1 week ago

Flying out of JFK is torture. The traffic, the time required to get to the airport, TSA, etc etc

by Anonymous 1 week ago

That would be fantastic

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Your entire premise is based on the also very unpopular opinion that air travel has gotten better.

by Practical-Salt 1 week ago

No one is saying that. No one.

by Anonymous 1 week ago