[B-Chan]

I remember the golden age of air travel, which ended about 1982. Airlines were a genteel, comfortable, and dignified means of travel. The Civil Aeronautics Board regulated airfares, keeping the ticket price high enough to weed out the riffraff while ensuring a modest profit for each air carrier. As a result, the dozens of airlines that existed back then were forced to compete on service, not price; even coach class travel was luxurious by today’s standards.

Then the Feds deregulated the airlines. Tickets got cheaper, the riffraff flocked to the airports, profits plummeted, and the carriers began to die.

Ten years from now, there will be one U.S. airline — call it UnitedAmericanSouthwestDelta — and passengers who use it will be sedated and stacked like cordwood inside the jets.

Hooray for deregulation. It made air travel miserable, humiliating, and something to be avoided.

[1rudeboy]

I miss the days that a roundtrip ticket to Los Angeles cost the same as an automobile. /s

[Tijeras_Slim]

Yep, air travel is now Greyhound with wings.

[I Buried My Guns]

"...keeping the ticket price high enough to weed out the riffraff..."

I place the downward death sprial of airline service directly upon the low class humans who should have been relegated to the bus. Airline flight is the only place where I am forced to rub elbows with this trash, outside the DMV.

I believe the decay in good airline service is a direct result of the presence of this demographic.