My wife bemoans the end of the days when flying was something that you'd get dressed up for and people would act in a civilized manner.
Last time we flew, I noticed two women who were flying in their pajamas.
People are herded into those planes like animals and conduct themselves similarly.
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My aunt was one of those who would get well dressed to fly. In those days, flying was a big event and a big event called for proper dress. I still remember her in her hat and white gloves. Classy lady.
I don't dress up largely for comfort. To fly 4 hours or so to Las Vegas would be just about impossible if I were all dolled up. I wouldn't do pajamas, but hey, whatever is comfortable.
This is not just confined to airlines. Seats on a bus or in a theater are not conductive to a normal size person, let alone a fat woman like me. Even worse is how much space is between rows. The last set of buses our local transit authority purchased has unevenly spaced rows. Some have sufficient space; for other rows, you have to be Twiggy to sit down. Funny thing is that we hear all the time how fat Americans are -- is this trend toward narrowing seats and rows supposed to encourage us to lose weight? If so, I don't think it's working.
I fly in shorts and a t-shirt and bring a sweat shirt on board in case I get cold.
It is too uncomfortable for me to wear jeans or a suit for that matter. My company used to have a rule in place that when we traveled we wore a suit from the office to our destination. We couldn't even leave from home. We had to go to the office, drop off our vehicle and a car service took us to the airport.
No. It's about numbers. How many people can they stuff into a plane, bus, theatre, etc. Not saying Americans aren't fat but it's not a priority in our society.
I don't dress up or dress only for comfort; I dress for safety. Fire is always an issue in aircraft. In ROTC I rode with the Guard in Hueys for weekend drill. The Guardsman wore nomex (a fire resistent material) the the k-dets wore cotton fatigues with the collars buttoned up, sleeves down and pants tucked. When I fly now I wear cotton or wool, no synthetics (like napalm it sticks to things) and leather shoes. A fancy synthetic shirt, coat or shoe will catch fire fast, burn hot and stick to you like the burning plastic that it real is.
Flying used to be classy. Flying used to be expensive.
Now everybody can afford it. If someone wants the class of bygone days, they can pay the bygone prices and ride first class.
Sorry, my wife also remembers the old days, she was raised in an airline family and still works in the industry. She remembers having to wear white gloves when they travelled.
She and I see it the same way now: Airplanes are the Grayhound busses of the 20th century.
In NYC a bunch of subway trains were purchased by Japanese manufacturers, and designed with the Japanese tushie in mind. The seats were very narrow, and people were practically falling off. As a fellow passenger said, the seats were meant for a "sushi tushie."
The seats were later taken out & replaced with standard bench-like features.