Growing Class Divide on Airplanes

[jtuck004]

Last edited Mon Sep 28, 2015, 03:17 PM - Edit history (1)

...Then came the hot meal, more drinks, and the huge warm chocolate chip cookie - followed by a blanket, a pillow, and a warm washcloth...It felt like America.
...
It's not that the coach passengers - of the plane or of our economy - are less deserving. Worker productivity has actually gone up since the '70s. But workers haven't reaped the benefits.

...
So how can we begin to reverse this trend? ...

Then there's the federal minimum wage, that tiny pack of roasted peanuts. At $7.25 per hour, or slightly more than $15,000 per year for a 40-hour workweek, the federal wage is 24 percent below where it was half a century ago. Raising that rate to even $12 per hour would benefit 35 million workers.

These are modest steps, like borrowing some almonds from first class so the nuts in coach can be a little more satisfying. But it's a start. If the airline had tried that on my flight, maybe my foray into the lives of the 1 percent wouldn't have left me so queasy.

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/32988-growing-class-divide-on-airplanes-represents-america-s

Good analogy, except her (not his - thank you) plane lands safely. That won't be the fate of the growing number in our nation who live in or near poverty, or those who are being sacrificed to insure our comfort as we warm the globe.

Unless we learn to share again.

[ProfessorGAC]

1. Good Comment On His Analogy! (nt)

[Brickbat]

3. Her analogy.

[Brickbat]

2. Her plane.

[Auggie]

4. Yeah, but aren't coach fares a huge bargain compared to those 30-40 years ago?

And who pays for all those frequent flyer miles? I think coach passengers subsidize those in return for miniscule seats, baggage fees and no-frills service.

I'm not defending the airlines. But I can recall when flying -- even coach -- was considered a luxury expenditure.

[Travis_0004]

5. You are correct

Adjusted for inflation, airline tickets are half as expensive as they were 30 years ago.

I will get called out for this comment, but deregulation was the best thing to ever happen to airfare.

In the 70's, you needed goverment approval to fly a route, and set a price for that route. Airlines were guaranteed a hefty profit.

Airlines had to compete on service, since they could not compete on price, so yes, you got great meals, large seats, and excellent service. If you were the 1% and could afford to fly.

Everybody else just drove.

Today the 1% can sit in first class, or business, and they get pampered just as well as the 70s. Most of the people will be in coach, and if you are lucky they throw you a bag with 7 peanuts in it, but in the 1970's, you would have been driving. If you can't afford that first class ticket today, you probably couldn't afford any ticket 30 years ago.


In 1974, it was illegal for an airline to charge less than $1,442 in inflation-adjusted dollars for a flight between New York City and Los Angeles. I can now fly that for 350. I can first class for under 1,000.

The author makes it sound like in the 70's there was no first class section in airplaines. I think they have it wrong. In the 70's there was no coach. It was all first class. Coach was the bus 30,000 feet below you.

[YabaDabaNoDinoNo]

7. Flying today is akin to riding hound dog aka gray hound

I used to enjoy flying today not so much.

Flying may have gotten cheaper but you also get what you pay for in life too

[nichomachus]

9. Flying today is akin to spending a day in jail

Take off your shoes, remove your belt, empty your pockets. Get in that like, shuffle along, no talking, no smiling. Don't sass back to the guards. Go through the metal detector, get patted down.

Get on the plane, get into this seat that would be forbidden for prisoners under the Geneva convention. If you want crappy food, you have to buy it from the commissary. Don't talk. Don't smile. Do what you're told without any question or complaint. If you don't, you will be duct taped to your seat and arrested once the plane lands.

Enjoy your trip.

[DFW]

11. Some would say it's like this:

[Auggie]

18. A while back someone posted what it was like to fly private charter

No metal detector, no TSA, no public terminal, no crowds, no waiting.

The food and drink can be prepare for. But at 6'4" the seats are indeed torture.

[nichomachus]

19. I flew in a private jet once

Big enough to stand up and walk around. There were five of us -- plus a flight attendant. Top-notch food and drink. They even had a sofa that made out into a bed. Luxurious lavatory.

Have never done it again, but it was, as they say, as addictive as crack cocaine.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

25. Where I work people complain about charter flights

because they aren't getting their frequent flyer miles. Although we also use a Bombardier Challenger with an airline interior and a few smaller turboprops.

[Auggie]

26. I'd love to do that once.

I've managed first class several times (all upgrades or freebies). Planning a trip now from San Francisco to Miami on coach -- and already dreading it. I'm tall.

[MineralMan]

6. First World Problem

Most people in the US cannot afford to fly at all. If you think about getting on a plane and flying from NYC to LAX in five hours, it doesn't really matter where you sit on the plane or what food is served. You're doing something remarkable, and something most people never have a chance to experience.

Flying coach is less expensive in real dollars today than it ever was back when you got hot meals in coach. More people can fly today. Flying long distances is a luxury, no matter how uncomfortable you may be for a few hours.

First World Problem.

[jtuck004]

12. "Flying coach is less expensive in real dollars" - Which would be nice if people weren't making

less, so now many can not only fly, they can't eat every day of the month.

While the first class riders get warm towels and make sure the "less fortunate" know how fortunate they are to live in these times.

Poverty, Hunger - those are the real problems, not some artificial construct by those who, perhaps, live in comfort and make it sound like it is a struggle to even condescend to notice the rest.

[MineralMan]

14. I started flying in the 1960s. All of my flying was done

while I was in the USAF, going from one base to another when changing locations. I could fly for half fare. Then, I didn't fly any more for a very long time, until my earnings made it possible.

I've never flown First Class. Always coach, booked way ahead of time to get the lowest fares.

MOST PEOPLE NEVER STEP ON AN AIRLINER IN THEIR ADULT LIVES!

That's why it's a First World Problem. Most people never fly anywhere. Ever. Lots of people fly, but they are a small minority of the population.

I can't remember a flight I've been on, and that's a lot of them, where I didn't encounter an older adult for whom that flight was the first of their life. Usually, they were going to a funeral, frankly. I've sat next to those people, and have tried to help them get over their nervousness about flying. I don't even notice flying any more.

These days, I'm on a fixed income, so I only fly once a year on average. I can't afford to fly, just like I couldn't when I was younger and earned less money.

But, if you can afford to fly, you're doing better than most people are. You can afford to fly. That someone can afford to pay way more than you do, sit in a more comfy seat and get a hot meal is irrelevant. You're all flying from one place to another, instead of driving or not going there at all, like most people do.

It's all relative. If you're flying, you're relatively well-off, frankly. You're doing OK. Flying is a luxury way to travel. Enjoy your trip.

[jtuck004]

15. And if they have refrigerators they aren't poor, eh? What a load. n/t

[geek tragedy]

23. It's not true that most people will never fly.

Most people do fly at least one per year.

A lot of people do medical tourism, where they fly to Mexico or Costa Rica for medical procedures because they're affordable there.

[KamaAina]

13. JFK to LAX is closer to six hours

it's five hours going the other way, because of the tailwind.

[MineralMan]

17. Yes, OK. Five hours, six hours.

I've driven that trip many times. When I was young, I could do it in four days. The last time I did it, it took six days. I don't like driving non-stop for long distances any more.

Days versus Hours. Going cross country on a plane is amazing. You go, maybe, 3000 miles in five or six hours. Amazing stuff. Whether you pay $350 in coach or $2400 in First Class, it's pure luxury, really. We're spoiled as can be today, really.

[oberliner]

20. "Most people in the US cannot afford to fly at all" - this is not true

About 80 percent of the US population has flown.

[Logical]

8. Flying is safer than ever. Nt

[Turbineguy]

10. The real divide

flies private. Commercial first class flyers are mostly free upgrades from the great unwashed.

[geek tragedy]

16. people couldn't afford to fly back then--per capita air travel has almost doubled

since deregulation. people are more price-sensitive than they are quality-sensitive

[oberliner]

21. Completely clueless article from truth-out

As others have pointed out here, flying in the 1970's was exclusively for the wealthy. Now it's available to the masses.

One can fly from NY to Dallas for under $100 (round trip).

[jtuck004]

22. What Is Irony? (With Examples). < Well, more examples.

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/what-is-irony-with-examples/

[Bluenorthwest]

24. It's actually worth pointing out that the airplane class divide is mere trivia, the class divide

that really counts is the divide across the tarmac to where the private jets line up. That's a class divide, kiddo. First class is nice but a standing Net Jet account is nicer, your very own aircraft nicer still and really you want two sets of crew because they sleep and an extra plane keeps the family from arguing about who gets it. So, really it's about having two of your own and double crew. "No flying to NY for birthday parties until you're 12, Daddy's pilot has better things to do."