these guys used to be daring adventurers with goggles and swag and now the pilots have to wear a button down and the airlines squeeze every penny out of you and every drop of fun or joy or magic or adventure out of the experience.

in the 20s it was a great adventure! in the 60s people wore suits and got proper meals! now we just get xrayed and told we can’t bring in water! i love starting my vacation being treated as a terrorist!

  • @reddig33@lemmy.worldEnglish
    24•7 months ago

    The airlines were deregulated in the late 70s. This meant they could compete on price, instead of just differentiating through features. It’s been going downhill ever since.

    • BraveSirZaphod
      15•7 months ago

      Flying is also dramatically cheaper and more accessible today than it used to be.

      If you want the fancy treatment from back then, pay the prices people paid back then and buy first class.

      • @CatoblepasEnglish
        23•7 months ago

        I don’t. Every change in FAA safety regulations since then has been paid for in blood. The fatality rate per 100,000 flight hours was about 5x higher in 1970.

        • Funkytom467English
          2•7 months ago

          Does 5x higher means it’s much? Because today’s plan is the safest way to travel.

          So would multiplying the risk by 5 make it more unsafe than cars for example?

          Because we do use cars a lot, more than we should, just because we like it. And the fatality rate is pretty high.

          • @CatoblepasEnglish
            4•7 months ago

            I think I actually understated how much more dangerous it was then because the chart I was looking at stopped a couple of decades ago. I found a more recent study and it’s more like 1 death per 7.9 million boardings currently, versus 1 death per 350,000 boardings (!) from 1968-1977.

            • Funkytom467English
              2•7 months ago

              Nice, i’m not surprised but it’s still hella impressive. Aeronautics is truly outstanding engineering nowadays.

              Still i think i would definitively take the risk to try a 70’ plane once, for the experience. Like i said it would probably be way safer than regularly using a car. But i get your point, it really was different back then.