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I hate flying, but will do it if that is one and only option.
It's stressful with the time management, the feeling of being cattle herded in and off of cattle cars (the plane), worrying that connection times will be met, will there actually be a rental car at the destination.
Then, that same sense of dread that ruins the last day of vacation when facing the next day's travel back home.
Flying used to be fun and exciting, now it must be endured.
You're complaining about Frontier's system when you know it's a cut rate carrier where everything is charged extra for, and then you complain that they adhere to the business model they advertise? Wow.
I do not like Frontier or Spirit for having all that so I do not fly with them. It is typically Southwest or American for me. Tried United, didn't like it. Delta especially now is expensive. Jet Blue you fly to New York for anything.
Maybe, just maybe, the airlines just want to squeeze as much profit as possible from the people?
How dastardly of an industry to actually expect/want an operating profit (lol), particularly considering how vulnerable it is to exogenous events and taking into account their (high) fixed and variable costs as well.
I have always wanted to take the train to New Yawk from here in Tampa but no one else in the family wants to. I think it would be fun and your description makes it more intriguing.
Pay the extra money and get the sleeper compartment. I've only done it once, but even now, years later, I still remember it as being one of the best night's sleep I ever had, being gently rocked to sleep by the motion of the train.
For some reason flying brings out the drama queen in people. OMG I had to line up, abuse!
I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure you had to pay more for refundable tickets 20 years ago, there were change fees, and you had to pay for alcohol on domestic flights unless in first class.
I do remember checked bags being free was the norm though.
Alcoholic drinks are still FREE on most international flights.
I've been flying since the 1970s. It was starting sometime in the 1990s, I think, that the current business model began to evolve. Before then, there was no such thing as a "non-refundable" ticket. Every ticket could be refunded, or exchanged for a new flight without a change fee. (If your new flight was more expensive, you had to pay the difference.) Either one or two bags (I don't recall which) were always free. There was always a charge for alcohol in economy class.
When non-refundable tickets were introduced, I specifically recall that one could sell it or give it away to anyone else if you so chose. They didn't match ticket names to IDs in those days, so anyone could use a ticket. I did that once; I had a non-refundable ticket that I didn't need when my plans changed, so I sold it to someone else. You can't do that anymore, because the name on the ticket needs to match the name on your ID.
I like how Southwest handles it. A non-refundable ticket is (surprise!) non-refundable, but you can store up its value and use it some other time if you need to. Or, if you want the flexibility of a refundable ticket, they sell those too. And they've never had change fees. That, alone, is the main reason why I refused to fly any of the Big Three for well over a decade, because I thought it was obscene to have to pay hundreds of dollars for the privilege of changing your ticket, a transaction that probably cost the airline about two cents, if that. It's only when COVID pressures forced them to drop the change fees that I returned to flying Delta and United. (Still won't do American, based on what I've been hearing about them.) But Southwest is my first choice, even despite their occasional operational fiascos.
A lot of the stuff you said in your post was incorrect, I'm not sure if what you consider the norm nowadays versus in the past is based on reality.
Which parts? Admittedly maybe the switching/cancelling, but definitely not the luggage, the seat sizes and meals. I don’t fly much anymore but that’s only been about 5 years, and I have flown in those 5 years. I have two flights planned between now and April.
In fact I left two things off of my list: choosing your seats at the time of purchase, for free. And sitting together when purchasing 2-3 tickets. I refuse to pay extra to sit together. It’s a blatant money grab. If everyone gets a seat regardless, why does it cost extra to sit together suddenly? It doesn’t. It’s a BS money grab.
In fact I left two things off of my list: choosing your seats at the time of purchase, for free. And sitting together when purchasing 2-3 tickets. I refuse to pay extra to sit together. It’s a blatant money grab. If everyone gets a seat regardless, why does it cost extra to sit together suddenly? It doesn’t. It’s a BS money grab.
Are you talking about an airline like Frontier or Spirit, or all airlines in general? I just got back from the East Coast with my partner. We flew with United and I had no problem choosing seats next to each other when I booked our tickets, without any kind of additional cost for doing that.
Re: Frontier and Spirit, the idea is that if you don’t care where you sit, then you pay less. If you want the ability to choose your seat (or the seats for everyone on your itinerary), you’ve gotta pay for that.
In fact I left two things off of my list: choosing your seats at the time of purchase, for free. And sitting together when purchasing 2-3 tickets. I refuse to pay extra to sit together. It’s a blatant money grab. If everyone gets a seat regardless, why does it cost extra to sit together suddenly? It doesn’t. It’s a BS money grab.
Because:
A) Not every seat is created equal. (Nobody wants the middle seat, and most people have an affinity for the front of the aircraft.)
and
B) The number of people who want to sit together and/or the number of people who want to avoid the middle seat exceeds the number of seats on an airplane.
Eh I go to the West Coast and Europe fairly frequently, and flying is by far the best, maybe only realistic, option to do that. You can avoid the worst problems of flying simply by not flying coach.
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