>Internal flight could be anonymous, but when is the last time anyone paid for flights by cash?
Let me tell you about flying before 1996, kid. It was great. No ID presented, you just needed a paper ticket. You could actually buy and sell paper tickets on usenet (and people did), and you could wave to your family when you get on the airplane as you didn't need a ticket to be in the boarding area. I thought it was a disaster when they started implementing the dystopia we have today, and remember premonitions of disaster listening to some douchbag I brought to the airport babbling about the government "keeping us safe."
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I guess animals often grow to enjoy their cages; had a pal who kinda freaked out when he got out of the pokey too.
Oh yeah: no body cavity searches getting past the gate, we had legroom, free food on the plane, free baggage, and they didn't blare CNN in the airports like some Orwell dystopia, or ads for the airline on the airplane telescreen. The planes were better too; 747 was super common and comfy (now you need to fly the Luftwaffe or British Airways, and the seats aint what they used to be), and if you were loaded, you could take the Concorde across the pond for a price which seems comically cheap these days.
Is it comically cheap if you don't consider inflation?
Because while air travel has undoubtedly gotten less comfortable, in most (if not all?) cases it's also gotten cheaper. With every passing decade air travel because accessible to broader and broader swaths of the economic pyramid. Now it's at the point where the cost of the taxi to a London airport can cost more than the airfare of whatever budget airline flight I'd be on.
I am [not really] too young to have flown on the Concorde, but a Googling of "Concorde flight cost" suggested between $6000 and $12000 round trip for NYC-LON flights. That doesn't strike me as cheap.
Air travel definetely got cheaper. As as a software engineer (with a bit for search hacking) I can now afford flying across globe (26 hrs) in business (which used to be first) twice a year.
Sounds like your issues are related to flying in the states? If you're problem with flying today includes cavity searches and being able to hike up prices by trading tickets then you're probably right, best if you don't fly and we'll all be the better off for it.
What are you talking about with the concorde flights!? They were a lot more expensive than they are today let alone the prices of a normal carrier flight at the time. When was the last time you flew?
Let me tell you about flying before 1996, kid. It was great. No ID presented, you just needed a paper ticket. You could actually buy and sell paper tickets on usenet (and people did), and you could wave to your family when you get on the airplane as you didn't need a ticket to be in the boarding area. I thought it was a disaster when they started implementing the dystopia we have today, and remember premonitions of disaster listening to some douchbag I brought to the airport babbling about the government "keeping us safe."