Progress.....?

[HiFlyer 9,358]

Hmmmmmmmmm.....

[188AHC 2,138]

Sad but true.

 

[mwilk 1,106]

Back in the 90’s and early 2000’s the traveling public decided that they wanted air travel to be like Greyhound. And here we are.

[Patco Lch 1,465]

I remember back in the DC6 days even Tourist or economy class was nice. Seats were wide and you were treated well with complementary snacks or meals if the flight was long enough.

[Paul Deluca 164]

Oh yes!!! The days of Skychefs, Dobbs. I can smell the food driving by the flight kitchen in my mind.Rack of lamb, lobster bisque, shrimp scampi.  LOL!!!

Edited November 27, 2019 by Paul Deluca

[188AHC 2,138]

In 75 I flew from Milwaukee to Tampa on a United flight. My meal was steak, potato, and salad. It was great. Then in 2013 I flew to Seattle on Delta and paid 6 bucks for a crappy sandwich for my wife. Yep things have certainly changed. And all my flights in between kept getting more and more frugal, 

[Paul Deluca 164]

40 minutes ago, Paul Deluca said:

Oh yes!!! The days of Skychefs, Dobbs. I can smell the food driving by the flight kitchen in my mind.Rack of lamb, lobster bisque, shrimp scampi.  LOL!!!

We cannot forget the after dinner card games for the adults, Coloring books, plastic pilot wings for the kiddies, compliments of the carrier[ you paid for it from buying  your tickets].

[mwilk 1,106]

48 minutes ago, Paul Deluca said:

Oh yes!!! The days of Skychefs, Dobbs. I can smell the food driving by the flight kitchen in my mind.Rack of lamb, lobster bisque, shrimp scampi.  LOL!!!

I ate a lot of Skychef food over the years. We would have to go over to the flight kitchen to pick up crew meals and they would feed us.

 

[Paul Deluca 164]

8 minutes ago, mwilk said:

I ate a lot of Skychef food over the years. We would have to go over to the flight kitchen to pick up crew meals and they would feed us.

 

Trusthouse Forte sky catering

[FDEdev 955]

The funny thing is that nobody complains that there aren't any free meals when travelling by bus or train, especially when you consider that airline tickets are sometimes even cheaper!

[FlylowNslow 0]

Overall the history is the moving forwards, I don't envy the air traveller like 50 years ago, today we have something they don't have then, in terms of traveling, flying VFR nowadays in small airplanes is much more relaxing and convenient than before, at least we have foreflight, etc... 🙂

[dave2013 1,129]

Yep, the golden age of flying is well behind us.

The last time I flew was in 2012 and I have vowed not to fly again unless there's no other reasonable choice, e.g. going overseas.  I got tired of paying to be treated like a third class citizen being stuffed into a cattle car just to get somewhere faster.  Driving is a lot slower, but at least for a few more years yet is is more comfortable and convenient IMO.  However, as our population continues to increase the freeways are becoming more and more crowded, even in less populated States, making long drives more stressful, and driving through most cities is almost always a harrowing and unpleasant experience.  Then there's the never-ending construction work to make the freeways wider to accommodate more cars which makes the trips more dangerous and slows you down, and then by the time the construction is completed there are already so many more cars that it's time to start adding another 2 or 3 more lanes.

And this is supposed to be "progress".

Dave 

Edited November 27, 2019 by dave2013

[FDEdev 955]

53 minutes ago, FlylowNslow said:

flying VFR nowadays in small airplanes is much more relaxing and convenient than before

Seriously?  Today there's way more VFR traffic, way more airspace etc. restrictions, Couldn't disagree more! 

Edited November 27, 2019 by FDEdev

[Dominique_K 10,138]

As we say in French, you cannot get the butter and keep the money for the butter. You can’t have both, very low fares and comfort. People want low fares with a very good reason : they crave to travel. Flights were much more expensive then, they couldn’t. This is indeed progress. Affordable mobility, openness to the world. In this day and age, you don’t have to be a movie star or a rich business person to fly to New York or Bangkok.

My first flights were on a Caravelle to London in 65 I think then on a DC4 to Copenhagen. Since then I had more than my share of transcontinental and domestic flights including numerous in the US . All over the period  I don’t remember that seats were that much more comfortable in Economy than now. Food was better then on Air France 😋, other carriers, meh 😝 (disclaimer : being French, I may have a bias here).  Air France does its best to catch up though specially on short/medium haul !

Edited November 27, 2019 by domkle

[ErichB 3,642]

Too many people in the world.  Mass consumption of any service significantly waters down the experience for everyone.

Besides, we can't expect steak and potatoes on low fare prices (which, on balance is everyone's choice).

Edited November 27, 2019 by ErichB