Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Galley Gossip: The problem with "soaring" ticket prices
Remember what airline tickets used to cost? Oh no, I'm not talking about last year, go back a little bit further, okay a lot further, like 1950 further...remember those prices? I didn't think so.
A couple years ago I went just a wee bit crazy, spending too much time (and money) on eBay bidding on airline ads from the 1960's and 1970's. They were big and bright and colorful and they said things like: "fly me," "just a working girl working," "think of her as your mother." They were sexy and sexist, totally wrong, and yet so right -- at the time. I loved them. Still do. Had them framed. Hung them on the wall. And then, last year, tucked them away in a drawer for safe keeping (and a clutter free office). I think of one of those ads often whenever I hear people complaining about the price of airline tickets, or whenever I read articles like the one by Dan Reed in USA TODAY entitled "Airline Tickets Soar This Summer" that was featured on AOL with the caption, "Passengers Can't Bear to Look."
Well I've got something for those passengers to look at, something that may force them to rethink the definition of soaring ticket prices. I mean, soaring? Don't you think we're being a bit dramatic here? Especially when people are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on fast food, botox, designer clothes, and even video games for the kids. Give me a break. Because the ad, the one I mentioned above from 1950, lists the price of a ticket from New York to Paris for $326. Please, can anyone tell me, what else out there costs the exact same price as it did over fifty years ago?
Yeah, I know, service in the air has gone down hill big time. You don't have to tell me. I live it every time I put on my uniform. In fact, I spend most of my time at work apologizing because we don't have this and we don't have that to a flight full of miserably cramped passengers. I feel for those passengers. I really do. It's gotten bad out there. Worse than bad. Flying, today, is just not what it used to be, for everyone involved - passengers and crew alike.
But what gets me is that thirteen years ago I worked at a no frills airline called Sunjet International Airlines. The ticket price back then was $99 to fly one way from Dallas to Fort Lauderdale, Newark, or Long Beach. That was thirteen years ago. Fuel prices were 1/3 of what they are today. Keep in mind that price was on an airline that offered pretty much nothing but a seat (a broken seat covered in duct tape), a lot of delays (I'm not talking a few hours delayed, I'm talking two-day delays), lost luggage (or no luggage at all. What do you mean you checked bags?), and a burnt chocolate chip cookie, depending on who happened to be in the galley that day. Then, in 1995, I found myself working for a major US carrier, on probation for six months without flight privileges, in the month of December. The price of a ticket from New York to Dallas was oh just $800. In Coach. Needless to say, I didn't get make it home for Christmas that year.
Now flash forward thirteen years and you can fly nonstop on a major carrier from New York to Los Angeles for as little as $235 round trip. I'm sorry, but that's not bad. In fact, it's so not bad that I just bought myself a seat on that same flight (even though I'm able to fly standby for free) I challenge anyone to drive that same distance for less money. Yes, airline ticket prices are up 200% from last year, but when you realize they were down 700%, that's still a good ticket price! So when someone writes a piece about the "soaring" ticket prices of today, I have to shake my head and think, how soon we all forget.
Filed under: Airlines, Budget Travel, Galley Gossip
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
beast55 Aug 4th 2008 5:45PM
I know I'm a couple of months late, and this has little to do with the original post, but holy s*** DKD, really? Teachers work 120 days out of the year, and only put in 8 hour days??? HAHA, I wish. Get your facts straight before you post an ignorant rant.
I teach. I'm in the classroom just shy of 200 days out of the year. Literally all teachers put a minimum of 8 hours a day in, not just the exceptional ones, because student work can't be graded when children need to be taught, and if you fail to grade work, you're out of a
job. And let's not even get on the subject of all the work that follows you home, which you don't get paid for, nor the necessary planning over our "summer break," which again brings no pay.
But why do we do it? Well for many of us, it's our calling. Many of us enjoy it-the actual act of teaching. And yes, while we do complain, because sometimes it is literally hell on Earth, it's not the actual art of teaching that generates these complaints. It's dealing with the children whose parents think they can rely on teachers to do the parenting for them; who don't raise their children properly by teaching them proper manners, etc., and expecting public schools to shape them into model individuals. Or it's dealing with poor funding. Or a broken public education system (NCLB). Or imbeciles
like yourself who know very little about the points they attempt to argue. It's so many things.
Far too much responsibility is dumped on teachers these days. That's why we complain.
benny Aug 13th 2008 9:16PM
jeez, i thought what she wrote (and what she writes, period) was pretty funny. i feel for you big time, heather the stewardess. my husband is a waiter, and has been for longer than i'm sure he'd like to admit. he has to deal with snotty children of the adult variety daily, and sometimes when he relays a story to me, i'm surprised that he didn't just reach out and choke whoever it was that was demanding whatever extra special butt pampering. i couldn't work in this field, no way no how. when i'm on a flight, i honestly feel guilty about flagging down a stewardess for a refill, or to ask for a pillow. i just sit there and play with my own coloring books, or make my seatmate my new best friend, whether to their dismay or not.