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It wasn't pleasant. I was a kid and didn't fly much. but I did experience it.

Because everyone smoked everywhere, you were at least used to it. Airplanes are super well ventilated, not enough to make it pleasant, but enough that you weren't feeling like you were going to die when they all lit up.

I’ve lived through both eras.

Take all the tech companies away from the far-right, raise taxes on the wealthy, break up the media monopolies, overturn citizens united, ensure one full-time income can support a small family, restore actual journalism, make universities places for education and research again….

And you can smoke wherever the fuck you want. Do it in my living room for all I care.

Also smoking bans are so usa centric. Going to Europe is insane because they are so insanely rude with how they smoke compared to the usa

Man it’s almost like as soon as banks were legally required to stop discriminating against women and black folks, they invented backdoor methods of accomplishing it

You know Boomers didn't have credit scores until after they had GenX and Millennials? Boomers didn't grow up with as much red tape as we do

It's going to be standing seats before too long. All the airline CEOs have been drooling over those for years.

But they gave you something. This could easily be replaced by some soda, or anything else. Meanwhile, leg room is no more, and you're only getting you own thoughts to contend with now.

Omg yes. I am old enough to remember the tail end of the period when smoking was still allowed on planes and JFC it was awful. They had a smoking "section" but it was still an open cabin so you could smell smoke everywhere. And if you were in the same or next row as a smoker you couldn't escape it for the whole flight. Flying sucks now, but removing smoking is absolutely an upgrade.

Yep, the 1% laugh their asses off about us fighting between ourselves.

Is this really enshittification?

Prior to the deregulation of the airlines under Carter, the federal government fixed all domestic airfares. Airlines could not compete against each other on price and could only compete on perks. Flying was insanely expensive. NY to LA was $820 in today's dollars and you couldn't just shop around airlines for a better price, while you can get the same flight for less than $240 now.

It's not like flying got shittier while also getting more expensive. Flying is cheaper than it ever has been. The perks went down, sure. But so did the price. By a LOT.

Thank you. I'm always having to point out that boomers haven't been voting significantly more conservative than liberal, and younger generations haven't been voting significantly more liberal than conservative. It's a stereotype, and an incorrect one. In fact, in 2024, GenX voted more conservative than boomers did.

Also, the company is allowed to absorb the competition to the point where no new players can compete for that market

If you were on a plane they had food you didn’t have to pay an arm and a leg for, they’d even do kosher and vegetarian options. Before that they would just give you something else you usually had to buy. The message is “boomers bitch and moan about how hard they worked when they had it easier than any generation before or since, especially white American boomers-they were handed luxury goods for free!”

Prices were also regulated and fixed by the federal government. The federal government through the Civil Aeronautics Board set ALL domestic flight fares based on a fixed distance calculation.

Airlines literally couldn't compete on price, so they competed on perks.

In 1977, just prior to the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, the average round trip domestic flight was ~$135. That's about $746 today. Round trip NY to LA was $148.20, or $820 today. Just looking at google flights for the next 6 months, The cheapest I can find pretty consistently for the same route is $239, and the highest I see is around Thanksgiving and Christmas for around $540.

Call it enshittification, call it whatever. Flying is so much more accessible and cheaper than ever. And that has its benefits and drawbacks. The drawback is that people now look at price first and foremost and are generally unwilling to pay more for the perks beyond a little more legroom. The benefit is that it's ridiculously easy to just pack a backpack and go on a weekend trip across the country for dirt cheap.

I'll never pass up an opportunity to post this

EDIT: I hate that x-axis actually, and it takes like 2 minutes to edit an image. Presto change-o

Not sure if it's the bacteria or just having fresh air cycled though the caben. Apparently it saves the airlines millions as they don't have to replace filters and the system runs at a reduced capacity. Good to know someone is benefitting

I think you're being a wee bit too optimistic about this whole future thing, emmissions are still rising and we're heading into massive worldwide famines and droughts in the forseeable future.

theyre super similar looking to a lot of the legal packs of joints you can get in Canada now!

they're called "straight roll" joints - i prefer them because they're a better amount for one person imo.