The Misery That Is Air Travel Today

Laura Hollis
Wed, 15 Oct 2025 17:24:58 -0700
Opinion

The 1950s were apparently the "Golden Age of Flying." My mother loves to recall a time when airlines served full-course meals on china, with actual silverware and linen napkins. Until I was in high school, I thought you had to be dressed up to get on an airplane, because my mother insisted that we be in our Sunday best to travel.

That era is long gone, but traveling by air was at least pleasant when I was younger — sometimes even fun. Now it seems to be a test of how much misery passengers can be forced to endure, and how much the airlines can get away with charging for what used to be (and should be) basic services.

We can start with space.
Updated: Thu Oct 16, 2025

The 1950s were apparently the "Golden Age of Flying." My mother loves to recall a time when airlines served full-course meals on china, with actual silverware and linen napkins. Until I was in high school, I thought you had to be dressed up to get on an airplane, because my mother insisted that we be in our Sunday best to travel.

That era is long gone, but traveling by air was at least pleasant when I was younger — sometimes even fun. Now it seems to be a test of how much misery passengers can be forced to endure, and how much the airlines can get away with charging for what used to be (and should be) basic services.

We can start with space.

A few years ago, I watched the classic Gene Hackman film "The French Connection." The movie, set in 1971, features a brief scene in which some of the characters are on what I believe was an Eastern Airlines commuter flight between Washington, D.C., and New York City. It's shocking to see that even on that small DC-9 jet, there were two big, comfortable seats on either side of an aisle wide enough that flight attendants could walk past each other — with a cart.

The average width of an airplane seat in 1970 was 18 inches. Now the average is 16.5 inches. And the "seat pitch" (legroom distance from the back of your seat to the back of the seat in front of you) has decreased from 35 inches to 31 inches, with some as short as 28 inches. That shrunken space is why if you need the purse, diaper bag or laptop you've dutifully stowed under the seat in front of you before takeoff, you'll be planting your face in your neighbor's lap to get the item out again during the flight.

Airlines play fast and loose with these deteriorating standards by changing the names of the seat classes. Names like "Economy Plus" describe what used to be called "Economy," while "Economy" now means "Only Slightly Better Than Standing and Holding a Bus Loop the Entire Time." (Most people I know who are taller than 5-foot-6 would probably prefer the bus loop.)

Space isn't the only place where airlines are socking passengers for fees. Most airlines now charge for luggage. ("You're traveling, but you want to bring a suitcase? That's extra.") And food. ("Isn't this cool? You can pay for the overpriced stale sandwiches with your phone!") And Wi-Fi. ("Want to stay connected in the air? It's only $10 a minute!") And if you'd like to actually sit next to the people you're traveling with? There's now a fee for that too. At this rate, there will soon be credit card readers to access the toilets, and it will be extra if you want toilet paper or soap to wash your hands afterward.

You get better options on a Greyhound bus.

But it gets worse. Earlier this week, The Sun newspaper reported that WestJet will begin charging passengers additional for their airfare if they want a seat that reclines. WestJet calls those seats "Premium." They come with a built-in tray too. (Remember when all airplane seats did?)

Eventually, the airlines will charge you if you want a seat at all; "Economy" class will be down with the pets in the baggage compartment. (Hey, it will come with free oxygen, heat and air conditioning.) Don't scoff. In 2012, the Italian design firm Aviointeriors released an airline seating design called "SkyRider" — narrow, saddle-like seats that passengers straddle rather than actually sit in. The seat pitch gets reduced to only 23 inches with that novel idea. The company insists that the design was purely conceptual. We'll see.

Airlines justify all the new charges by claiming that the low "base price" for a ticket makes flying "affordable" for everyone. Frankly, it's unclear at this point how desirable an objective that really is. Almost daily, you can find videos captured on phones and posted on social media of unsettling, threatening, dangerous and even violent behavior by people who are having complete mental breakdowns in the cabin, screaming obscenities, trying to open the emergency doors mid-flight, climbing across the tops of seats, pulling other passengers' hair, throwing punches and fighting with flight attendants, who apparently need to be trained to operate Tasers or tranquilizer guns now.

All of this is without mentioning the long security lines, the frisking by TSA agents, the drug- and bomb-sniffing dogs, the requirements that you strip to your underwear and place everything you've got into an X-ray machine, and the rows of migrants sleeping in the terminals.

While economy travel gets progressively insufferable, first-class seats on domestic and international carriers are getting more and more luxurious, with wall dividers, fully reclining leather seats with designer bedding, flatscreen TVs, customized menus with gourmet meals, expensive liqueurs and champagnes, complementary toiletries, pajamas, slippers, private lounges — even showers on some long-haul flights.

There's something eerily symbolic about all this. At a time when one hears widespread complaints about the growing economic gap between "the 1%" and everyone else, the travel accoutrements for the very wealthy are shockingly luxe, while the vast majority of travelers deal with cattle car conditions (or worse), and there is very little in the middle.

The airline industry needs an overhaul. In the meantime, I'll fly if I have to, but otherwise, I'm taking Amtrak. Yes, it's slow and there are frequent delays, but at least they don't charge you to actually bring luggage on a trip, the seats are wide and recline for free (with a footrest!), and disruptive or dangerous passengers can be tossed off the train at the next stop.