If You Can Afford a Plane Ticket, Thank Deregulation

Your $315 dollar airline ticket in 2018 would have cost you $100 bucks in 1980. I see two ways: if this dollarama seat pricing is offset by jamming more sardines into the can and you want to make more money you either get a bigger can or smaller sardines! I prefer the 1980 scenario where there was a unwritten dress code, and at least 33” seat pitch. You showed up rwo hours before dep and grabbed a drink/snack and away we went. Now you show up 3 1/2 hours, sit in the bar for 2 hours, get plastered, no dress code, no manners or respect, take your whole wardrobe in carry on and then get belligerent with everybody you come in contact with; or demand a better product/service from the airlines and pay a ticket price commensurate with that product/service. Deregulation was a race to the bottom!

I'm tired of the nickel and diming. I'm tired of seat pitches and widths designed to comfortably accommodate children, not adults. I'm tired of paying $2.00 more for a beverage on one side of the TSA checkpoint than on the other. I'm tired of carryons that could hold a baby hippo being crammed over my head and under my feet. I'm tired of having a federal officer (other than my wife) fondling my junk. I'm tired of surly, overworked cabin crews. I'm tired of boarding and debarking taking 15-20 minutes because only one door on the aircraft is used. I'm tired of multi-hour ground holds instead of returning to the gate. I'm tired of FLYING, and that's sad because all my life until the last 10-15 years, flying was something I loved.

Yep the deregulation of the airlines was the worst thing to happen to them and US as public. Sure it may have been more expensive but what other modes of transit have been ignored because the airline lobby(no pun intended), has made sure that congress won't fund other ways, such as coast to coast high speed rail, better high ways, or other such things? Here in Florida they are starting to work out a hyper loop route between Tampa and Orlando but, why stop there? Why not connect Jacksonville to Daytona, to Miami? The answer: The airlines. They don't want ANYTHING else cutting into their profits. I am an aviation nut and I love airplanes and aviation history, and I can tell you this, I no longer fly airlines because even at it's lower cost, it's no longer worth the headaches. I drive mostly now, and the last time I flew was in a friends King Air C90. The unions have ruined both the pilots and the flight attendants, and the executives have ruined everything else, and all three only care about one thing: money.

I will always prefer the old way. Prices may have lowered some but at the cost of unbearable travel hassles. I thank God I can fly myself and avoid airline travel like the plague it is. If I have no other way and must take the airlines, I would gladly pay 4 times the ticket price to actually travel in comfort again with passengers that have respect for themselves and others.

not necessarily are we so better off due to deregulation. This benefit comes with overcrowded cabins, uncomfortable seats, no service worthy of the name from the inflight crews, and the illusion of saving money at the expense of all those other things. Look at the expressions of the fellow sufferers in the TSA lines; anybody glad to be there? Yes, we are free to pick discomfort nowadays.

Airline deregulation is the worst possible thing that could have ever happened to the airline industry. Flying was never meant to be for the masses. Today you read where airlines are parking airplanes because they can't find enough qualified pilots. Airports are so overcrowded the planes have no where to park when they land. Cars have no where to park at the airports. The airways are getting dangerously full of aircraft. I see no statistics on near-misses, no stats on delays. Most trips can be driven in the time it takes to get from home to the destination. Flying used to be a pleasure, today it is like herding cattle for slaughter cramming every piece of flesh and every piece of garbage into an airplane humanly possible. As a commercial pilot, I drive when on my time because I hate the airlines that bad. Cramped with some of the most rude people on the face of the earth, Something brings out the worst in people when they arrive at an airport and I suggest it is knowing the experience that is ahead of them. Time to raise the price and lower the crowd. I won't even get into the TSA debacle or the screaming kids.

having been more than a "casual observer" of the airline business for many years,i can tell you deregulation was the beginning of a lot of problems and issues and mergers and "out of business" signs for some well respected and well known carriers..eastern,braniff,twa,panam,continental to name a few..allowing competition was supposed to lower fares and promote more travel..what happened was it promoted way too many fares,and a different type of person flying than in the past,and trunk carrier airlines who could not compete on certain routes with "upstarts"..over the last 10-20 years,people have become much more "me first",have dressed a lot more casual,and have become very beligerant..the reasons for that are not all deregulation, but just the nature of how people are changing in attitudes,with a definite lack of respect or courtesy or norms..employees of the airlines are also different than in the past,with less caring and concerning attitudes,and more of an aggressive stance towards passengers..i do not expect airline travel or prices to improve at all..if anything the prices are pretty high,and yet the service, the treatment, and the comfort of passengers is still at an all time low..yes,deregulation was a not so great an idea,but as time has passed,thats not the only reason there is serious reason to complain..