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| Guessing these passengers didn't get felt up at the security gate either. |
Gadling - Flying nowadays means being packed together in seats with barely enough legroom to stretch - but it wasn't always like that. Back in the early days of aviation, flying meant putting on your good suit, and enjoying fine dining in a luxurious lounge before spending the night in your private sleeping accomodations.
Sure, the trip took considerably longer than it does nowadays, but with this kind of luxury, there was no real desire to get anywhere quick.
The photo you see above is from the dining room of the Boeing 314 Clipper, which flew up to 74 passengers from the U.S. to Hawaii and China "in a matter of days". The plane flew during the 1930's and 40's before being replaced by even larger planes.
After dinner, guests could enjoy board games in the main lounge, or retreat to their private cabin. The pinnacle of luxury was in the rear of the aircraft, where you'd find the De Luxe Honeymoon compartment.
Yea safe to say things have changed. These days you pony up $350-400 for a two hour round trip flight, and from the moment you step in the airport to the moment you exit the terminal at your destination you're treated to the Con-Air personal experience.Harrassed at the counter as some over-stressed minimum wage clerk checks 8 different forms of ID, weighs all your bags and gives you the evil eye if you god forbid have a question to ask. Next up is the security terminal, where you have a choice of having some tasteful pornographic pictures of yourself taken, or you get the kid fresh of his Panda Express lunch break getting a cheap thrill massaging around on your junk (oh and all the while, you're standing there with your shoes off with about 100 other strangers and their gross feet just hanging out in the open, fucking gross). On the plane you have government assigned seats that are comfortable to precisely no one, food options if you're hungry include 6 oz.' of liquid and a bag of pretzels, I'm fairly certain prisoners actually get better food options than that.
Airlines are always complaining about going broke, how about not treating your customers like shitty criminal convicts. Honestly, the Fungwha Bus has a better business model than most airlines these days.
At the very, very least, ditch the assigned seats, what the hell is the point unless you're buying first class? If I've got my shit together and am ready to board the plane in a timely manner then I want one of those first row seats. Yes it is a big deal, because if I don't get that first row, now I'm stuck when we land behind 83 tards who can't figure out how to single file off the plane in under 10 minutes. I'm not quite sure why, but for some reason human stupidity puts on its greatest display of ineptitude and clueless-ness when trying to exit a plane. And it's not just the passengers, hey guys how about an exit back here for those of us 70 rows back? Again something that Asian deathtrap bus lines figured out a while ago.
