Originally Posted by
rjpjr
Agree completely, and why stop at 1995? If you adjust for inflation since 1970, I'm sure it can get even worse. Point is, people used to be treated like cruise ship passengers, not like cattle. Even in coach. Airlines are just pushing the envelope of how many seats they can sell to people based on their price pain threshold - think really fast bus service. As stated above, any reduction in amenities, no matter how trivial, improves the bottom line, especially multiplied by # of seats/flights. Fewer beverage options means less fuel needed. And, like in every other business over the past decade, the extra bucks in the bottom line get transferred only to the top 10% of the personnel.
It's probably less than 1%. Just those VP and above.
I remember when there were magazines onboard, but those got cut for fuel consumption. I don't really look at the fares unless they get really stupid ($800 coach from LAS - SLC) so a $25 or $50 additional isn't going to make me not fly somewhere. But if it is only $200 more for a FC ticket on a flight > 3hours, I take that, just to get off of the plane faster.
But I did know a guy that saved money flying in first because of the free booze.