Originally Posted by
RustyC
The Emirates thing might not be a bad general idea
It could be that fuel will cause ticket costs to become less and less affordable. The airlines will shrink and possibly try to consolidate, and maybe the free-trip perks that come with some travel jobs would thus become more valuable, like they used to be. For now, though, at least in the U.S., you might hear some grumbling from people who can fly free or near-free as standby, but have had problems getting on planes.
I love Emirates. I'm crazyily obsessed with them. I do an almost daily Google News search on Emirates... Ask me just about any question about them and I can either answer on the spot or know where to look and get back to you in five minutes.
Re the second part... Just watch what happens as fuel runs out. Boeing and Airbus won't be happy that they are getting no orders for new planes and this will then go on to the engine makers like Rolls Royce and GE. I bet when this happens we'll see a whole new hybrid-type product launched. It's only a matter of time before fossil fuels run out and I refuse to believe that every major fuel eating industry does not have a back-up plan at least being researched as we speak. So from my point of view when the fuel dries up I don't think we'll notice it to the extent we're led to believe we will.
And yeah, I've heard the problems about getting flights. I've heard of ex-cabin crew being strandard in Bangkok for almost two weeks. Being a pilot is the way forward. Met an Emirates guy who flies 20 hours a month, gets all the great EK benefits and gets minumum business class confirmed personal travel whenever he wants.