this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2026
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Flying was also considered a luxury back then, but yeah keep whining about an generational difference while democracy is torn down around you.
A flight to France from NYC in 1955 was $310, which is the equivalent of about $3900 today. You can find that same flight for under $300 today.
Las Vegas to Los Angeles was only $13.70 or $171.88 in today's money, you can find that for less than $50 today.
Even if you include the extra fees and everything today that were part of the base fare in the early days of flight, that only adds another 10% or so to the cost.
The reason that air travel today is so unpleasant is that it has been commodified. Airlines have to compete only on price, and it's easy to search for the prices. Just 20 years ago it was extremely difficult for anybody except a travel agent to search for airlines prices. Because of that, people often stuck with a favourite airline or with whatever the travel agent recommended. Now, anybody can go to any number of sites and in a few seconds know every airline that flies between two cities with every schedule and every price.
Since every airline wants to make the sale, they make the price shown by the search the lowest one. Then, to get their profit margin back, they add on fees and make things that used to be built into the price.
The trend is reversing though. Especially on long haul international flights. Airliners are ordering planes with more premium seating and fewer economy seats. Not only does the average margin per passenger increases, but they also have to deal with fewer passengers on the ground which can lower off boarding and on boarding time.