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We had it all (lemmy.nz)
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[-] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 hour ago

I mean there's a huge reason for the loss of luxury on planes that everyone conveniently forgets

Planes were EXPENSIVE, they were a luxury, and around the latter part of the 80s they figured out how to reduce the price. Tickets went from $500 to $50 for the exact same 1 hour flights to the exact same locations.

[-] Newhere@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 hour ago

Why on Lemmy were is so much hate and only hate for boomers?

[-] iatenine@piefed.social 16 points 6 hours ago

Banning smoking on planes is NOT a fumble

[-] clubb@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 3 hours ago

But they gave you something. This could easily be replaced by some soda, or anything else. Meanwhile, leg room is no more, and you're only getting you own thoughts to contend with now.

[-] Furbag@pawb.social 27 points 8 hours ago

People don't remember that the whole world used to smell like cigarettes.

Ever go to a casino in Las Vegas? Like that, but everywhere all the time.

[-] TRock@feddit.dk 3 points 1 hour ago

Do they allow smoking inside at Las Vegas? I always wanted to go there. Not anymore if that's the case

[-] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 minutes ago

Yeah, your not going to find casino floors (with some minimal exceptions) smoke free in Vegas. Chain smoking slot grannies are like a majority of their revenue.

[-] Honytawk@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 41 minutes ago* (last edited 40 minutes ago)

Not sure, but even if they don't any more. It might still just smell.

Can't get that out easily without ripping up every carpet/fabric.

[-] vivalapivo@lemmy.today 1 points 1 hour ago

The world used to smell like Easter Europe

Ftfy

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[-] Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world 10 points 7 hours ago

Flying was also considered a luxury back then, but yeah keep whining about an generational difference while democracy is torn down around you.

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 hours ago

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.

[-] fireweed@lemmy.world 127 points 15 hours ago

There have been, like, five societal things that have improved since the 90s, and banning smoking in basically all public spaces is one of them.

I can't even imagine air travel before the smoking ban. Mega yuck.

[-] WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca 7 points 4 hours ago

I’ve lived through both eras.

Take all the tech companies away from the far-right, raise taxes on the wealthy, break up the media monopolies, overturn citizens united, ensure one full-time income can support a small family, restore actual journalism, make universities places for education and research again….

And you can smoke wherever the fuck you want. Do it in my living room for all I care.

[-] Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 12 hours ago

Also smoking bans are so usa centric. Going to Europe is insane because they are so insanely rude with how they smoke compared to the usa

[-] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 1 points 31 minutes ago

Not just US. A few years back japan banned it in restaurants (but not bars) and public buildings unless there's an actual smoking room in them.

[-] zekas@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 hour ago

Wiiiide variety over Europe. You gotta specify

[-] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 hour ago

Depends where, and sometimes it varies wildly in the same country.

Hamburg, I didn't see a single smoker. Berlin, fucking rife with them

[-] ITGuyLevi@programming.dev 12 points 12 hours ago

I remember flying into Germany in '06 and being able to light up anywhere in the airport, went back in '13 or '14 and they had little booths.

[-] rumba@lemmy.zip 32 points 15 hours ago

It wasn't pleasant. I was a kid and didn't fly much. but I did experience it.

Because everyone smoked everywhere, you were at least used to it. Airplanes are super well ventilated, not enough to make it pleasant, but enough that you weren't feeling like you were going to die when they all lit up.

[-] myyass@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

I tried ones similar to these the stevemre way, from Vietnam rations before they got absurdly expensive. They kicked hard like the Ukrainian cigarettes I had, they were both unfiltered. It's actually kind of funny, the Ukrainian cigarettes inflicted so much pain--I don't know how my dad smoked them--that I smoked my first cigar like a cigarette thinking this is fine.

[-] ContriteErudite@lemmy.world 28 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

My stepfather was a lifelong smoker. He smoked a full pack of Marlboro reds every day, and my mom smoked a full pack of menthols. I calculated out how much they spent yearly on cigarettes alone and it came to over $5000, and that was in the late 90's; it's probably much higher these days. Both of them had been smoking since the 70's.

When I talked to them about quitting, they both said that they enjoyed smoking too much, it's a stress relief, it's something to do, etc. They were aware of the health risks, but believed the risks were overblown and that emphysema is an "old person's" disease.

Last year he was diagnosed with stage 3 emphysema. The man is a dyed-in-the-wool hard-as-nails army vet boomer, and his obstinate machismo made him ignore years of poor health and lung disease symptoms all to finally end up as an old person with an "old person's" disease. Credit to him though, he did quit cold turkey the day his doctors delivered the diagnosis; the same obstinacy that pushed him to never give up smoking is what pushed him to quit. Me and my family love the hell out of him, and we're glad that he finally quit, but it's so aggravating that there are still so many people out there who discount the risks of smoking.

[-] Sordid_Seraphim@lemmy.zip 16 points 14 hours ago

It's because there's also genetics at play. One person can die young doing everything right and another could be like your stepfather and live just about forever.

Then that gets people think "well how am I different? I'll be just fine too!"

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[-] Soapbox@lemmy.zip 13 points 12 hours ago

I read an anecdote somewhere recently that the air in planes during flights has more germs in it now than it did in the smoking days because they had to filter the air so much more because of the smoke.

No clue if its actually true or not.

[-] tazeycrazy@feddit.uk 10 points 12 hours ago

Not sure if it's the bacteria or just having fresh air cycled though the caben. Apparently it saves the airlines millions as they don't have to replace filters and the system runs at a reduced capacity. Good to know someone is benefitting

[-] protist@retrofed.com 15 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Restrictions on in-flight smoking started in '88, when the oldest boomers were 43 and the youngest were ~~14~~ 24. The Greatest Generation were the ones who smoked like chimneys.

[-] bitchkat@lemmy.world 7 points 11 hours ago

The youngest boomers were about 25 not 14 in 1988.

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[-] Slashme@lemmy.world 23 points 15 hours ago

"We had it all" is the message some people get from "you could never get away from the bloody cigarette smoke"?

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[-] Akh@lemmy.world 83 points 20 hours ago

Literally everything. You know credit scores were invented by boomers?!

[-] kestrel7_7@lemmy.world 17 points 15 hours ago

Man it’s almost like as soon as banks were legally required to stop discriminating against women and black folks, they invented backdoor methods of accomplishing it

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[-] forbiddencherry@lemmy.today 54 points 19 hours ago

Not that it should have to be either or, but I'll take less leg room over their gross smoke-filled cabin any day.

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[-] IndignantIguana@piefed.social 46 points 18 hours ago

So now we're complaining about the enshittification of everything driven by the need to maximize profit in a capitalist system and blaming it on our grandparents? More divisive intergenerational warfare bullshit. If you want to find who to blame for this shit look at the capitalists demanding more and more profit from airlines, manufacturers, literally every part of the economy. It always comes down to class war.

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[-] PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk 15 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

It also used to be obscenely more expensive to fly

you weren't getting the equivalent of ryanairs £13 gatwick to holland flights

[-] dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 hours ago

Prices to fly seem pretty obscene right now tbf. Transatlantic over $700 per seat round trip at my last look.

[-] PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk 1 points 2 hours ago

even with the recent uptick in prices it's still a lot cheaper than it used to be

https://www.travelandleisure.com/airlines-airports/history-of-flight-costs

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this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2026
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