Originally Posted by legion
Tickets out of my small airport are $300-$600, round trip, per person, within the U.S.. That means, at best, flying my family of four somewhere will run me $1,200. Ticket prices have been mostly stable locally for the past 15 years, but what I get for that price has decreased. I used to get a meal, free checked luggage, friendly customer service, a decent-sized seat, and I could get four contiguous seats for the same price.
Now I might be able to get four seats on the same aircraft, but if I want them together that $1,200 instantly becomes $1,500. Well, my kids are 5 and under, so I can't let them sit alone, so that's another $300. And that $1,500 after luggage and other fees is more like $1,900. Once again, not checking luggage with small children is not an option. If I bought the "expensive" tickets, that would be more like $3,100 altogether.
The seats are small, the airline employers are either grumpy or outright abusive of passengers. And being anything any less than pleasant back to them may get me arrested or worse, as United has proven. I either have to be molested or submit to having pornographic pictures taken of myself (and wife and children) against my will to be allowed to board the airplane.
OR, I can spend a few extra hours and drive, spend a fraction of what the airline would charge me for the whole vacation, have my civil rights intact the whole time, not have my luggage or person abused along the way, and not be subject to the unaccountable whims of the TSA or airline employees. Guess which I chose to do?
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