To think that airlines need a complete overhaul, and more regulation?

[mumofoneAloneandwell]

The amount of money theyre charging for flights, where youre sat in a teeny seat and offered a crap meal ..

Other industries have improved their offerings, but airlines continue to operate to the same crappy standards

More seat space should be given as standard. Forcing people to sit in a tiny seat for 8 hours at a time is awful and must have awful effects on the human body?!

WiFi should be free, as its practically a human right atp.

Food should be of a better standard

Where can people lobby for change?!

I think flights could actually do with charging more money.

Have you not heard of people in the uk flying abroad etc because it is cheaper than getting the train somewhere in the uk?

I personally haven’t really had many issues with flights. I have however just had to fork out for 2 private operations for my young children because the NHS has let them down. Fuck their app.

Where do they get the WiFi from? Would that method scale for all passengers without costing them more?

I'm actually glad WiFi on flights is not for free. It would encourage people to make calls and post from the plane. So annoying

Agreed op. They’re a danger to passenger health imo. Disgraceful companies!

💯

What’s one world status?

I honestly couldn’t give a crap about wifi, I’d just like to be comfortable when paying 100’s of £s for a service.

Always check BA costs over cheaper airlines - sometimes they’re not much more and they are really helpful- but the last 8hr flight I took with them we were like sardines. It was overnight and anyone reclining their seat, as we all needed to do, was literally in the lap of the person behind them. £1,500 we paid for these seats. Disgraceful!

I think we have actually lost a grip on how utterly amazing it is to be able to board a vessel that ascends 39,000 feet, transports you above the clouds while you watch tv and eat snacks and delivers you to an entirely different continent.

All done safely. Within hours not days or weeks.

One of the reasons for the WiFi charge, apart from it being a source of ancillary revenue, is that unlike a train or coach the airline (or you directly) can't just piggyback on a local mobile phone network.

The onboard WiFi systems on most aircraft link to the world via satellite and the operators of those charge/charged a hefty fee which has to be recovered somehow.

I know many airlines,.including BA are shifting to using Starlink on at least some of their aircraft, which is meant to be cheaper, so maybe there will be room for an "improvement" there in the future ...at those airlines left standing in a few months time....

I mean, if we're being honest - no-one should be flying anywhere in any conditions merely for frivolous reasons. It's extremely polluting.

This is capitalism. Winners and losers, that’s the model.

@AbundantFlowers Well find another airline that’s cheaper then with more legroom. It is possible but probably not a direct flight. Economy is pretty much the same everywhere. If you want better you pay more. Fuel costs are the big killer and taxes of course.

Crack on OP. The flights will be more expensive but, OK 🤷‍♀️

It’s not to say I don’t agree with you but that’s what would happen.

I paid £19.99 for a return to Majorca. It’s true.

What on earth are you on about? Air travel is not a great place to be cutting corners.

Not "free". Included in the ticket price, which is higher to reflect the offering. Not difficult to understand. And as for them having WiFi anyway- I suspect it's not limitless and having a plane full of people trying to use it rather than a few may not logistically be possible. In any event, hardly a genuine hardship to have to go without for a few hours.

I don't take a lot of long haul flights but I find short haul perfectly ok, I don't need a lot of bells and whistles for a 2 - 3 hour flight. The baggage thing is a bit annoying but that is price discrimination for you. Airlines have worked out that people value price above most other things and so are offering those who can or want to opportunities to forgo things like hold luggage, food on board etc.. in return for a cheaper flight

Things have changed massively and many many more people can afford air travel as a result. I first flew in 1997, a university trip to Rome. I flew with Alitalia and the flight cost £190. I remember the cost vividly as I worked all Christmas holidays and asked relatives for cash for Christmas to be able to afford it.

Nearly thirty years later you can get to Rome for £125 ( or even cheaper if you don't mind going via Bratislava with Whizzair - would not recommend!)

Yeah, it's like when people propose childfree flights as a good idea. But most of the public would still choose based on price, pretty much nobody's going to pay more and accept a restricted choice of slots. It would be the same with the bigger seats and amenities.

There are three major airline alliances in the world - Sky Team, Star Alliance and oneworld. Each is made up of (mostly flagship) airlines who partner with each other, codeshare, and offer loyalty programmes to their customers through which you collect status points, miles, benefits…

Oneworld includes BA, American Airlines, Iberia, Qatar, Qantas I believe, Finnair, JAL… All those airlines are partners and once you achieve loyalty status with one of them, you can use your benefits on all the others depending on your tier.

My current oneworld status gives me priority check-in and boarding, free seat selection, a free 32kg checked bag on top of my ticket’s allowance, extra miles credit, and I’m working towards free lounge access. That applies to all the airlines mentioned above, plus a few more I didn’t list. Most frequent flyers will be adhered to one of the alliances - you choose which one benefits you most according to flight routes you take and airline availability at your local airports.

I'm reminded of the O'Leary v Musk spat on social media earlier this year! The former explained in detail why he had reason to believe his customers weren't going to pay a couple of pounds for Starlink wifi. It was quite illuminating!

Long haul travel has got better since the early 90s by the screens in the back of seats with a load of movies to keep you entertained! Food seems to have got slightly worse though. And paying 'extra' for bags is annoying.

Short haul is grim due to the low cost airlines. Seats are now very hard, close and upright. You are treated like cattle with the ridiculous pay to sit together check in process. Plus the upsell of food and snacks. Luckily you can download stuff to your screen, plus in headphones and just ignore the chaos around you.

The worst thing is the nightmare of trying to book a trip where the search sites don't correctly return results for the different variable costs items such as baggage allowance and flexible tickets, then they change the price when you go to book (always more expensive). It all feels like a massive bait and switch con.

Flying regularly for relatively affordable pricing was an incredibly recent thing (90s really, few in my middle class 90s primary had ever flown abroad, it was normal to holiday in a caravan in the south west or go on a ferry to france) and was an unustainable blip.

Flying to go on holiday is a luxury. It costs a fortune - all the staff to operate planes & airports and administrate, the cost of planes themselves, fuel, taxes, costs of safety checks & equipment, insurances etc.

Plus the environmental impact us catastrophic! Have you considered sleeper trains in Europe, ferries etc?

@ToffeeCrabApple

Flying to go on holiday is a luxury. It costs a fortune - all the staff to operate planes & airports and administrate, the cost of planes themselves, fuel, taxes, costs of safety checks & equipment, insurances etc.

Yep..aircraft operating costs are unstandably a mystery to modt travellers.

Even the basics such as aircraft leasing costs can be /are multiple tens of thousands of US dollars a day per aircraft..and the airline is paying that before it even moves the aircraft, crews it, puts fuel ln...

Alternatively op, perhaps the airlines could get the cost down by:

• skipping loads of the safety checks etc
• paying staff even lower wages
• offshoring jobs to cheap countries

Do you think there's a massive profit being made that could be reduced to provide more for lower cost? There isn't.

They aren't charities. If you have a pension somewhere in there may be investment funds who hold shares in those airlines and you'd be glad they are not loss making.

You can get all of this, fly business class and you get more space, you will get wifi, you will get better food.

This is the option, pay more and get the service or pay less and get less.

You cant force an airline to offer business class service at low cost carrier prices, or at least not if you want the airline to be in business for long anyway!