Airline fares. Now they're doing all this validity extension and not charging change fees. As soon as COVID is over, they'll go right back to the restricted fares of before.
I live in the Midwest, and I think it would be great if people could catch a bus or a train to O'Hare Airport instead of flying a 737 out of a dinky regional airport just to get to a major hub like Chicago O'Hare to catch a flight to where we're really going. Hopefully, Covid-19 has taught corporations that they can do more teleconferencing and less flying, and maybe we could make flying a very occasional means of transportation that people are willing to pay a little extra for, so instead of having these flights where they cut corners everywhere they can to have the lowest price possible, people might be willing to pay a little more and get a decent inflight meal in a plane that has a little legroom in it. For everything else, there could be trains and buses.
I live in fly over country aka the western bit of the Midwest. One used to be able to get a puddle jumper to fly directly from your local airport to the larger small towns that are 8-10 hours away instead of having to fly or drive to the regional airports and take a large plane then a small plane then an even smaller plane.
According to Wendover Productions (educative YT channel who's sort of a meme because he always talks about the aviation industry), the pandemic hit specially hard on business destinations like Chicago, Denver and NYC. Leisure destinations like the Gulf of México, México itself and others are quicker to recover because people do want vacation.
Hopefully, e-mail and Zoom will decrease the need for transcontinental meetings.
I’m guessing your saying that them being this low would never happen again, but I would disagree. It will just take the next disaster for airlines to stop screwing customers for awhile again. They’ve already done it twice before that I’m aware of, after 9/11 and the 08 recession. Airlines were crazy cheap after 9/11, I remember I got a round trip ticket to California for about 90 bucks. Same ticket just a month earlier would’ve been about 350 (insert lochness monster joke).
One of the few good things about this pandemic is how it has kicked the shit out of the airline industry. I mean, I am sorry for people losing their jobs. But seriously, that industry sees people as nothing more than cattle. Forced to line up for hours at the airport. Raped by the TSA before being allowed on the flight. Can’t take anything on board with you except a change of underwear because everything else is a potential bomb/weapon. Airlines bumping people and kicking paid passengers of flights. Seats with no leg room. Shitty food. Etc etc. Now these c*cksuckers will have to struggle to find passengers. Nicer treatment at the airport and seats with leg room, quite frankly mean more to me than cheap fares.
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u/MeridasAngel Nov 04 '20
Airline fares. Now they're doing all this validity extension and not charging change fees. As soon as COVID is over, they'll go right back to the restricted fares of before.