Article here, describing results of a study of a large collection of airline passenger data with regard to incidents of air rage and various aspects of first-class/economy-class accommodations. It makes for interesting reading: it seems there are plenty of assholes on both sides of the bulkhead/curtain.
Admittedly air travel can be frustrating at times, but I’ve never experienced air rage, so I can’t relate to the people described in the article. More to the point, I’ve never experienced the outright class antagonism they describe. I got bumped up to first class once many years ago on a transatlantic flight, and while I greatly enjoyed the amenities, I didn’t look down my nose at the great unwashed masses stuck in economy class behind me. Apart from that flight, I’ve always flown economy class - and while I’ve been envious (in a non-hostile way) of the perks enjoyed by the people near the front of the plane, I’ve always been acutely aware that they’ve paid a dear price for it; I’ve never had a feeling that “those rich assholes think they’re better than me,” and I’m happy to have saved my hard-earned cash for other things (like power tools and motorcycle accessories) that provide me with a better value.
How about you?
If you fly first class, do you arrogantly sip your mimosa and while the hoi polloi trudge past you enroute to the cheap seats? Do you flippantly call out “see ya on the plane, suckers” as you board before anyone else (except the elderly, families with little kids, and Ambivalid)?
If you fly economy class, do you have midflight daydreams of a grassroots revolt in which every one of smarmy bastards upfront gets bound, gagged, and tossed into the luggage compartment? Does your blood boil as you watch first-class passengers board the plane while you remain a lowly economy-class gate louse, waiting for your zone number to be called?
I’m like you - I’m nearly always in Economy, and simultaneously:
[ul]Mildly envying the better treatment given to those in Business & First class[/ul]
[ul]Laughing at the absurd increment they had to pay for a modest benefit[/ul]
First and business class patrons are subsidizing my cost. Let them pay $5,000 for a ticket, so I can land at the same airport for $800. I have no problem with letting them have all the lobster.
Add me to the pile of people who don’t care about socioeconomic divides on airplanes, but I can’t help but feel that that puts us in the same bucket as, say, 99.9% of the air travelling population that manages to get from point A to point B without sparking an “air rage” incident.
Seriously, WTF is “air rage” and how common is it really? What’s it happen, a half dozen times a year? Sometimes it makes the news, usually (I imagine) on a slow news day?
I guess it might be of interest to sociologists to suss out the triggers of that .1% of the population that loses their shit in confined metal tubes, but I don’t think that necessarily means the rest of us have any problems with it.
Now people who crowd around the baggage carousel… they deserve a beating.
It’s all news to me, I don’t care where people sit or what they pay. I see plenty of businessmen in economy and plenty of bogans in business class. I travel regularly and, except for the odd time when I’ve upgraded using frequent flyer points, I sit in economy. The only thing I envy the expensive seats is their ability to have a better sleep. The only time I upgrade is when I expect to be dog tired and the flight is more than 2 hours.
This article is from 2002, but it notes that for one British airline, one out of five cabin crew members have been physically assaulted during their career, while four out of five have been verbally assaulted.
I would guess there’s a histogram of moods on any given plane: a few people are really enjoying the experience, most are neutral, and a few people wish they weren’t there. I would imagine that for every person who commits an act of air rage, there are probably numerous others who are simmering just below the action threshold - which is a little disturbing to think about.
I’ve just never been that irritable, even toward the first-class passengers, even after a six-hour delay that resulted in a 2AM departure.
I occasionally have a twinge of envy for the 1st classers on a long long flight when I haven’t been able to secure an aisle seat. But for the most part, I appreciate that they are paying for my reduced fare seat and leave them to their additional gratifications.
I’m convinced these air rage incidents are the result of bad circumstances. So I’m a poor schlub who has to take a long flight to deal with something unpleasant, and I get no sleep the night before, or some other terrible thing happens to me on my way to the airport like a fender-bender, or my ride flakes and I am scrambling to get to my flight after a long security line. Perhaps I had to buy a last minute ticket for some reason, and I had to pay through the nose for a middle economy seat. Then I board the plane and see empty first class seats, or first class seats with kids in them who don’t need the space. Perhaps the kids are doing kid things, laughing and looking at me, which I take to mean they are laughing at me…
Now I get to my economy seat and I am sitting next to fat people on both sides of me spilling over into my seating area. I have no room in the overhead for my carry on, because everyone else has taken it all. So I have to shove it under the seat in front of me, limiting my already small legroom still further. The kid in front of me reclines his seat into me, and the kid behind me starts kicking my seat. My drink is flung into my lap by the kid reclining his seat violently, or perhaps by one of the fat people who flails an arm unexpectedly, and is oblivious that they just spilled my drink and doesn’t even acknowledge it with a “sorry”. And then I start thinking about all the money I paid and the unused/kid filled seats in first class. Those same kids that were laughing at me…those same kids that need me to give them a good ass whoopin’ because their parents never taught them manners and would never spank their precious little snowflakes…and that’s how you get air rage…
In years past the system was set that last minute travelers and those not staying over a Saturday night paid the premium prices which could easily be upgraded to first class. Most times, the individual wasn’t paying for the ticket but their employer. I’ve flown first class many times and it really makes the difference of the flying experience being enjoyable as opposed to being a chore. We now mostly fly Southwest which make this all moot.
Despite having bought a ticket in advance and arrived at the airport early, half the plane has boarded before I get on. I don’t mind the parents with kids, but the Diamond members, Platininum customers, Plutonium club and other various rare-earth members… Enough with that crap. Not that I’d even care who gets on first, but with the luggage fees these days everybody is trying to get bin space.
Should frequent customers get perks? Maybe. But I think it’s reaching the point where if you don’t belong to some damn loyalty program you’re basically screwed.
That pretty much describes the movie theater I worked at when I was 16, and nobody is doing a study on movie theater rage. There are assholes everywhere, and customer service workers get stuck with them more often than cubicle workers.
I’ll go for economy when I’m flying in the U.S., since those are generally short flights–3 1/2 hours or less–and why not save the money.
If I’m doing my semi-annual overnight flight to London, I’ll pay a little more for what Virgin calls Premium Economy. More legroom and seat width so I can curl up to sleep, and only one neighbor so even if I have a window seat I don’t feel claustrophobic against the bulkhead. They also give you a glass of champagne and real silverware with dinner, but that’s not why I choose it. The once or twice I had to sit crammed in for 7-8 hours in regular economy were miserable and sometimes painful and I won’t do that again. And I’m not very big, so I don’t know how taller or wider people can stand it.
Their first-class section has little pull-out beds for overnight flights and I’d be tempted to pay for that to try it sometime if the flight were longer. It doesn’t seem worth it for maybe 2 hours sleep-time. Maybe if I flew to Australia.
I was going to say exactly that. Given that crew members are basically service workers dealing with the general public, I’m surprised the verbal assault rate isn’t 100% (maybe 1/5 crew members has worked less than a month).
That aligns with the way I think most people feel; it’s not class-based hatred for first-class passengers and all their filthy money, it’s more of a feeling of exasperation or envy that in large part, the first-class passengers don’t have to put up with a bunch of the little annoyances and frustrations that come with flying coach. I mean, they always have enough bin space, they aren’t crammed in like sardines, etc…
Air travel seems like about the least customer-service oriented business that has a significant customer service component. It very much seems to be airlines becoming too inventive in ways to pry more money for less service out of their customers, which only compounds a lot of the customer service issues- crap like checked luggage fees is irritating, and it compounds the carry on luggage bin space crunch as well. A double-whammy of customer alienation for how much gain?
Frontier is now charging for carryon as well as checked baggage. The last flight I took seemed to have plenty of overhead space… now that they are charging for that too.
The seats have gotten ridiculous since the last time I flew (about a year ago). Yeah, the pitch has been getting closer and closer. But now, the seat back padding is just better than a park bench. They can fit in another row or two that way.
I always go for stretch seating. That makes it tolerable. I have flow overseas first class once. That was VERY nice (had a ‘bed’). And I will be flying first class flying in the US in June. My employer picked up the basic ticket, so instead of upgrading to stretch, I’m ‘treating’ myself to first class (on my dime).
I decided a couple of years ago that I am just done with coach. I buy first class tickets when I go on vacation and pay to upgrade myself with business travel. I dislike the air travel experience (I am not afraid to fly, it’s just all so unpleasant), but avoiding coach makes it more bearable. It’s worth it to me. I don’t feel superior to the coach passengers, I feel grateful to be in a position to avoid that experience. If I find myself not in that position in the future, then I will likely just avoid air travel to the greatest extent possible.
Not too many years ago I had enough miles on both Delta and United for their respective “Gold” class status. During that time I can count on one hand the times I did not get automatically upgraded to either business or first class. I very much enjoyed the perks and was thankful I didn’t have to put up with the indignities of steerage. I really did get spoiled. Free booze; nice snacks; comfortable-ish seats.
Ironically, now that I have been promoted to management (and travel only occasionally), every flight I’m stuck in coach with all of the rest of the schlubs. I always recall with wistfulness my time in the rarefied air of first class, while now dealing with the cramped seats, $7 drinks, kids kicking and screaming, etc. At least I don’t jostle for overhead bin space. I’m one of those who prefers to check everything and not lug my crap around the airport.
But I take it in stride. I can’t ever see myself getting into any sort of air rage situation. I accept my station.
I can fly economy round-trip from Detroit to Japan for about $1500. If I wanted to fly first class and have all that leg room, bin space, and tasty food, it would cost me $5000. I can have it, but I don’t want to pay the price - and so I have no cause to grumble, because the choice was mine.
a lot of people grumble about the fees for this-n-that, but airline profitability seems highly variable; it’s not necessarily a given that they’re raking in the dough and gouging you with every single fee so that they can host a Malcolm-Forbes-style Christmas party for their employees. Most of their customers have a single priority: COST. Were this not true, the first class section would be a lot bigger, and also sites like Expedia that let you search multiple airlines for the lowest fare wouldn’t be nearly as popular. People continue to clammer for cheaper and cheaper fares, and the airlines oblige: example, you can have your cheaper fare, but they’re going to have to cram more people onto each plane (= shorter seat pitch) to make the flight economically viable.
I haven’t looked, but I’ll wager that an economy class ticket today, with a checked bag fee, is probably cheaper than the same ticket back in the 1980s (which would have included a free checked bag).
My one gripe is that airlines don’t do a good job of enforcing their own carry-on size limit, which is part of what causes the bin space shortage. If they did that, maybe people wouldn’t grumble so much about boarding sequence (but they will still bitch about checked-bag fees).
When passengers start shopping for something other than lowest price, airlines will figure out what makes passengers buy a ticket - legroom, free checked bag, complementary in-flight cheeseburgers and beer - and start providing that instead.
I’ve flown Economy all my life. My only complaint is the lack of space – I never get meals on flights anymore, so that’s one less thing to envy.
The very first time Pepper Mill flew, it was with me, and it was a long cross-country haul. By some miracle, we got bumped up to First Class – the one and only time either of us have ever flown first class. She got spoiled by the incredible amount of space we had. The earlier boarding and the extra amenities were just gravy.
