what the frick is even going on with air travel right now? prices are outrageous. layovers are absurd. and good fricking luck actually getting where youre supposed to go in the time stated on your itinerary because theyll probably cancel you or shift your shit no less than 5 hours and have the gall to act surprised when you call pissed off that they completely bait and switched you. and i swear to go theyre making the seats more cramped just to frick with you.
don't give a frick as long as it doesn't crash
Have you ever ridden on a rural bus service in the Third World? You would never b***h about airlines again.
Way to set the bar high with your stupid comparison
And they're going to get worse when the white Gen Xers get replaced by brown women. Imagine when the same caliber of people losing your baggage are in the pilot's chair.
That's exactly what you'll get because that's exactly who will be staffing them in in the next 5-10 years.
Sounds like a being poor and living in the third world kinda problem.
Boomers retiring, non whites and technocratic authoritarianism. All other answers are cope. The end goal is total tracking of all movement and the elimination of freedom of movement even within each citizens nation
Only the actual rich (not you) can buy their way out of the world they deliberately created
>living in the third world kinda problem
The United States - correct; where this is a common problem.
domestic american airlines are all shit
american airport domestic terminals are all shit
americans seem to like it like that. it's supposedly the richest country in the world but paying for a decent level of service is somehow beyond them
I've been to actual third world countries across Africa, South America, Asia and never had the excessive amounts of issues Americans seem to deal with airlines.
What the frick is going on there?
Americans think holding corporations accountable is communism.
No, Americans think defending billion dollar corporations is progressive leftism.
Because Americans look at airports like a bus terminal, it's just a routine part of getting where you're going, not the destination
Foreigners are still so enamored and mystified by air travel they think airports should be malls. Not much going on in their heads
There are lots of nice airports and LOTS of shitty ones. That goes for the entire world.
From the UK, flight prices are no more expensive than what I was getting and expecting pre-covid (I didn't travel for 4 years from mid 2019). So far I'm 2/2 for 1+ hour delays, and I narrowly dodged some cancellations on a flight later this month. It's the price of absolutely everything else I'm getting shafted on
it has definitely increased quite a bit, i don't really see those £15 - £30 tickets around europe these days
no, still there
what're you using for those?
That was just direct on wizzair website. I'm assuming there's flights cheap elsewhere too
NTA, also adding one more, tbf it's Wizz so in the end it's probably going to cost as much as a BA ticket if you need a large overhead bin bag
yeah that's not that bad, i actually hadn't bothered looking at wizz so that'd be why, had the assumption that they were shit
They are, don't be wrong, but they're not as shit as you'd expect, just remember that you're travelling in a low-cost carrier and as such shouldn't expect much, personally i've had more issues with legacy carriers (Iberia and KLM to be specific) but if you have problems in a low-cost, it's worse
+ they will hound every penny they can, Easyjet still advertises scratchers in-flight lol
i just want to get somewhere knowing i'm not going to be either dead before arriving, or at least fearing for my life on the way there
In that case yeah, you're probably not going to be dead in a flight, after all be in BA or Wizz, you get through the same security lines (tbh considering how much shit they miss, it's not great either way)
Imo the sweet spot for low-costs is between 1 and 4 hours
*Get killed frick
It's only a couple of hours to suffer through anyway, probably wont even need to get up for a piss
just bought a £27 easyjet flight from luton to amsterdam. granted i'll give you that it's only about a 40 fricking minute flight, but still
and i should of added the return 2 weeks later was only £47 from berlin. not really figured out what i'll do but it's a trip to see some christmas markets etc in december
Europe-Asia travel is fricked because of Putin.
Can't wait for my 17 hour flight the long way round next month
>flew to japan last year through london
>flight path went over the north pole
>no in-flight wifi for most of the flight because of this
I am now also a victim of war.
Sanctions are not Putin's doing.
Aerospace control is definitely something Putin is in control of though.
Russia shot down airplanes before and will do it again. There’s a reason airlines won’t even go over Russian airspace.
The Soviet Union shot down civil airplanes and some militias financed but obviously not well controlled by Russia did as well.
More Russians/Ukrainians/Belarusians died being shot down by various terror groups than vice versa.
>More Russians/Ukrainians/Belarusians died being shot down by various terror groups than vice versa.
Source: russian ministry of truth
Didn't know the Russians took over all Western media, I thought they were relegated to second and third-tier outlets like RT and Tucker Carlson.
All Western media is fourth-tier
- airlines don't want to have to land there in an emergency because there aren't any replacement parts available
- first world airlines are banned from flying because "no u" is the best response russia can think of
- russia stopped paying and seized a few hundred leased planes, no one wants to lose another plane
- moscow is now a warzone with drone attacks every other day
shoot down isn't really the reason, but yeah it's only a matter of time before another fricking disaster comes out of that braindead dump
t. Euro sexpat salty he no longer has cheap flights to SEA
It doesn't really affect SEA from Europe because most of the cheap flights for that always routed through the middle east. Mainly Korea and Japan
>There’s a reason airlines won’t even go over Russian airspace.
Yes because Russia doesn't allow them to, dimwit. Finnair is going bankrupt right now because of this shit.
All the pilots got laid off during coof and now there is a hiring shortage because all the boomers retired
partly this but also some sections of the FAA are at 60-70% staffing levels so when they don't have enough air traffic controllers or other jobs in the airport they can't handle as many flights and the FAA can literally just stop everything if they want/feel like they need to
You notice how US Pilots are all clean cut white guys? They're all former or current US Air force and Navy Pilots. Except the US military doesn't recruit as many pilots as it used to because drones and because we don't get into any wars anymore. Airlines until very recently relied on the US military to train pilots for them and then recruited when the pilots left the military. Laying off all of those old Desert Storm pilots was a huge mistake because there's nothing that can readily replace them. It takes years to train a pilot and the US airlines have only just started doing it themselves
I work in an airport. It’s packed every fricking day. There’s no recession. Boomers have 73 trillion dollars to blow on their homosexual flights to Cancun
i hate boomers so much
> what is going on
The deregulation of the 1980s allowed airlines to offer shit service
> prices
only now beginning to reach pre-1980s levels. The price for cheap trans-oceanic economy flights was always going to result in an encroachment of human dignity
However, I have noticed that delays for flights appear to be a bit more common
Europe-Europe, Europe-North America prices are ok, standard, sometimes cheaper than before.
Asia is still fricked, not only because of Russia, but also because there are way LESS flights than before.
I mean 750 for Europe-West Coast just 2 months before is still pretty good.
Not counting budget airlines, I don’t use these.
If you think prices are horrendous, then you don’t know about prices in the 90s and before.
In the 90s most people never even took a flight in their lives.
Not saying it’s a new normal that is good to accept.
But yeah, services are absolute shit, even premium airlines are very israeli now. Before 2021, even during the lockdowns, I could travel with a checked luggage included. So with my status, I could travel with 2 checked luggages. Not anymore, the 1st luggage is no longer free/included.
Less choice of food, less meat, so called for “environment” but we all know it’s to save money.
But honestly, the only good thing about it, is that it filters third worlders. Less chinks, less pajeets, less bad type of whites is always a good thing anyway.
>In the 90s most people never even took a flight in their lives.
Are euros really this poor?
>In the 90s most people never even took a flight in their lives.
The 1990s was actually when passenger aviation started to become most affordable and numbers boomed. Everyone was travelling someone in the 90s.
Not in Europe anyway.
I was the only kid at school who took flights.
It really became mainstream from around 2006-2007, when budget airlines have become a big thing.
>started
You're not disagreeing with him
>and numbers boomed
Yes I am.
good grief there's some nonsense in this thread
easyjet were the first really successful budget airline and they started in the mid 90s. after that budget airlines spread across europe like a nasty rash
if you went back another generation to the 70s you might be closer to the mark. people did fly for holidays, but usually only once or twice a year and had to save up for ages beforehand.
business travel was once exclusively for high level executives but has progressively become more affordable for the lower ranks as well. but business class still effectively subsidised economy class
even though prices may have risen since covid travel is still almost as cheap as it has ever been
we have decent train services anon
It definitely wasn’t something that common back then in the 90s, and even less in the 70s and 80s. And long hauls were quite rare, unless you have business/family far away. Perhaps the upper class peeps travel quite often by plane, yeah, but middle class definitely travelled by car in Europe back then. It wasn’t uncommon to drive all the way down to Portugal from Northern Europe. Also, speeding was way more tolerated back then so yeah you also went much faster in general.
Anyway, back to point, Europe-Europe and Europe-NA are still ok and even sometimes cheaper than before.
The main difference now is definitely East Asia, could easily go to China or Japan for 600-700 just 1-2 months before flight.
China is now around 700-800 2 months before which is still alright, if you have important matters to attend to.
Europe-Asia flights are miserable now because of Putin's war.
>prices are outrageous
I just got a roundtrip flight to europe for 700 dollars in business class, legacy carrier, legit skill issue
>layovers are absurd
Choose better airlines or take advantage of stopover programs and get free stuff
>theyll probably cancel you
This is an actual problem, and as always i will blame the french for it (Because it's actually their fault this time for european flights)
which europe tho? but yeah, you are right it looks like na to eu is actually quite decent especially southwest eu. i wasnt looking there.
>stopover programs
my time is worth far more to me than any stuff
The cool ones involve a place that's worth seeing in itself like Iceland which before covid had a stopover program that was a relatively cheap flight with a couple days in Iceland on the way to Paris or something.
Spain, the trick for eurotravel is to enter through the cheapest country you can find (Spain, Portugal, sometimes Italy) and then just take a low cost (Or legacy carrier, the prices tend to be pretty level in some routes) to anywhere you want, you can easily save $200+ dollars that way
Iberia is great if you have miles with them (They share miles with BA and Aer Lingus), i once found a $400+$70 economy roundtrip with cash+miles
Another good country to enter Europe is the Netherlands, got an insane ticket ($650 roundtrip in economy five days before the trip in United just after the doctor controversy) and even got upgraded to first class after volunteering to stay for a $400 voucher in the return flight
Are you a wizard?
Not at all, i do what half the board refuses to do
20 minutes of basic research in google
I’ll pay an extra $200 to skip a shitty layover on a shitty airline
>I’ll pay an extra $200 to skip a shitty layover on a shitty airline
I would too, sometimes saving 30-40 dollars is not worth it at all (Same as buying tickets in third-party websites, the 5-10 bucks you're saving will bite you hard if anything happens)
>Hurr durr just google it
Literally the entire point of this board is to discuss travel. There's information you can get in a conversation with another traveller that you can't get elsewhere
I know, i was refering to dumb question some anons make, most of times baiting
Travel will be unaffordable for many years to come.
The west is absolutely not worth visiting anymore, I remember backpacking would average to 30$ a day, lmfao now it's gonna be 100+ frick that. Still affordable in third world countries.
test
prices are cheap for me. 1/2 off basically
>SLC
You pay the ultimate price
I used to be able to get a flight to philippines for 1k usd. Now the best I can do is $1700 from Saudi airlines and that means a layover in the worst airport (Lounges have shitty wifi, every single time, and no alcohol) but the saudi tea is pretty damn good.
Where are you fying from? Did you check out AirAsiaX you can fly with then to Philippines via Kuala Lumpur and they have very good fares.
I live in the mid-atlantic on the East Coast of USA. Saudi has the best airfare by far flying out of Dulles easily beating competetion but they dont fly a ton of flights from Dulles to Saudi Arabia so its somewhat hard to get a flight going there on a good day. But once you're in Saudi Arabia theres tons of flights around Asia and they just opened up some new hubs they will fly to.
>prices are outrageous.
LCCs remain cheap. I fly internationally, rarely for more than €200, frequently for less than half as much, many times per year. I don’t get much for my money, but it’s very little money.
>layovers are absurd.
I only fly long-hauls that would need any layover at all two or three times a year, but I haven’t noticed any new issues. This sounds like a “your itinerary” or a “your airport” problem. What’s absurd with your layovers, exactly? Too long? In places you don’t want to transit for some reason? Pick a better itinerary next time. Leave from somewhere better connected if you have to. If you don’t have access to multiple international airports, that’s not the airlines’ fault.
>and good fricking luck actually getting where youre supposed to go in the time stated on your itinerary because theyll probably cancel you or shift your shit no less than 5 hours
Perhaps I’m just lucky, but I haven’t had a flight canceled since peak COVID, and I haven’t had a delay longer than about an hour in literal years. Once in a while things go to shit, sure. But much more often they don’t.
Aren't intra EU flights pretty much local?
Today I booked a London to Santorini business class flight (it's BA which is apparently shit but whatever) right at the end of October for £118. Cheap because no return flights since it's end of/ out of season but you can get off to Athens for a bit (what I am doing) or somewhere else easily enough
>prices are outrageous.
Stop being poor. Poor people shouldn't travel, they should work and pay rent to me so I can travel instead.
>layovers are absurd. and good fricking luck actually getting where youre supposed to go in the time stated on your itinerary because theyll probably cancel you or shift your shit no less than 5 hours
Stop being a social moron and airlines will fall over themselves to compensate you. >making the seats more cramped just to frick with you
That's you getting progressively fatter.
I hadn't traveled since just after the peak of 2020 craziness, the first summer where people were still scared of airplanes. I needed to book a trip for the same dates but a closer destination
>prices more than tripled (was expecting this)
>carry on has been reduced to a single backpack instead of the usual 60x40
>chaos at booths, chaos at boarding
>on return they didn't let us out for almost an hour (no idea what happened there, the plane had frickin landed and I could see the ladder outside)
I was expecting some inflation and the return of the usual clueless people who crowd the airports, but it looked like everything was overpriced and understaffed to hell.
Competency crisis
I've been using fuel dumps to get round trips for as low as $250 from the US to Japan. I don't feel bad about it at all and still haven't been caught.
>What's fuel dumping?
A little too complicated to explain thoroughly quickly, so just Google it.
Ikr, and then to top it off the TSA plants drugs in your suitcase
What kind of drugs do they plant?
I actually once had some scumfrick plant something in my luggage. When they found it i was absolutely mortified. The only thing that saved me was the fact that i had my tap debit app which i used to quickly bribe the customs agent.
Because the all central banks printed too much and now we are spending it all.
It will normalize. You are not as rich as you think atm.
>what the frick is even going on with air travel right now?
its summer
travel is not that hard, problem is most people do it maybe 2x a year, and don't put any effort into basic reasearch.
>normie wants to go FLL to LAX
>hm kayak says the cheapest flight connects in JFK and has 1 hour layover, durr let's do that
>normie gets annoyed summer congestion and thunderstorms strand them in jfk
>normie doesn't understand basic economy doesn't give them shit, even though every time you book it spells it out
I don't expect people to be as autistic as me to look at terminal maps, see what would be the easiest connection, look at how many flights get to your destination after your connecting flight, if there is a lounge etc, but it really blows my mind how little thought people put into this and don't do basic googling or use critical thinking
I've resigned to expecting the worst when I fly domestically, even though I have status on all 3 airlines, usually if I have a lounge, in an exit row, not next to a fatty and drink on the plane it isn't that bad
How do you know most people don't do the research, maybe they did and that's why we have this thread.
I'm in the USA. From EWR to SFO it's only $500 or so for a premium economy seat. If I sit cattle class it's $204. From Miami to Mexico City, I can get there for $554 in business class.
These are all nonstop flights, mind you. If you can't afford these things, you have a money problem. No offense. I don't even travel as a budgeter, I plan my routes and times.
>economy tix to japan starting at 1500 euros
>find business class at 2200 euros
Well I just got my first business ticket I guess
I recently got this for £1200 from Korean Air, not until March + April but still felt it was a nice price for it all
- London to Tokyo (couple hour layover in Seoul)
- Fukuoka to Seoul ~3 weeks later
- Seoul to London ~3 weeks later
Oh that is sweet
Wish I could book that far in advance but my work situation only allows me to schedule my next 3 months or so
That said still a far cry from when I booked 700 euro JAL economy tickets before corona
Yeah I am not really sure what's up with Japan and Korea flights right now. I got a flight next month to Taiwan from London which was £740 return (almost direct but not really, it refuels in Bangkok) and I only bought that a few weeks ago. That's like 95% of the way to Jap/SK so haven't really figured why it's much more reasonable. I refuse to book any shitty Chinese airlines with a 20 hour layover in some random Chinese place either just to save like £100
how do you homies find business class tickets so cheap? anywhere I look for an international flight its at least double or triple price, even when I check the airlines directly.
last minute deals, flight dates and times that are bad for normies.. I got this one on 28th Oct to Santorini which is a tourist island where everything closes for the season on 1st Nov and there's no return flights back
Keep in mind that short haul and long haul business class are two different products.
I've been on short haul flights where I had a whole 3-seat row for myself in the back whereas the business class people in front only had half an extra seat and a warm meal.
On long haul obviously you get much more comfort in premium classes, no question there.
For me it was just allowing flexibility, as well as flying out from a cheap airport.
On the airline website there were a handful of dates with lower fares available with 1-1.3k among a sea a of 2k+ flight segments.
So just picked a departure and return day with the low fares and planned around that.
Also some airlines seem to have last-minute cheapies still, I regularly find flights that leave within days cheaper than booking 1yr out, see picrel for a quick example I just searched.
I use points, so my options are to either book when the schedule opens or risk it and book close in bookings (3-14 days before the flight). I got lucky on my First Class flight to Japan when ANA did an equipment change (they swapped the plane) and opened up a bunch of award availability
I flew from Bangkok -> Northern Europe for €620 with a layover in Istanbul back in May. I originally flew there for about €400 10 months previously, but still it doesn't seem so bad for flying across to the other side of the world like a magical god.
I got similar. You just have to work it a bit more and be more flexible with dates. There are some half decent deals and some of the layovers are actually kind of cool. I always shoot for Taipei coming from North America.
This is ultimately a good thing. Filter out the Chinks, the Pajeets, the Zoomers, and the Boomers on pension and travel might actually start improving again.
>tfw I scored a 450 euro ticket to China 10 days before the travel date
They can keep me bouncing around airports for 72+ hours at that price, and I will suck it up gladly.
Layovers are airports aren't even that bad with lounge access.
I thought by now theyd make the train cheaper because muh climate but no.
generally speaking, it is cheaper for me to go anywhere in europe than to go anywhere else in my country (England)
flight was cancelled today. feels shit man, dont even feel like taking the replacement on sunday evening anymore.... (i will but i really cba with this trip now)
Update, the replacement flight i had last night was also cancelled. At what point do you just have a nice day?
Update, uk atc shit the bed today so looks like im gonna have a third cancellation in a row
I hope you got travel insurance anon
I booked a one way ticket to HCMC out of the states with a few hours layover in Japan for like $600. Sounds like a skill issue.
>what the frick is even going on with air travel right now? prices are outrageous
hi anon
i work in tourism
want the truth?
you're not the target audience anymore
COVID was the Great Reset when it came to the tourism industry.
govts, corporations... they all had 3 years of uninterrupted time to renovate, brainstorm and restructure their thoughts on how tourism should work.
they're only interested in high-end richgay tourism and "corporate conference getaways" now.
before covid, dorm bunks were $20/night.
after covid? a bed in a 4-bed dorm sets you back $70/night, or at least that's the plan once they're done doing what they're doing.
they've all realized that they make much more money selling half of their beds to richgays for $70/night than they do selling $20/night and having to pay extra staff to keep the place running.
with the price increase they can afford to keep the place making more profits at 25% capacity than when they were full house.
so yeah, i hope you did all of your travel in the 00s and 10s cuz the next 10-20 years are gunna be exclusively catering to people who can casually drop $15k on a ski/beach/hiking weekend, not the penniless bum backpacker making instant ramen
pic unrelated from my Osaka Shoe Meme folder from 2007
Someone gets it. The golden age of travel is over.
Right, because the government sets hostel prices. Take your meds, larping /misc/turd.
Actual moronic take
>dorm bunks were $20/night.
>after covid? a bed in a 4-bed dorm sets you back $70/night
I'm easily finding rooms at $40/night with breakfast all over europe, and as low as $30/night, all in actual hotels, hostels are sometimes cheaper but for 10-15 bucks it makes more sense to stay in an actual hotel rather than a hostel
>10-20 years are gunna be exclusively catering to people who can casually drop $15k on a ski/beach/hiking weekend
My route this year is Houston-Madrid-Tel Aviv-Istanbul-Helsinki-Tallin-Riga-Warsaw-Madrid-Houstin, total cost including hotels and flights is $2,000 for almost 15 days, you really have a severe skill issue fren
Are you touring the airports? Or are you eating a meal in each city, staying at a holiday inn, then flying out in the morning?
>9 stops, 15 days
>Implying someone else has a skill issue
And about 5000 pilots are about to be fired for petty reasons. Better book now.
>Shittyjet
I can tell you by experience, don't bother, they will refund your ticket cost (About 3 dollars, the rest are fees) and nothing more, just contact your insurance asap (Some insurances have a report deadline of 5-9 days) and get them to do all of that for you
Sounds like the usual, along with multiple-hour delays in which an afternoon flight can easily turn into an evening one.
Today's (or yesterday's) cancellation was because the UK once again fricked up and their air traffic control system crashed and hundreds of flights were cancelled. Happens every 2-3 years or so in UK.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-66637156
it's literally because they're forcing blacks to become air traffic controllers
I will never, in my life, ever fly on an american or european airline. you motherfrickers are beyond saving
Larping as an anon from /b? Pathetic
I didn't know air traffic controllers can cause the computers to crash.
Yep, and the first 2 were some mysterious "weather" which magically only seemed to affect my flights from going and not any others
Prices are a steal for me – basically some good % off, especially when I book my tickets with the Tap card. It's a discount deal.