How Technology Has Failed to Improve Your Airline Experience

I'm not entirely certain this is technology's fault and rather just... economics. OK, neither technology nor economics excuses what happened to that gentleman on United, but I'm talking about things like lack of legroom or paying for checked-in luggage. It's like Amazon Prime: Yeah, shipping is free... except the shipping costs are now just integrated into the price of the item. You were paying for your checked-in luggage before but you didn't see it because it was simply part of your plane ticket. Let's take Spirit Airlines as an example. They don't give you jack shit. No blankets, no food, nada. But they're dirt cheap. So if you want extra services, you pay more.

I think technology has helped people find something cheaper, but the ultimate blame is on the consumer. Although we complain about the lack of amenities, clearly our highest priority is price or else we wouldn't find ourselves in this shithole. If we really cared about whether we can check in unlimited bags, we would've just chosen the airline that provided that instead of something cheaper. Going back to Spirit Airlines, it gets universally bad reviews and yet it's expanding.

The author in this article also mentioned rampant capitalism being the blame and... yeah, it is. But so what? Let's say we implement laws insisting that people get free blankets, pillows, and lunch. You can demand that criteria all you want, but that still requires money and prices would increase across the board. And apparently since we look for cheapness over everything else, that wouldn't make us happy.

I guess what you should do is shop around, but unfortunately because a lot of the airlines have been absorbed it's harder to find competition that's willing to give you the better amenities. Still, I think there are decent airlines still around that may not supply you with a good lunch but will make the experience not horribly miserable. Support them, and perhaps years down the line the other companies will join in.