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It would be a lot more to the point if they'd offer AC plugs at everyone's seats...or just stop nickel and diming us for everything.
Much as I dislike all commercial passenger airlines, I'm afraid we'll have to let the current situation play itself out. It's not that simple to run an AC line to all seats, it would require miles of extra wiring. All of which would also require validation and safety checking by the FAA. We don't need any more 'electric chairs!'
Aircraft electrical voltages are much higher than what you get even in Europe, and it's pretty much all three-phase.
Most American airlines are between a 'rock and a hard place.' They know that can't cover the increasing costs of fuel (now the largest percentage of operating expenses - overtaking payroll) by increasing prices because that will reduce the loads. But the negative impacts of their cuts in flights
and the extra charges for almost anything that used to be free is also reducing their loads faster than they can cut them! Most other non-US airlines have very little as far as in-country flights, the highest percentage of their flights are international. Those flights are not being 'attacked' by low-cost airlines like Jet Blue, Southwest, AirTran, etc. (yet). And they are usually much more expensive tickets which people expect, anyway. They can fly larger, more fuel efficient aircraft that are unsuitable for short trips. And many countries also subsidize them in one form or another despite of some laws against that.
I'll guarantee you could get an extremely high paying job if you can devise a plan that will allow any US airline to make money in the current economy.
And I'm not interested in discussing any opinions about how we got where we now are.
But airline travel has been going 'downhill' for many. many years. Most of my weekend trips ending on Friday PM, away from Memphis had me scheduled to fly back commercial the next morning. An overnight stay in yet another hotel was bad enough. But having to sit in a too closely spaced seat was even worse. I always tried to get an exit row seat so I could have some leg room. Of course, those are extra cost seats now! What I would do 99% of the time would be to stay with the aircraft and return to Memphis the same night. Arriving between Midnight and 2AM was much less disruptive and hassle-free than going to the hotel as scheduled.
Monday trips usually started with a early commercial flight out of Memphis, although I would at least be rested up for those. Only seniority allowed me to avoid many of those "dead-head" trips for a while. Then the company bought a computer program that 'tweaked' things so that almost all trips became worse!
Believe me, I'll do almost anything to avoid flying now!
And I suspect more and more people will be doing the same thing. I think "video conferencing" is a great place to invest!
