Why Does Air Travel Seem So Miserable?

The Hill discusses recent changes in the consumer experience of flying with Marc Scribner.

Bloodied passengers getting dragged off flights. Airport brawls. Shrinking seat sizes. Invasive pat downs. Long security lines. Extra fees.

The chaotic scenes that have unfolded in airports and on airplanes over the past few years are raising the question: Is air travel getting more miserable for the American public?

The frustrations of passengers seem to be boiling over, even though flight cancellations, airfares and customer complaints are all way down.

Some blame the prevalence of social media and smart phones for creating a false picture of what the air travel experience is typically like.

But others say the unrest is being fueled by a new airline model that scarifies comfort and other freedoms in order to make flying more affordable and accessible.

…

“The average experience of flying commercial is not glamorous like it used to be, but people are choosing it [through lower fares],” said Marc Scribner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. “Maybe it’s not as comfortable, or you’re not getting served expensive meals, but you do have more people traveling.”

…

“A lot of this is social media driven, and you have people with cameras now who are able to record incidents that would probably not receive media attention in the past,” Scribner said.

Read the full article at The Hill.