You’re Too Cheap to Fly Faster
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You’re Too Cheap to Fly Faster
1–10 of 72 posts
Re: You’re Too Cheap to Fly Faster
#2Pick 2 out of 3: cheap, fast, good. I guess we've chosen cheap and good. That's why I don't fly United. :)
Re: You’re Too Cheap to Fly Faster
#3Ballistic travel is my preferred method.
Re: You’re Too Cheap to Fly Faster
#4When we purchase a plane ticket, we aren't given an option for speed; only price. Therefore, we optimize that variable.
Re: You’re Too Cheap to Fly Faster
#5Yes, I'd rather flights be faster than cheaper. But for most people, saving a few hours isn't worth spending a few hundred or thousand dollars extra on a flight. Which sounds kind of reasonable, to be honest.
Re: You’re Too Cheap to Fly Faster
#6I'm just waiting for the invention of the Star Trek "transporter" or the TARDIS.
Re: You’re Too Cheap to Fly Faster
#7for many routine flights (transcontinental vs transoceanic) this isn't the only reason - sonic booms are a problem. And even if you could go from LA to NYC in two hours (versus four), then also add in an invariant hour and a half time you spend going through security, waiting for the plane, boarding, and really the difference is not enough to justify the added cost.
Re: You’re Too Cheap to Fly Faster
#8A big part of the problem is that it is not just about price. New York to London is 5-6 hours. But back when I did business travel regularly (SFOLHR), the door to door time for me on an 11 hour flight was 16 hours after a lot of practice. So on a 5-6 hour flight, half would likely be spent on either end (and this is without checked luggage). At that point saving 2-3 hours in-air is not making enough of a dent in the travel time for it to be attractive to pay all that much more.
Much less saving 10% of the time.
Re: You’re Too Cheap to Fly Faster
#9I'm just waiting for the invention of the Star Trek "transporter" or the TARDIS.
Star Trek's transporters would be excellent. We could recover all that land that's covered in paving, no longer care about location, eliminate the pollution of today's internal combustion engines...
The sad thing is that if this could happen in the next decade, I fear it would quickly become a target of the entire transportation industry as they scramble to lobby for laws to prevent its use. And the same thing would happen for Trek's matter replicators.
But if I've learned anything comparing science fiction and the real world, it's that our scientific understanding of the universe comes slowly enough that society adapts. The only notable exception is the near-instant communication provided by the internet and its effects on "intellectual property" hoarders.
Re: You’re Too Cheap to Fly Faster
#10Ballistic travel is my preferred method.
That's gotta be a helluva kick.