General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Do you want to do something to help this planet? Stop flying. [View all]Hekate
(90,616 posts)When I was a mother of young kids, I had precious little vacation time -- a week at most, plus the tacked on weekends. My folks lived 150 miles away -- okay that's doable in a car. My sister, however, lived across the continent. By saving up my money and purchasing tickets in the cattle car section I was able to make sure my kids got to know their aunt and cousins. This would not have been possible otherwise.
When I was a kid in the 1950s, sure air travel was a luxury. We got dressed up for the occasion, sweetly smiling stewardesses brought us treats, and the airlines boasted that passengers had plenty of leg room. Those days are long, long gone, and air travel is now universally acknowledged to be a misery.
These one size fits all solutions do not fit all, or even most.
As for the cargo -- I always choose ground shipping (when given a choice) because I like to save money. But tell that to the entire business world that now counts on "just in time" shipping and deliveries in a "pipeline" that does not use warehouses any more. No, seriously, one good shipping strike and entire industries will find themselves up the well-known creek without a paddle.