The 1950s were apparently the "Golden Age of Flying." My mother loves to recall a time when airlines served full-course meals on china, with actual silverware and linen napkins. Until I was in high school, I thought you had to be dressed up to get on an airplane, because my mother insisted that we be in our Sunday best to travel.

That era is long gone, but traveling by air was at least pleasant when I was younger -- sometimes even fun. Now it seems to be a test of how much misery passengers can be forced to endure, and how much the airlines can get away with charging for what used to be (and should be) basic services.

We can start with space.

A few years ago, I watched the classic Gene Hackman film "The French Connection." The movie, set in 1971, features a brief scene in which some of the characters are on what I believe was an Eastern Airlines commuter flight between Washington, D.C., and New York City. It's shocking to see that even on that small DC-9 jet, there were two big, comfortable seats on either side of an aisle wide enough that flight attendants could walk past each other -- with a cart.

The average width of an airplane seat in 1970 was 18 inches. Now the average is 16.5 inches. And the "seat pitch" (legroom distance from the back of your seat to the back of the seat in front of you) has decreased from 35 inches to 31 inches, with some as short as 28 inches. That shrunken space is why if you need the purse, diaper bag or laptop you've dutifully stowed under the seat in front of you before takeoff, you'll be planting your face in your neighbor's lap to get the item out again during the flight.

Airlines play fast and loose........

© Townhall