When I was young, airplane tickets were very expensive, only the rich, and people on the company dime could fly regularly, for everyone else it was rare treat, very rare.

Since this was a service for the rich or company paid folks, and tickets were expensive.. service was fantastic, it was part of the package.

But in the US and parts of Europe, anyone can fly now, it is not the reserve of rich. And the airlines need to watch every penny, its no longer special, because it is mass transit.

But in Asia, the majority still do not fly, it is still the domain of the rich, and company men. And the airlines charge alot more for their serves, it is not for the normal middle class person. It has nothing to do with sexism, but if the transport is restricted to a certain class, and the expectations of that class of people.

I have wonderful memories of flying Pan Am and TWA to Asia from the US as a child in the early 70's and having an entire row to myself to lay down in, and sleep during the 14 hour flight, and getting wings from the stewardesses, and going to the front of the plane and meeting the pilots, now most airlines don't give wings to kids, and the door to the pilots is locked during flight, and I haven't seen an empty seat on a plane for awhile. But then again, if I book six months out, and watch for specials I can get airfares cheaper than driving or the train/buses to NY from the west coast, hell even under 200$ - anyone can fly, when I was kid it would have been a thousand plus.

But the comments of a couple of folks is telling, I'd pay the extra hundreds for the service, yes they would, but their company paying for their tickets won't and most Americans can't afford that, and would have to give up flying, and with so many families spread out, or local bad economies people need to travel cheaply to see family or look for jobs, or hundreds of other reasons, and to see airfares go back up would hurt them. The nice smile, and warm towel are not worth the price of going back to the days when only the elite could afford to fly.

You are clueless - there are a large number of Americans that belong to fundamental variations of Christianity that are very nasty to non-Christians and to their fellow Christians if they happen to be liberal.

I am not an atheist (you might need to learn how to spell), but a member of the pagan community, we are very private about our believes and try to avoid conflict with the majority - but I've had my child asked in the school yard of her public school if she was saved by another child, and informed that some of the kids were not allowed to play with her, because she was not saved.

I live in the very liberal Pacific NW. My friends who had to go South (Atlanta) for military duty, were living in very nice off base housing - in an apartment complex, and were informed that the complex had a bible study group for all the kids in the compound. Turns out if the kid didn't belong to the bible group none of the other kids would play with you - the poor boy was completely isolated, and his folks never mentioned their religion, for all the other parents knew he could have been a liberal Christian who just didn't like their brand of religion.

My job, my ability to get custody in divorce proceedings, my ability to get housing, can be threatened, and made difficult if I go public about my religion, because Christians very much enjoy going into the mode of the righteous. And since 85% to 90% of all Americans identify themselves as Christian (depending on the poll read) it is completely insane for them to say they are being persecuted, because the only ones who could be persecuting them are their fellow Christians, but the conservative Christians are unable to get it into their head the folks that are blocking them from bring on the 2nd coming, are their own liberal brethren - their fellow Christians, who think they are insane, and making the majority of Christians look bad.