I also think there are some people on AFF who have lost touch a little with reality. Long haul Y flying is certainly not the most comfortable experience in the world, but it's certainly very valid way of traveling and it's the method which the majority of the worlds flying population travel.
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but by the same token, how many other things fall into the same category?
if someone chooses a Mercedes, or a house in toorak or on sydney harbour, or chooses to drink Champagne instead of sparkling wine, or to send their children to a private school, or buy designer clothes. are all those equally losing touch with reality?
there are very few circumstances where i would consider flying anything but a complete luxury. essential circumstances might include a medical evacuation, or dropping supplies after a natural disaster, or flying at short notice to visit a sick or dying relative.
but if you have a plane load of people flying to a beach holiday in Honolulu, or the Maldives, or the Seychelles... for no other reason than 'just because they can', how is the person who only wants to fly first class losing any more sense of reality than the person who can only fly economy?
those of us who fly are burning through millions of tonnes of carbon fuels simply because we can while hundreds of millions of others in the world can't afford regular food, medicine or education. have we all lost touch with reality?
also worth bearing in mind that low cost long haul has had a pretty bad record in terms of sustainability. in at least some cases (if not many) the people losing touch with reality by insisting on only flying first or business class are in fact subsidising the possibility for people to fly economy (for the price they are) at all.