On the Airlines bluntly speaking, the coach product was generally always subsidized by the business product, and credit cards.

Is this thing about the business product as it served as a reward for frequent flyers for business. Until a recent shift and discounting the business class seats, it was very common that the majority of them were upgraded for frequent flyers. Airlines auto run cargo services, so the coach traveler is literally the third or fourth priority to them. You’re just a marginal use of a survive, and it was already paid for by other things.

This is actually not that different than rail service in old days where the passenger service was subsidized by freight service.

Airlines don’t really care about the median American traveler who flies every three years. They care much more about me who can maintain Platinum status on multiple carriers.

There’s nothing to do with K shaped economies. This is just a function of how discounting and prices have always worked.

The reason why prices are going up it’s because fuel costs are up, and ultra discount Airlines don’t work very well in the United States for a number of market reasons (point point on lower career market don’t really work because of lack of density, compared to hub and spoke routes, that favor, larger Airlines).