What’s interesting about air travel is that it’s both a bad customer experience and expensive. I’m routinely paying several hundred dollars for a two hour flight that is cramped, delayed, and where passengers are shunted around like chattel.
Usually, when you pay through the nose for something, you at least get treated well.
Is it expensive on an absolute basis or on a relative basis? If getting a metal tube to fly through the air at 500 mph is expensive, then we shouldn't expect that you get a luxury experience just because the ticket price is $200 or whatever.
Also, I checked on google flights and a 2 hour flight is roughly equal to an 11 hour drive. Even if you factor in arriving 3 hours early for departure and 1 hour to get to your final destination, the time savings alone is worth most of the cost of the trip. If you factor in gas/wear on your car it's a no-brainer, even if it's "expensive".
[1] Chicago to washington DC
[2] $200 round trip, $100 for one way, 5 hours * $15/hour = $75
Yeah it's much easier to deal with terrible service when your return ticket with Ryanair doesn't cost more than 20 EUR. In the meantime the cheapest flight I was on in the US still cost $200.
Usually, when you pay through the nose for something, you at least get treated well.