Airline seat prices, adjusted for inflation, are a lot lower than they used to be in the golden era of North American airlines. Yes seats are crappy and you have to pay for food and luggage, if you're not flying with a lot of mileage points. But adjusted for inflation, costs for something typical like a Seattle to Boston flight are like half of what it cost in 1982.

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/02/how-air...

https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/air-travel-today-is-a-damn-b...