For years, budget airlines have reminded customers of an important lesson.
You get what you pay for.
The tray tables are made for amps, so tiny.
You have to pay for water.
I thought that was complimentary.
No, nothing's complimentary on a budget airline.
The seats were so uncomfy, like zero padding.
They oversold their flights and then they pick random people to bump off the flight.
So I was one of those random people.
And the plane was boiling.
But people who want to travel cheap have flocked to budget airlines because the price is so right.
So sort of the peak of the budget airline era,
which was maybe 10, 12 years ago, this seemed like it was going to be the dominant business model.
That's our colleague Allison Sider.
She covers the airline industry.
Budget airlines were growing really quickly, expanding into major airline hubs and taking a lot of passengers.
And the big airlines felt they needed to find a way to compete.
I mean, it seemed like this was going to be like a real challenge to the bigger airlines.
But budget airlines haven't lived up to that challenge.
And lately, they're a dying breed.