D&D and the rising pandemic

[Azzy]

On a positive note,

I contacted a friend that I grew up with that now lives in Tokyo just to see how he was going (something I've been doing a lot of in the past 2 months).

Turns out that his D&D group had moved online because of isolation, and he invited me to join.
Have played the past 3 Sunday nights and it's one of the few things I look forward to these days.

Nice. In addition to playing D&D weekly, I've also been playing Neverwinter with a group of friends over the last month. I neverplayed an MMO before this.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hear me out: if the rules for passenger air travel demand the companies fly at partial capacity, the main thing those empty seats are doing is burning more fuel. Present times excluded, fuel costs are one of the major costs for airlines.

In contrast, taking some seats out saves the airlines from carrying dead weight, letting them carry more cargo. It also lets hem sell the new, improved, more civilixe way to fly, with images of coach passengers experiencing actual leg room...

So they trade dead weight for paid weight, while simultaneously seeming to give us what we’ve been asking for Gor decades.

Yes, such a reconfiguration costs money. In the short term. Long term, it could prove to be a competitive advantage.

Especially if the regulation about passenger capacity need to be in place long term.

 

[Older Beholder]

Nice. In addition to playing D&D weekly, I've also been playing Neverwinter with a group of friends over the last month. I neverplayed an MMO before this.

That's great. It's good to have something to look forward to at the moment.
I never much got into MMO's, but give me a few more months locked inside and you never know

As someone that usually DM's just getting to play anything was a win for me.
In the game I joined I'm playing a Yuan-Ti warlock, which means I get to tick off another race I've always wanted to play.

 

[Zardnaar]

Hear me out: if the rules for passenger air travel demand the companies fly at partial capacity, the main thing those empty seats are doing is burning more fuel. Present times excluded, fuel costs are one of the major costs for airlines.

TaIn contrast, taking some seats out saves the airlines from carrying dead weight, letting them carry more cargo. It also lets hem sell the new, improved, more civilixe way to fly, with images of coach passengers experiencing actual leg room...

So they trade dead weight for paid weight, while simultaneously seeming to give us what we’ve been asking for Gor decades.

Yes, such a reconfiguration costs money. In the short term. Long term, it could prove to be a competitive advantage.

Especially if the regulation about passenger capacity need to be in place long term.

Prices will go up similar to 70s.

Days off mass cheap air travel over for the short term. Even if everything was open lack of confidence due to Covid, personal finances and some people just won't have the money.

Don't think my eastern European booze cruise is gonna be happening.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Prices will go up similar to 70s.

Days off mass cheap air travel over for the short term. Even if everything was open lack of confidence due to Covid, personal finances and some people just won't have the money.

Don't think my eastern European booze cruise is gonna be happening.

Certainly prices will rise...if they can. With the global economy the way it is, too big of a price hike could result in the continuing lack of passengers.

in a case like this, the only party that can really manipulate a supply/demand curve would be the airlines. If they can’t lower their prices enough to fly at the new capacity rules, demand for seats simply won’t rise. The airlines will have to find new streams of revenue (like cargo) and/or reduce costs (shave plane mass).

 

[Zardnaar]

Certainly prices will rise...if they can. With the global economy the way it is, too big of a price hike could result in the continuing lack of passengers.

in a case like this, the only party that can really manipulate a supply/demand curve would be the airlines. If they can’t lower their prices enough to fly at the new capacity rules, demand for seats simply won’t rise. The airlines will have to find new streams of revenue (like cargo) and/or reduce costs (shave plane mass).

Nah they can operate for the rich. Wasn't that long ago airlines were mostly for the rich.

Ours is looking at becoming domestic only with a government bail out.

Fuel will be cheap.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Nah they can operate for the rich. Wasn't that long ago airlines were mostly for the rich.

Ours is looking at becoming domestic only with a government bail out.

Fuel will be cheap.

You're forgetting part of the equation. Remember, they’re used to flying first class.

The rich aren’t going to fly in the cramped confines of coach. If airlines want to cater to the wealthy- at least, those who don’t already have private aircraft- they will have to cater to their expectations. That means the companies would have yank and upgrade seats anyway.

 

[Hussar]

I was wondering where in Japan you were, and I looked at your profile and thought "Fukuoka... why does that sound familiar?" It's because I was in Kitakyushu a year-and-a-half ago. When I go to Japan, I don't normally get too far from Tokyo.

All of this is, of course, totally off-topic - except to say, "I guess I won't be going back there anytime soon."

... Which is sad, really. I'm overdue.

(I'd also intended to return to New York someday soon, and to visit New Zealand for the first time.)

I think international travel might be out for awhile. Like a year, at least. Not that I would ever have been able to do anywhere near all of that in a single year, but still... between the pandemic and the draining of all my potential travel-money - it looks like that's all going by the way-side for some time.

To be perfectly honest, I am a short distance outside of Kitakyushu.

 

[Zardnaar]

You're forgetting part of the equation. Remember, they’re used to flying first class.

The rich aren’t going to fly in the cramped confines of coach. If airlines want to cater to the wealthy- at least, those who don’t already have private aircraft- they will have to cater to their expectations. That means the companies would have yank and upgrade seats anyway.

Yeah that's what I mean it will mostly be first class.

Economy might still exist, Less flights I guess and it will cost more.

 

[NotAYakk]

A huge percent of airplane travel costs is fuel. Fuel is now zero in price.

Another huge cost is airplanes. They have so many some airlines are going to go bankrupt and there are going to be dirt cheap airplanes for sale.

So flight costs are now labour, which there is also a surplus of, plus airport fees, taxes and overhead.

There are so many crazy crazy forces pushing prices around it isn't funny. Inflationary, deflationary, etc. You can make a case for nearly any price direction; and you could be right, even if your argument isn't actually why it happened.

 

[Zardnaar]

A huge percent of airplane travel costs is fuel. Fuel is now zero in price.

Another huge cost is airplanes. They have so many some airlines are going to go bankrupt and there are going to be dirt cheap airplanes for sale.

So flight costs are now labour, which there is also a surplus of, plus airport fees, taxes and overhead.

There are so many crazy crazy forces pushing prices around it isn't funny. Inflationary, deflationary, etc. You can make a case for nearly any price direction; and you could be right, even if your argument isn't actually why it happened.

You can make some good guesses.

 

[NotAYakk]

You can make some good guesses.

I have two.

Prices go up.
Prices go down.

 

[Umbran]

Cynic is easier.

Yeah, but cynicism generally creates self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

[Umbran]

A huge percent of airplane travel costs is fuel. Fuel is now zero in price.

That... does not seem to be true. Maybe low oil prices have not yet filtered into the aviation fuel business, or low availability of workers under current conditions has increased prices?

In 2015, it appears to be that a gallon of A1 jet fuel apparently cost about $1.70. Today, it costs about $4.50 per gallon.

 

[Olrox17]

That... does not seem to be true. Maybe low oil prices have not yet filtered into the aviation fuel business, or low availability of workers under current conditions has increased prices?

In 2015, it appears to be that a gallon of A1 jet fuel apparently cost about $1.70. Today, it costs about $4.50 per gallon.

I don't know where you got those figures. I found this table:

Price seems to be at 15-years low.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Certainly prices will rise...if they can. With the global economy the way it is, too big of a price hike could result in the continuing lack of passengers.

in a case like this, the only party that can really manipulate a supply/demand curve would be the airlines. If they can’t lower their prices enough to fly at the new capacity rules, demand for seats simply won’t rise. The airlines will have to find new streams of revenue (like cargo) and/or reduce costs (shave plane mass).

Looks like the business plan is to keep all the seats, and make pasengers pay for the luxury of social distancing:

Frontier Airlines will let passengers keep their distance—for a fee

Securing a seat with no neighbor will come with an extra cost.

fortune.com

 

[Olrox17]

Looks like the business plan is to keep all the seats, and make pasengers pay for the luxury of social distancing:

Frontier Airlines will let passengers keep their distance—for a fee

Securing a seat with no neighbor will come with an extra cost.

fortune.com

If social distancing becomes a luxury that people have to pay for, the virus will spread like wildfire. Social distancing must be mandatory, not premium.

 

[MoonSong]

Back in March I posted this:

While everybody is locking down and canceling gatherings of people over as little as 5, this happens in the land of the nopal:

Mexico Holds Big Music Festival Despite Coronavirus Concerns

The coronavirus pandemic may have led authorities around the globe to cancel concerts and sporting events, and even shut down daily activities in some places

www.nbcnewyork.com

GUNS N' ROSES Performs At Mexico City's VIVE LATINO Festival Despite Coronavirus Concerns

GUNS N' ROSES performed at Mexico City's massive annual music festival Vive Latino Saturday night (March 14) despite thousands of people calling for the event to be canceled in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. At least a dozen of other artists had pulled out of the festival by Saturday...

www.blabbermouth.net

I can't believe how irresponsible this was, local twitter is using #muerelatino to denounce this.

As I write this, the same complex used to hold this festival -consisting of a relgamentary F1 track and two stadiums- is now being converted into a hospital for Covid patients. Oh and some of the security guards that worked in that event have since developed symptoms and died. No word on some of the people who attended it, but no doubt contagions happened during that festival.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Looks like the business plan is to keep all the seats, and make pasengers pay for the luxury of social distancing:

Frontier Airlines will let passengers keep their distance—for a fee

Securing a seat with no neighbor will come with an extra cost.

fortune.com

That probably won’t last, for the reason @Olrox17 stated.

 

[Umbran]

I don't know where you got those figures.

Well, I now cannot find the page I was looking at when I wrote, so, consider the assertion withdrawn.