Money Travels: How Much Would You Pay to Not Wait in Line?
Slate Money
Slate Podcasts
4.1 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 August 2025
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this special episode of Slate Money Travels, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck and Elizabeth Spiers discuss what extras are really worth paying for when you travel. Airlines, especially want to nickel and dime for every little thing. But is the extra leg room worth it? What about getting off the plane sooner? Can you put a price on not waiting in line?
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Podcast production by Cheyna Roth.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Now through September 10th, sky-high elegance at dream prices during the Air France rendezvous. |
| 0:11.3 | It's time to book your flight to Paris at our best prices, only during the Air France rendezvous, with daily flights from New York. |
| 0:19.1 | And with Air France, enjoy a complimentary glass of champagne in all cabins. |
| 0:23.7 | Elegance is a journey. |
| 0:25.5 | Air France. |
| 0:26.7 | Restrictions apply. |
| 0:27.8 | See terms and conditions at airfrance.us. |
| 0:32.7 | Hello! |
| 0:34.6 | Welcome to Slate Money Travel. I'm Felix Salmon. I'm here with Emily Peck of Axios. |
| 0:42.6 | Hello, hello. I'm here with Elizabeth Spires of the New York Times. |
| 0:47.7 | Hello. We are going to talk about the amount of money that people are willing to pay for basically just like not |
| 0:58.3 | being stuck in lines at airports, which is not just in airports. It's also on airplanes. |
| 1:05.8 | This whole idea came to me when I was checking out, when I was buying a flight on Air Lingus, and they |
| 1:13.6 | were like, select your seat. And all of the seats were the same, except for the exit row. |
| 1:18.3 | But if you ignore the exit row, all of the seats were the same. And the price of the seats |
| 1:23.7 | ranged quite dramatically according to how close they were to the front of the plane. |
| 1:29.7 | The ones near the front are like $65. |
| 1:31.6 | The ones at the back are free. |
| 1:34.6 | It doesn't even matter whether it's a middle seat or not. |
| 1:37.9 | People really want to be at the front of the plane. |
| 1:40.3 | And the reason people want to be at the front of the plane obviously is that they get off |
| 1:45.5 | the plane more quickly they don't have to stand in the aisle waiting for the people in front of them |
... |
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