[bobthepanda]

I think they are agreeing with you re: the range.

There is money in NYC-LHR (it brings BA alone $1B in revenue annually) but the market for supersonic basically vanished. In the 70s when Concorde started flying, it was certainly a step up. However, the market niche basically disappeared when the lie flat seat was developed; for a lot cheaper, you could have a sleep for six hours in a really cushy lie flat, or you could spend a crapton more to be in a much louder, more cramped cabin for only about three hours less. If you were halving a 12-16 hour journey instead, there would still be a market left, but Concorde just didn't have the ability to do so.

[mckn1ght]

You can also essentially work remotely in an airplane now. I haven’t tried videoconferencing, but I easily do all my other software work on trips. So a couple extra hours might even be a benefit: more time with no distractions to wrap up that slide deck, maybe a 1:1 or two, get your free drinks from premium/business class, doze off to a movie, wake up for an early start at your destination.

[XorNot]

12 hours on a plane is 12 hours on a plane. And there's currently no amount of ticket money that can make that shorter.

[fragmede]

Shorter, no, but having a private cabin with a shower, and a lounge with a bartender on the plane, not to mention Starlink, would make those 12 hours a lot more bearable vs 12 in an economy seat.

[throwaway2037]

    > having a private cabin with a shower

AFAIK: Showers are only available to first class customers flying via the major Gulf carriers. I checked Google flights for business class and first class tickets between Tokyo and London. Business is about 5,000 USD and first class is about 10,000 USD. Assuming that we are talking about first class here (to satisfy your shower requirement), what kind of developer is hacking code at 10,000 meters in first class... except... hmm... Mitchell Hashimoto?

[fragmede]

Mitchell Hashimoto's got tres commas in his bank account and his own jet. He doesn't need to take commerical, or even first class. If we backsolve, say $10,000 is a once a month purchase, and $10,000 for a hotel and you stay a month. Say your other living expenses are $10,000/month, so we're shooting for spending $20,000/month. With the recommended shaving off 3% the nest egg, (20,000 * 12) / 3% gets us $8 million in the bank.

So at $8 million in the bank, you could take a $10,000 plane trip, stay for a month, spend $10,000 on a hotel, take a $10,000 flight back. Still upper end of net worth, but nowhere near Mitchell Hashimoto territory.

[mckn1ght]

Wasn’t Concorde like 20-50% more expensive than a normal first class ticket for the same itinerary?

So any hacker considering a SST flight should also be able to afford the first class cabin.

[bobthepanda]

If it ever actually gets off the ground, Boom Supersonic is allegedly targeting a $5000 business class trip for transatlantic.

[stymaar]

Sure, but it would also make it much more expensive than a supersonic flight…