The problem is that commercial air travel is fundamentally unpleasant. Pack, drive to the airport, park, carry heavy things long distances, wait in long lines, take off your shoes and belt, be inspected infected and detected, stop start stop start, wait for your fellow travelers to cram everything they could carry into overhead bins, get up to let strangers in, bang elbows, endure g-forces, thoughts of death, pressure, noise... unending noise, temperature swings, turbulence, miniature port-o-potties that smell the same as normal sized, bad food, no food, four ounce sodas with huge ice cubes, sky mall (thank God for sky mall), now do that all in reverse, add ear popping, wait for your bag to crash onto a conveyor, wait in more lines, drive in more traffic, feel bad for two days... If the airlines could remove three or four of those problems for say twice or four times the money, it would still be a miserable day. Most people would rather just bang elbows and get it over with for as little money as possible.
I guess it's different as I'm not in the USA, but I generally don't mind flying for <4 hour flights.
Security for me is always a breeze, no need to remove shoes here and I just don't wear a belt. If I don't have checked luggage the process is even nicer.
Flying between Australia and New Zealand is about as easy as it gets. I can check in online, and security takes all of 15 minutes, if that. 4 hours on a plane isn't too bad and usually I'm in a 3 set row with only 1 other person. It's nice to have a few hours to unplug from everything and watch a movie or play Stellaris. Customs/immigration on the way in (to both Australia and New Zealand) is so easy, the whole system is electronic, so the only human I interact with is the customs officer who confirms I have no prohibited items.
If it's a night flight, anything up to 8 hours is fine for me. I've never had problems sleeping on a plane, or anywhere for that matter.
