This did strike me as a bit of a parallel with Tolkien and the Eagles. And (SPOILER) Cid needs to pick us up in his airship? If we had time to wait around... why not just teleport to Camp Dragonhead?

I'd be willing to give them a pass for storytelling, but then Aetherytes and teleporting have been a part of the story except now... when it's convenient (for storytelling) to suddenly not have access... it seems a bit dissonant. Maybe they should have just left it as a player convenience thing and excluded it from the storyline.