Originally Posted by
Hilltopper89
I'm the new guy at a major airline and perhaps it was the FAR 117 thing but I was embarrassed at how shockingly inept the airline industry is at dealing with irregular ops. Its almost like we've never dealt with it before. There was a lady crying while on hold with an airline on the hotel bus and another guy who said he was a Platinum traveler who spent 7 hrs on hold to iron out his itinerary. OK, I understand that we can't control the weather, but 7 HOURS on hold? We don't have some agents contracted to be on standby or something? I saw agents treating passengers like crap, 300 people in the Customer Service line at SFO, etc. etc. Like I said, I was embarrassed for the whole industry.
Well if the airlines were staffed to efficiently handle events that occur a few times a year the passengers would be crying every time they buy a ticket.
Airlines used to make money below 60% load factor but tickets cost a lot more. Well the market has spoken - people want cheap tickets. They will complain about everything but when it comes to behavior (buying a ticket) the almight dollar rules supreme.
Sad as it is - the U.S. airline industry is giving its passengers exactly what they want. Cheap tickets.
Scoop