Originally Posted by
JetPiedmont
This industry ia a customer service disaster area, and it will never change. The exceptions like LUV and AAI prove the rule. Two of the lowest cost airlines ranking at the top of the customer surveys.
A passenger who is delayed due to weather doesn't care about the FAA's neglect of the avaition infrastructure, all he knows is that he bought a ticket on your airline, and he is now so late that he will miss his meeting, connection, or cruise ship, and it makes your airline look bad.
Add fiascios like the AA Super 80 meltdowns, USAir Philly meltdowns, winter weather gridlocks at ATL, ATC flow control lockups in the NE during TRW season, and it's no wonder that people hate flying on airlines. It's no wonder they can't get a decent price for tickets, the product stinks.
Meanwhile managements stuff their pockets with more "performance bonuses", and look for more "deals" to "achieve synergies" that will improve performance that send NWA DAL USAir and UAL to the bottom of the heap. It's laughable.
Is there another industry that puts up with this cr@p?
I have (in addition to my flying schedule) logged over 60,000 frequent flier miles on mainly U.S. Carriers, but also European, S.E. Asian, Asian Carriers THIS YEAR!
So as a Pilot who frequently Commercials to meet my next flight I can tell you from my personal experience, U.S. Legacy Carriers have horrible Customer Service! In some ways we're light years ahead as far as ease of checking in for a flight. But thats where it all ends.
Once aboard a flight, the attitude starts. This causes me to have a bad attitude which I share with the crew and hence the endless cycle. I was left at a boarding gate in Atlanta a month ago because I did not arrive at the gate till 5 minutes BEFORE scheduled departure! Yes, the plane left EARLY without a confirmed seat revenue passenger because of Delta concerns about on time departures (Synergies). I had a late connection (Delta) which caused my gate arrival to be very close to departure. My bags made the connection somehow.
Anyway, I think JetPeidmont is right on with the gross neglect of providing a good product. With these super-mergers I'm sure it will just get worse. I always laugh when they say "We know you have a choice when traveling".
There's rarely a choice.