Worst travel article... ever???
 

Wow..... . Thoughts?

It's Amazing What Airlines Get Away With | Fox News


I don't get it... Sounds like this happened to one of his friends so he got PO'ed and decided to have a personal vendetta. Sounds to me like the airline did the right thing. Offer a full refund....

If air travel is so bad, feel free to drive.

Exactly. The Amercan flying public view air travel as a right not a service. Ive heard my buddy complain over a $400 RT from Seattle to Boston. I tell people, when they buy a ticket and complain over the fare, that they essentially got the ticket for free. We are moving thousands of people at 80% the speed of sound, 7 miles above the earthen soil, with all their worthless junk, bring them to where we promised to drop them off, safely and mostly within an hour of when we said they'd be there. I was hoping the article would bring up how the woman almost ended up on a CommuteAir flight where the combined hourly wage for her flight crew was less than what she paid for lunch at the Denver Airport.

Is this guy a professional reporter? Damn learn to grammar check your stuff before printing. I'm just a joe schmoe pilot and found two or three grammatical errors. Idiot!

Taking the article at face value, you believe that the airline canceling flights and NOT informing the passenger is doing the right thing? I don't think that it should take 3 hours on the phone to try and sort out travel plans.
This isn't about the cost of the ticket - as the article says - it is more about customer service (or lack thereof). What if the customer had not checked on her return times until the day before traveling? Why should she? She has entered into a contract with said airline for transportation at a price that the airline has set. How would the airlines handle the exact same scenario if it were the consumer (see examples in the article)

Let's not kid ourselves about the quality of airline customer service though and some of the rules that the traveling public deal with. I mean come one....these rules are put into place by the same management teams that are suggested to be feathered and tarred on this forum all the time, but now they are to be defended because the big, bad, and stupid traveling public expect service? I'm sure many of us expect service whether we are eating at Wendy's or the fanciest restaurant in town too.

USMCFLYR

To play devil's advocate here for a second, I have to say the article is not all bad.

In my opinion, the outsourcing thing has gotten way out of control and I for one like to see that people call and complain when the buy a ticket on US Air and end up flying on some other mainline/regional/codeshare carrier.

The outsourcing has diluted the product for years now while being used as a way to fragment and weaken labor groups. While I do get sick and tired of the airlines being used as a punching bag by the media and general public, I for one could careless what they think. Ultimately, they are free to take a train, bus, or drive themselves if airline travel is so horrid.

A few years back, my wife used her OnePass miles to book a round trip ticket on CAL. She had a direct flight from EWR on the way out, but on the return they had her on a US Air flight to PHL followed by a 5 hour sit to connect on a Un-Named Regional Carrier to EWR. Meanwhile there were about 4 direct flights to EWR that same day. I basically called them up reservations and told them that my wife is a Continental OnePass member and chooses to fly on Continental, when she buys a ticket she is paying for Continental's reputation of experience, safety, and professionalism. The reservation operator basically told me she gets alot of these calls and switched my wife's flight.

If I order a Pepsi, I don't want the waitress bringing me a Coke. I personally applaud the media's focus on the dilution of mainline service and quality. I hope the big wigs start to realize that watering down the branding will eventually push customers away.

When you buy these tickets, you know before you click the go button what you are paying for. If you want to only fly us airways, call an agent and work it out with them. OR just look at the ticket before you press buy. To use your example, you ask the server for a coke, she says well a coke is $50. But I can give you a pepsi for $45. Well most people will say, wow, 5 dollars less for a pepsi. I will take it. Who cares if that "Pepsi" makes me have a 5 hour sit in Minot North Dakota. I still get a soda, and its $5 less.

We don't know the full story about the failure to contact. My experience with US Airways, when a flight on my itinerary cancels I get a text message, or a phone call, or an email. Pretty quickly in fact. Did the person who booked the flight, put in there correct contact info? Did she answer her phone when they called, did she have her spam filter set up wrong on her email? Who knows.... But as dynamic a system as every airlines reservation systems are they generally do a very good job. Occasionally they do make mistakes, but that doesn't mean they are getting away with something that deserves top billing on a national news site.

Last week at Taco Bell: The soda machine ran out of carbonated water!!!! MORE ON THIS STORY SOON!

This isn't news, this is an example of one person, upset because of an isolated event.

Its not reporting...

I think the article is correct; airlines get away with way too much crap. The lady should have been notified of the cancellation and rebooked on the next available flight at no additional cost to her. If they had seats on a different flight the same day, she should have been placed on that flight and they should contact her to inform her of the change. End of story.

I agree that airlines have slipped at all levels of customer service. Before I was with a 121 operator I used shake my head at having to phonetically spell my name over the phone to the Indian customer service agent at United Airlines. However, you get what you pay for. If the airlines charged a fare that would encompass the cost of hiring labor and amenities to provide a premium product no one in America would fly. A $500 RT coast to coast ticket was great in 1980 when JetA was $.45/gal, now it's $500 RT w/JetA @ $3.15/gal. Something's got to give, and that means Flo at the counter is doing the work of 3 agents. That = grumpy and a bad experience for the expectant and already agitated customer.

This is the part that I don't agree with. Of course I don't have a MBA either so what do I know :p I also think that movie theaters would make MORE money if they actually priced their concessions at a reasonable price rather than a single drink at the price of a 6 pack.

Just remember - the consumer doesn't really set the price. If they want to fly, then they will pay. If they want to drive - they will pay $4.00+/gal for gas. Consumers rightfully so will search for the best price for the same end product. One of the few ways to set yourself apart is service.
Many Americans have even made it very clear that service is behind the priorities when it comes to price - thus the proliferation of LCCs. But the consumer does expect the product that they paid for at the end of the day. If the story is to be believed, the consumer in the article did not get that end product.

USMCFLYR

Isn't that the point? There are way too many airlines, way too many planes, and way too many pilots. The service of providing passenger flights does not have enough demand, whereas there is way WAY too much supply. It's the polar opposite of how you want to run a business. The government "bails" out the airlines, pilot's are forced to work for lower and lower wages because they can't actually strike and bring about necessary change, and bottom line is that the weak businesses are NOT ALLOWED TO DIE, so the entire industry is dragged down and there is a general dillution of service, to both customers and employees. Yes, a ticket should cost a LOT more, and no, there should not be 50 flights all flying to the same destination at the same time, although during peak periods you "can" fill those seats, it's not economically viable to own and operate the equipment during the rest of the year...unless you find a way to cut costs elsewhere. And who can forget tarmac delays? That's simply unacceptable, I don't care who's fault it is, keeping someone cooped up for that long is wrong and if you can't get out because of ground-stops or other atc delays, then you're simply knowingly operating beyond your and the FAAs means to provide that service, which is not ok.

Yet the public that pays too much for the crap Hollywood puts out STILL pays that high price for the ticket as well as for the overpriced concessions. Sure, people bring their own stuff, but still.....


True, yet they'll STILL find something to b1tch about even when they are provide the product at a much cheaper price then they've EVER paid before. Checking a bag? The ticket + the bag is STILL cheaper than the fare was before. No free food? Sure, complain, the fare is cheaper than it was before. "OMG, this plane is so small!" Sure it is, and the fare paid is cheaper than it's ever been before.

Yet they STILL got where they needed to go, and in most cases on time. But you'll hear the complaints about the above day in and day out, it NEVER ends.