Passenger Rant- UAL?
 

Stonekettle Station: But Aside From That, Mrs. Lincoln?

It's long and rambling, snarky and uneducated in regard to flight operations.. but here's a blog entry from a guy with a bunch of followers that got bit by the "polar vortex" and FAR 117 perfect combo!

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.

Hilltop,

You'll get used to it! Hahahahah.

Seriously, get over it because its the way that most of them are run in this post deregulated, priceline.com, cheap-tix world.

Pesky employees and their benefits, training, phones, computers, call centers etc all cost money. Even those in India. The airline is designed to run with minimal slop on clear blue bird days. Its a very cheaply built huge hydraulic system without an accumulator. All the connectors, pumps and gaskets were made from the cheapest junk they could find in China. They are all very brittle and stressed to near their breaking point.

Add some snow and some glycol.....oh wait, we can't add glycol because we don't have enough people to load and unload bags, do push-backs, marshall planes, get strollers, etc AND de-ice airplanes at the same time so forget about the snow! Why, those rampies make too much money! As a result, there aren't even enough of them to park one lousy jet when it shows up late. You know, the one that left the west coast five hours ago. The one that automatically updated its ETA every 30 seconds as it crossed the country. The one with a dozen gazillion milers who all have tight connections to Europe. Who knew it was coming??? Who knew that someone would have to drive the jet bridge? And if too much money is spent on rampies and CSR's, the stock will go down and so will the benefits for the top 25 people in the corporation. Think of how the multi-million dollar bonus disbursement will suffer if some of those millions were spent on the operation. Oh no, that won't do.

Add some new Federal Regulations that enact SWEEPING change to every widget with an ATP...oh wait, three years isn't enough time to determine all the manifest ways that this will impact the REGULAR operation let alone the leaky RONCO Hydraulic Flimtronic in a snow storm. so.....let us get back to ya' on those regs!

Add in a new crew tracking system. Add it at the last minute. Keep it under wraps because its a surprise to 60% of the peeps who get to use it. I love surprises! Lots of unknowns. Lots of phones. No one to answer them.

Sorry I am such a cynic, but nothing has changed since I started. In fact, its only gotten worse. Until excess capacity is built into the system, and intelligent ops people (as opposed to bean counters with stopwatches, ties and clipboards) are allowed to run the airlines this crap will be the norm. When there's a hiccup the Ronco blows a line and the whole thing shuts down. It takes all the Kings horses and all the Kings men several days to get it running again.

You get paid by the minute. Learn to go with the flow rather than against it. When the flow stops, so do you. And this isn't about babies and strollers, let your conscience be your guide there. But for the rest of the creaky operation, let it go. Your heart, wife, kids and dogs will thank you for it. :D

Oldmako should start a blog of his own!
...very funny

Hilltopper,

There is the answer. James has the best written synopsis of the operation I have seen. I observed the exact same conditions several decades ago. Apparently nothing has changed. Stupidity (or greed) abounds at the higher management levels when it comes to the idea of running an airline that moves people, bags, and freight in a manner that is agreeable to all.

To management, the airline will be a better place when they can get rid of those pesky employees. Moving passenger and their stuff is an annoyance that must be barely tolerated and accommodated.

You are right. It is an embarrassment because it is preventable or at least should be managed better than it has been.

oldmako for the WIN

Airline management has determined that it is less expensive to suffer these occasional meltdowns than it is to create and staff an operation that can handle most of these crises. There is some logic in the premise that you can't afford perfection...the bathtub curve and all... The problem occurs when bean counters take the premise too far.

Yet once again, King James gets it...and is kind enough to share it with us simpletons...heed this advice and you'll most likely smile more.

Spot on James. A recently retired Captain told me about how the light bulb went on for him with all of this many years ago. As a young F/O at Eastern, he was in the right seat of a 727 blowing a gasket one day over repeated operational meltdowns. His Captain that day, an old codger with a deep southern drawl, looked over at him and said "Son, how many more years of this do you have to go." He replied, "Well, 25 more." The old guy looked at him again, shook his head, smiled and said "Son, ya ain't gonna make it." After getting the point, he went on to make it in good health all the way to retiring at 65. Exactly in line with what James is saying.

Yes, it is embarrassing. One of the many reasons I don't wear a hat, with my overcoat. No one knows I'm an employee when I walk by. I've run out of excuses.