(though things could always be worse. pardon the vanity)
Posted on 03/10/2008 7:00:24 AM PDT by martin_fierro
I JUST FLEW IN FROM BUFFALO (and boy, did it ever suck!)
(not Buffalo; the flight)
Why is commercial air travel in this country such a miserable experience anymore? Seems that every aspect of it has lost any enjoyment. It's gotten to the point that I avoid traveling altogether.
While booking flights online has never been easier, flights cost more, take longer, include more tightly-scheduled stops and come with significantly diminished levels of customer service.
No detail with which to nickle-and-dime the passenger appears to be too small, too petty.
Even the boarding process has lost the semblance of order it once had. Time was, boarding took place in the following sequence: 1) those requiring help being seated 2) First Class 3) Coach class, boarding rear aisles first. Somewhere along the line this practie morphed into: 1) those requiring help being seated and First Class; and then 2) Coach class, boarding willy-nilly, however the hell you want.
Some possible explanations for the marked declne in air travel quality:
I'm not calling for a return to some Golden Age of Air Travel (cue the late 40s/early 50s newsreel footage of suited travelers being given hot towels by impeccably-attired stewardesses flight attendants). Those days are long gone. But is this really the best that the American airline industry can do?
Maybe these hassles are only apparent to the infrequent flyer (me). Maybe the more regular business traveler just becomes inured to all this crap and accepts it.
I'd like to hear FReepers' thoughts on this. Who's got the magic bullet to cure the U.S. airline industry of its malaise?
(though things could always be worse. pardon the vanity)
You Who.
Frontier isn’t too bad
I try to book all my connecting flights through Atlanta International because they seem to be one of the only airports that still maintains smoking lounges. Though probably for not much longer.
I've long had a theory about why the airlines suck, and why deregulation didn't work.and still doesn't. It's because we didn't have true deregulation. Fixed airfares were eliminated, and airlines, especially start-ups (remember People's Express??) were free to exploit market niches. However, the problem is that gate space at airports is limited, and tightly controlled by complicated bidding and lease processes, and the airlines that hold the rights, even if the capacity is underused..can't be forced to give them up. Thus, new start-ups, who would normally be eager to enter the market, withotu onerous union contracts, and compete on price AND service, can't get in.
What airline is this? Delta, AirTran and Spirit all board back to front. (after #1 and #2)
Was the boarding of coach class the only thing that “sucked” about your flight? Just curious. Were there any other issues?
Customer service, the keystone of corporate success, is nearly non-existant in all industries.
My business gets more customers every year because we not only service them but respect them as well.
Amazing how far you can get by using the words "sir" and "ma'am." And giving Lindt chocolates to receptionists when you visit a company doesn't hurt either.
People can say what they will about Wal-Mart, but how many companies have a person at the door welcoming you to their store when you walk through their doors?
‘twas Northwest/KLM.
Still better (for me) than United/USAir, but not exactly enjoyable.
Nobody wants that. Nobody.
The masses buy the cheapest, most direct, flight they can find. Companies also push for this when employees book their travel.
When I order through the computer travel agency my company has set up, there is an automatic message that pops up saying “You have not selected the lowest airfare. Please fill in the reason.” If the reason is not a more direct flight or arrival or departure time it is tough to explain it to my manager.
Top notch service costs airlines money. If customers continually show they don’t care about it. Airlines will keep reducing it.
Flights cost more, take longer, include more tightly-scheduled stops and come with significantly diminished levels of customer service.
That’s OK, Buffalo does suck....
Thanks for attending during the Martin Fierro Annual Snowstorm — see you next year!
People would rather have cheap airfare than service.
Unreasonable passenger expectations?
From your list, the above two I see as what makes flying less than fun.
Martin—I sympathize for you.
I haven’t flown since Sept. 2002. I couldn’t take it anymore, plus the TSA screener poking my belly to see if I was carrying an explosive on the plane was the last straw. I knew I was going to erupt and get put in jail.
Before then, the longest I would drive is four hours. Otherwise I would fly. I flew in my career all over the US from 1978 to 2002. I can remember when stews were ATTRACTIVE!
Now it is worse than being on a bus in Central America. If you remember People Express from the mid 1980s, this was the shape of things to come—all airlines are now the cattle cars they used to be. We are still flying the same narrow tubes with wings since 1970, instead of the spread out delta wings futuristic planes we were shown in ‘70s.
The seats are still uncomfortable and too narrow. The whole paradigm for flying needs to change.
My first flight was as a teenager in 1969. I can still remember the thrill of the tskeoff and that funny feeling in your stomach when you realize you are airborne.
I changed careers to lessen my air travel by 1997—it was getting bad even then, After 9/11, it became intolerable.
Now I work over the Internet, and my wife and I have a comfortable minivan and we can do as much as 13 hours of driving in a day. We carry as much stuff as we want, don’t get searched, make our own schedule, and see the sights along the way.
I feel for anyone who has to fly for their career or business. All I can suggest is the use of computer cameras and video conferencing to keep your sanity. VC is much more productive as flying entails the early arrival, the search, the delays, the rushing around—when you can cut off the video after the call and be right in your office working.
One of the things I have against Islam is that they have changed life in America for the worse. It pains me that a bunch of sand jockeys whose leader lives in a cave changed my way of life irrevocably.
To me, the airlines today are the buses of yesterday. With wings.
"I have three bags, I want you to send one to Paris, this one to Hong Kong, and the other to San Francisco"
Airline employee,responds.."Sir, we can't possibly do that
Passenger: "Why not, you did it LAST week"
Any flight OUT OF Buffalo is a good one.
I can’t wait to move away from this corrupt festering ooze-pit.
And where the hell is Great all over this Frank Clark NIFONG case?
A woman went to jail for 13 years when it is obvious to everyone INCLUDING THE JUDGE that the boyfreind did it- and he was GIVEN TOTAL IMMUNITY
The idiot DA was on the news yesterday saying how open and public ALL the information was, but the investigating detective was SUSPENDED for releasing a video to the press.
He was also confirming how the guilty party would never lose his immunity- no matter what. However isn’t it common practice that you lose your immunity if you lie under oath?
This 13 year old girl was found WITH DNA ON HER and enough cocaine to choke a horse in her system.
And they imprisoned the innocent mother for 13 years
(ok lets not yet get into how ‘innocent’ she is if her b/f was bopping her daughter and doing cocaine and she is unaware)
Ken—an oldie but still a goodie!
I see from your earlier post that you too remember People Express.
Weren’t they a hoot!
I was on a flight from FL to Newark and someone brought on a live chicken in a mesh bag. I knew then that airlines would become the new bus line.
Remember you had to pay on board?
Ich bin martin_flurry-o
Carol Burnett Show- No Frills Airline
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCz8he36hsk
Carol Burnett Show- Speedo Airlines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvasXb3sdxU
*******************
Tell me about it. Mr. Trisham and I went to a car dealership to look at a new model he was interested in. There was no one on the lot, and only one person inside, who was on the phone and paid no attention to us. We left after walking around the building and lot, never seeing another soul.
The lovely Mrs. Theknow and I always get a good belly laugh out of car commercials that show people all over the showroom and the main "character" hurriedly walking through the car models in the showroom telling us to "get there soon before they're all gone!"
Heh. We went on a Sunday. I guess all the salesman were at church.
I’ve lived in San Jose, CA for 31 years..
I’ve NEVER been able to buy a car in this county..
The dealers here believe one MUST buy a car from their local dealership...at an inflated price, poor service and rude salespeople.
WRONG!
Out of county deals have saved me 10s of thousands of dollars over the 31 years.
Isnt that supposed to go: "I JUST FLEW IN FROM BUFFALO (and boy, are my arms tired!)" ?
lol — that thing has “death wish” written all over it.
My favorite car buying tactic is to listen and agree, nod my head, yes, yes, sounds good, look at the final contract and then hand them my card and say, "When you get serious about selling a car, give me a call."
I usually take two to three weeks to buy a car once I have selected a model I like which begins after the first week of the month and culminates in my giving them my card and executing purchase at the end of the month.
The sales price drops like a thermometer reading in Minnesota.
I don’t fly domestically except as the first leg of a trip to Viet Nam but I do pay a couple of hundred extra in order to not fly on an American airline for that long ride to Asia. The short hop to Atlanta on Delta is bad enough. I can stand it for a couple of hours but 16 hours in the air on an American plane? That sort of self-abuse is unthinkable.
On KAL to Incheon the stewardesses are checking for wants and needs pretty often and when you ask for a bite to eat give you a range of choices and suggest certain things you might especially like. On Northwest you might be told you already had your allotment of peanuts.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.