Captives of industry

Here's yet another story involving airline travelers being abandoned on an airplane for hours without any good reason or rationale. After a harrowing flight from Denver to Chicago the plane was diverted to Gary, Indiana. Now Gary is basically a suburb of Chicago, located 30 miles southeast. How does it make any sense to force folks that just experienced one of the worst flights of their lives, to sit on a plane for SIX HOURS because of the slight hope that they might be able to take off again, fly 30 miles and attempt another landing in Chicago. It's simply incomprehensible. Let the people off; give them a $50 travel voucher; put them on a bus to Chicago; and they would have all be happy and home (or at O'Hare figuring out their connection flight details) within the hour.

It's amazing to me that we don't have the right to exit a plane that is stuck on the ground for this length of time. I mean ok, maybe an hour or two of sitting there, maybe even three, but anything beyond that seems like false imprisonment to me. Yet, the airline industry has blocked efforts in congress and the courts to allow the implementation of state or federal "Passenger Bill of Rights," that would provide this right. So once again, we, the traveling public, remain captive, literally, to the business decisions of the industry.

Another two bite the dust...almost

UPDATE 2: Another call for re-regulation of the airline industry. Pressure seems to be building.

UPDATE: And the process of screwing the flying public has begun.

Recently, United and Continental have both made major announcements regarding reductions in their fleets, jobs and the precarious state of their companies. Publicly the reason for these actions is the rising cost of oil prices. However, these announcements raise two important questions about these companies and the airline industry generally:

1) Why haven't these companies and the industry acknowledge that oil is a finite resource and demand will some day soon outpace supply. Why hasn't the industry invested the money and time in researching and developing alternative fuels for airplanes. Like most businesses concerned only with the bottom line, the airline industry has seemed happy to pass the buck on to the next CEO, the next Board of Directors, the next generation of customers. Now we're seeing the costs of such a mentality.

2) Why hasn't the government moved to reverse the insane policy of airline deregulation that started some 30 years ago. The negative consequences of deregulation are coming into full focus, and as these companies struggle to stay financially afloat. Because profit is the ultimate goal of the airlines, a goal which may not necessarily be in line with our goals as customers and a country, we just can't afford to leave it to industry to self-regulate, particularly when it comes to the airlines which play such an important role in our lives and economy. Ultimately it won't be the CEOs, the investors, or top management of these airlines that feel the pain of our misguided deregulation policy. It will be the workers and customers that ultimately bear that burden.

Style matters

This is a great article from this weekend's New York Times. The point of it is that many of us are sick of feeling like flying is just like taking the bus only at 35,000 feet. It speaks to the fact that the Airlines have lost sight of the service, the comfort, the convenience that flying was supposed to stand for. Higher fares because of oil prices, ok we'll take that; no more free crappy food, if you say so; but at the very least, if we're going to be on planes for hours at a time, give us an environment that's comfortable, and maybe even a little comforting. My recent flight on AirCanada on their brand new Boeing 777, with all the bells and whistles, even in economy class, proved to me that such an experience is possible, and reinforced what a difference it makes.

A million reasons why I think you can find me another flight

UPDATE: Even the ever mild mannered super model Naomi Campbell is getting p.o.ed by all the problems with air travel these days.

In a recently flied lawsuit, a New York lawyer is suing Delta for One Million buckaroonies for ruining his family vacation. Now I'm not one to support totally frivolous lawsuits, BUT, while this case seems a little out there, I do think it has some merits, and represents the frustrations of the flying public everywhere. The reason I kinda agree with the guy is the outrageousness of the timing and the airline's response. He and his family left for his trip on December 20th, hoping to get to Argentina for his mom's 80th b-day. After he missed his connecting flight in Atlanta, he was told that Delta could not get him to Argentina until JANUARY 8TH! I mean c'mon, there's absolutely no way that the airline could not have found a few seats on one of their own planes or another carrier for over two weeks.

Again, we come back to the theme of customer service. These airlines are so worried about saving their financial asses in the short term, that they can't see the forest for the trees. I mean if they had put this guy and his family on another flight that day or the next, on a Delta plane or some other airline; or in first class or business class within a day or two, they would have solved the problem and probably gained a customer for life. Instead they screwed him to save a few bucks and in return got a million dollar lawsuit and a crap load of bad press.

Outsourcing our safety

Now I'm not one of those folks that automatically assumes everything outsourced to a foreign country is inferior. However, when it comes to airline safety, it would seem that the folks charged with protecting us, the FAA, should have ready access to those maintaining our planes. However, as the Today Show discussed this morning, airlines outsourcing of plane maintenance abroad makes FAA inspectors virtually powerless to adequately inspect these planes and ensure that proper maintenance practices and procedures occur. Here's a brilliant idea, how about taking the few trillion we've spent on the 6 year war in Iraq, a war that has cost the lives of tens of thousands, and spend a fraction of that money to protect the lives of millions in the traveling public. Radical idea huh?

The rich get richer...the rest of us get screwed

UPDATE 2: United has followed AA in accessing a bag fee to us sorry saps in economy class. It's a matter of time until the rest follow. They keep blaming this on rising fuel costs. If and when fuel prices come down they better give us back our "perks." But I have a suspicion that we'll never see free bag checks again.

UPDATE: According to an American Airlines press release, the fee is $15 for the first bag, EACH WAY of a round trip flight. So it's really $30 for one bag and $50 for the second. So a year ago traveling with two checked bags cost us bubkiss, now it will cost $80.

American Airlines just announced they will begin charging $15 for the FIRST checked bag on a flight, on top of the previously announced $25 for a second bag. As outrageous as the premise of this announcement is, given that you now have to pay for EVERYTHING on a flight, the fact that they will NOT be charging elite frequent flyer members and those with "premium" tickets is even more insane and insulting. Ok, so the folks that can most afford an extra $15 bucks, the corporate execs., the celebrities, the generally well off, get a pass, while the rest of us, with our credit card debt, our energy costs, our food price increases, must now subsidize an industry that is in a decline of its own making. Typical.

Just when you thought you could relax

The amazing thing about my fear of flying is that I'm only scared while in the air. When I'm on the ground, taxiing, landing, whatever, I'm straight shits and giggles. That's why the most recent story regarding the real "danger zone" of flying being when you're on the GROUND was disturbing to say the least.

I mean seriously, in an age in which I can see, in real time, everything from the weather in Sri Lanka, to the location of an ex-roommate's apartment in San Francisco, to what's on Tuesday's menu at our new favorite restaurant in Paris, we have a lot of technology out there, and yet somehow pilots and air traffic controllers can't see each other on the ground. It's absolutely pathetic. Somehow our government justifies spending 1/2 a trillion a year on the defense budget to keep us "safe", while the real risk to our lives is taxing out on runway 2E at Laguardia. What a country.


P.S. The flying experience on the honeymoon to Paris/Italy lived up to all the hype: AirCanada was amazing, the most relaxing and dignified travel experience of my life; easyjet, no frills but they had the most beautiful (male) flight attendants we've ever seen; and Lufthansa, efficient, orderly, very German.