Years ago, when reading P.J. O’Rourke’s Eat The Rich, I came across his description of train travel in Siberia, where the train seemed to have been built to maximize discomfort and lack of hygiene. He compared this to travel in the US and I realized suddenly that Portugal, while not as bad as Siberian trains in the USSR was about halfway there: i.e. Portuguese trains had a restroom, maybe. And the way the employees treated you was with the kind of unconcern reserved for serfs.
Yesterday, on the leg back from a hellish journey, I realized that US airlines are now halfway between Portuguese railways of old and the old USSR. And it makes me wonder: what is going on here?
Air travel became a nightmare around 2002. I thought it was because the airline industry was recovering from a severe blow and restructuring, and it would get better.
I was wrong. I was actually seeing the airline at the best it would be in the next ten years. And every year after it gets worse.
Even “what can we get away with” on the part of employees doesn’t explain, say, my last trip.
The latest flights were from Denver Atlanta with a rented car to attend a convention in Chattanooga. We chose Frontier because their Denver hub makes it cheap and convenient. Or so we thought. And because they were the one airline we hadn’t had an hellish experience with.
No, the problem wasn’t hail damage to their planes. Such disasters happen. It’s why they have insurance. It’s what came AFTER that.
Since they cancelled over a dozen planes – at 10:30 am for damage incurred at 2 am – and they have our phone/email to notify us, with perhaps a little more time to react.
BUT not only did they not cancel it till the last minute. Oh, no. They ALSO accepted checked luggage. First the plane was delayed, then finally cancelled.
Then we were told that the luggage would go on to its destination by next available plane UNLESS we asked to have it removed. Since we changed flights to Nashville, we wanted our luggage. Only, of course, it took three hours to request to have it removed. And by the time we did so, it was already in Atlanta.
There followed two days, while I was at a convention with no clothes or makeup, of LYING to us and saying they had FedEx-ed the luggage to the hotel. Eventually someone confessed it was still in Atlanta and the grand plan was to have us pick it up on the return trip. An hour and a half later they did what they should have done two days before and put it on a plane to Chattanooga.
On Monday on the shuttle to Atlanta we joked about the returning leg being cancelled. Then we got there. It had been cancelled. First they told us it was because of another storm in Denver. When a fellow passenger with a cell phone proved them wrong, then said it was still because of the same hail storm. AND THEN they claimed the problem was weather and they would not help us with hotel and/or food. We managed to get hotel after much argument, but when you add the shuttle to and from two airports, the dinner in Atlanta and dealing with luggage loss we’re out $500 again.
I will not fly Frontier again if I can help it, and I will never fly anywhere I can drive. Is this the effect airlines intend to have on their customers? Why? How do they think they’ll survive?
(More complete and possibly less coherent account here)
I work in Oklahoma City. I recently was told I needed to attend training in Fresno, CA. I had the option of flying (fully reimbursed by my employer) or seeking some other means (reimbursable up to the least costly method, in this case, flying.) I drove. I will continue to drive. It cost me 4 days annual leave (2 days each way) which I paid gladly. I will not, absolutely will NOT be treated by the air travel establishment and their co-enablers, the thrice-damned TSA, as they treat paying passengers these days. I didn’t spend 20 yrs in uniform defending my country to be automatically considered a potential terrorist by those slack-jawed pc-enslaved bastages.
You ought to read the rest of this over at Sarah’s blog. It’ll curl your hair.
Congress passed the following law http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/government-tarmac-rule-limits-time-stuck-airplanes/story?id=10490964
Once again our elected officails can’t see beyond their noses. If there is any chance the flight could be stuck on the tarmac consider it cancelled.
I have one more scheduled flight but after that I am done with flying. It’s the most degrading and frustrating experience modern life has to offer. I found that Delta’s incompetence cuts both ways – my wife and I upgraded to 1st class on a long delayed leg of a trip and the agent at the gate was unable to charge us for it. Try it sometime!
I haven’t flown since 2008, and that’s the only time I’ve flown in the last 6 years. The seats are too narrow (my shoulder span is too wide, not my abdomen), my legs don’t fit (I’m 5’11″), the staff are rude, and I don’t care to be violated by rules that have the added insult of not actually making anyone any safer.
I travel up and down the east coast at least once a month. I will drive 16 hours before I will set foot in a plane again unless something very drastic changes in their industry. Hell, if time allows, and they need me to be on the other coast for work, I might drive that instead too. I hate commercial airlines that much at this point.
Hi,
I read all of it. I am a flight attendant and I dont understand baggage rules all of the time. It often sucks though. The question is spot on- how do they expect ppl to frequent their business?
Sometimes I get on a plane that has been at the gate for 12 hrs or so, and the entertainment is not operable, has not been worked on still. Drives me nuts! Then I gotta tell the whole aircraft we wont have movies for the 4 hr flight. Joy!
Now as an airline guy, a flight attendant, the story about the cookies and granola bars drives me nuts- why cant you eat a granola bar, why would I care? and why dont you have a specialty snack with you since you cant eat human food? This type of stuff from ppl drives airline folks nuts. We only deal with 500+ ppl a day, so if ur not Hindu/Muslim/Jewish/fainting we dont want to treat you different from all the others-within reason.
Also, the hotel has nothing to do with the airlines. See, ppl put in alot of extraneous detail based on how they feel. Its cumulative, and airtravel is like a tunnel, so things can build up. Its not like I walk into 24-hr fitness and have a meltdown, but by the time ppl get to my aircraft they’ve sometimes been through hell.
We get it, but also, that flight is cancelled, and I cant fly it, so…
.
“Also, the hotel has nothing to do with the airlines.”
It does if the only reason your at the hotel is that the airline didn’t keep it’s schedule. Which was a specific point of the post. The generic point of the post was you airline people suck, and you do. The ratio of nice, to meh, to unpleasant is about 1::2::2.
My company now wants me to fly if the destination is 9 hours away or under. The criteria used to be 4. The last 5 hours of a drive that’s more dangerous and more expensive in time and money–where my ass has really started to ache besides–it’s still better than dealing with you and your bull.
I was a frequent flier with over two million logged miles in American and Continental’s FF programs. I started seeing the same degradation of service about 2007. I was somewhat protected from the worse abuses because of my premier FF status and I traveled first class. By the end of 2008 TSA had run me off. That foolish charade before each flight so infuriated me I was afraid I was going to do something stupid and end up in a lot of trouble if not the slammer. Now, unless it is over salt water, I drive. I will have to say that in my experience, Continental has done a good job of keeping their service up. They are expensive, and have few discounted fares; but the service was still good when I last flew on one of their flights (over a year ago).
Just my take on the wether issue as I live nearby – There were in fact hailstorms as well as severe thunderstorms. The local news reported Frontier alone had over a dozen planes damaged and unable to fly. Hundreds of vehicles were damaged as well. Storms move out of the mountins quickly and onto the Great Plains. That a cell phone photo exist showing clear skies in Denver proves nothing to anyone familiar with how fast storms move out here. Also, the local news was runing miles of footage on the storms. They happened. Sorry your travel was disrupted.
My daughter is 10 and splits her time between Atlanta and Kansas City, flying often between mine and my ex-wife’s home. She always has funny/depressing stories about her airline experiences (usually flies Delta, sometimes AirTran) – her best line is that Delta’s motto should be “Frowns Down The Aisles” because she says their flight attendants act like they’d rather be anywhere but on that plane.
Having to go to Fresno is like being condemed to hell to begin with. And having to fly there would be like being in Fresno, except they put wings on Fresno and you hurtle though the air. You have endured more than any other human being!!!
Anything I can drive in 10 hours or less, I drive. Beyond that, even with A/C and satellite radio, I find driving a bit much.
Being in NJ, that means I can drive as far as Cleveland, Columbus or Raleigh/Durham. Beyond that, I just feel that I have to deal with the headaches. Fortunately, that does not happen more than once or twice a year.
I’m not here to defend the airlines but anyone who cites clear destination city weather when told there is a weather delay as an excuse the airlines are lying is ignorant of how the system works. It’s often the case the the weather is nearby blocking the arrival corridors jets use to leave the airway for the descent and approach to the airport. The skies are crowded around major cities particularly if there are multiple high density airports in close proximity. Think NY la Guardia, JFK, Liberty. That causes delays. Also after the weather has cleared all those aircraft that should have landed before you either in the air or still on the ground will get to go before you do as part our first come first served system philosophy. My point is weather at the airport now has little to do with your delay which is usually the result of an accordion effect of those delayed before you.
I can understand delaying the flight, but taking on bags, when they know the flight will be delayed, is inexcusable. And why in the world did they send the bags to the next city on another plane. If the bags could not go on the booked flight, because it is delayed, then the bags should be left there and returned to the customers. The flight cancellation might be reasonable, as other here have stated, but the way they handled the baggage, absolutely inexcusable. I suspect the airline handled the bags the way they did to purposely ensure that their customers would have to fly with them late, instead of makng other arrangements. Absolutely contemptable.
I just flew last week, between Salt Lake City and Indianapolis, via Phoenix. Used US Airways. Interesting little note … all the flight attendants (with one exception) on all four planes were older-middle-aged folks, maybe even some senior citizens among them … and they were nice as could be, although the staffing level was not high, so there was no pampering. They ran their backsides off and were courteous and even cheerful about it. Maybe I’m just a low-maintenance kind of passenger. The crowding is distressing, though … I’m a petite woman and I felt crowded by the gargantuas they put in the middle seats … c’mon people, work out once in awhile. I was just grateful I had that window area to lean into … sigh.
I’m sure all the airlines would like to ditch the TSA … people have a hard time with that charade then blame the airlines … not exactly logical.
I would love to say I’ll never fly again, but that’s just not gonna happen. My parents’ generation is at that age … you know, the dying off age … so I will be making last-minute flights to funerals many times over the next decade … driving 3 days each way just isn’t in the cards in my real life, though I wish I had that kind of leisure available to me … I am grateful that air transportation is availble to me; even just a generation back, I would not have been able to attend funerals or weddings from the distance at which we live … it is a blessing to be able to be there.