So maybe I'm ranting, but as a full-time (apparently) business traveller, I'm seeing some problems with air travel. I might add that these problems never irked me as the casual traveller. I mean, if a flight was delayed on vacation, I'd just enjoy thinking about the vacation a little longer. Explore the airport. Now that I fly every week, these issues become much more irksome. (Could also be the increased crabbiness due to being alone, per my previous post).
Despite fears of terrorism and rising costs, it doesn't seem that air travel numbers have decreased. In fact, in a fast-paced economy, time is money, and Starbucks addicted yuppies want to get where they're going as fast as possible.
But air travel is not fast - or not efficient anyway. Well over 75% of flights are delayed or over-booked. As a business major and private pilot, I try to keep a practical, open-mind. But as a traveller who is affected, I get frustrated.
Weather. No one can help that, and when it comes, everyone's hit - plane or car.
Mechanical Failures. Dangerous. No, you'd never catch me complaining that a flight was delayed because the captain thought the plane was unsafe to fly.
Come to think of it, I suppose some of the other random delays are results of mechanical work down the line. However, I would think that the airlines coudl find a spare plane - to keep at major airports. Perhaps airlines could bump passengers to other carriers with earlier flights when there is a delay. (I suppose this behavior is not unprecedented, but it does bear a great resemblance to practices that casued the telecommunications scandals of the 2000's).
Perhaps my greatest problem, however, is the lack of service. I'm an accountant. I understand cost control. The market is competitive, and airlines seek to sell-out flights and cut costs. Thus the end of the in-flight meal and snack. Luckily, pop's about the cheapest thing in the world.
But the service is gone! I may sound like an old man here, but hear me out. Airports are a high-stress area. There's security, crowds, and, of course, delays. Well - it makes perfect sense that people are crabby. What I don't understand is that the customer service people are crabby back.
I worked in "customer service," for years. And we were taught to smile and brightly greet each customer. When things went wrong, we did our best to help them - still smiling - even as they exploded. Sure, we'd laugh at them behind their backs. I'm sorry, but the customer is usually wrong.
Perhaps the airlines don't have good training programs. Maybe their people are incredibly over-worked. But they all have the "don't talk to me" attitude. Getting your needs met is less important than scheduling lunches and catching up with friends. If you have an issue to deal with, you are merely annoying them. Stewardesses are rarely the chipper people they used to be. Instead, rather than assisting people, they act as though confused passengers are deliberately trying to be difficult. That is, unless you are in first class. In fact, the only cheery people at an airport are security!
But there's one more customer service failing. When there is a delay - and there usually is - there's very little communication to the passengers. There's nothing more aggravating than to watch the minutes tick by, never knowing why you're being delayed. I think this is essential because it could do so much! Remember I said I understand weatehr and mechanical delays? Knowing it's not the airline's fault does so much to placate me.
And yes, the reverse would be knowing it's a silly reason we're delayed, with the result being me getting angrier. But as long as I don't know, I assume one thing only: Incompetence. The airlines cannot manage to get their acts together enough to make it on time.
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