I was just watching yet another MSNBC Investigates story about air rage, crappy airline service, etc. Watching the news, it seems the whole world is having huge problems with air travel. But, um, every time I've flown, things have gone smoothly. The longest I've ever sat on a runway was about twenty minutes, and it didn't bother me. Now, granted, I don't fly often, so the chances are less that I'll run into problems, but still.

So who here has had problems when they've flown? Or, I should say, who hasn't, besides me?

My question is, if everybody knows that there are so many problems, why don't they go in the airport expecting it? I do. If we take off on time, great. If we don't, well, shit happens. Or maybe I'm just so understanding because I'm dating an airline employee...

-- Anonymous, August 04, 2001

Answers

I've travelled a LOT and I've only ever been delayed once (and that was due to using a crappy discount airline that is notoriously late, hence my own fault.) I've never had my luggage lost either (knock on wood!) Nonetheless, I always am prepared to wait, and I think that is the attitude any traveller should take. You expect delays during rush hour, so why not when you know there are limited runways and airspace for planes? Not to mention strict rules about flying in bad weather. People should just take a book/magazine/walkman and stop bitching already - after all, even with a delay, it's faster than driving.

-- Anonymous, August 04, 2001

Exactly. It's like those people who shop at Kmart and expect to get Nordstrom-like service. Hello, you get what you pay for. You want cheap airline tickets, you're going to have to deal with crappy service. Good lord, the reason some airline employees are rude in the first place is probably because they have to deal all day with irrational people who don't understand that um, they can't control the weather. And, you know, if there's something potentially wrong with the plane, they're going to delay it for maintenance -- they're not just going to be like, "Oh, your plans are going to be ruined if you're not in New York by such-and-such time? Well let's disregard the safety issue and take off just for you, sir." Ugh.

What I really love is how everybody's all, "Something needs to be done about this! There are too many delays!" and the FAA is all, "Well, in order to solve some of the problems, airports need to build more runways." Then when an airport wants to expand and there's nowhere to expand besides the surrounding neighborhoods, nobody wants to move. Well, you can't have your cake and eat it, too.

I just remembered, I have had a problem before, but it was with a discount ticket, also. My mom works for a travel agency and got a really cheap ticket, but something got messed up, and instead of getting on the 8:30am flight, I had to wait to get out on the 2:00. Not a big deal -- to me, anyway. I wasn't really surprised, because, again, you get what you pay for. Deal with it.

-- Anonymous, August 04, 2001

I have never had a problem flying in the US. France on the other hand, was hell. With wings. Italian airlines decided to strike the day we were supposed to leave. SO our plane didn't get to the Nice airport on time to get us to Paris. SO we had to try and get on another flight, which we managed. We raced through the Paris airport to get to our flight into Dulles, made the flight expecting to take off almost immediately only to be delayed 2 hours at the gate because the bathrooms didn't work and the airline put luggage on the wrong plane. We were all ready to die. My US flights have all been just fine however. Maybe it's a European thing ;)

-- Anonymous, August 04, 2001

I dont think people mind the delays as much as they mind being left out of the loop. Personally, if the plane is late it's not a problem, I'll just go grab a bite to eat or read a book. The problem comes in when you are sitting at the terminal waiting for your plane and no one tells you that the plane is going to be an hour late.

Although, it won't ruin your vacation if you are a couple hours late to your destination, it WILL ruin your vacation if you miss your connecting flight because no one told you that your plane was going to be late. That's when it starts to suck.

It also starts to suck when you've been herded onto the plane and then it doesnt take off for two hours, which I have experienced. I would've liked to at least been out in the terminal waiting for them to gas up the plane than to be sitting packed like a sardine.

Now, true, you do get what you pay for, but personally I dont want to be treated badly just because I was able to get a good deal on my plane ticket. I mean, it's still a hundred bucks or so, which might not be alot to those people up in first class, but for some of us, it's alot of money. I dont go in expecting stellar service, but I sure as hell dont want to be treated like a piece of crap either.

Now.. I'm also friends with tons of airline employees and totally know that they put up with alot of shit, just like retail workers do. I know where they're coming from, but it doesnt mean I want to be yelled at, or treated badly.

The bigger issue is that good customer service is hard to find nowadays. Probably because the people that do the customer service get paid crap and so there's no incentive to be nice to people.

For the most part, my plane trips have gone pretty smoothly, but I definately see room for improvement as far as operations and customer service go.

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-- Anonymous, August 05, 2001

ugh

-- Anonymous, August 05, 2001

Of course, corporate jets are always on time....but when i worked for USAirways....well......what most people really dont realize is that these planes fly about 18 hours a day OR MORE .... and when that particular aircraft has a problem ( mechanical, idiot light, thunderstorm delays etc ) early in the morning; that messes up the schedule for the rest of the day so, the poor gate agents really bust their asses to try & reroute everyone. ( granted a lot of gate agents shouldnt BE gate agents ) BUT take it easy on them...it's not their fault..

-- Anonymous, August 05, 2001

A prime, local example of what I was talking about earlier: http://www.pilot online.com/news/nw0803air.html

-- Anonymous, August 05, 2001

Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've ONLY had problems with discount airlines. I've flown Airtran a number of times, and I've thought about complaining to them. But, really, when I can fly from Atlanta to New York for one hundred bucks (round trip!), I've got nothing to complain about. I've had delays with them, one cancellation, and the problem of sitting on the runway for two hours.

I've also flown Delta, U.S. Airways, and Northwest. No problems there. I almost always fly from one large city to another large city, flights that are probably top priorities for the airlines (because they know they'll make a lot of people mad if anything goes wrong).

-- Anonymous, August 05, 2001

Before I took the Reina-mobile out to Ohio with me, I was averaging a roundtrip flight from Columbus, OH to Milwaukee, WI/or O'Hare about every 3 months for nearly two years.

I exclusively flew Northwest.

It blew big hairy goat balls. See, I'd never had a problem with Northwest until I started flying them regularly. I think there was some sort of sensor planted in my luggage, "Oh! She's a sucker! She keeps coming back, so we can screw her over."

Let's see.. there was the time I planned to make a surprise trip home for the weekend, leaving on a Wednesday. My flight out of Port Columbus was cancelled. Just..cancelled. Not weather issues or anything. So, I got shuffled around and when the weather issues actually STARTED, that flight got cancelled. And so, my two hour flight was complete with about 9 billion airline changes and I ended up getting into Madison at about midnight, as opposed to 5PM, as planned. Oh, and hte surprise? Ruined, since there was no way to get home by that time but to call my folks and tell them I needed a ride from the airport..surprise? :)

I could go on, but I won't. I only want to say this: When I travel by car, yes, I expect traffic to be an issue and allow for it. But the rush hour traffic in Chicago doesn't hold me up five, ten hours or even days like I've been held up because of air traffic. The problem is that people (okay, me) use air travel to save time, not money. I'm willing to pay to SAVE THE TIME.. but if it's just going to be wasted in a terminal, well..I might as well drive. It's cheaper. :)

-- Anonymous, August 14, 2001

Man... I just flew US Airways cross country last month... I used to fly very frequently (Air Force Brat), but hadn't in a while. Is it just me, or did the flight attendants get meaner? I mean they were complete bitches. And liars at that. I refuse to pay five bucks for their crappy (and might I add, painful) headphones to watch a movie I probably didn't want to see anyway, so I always just use my own headphones. The guy in front of me did that, and do you know what the flight attendant told him? "You can't use your own headphones because it'll damage our system." wtf? Someone told them to say that? That is the biggest load of bull malarky I've ever heard in my life. And why the hell don't they serve peanuts anymore? I was all looking forward to those honey-roasted peanuts, and they don't serve them anymore. Because many people have peanut allergies. How incredibly PC of them. Meanwhile, they fucked up the special order, and served an omelette to the kid across the aisle from me... who just happened to be allergic to eggs. They had to just give him an extra fruit tray because they didn't have his specially ordered meal. Classic.

-- Anonymous, August 16, 2001

Just flew back from LA last night on US Airlines, and it took forever...once we got in the plane, the pilot announces that there are "about 30 or 40 planes waiting to take off before us." WTF?! I can understand two or five or even ten, but FORTY?! We were there waiting for nearly an hour...

The funny part was as soon as he made that announcement, all the cell phones came out. You could actually hear all the velcro pouches open, and people dial, and start bitching to family and friends galore. Heh. As though that'll make a difference.

The part that made me crazy, though, was the complete mangling of my suitcase...the little wheels were loose, and there was a rip in the side, and there were two large dirty footprints from a workboot on the black fabric...yet when we went to complain, the guy said that the airline wasn't responsible for "ordinary wear and tear." As though the footprints weren't proof that some guy had just kicked the shit out of my suitcase!

At least I had nothing breakable in there...

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

I usually get shitty business from Continental Airlines. Last summer when I was traveling outside of the country (alone no less), they bumped me off of two flights: my connecting flight to my final destination and my flight coming home. The first time I just had to wait a couple of hours until the next plane had arrived because the first one was too full... even though I had seats reserved and everything. The second bump was because of the same thing... they had over-booked. They had to put me in a fucking hotel overnight in Nicaragua and fly me out the next morning. This resulted in a free flight anywhere in the U.S. The only thing, is that why would I ever want to fly Continental Airlines again? Well, I did... just last week, interestingly enough.

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2001

At least in the USA you are allowed to use cellular phones on board the aircraft. In Canada, even if you are solidly on the ground, doing nothing at all, cell phones use is prohibited- in fact, they often use those machines that automatically turn off the signal when you get on board (even though turning the phone/pager off and on again gets your signal back.) In fact, I don't even think you're allowed to use the damn things walking to or from the aircraft.

And as for using the phones already on board (the ones that cost $3 a minute) - you aren't allowed to use them on the ground, so if you do have a ground delay, you're screwed.

One good thing though, at least using Air Canada - you can go to their website to see if the plane is on time or not, and it's really accurate. I had a friend flying in a few weeks ago, and they didn't tell him that he was delayed, yet from the trusty internet, I knew before he did (I compared notes later.) It kept me from milling about the airport for an extra hour.

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2001