Comments on: Airlines’ first priority? Putting customer service last

By: Ginger R

Ginger R — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:56:19 +0000

Love your website! I am a rare coin professional who travels a few times a year to conventions. I am seriously considering stopping my air travels altogether because it has become such a hassle. Hassles are inevitable in anything, yes, but this just seems to be getting worse. I do fly Southwest when I can. I have always had good experiences with this airline, and In fact, they got me home in rough weather, more than once, which really means a lot. I had my fill of United Airlines years ago. On a fight to Oregon, a family of three came onboard…mom, dad, and 3-yr-old child…and they did not sit the family together! They had to look for other passengers to switch seats. It happened fast, cause the plane was pretty full, but what sense did that make?

By: Ted Bazanakas

Ted Bazanakas — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 23:49:04 +0000

One of the worst pieces I’ve ever seen on Tripso. Hey, Mr. Leocha, try doing some research – you might learn that the Interstate Commerce Commission was dissolved in 1995, and never had jurisdiction over air freight. Further, the fact that an airline charges for something doesn’t take it out of the contract of carriage – ever hear of fees for overweight bags, which have always been around, or for unusual items, like surfboards? Have you ever seen seen an airline contract of carriage, Mr. Leocha? I doubt it, given the nonsense that you’re spewing – you’re just babbling. And when the airline industry has serious problems, I’d like to hear from someone who’s informed.

By: Nashua

Nashua — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:00:46 +0000

FLY SOUTHWEST!!!
No baggage charges, decent people and they still actually give you a soda in the cabin.

By: Hapgood

Hapgood — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:38:28 +0000

Until travelers have real alternatives to airlines (other than staying home), airline executives know they have unlimited license to abuse their customers by racing to the top with fees and racing to the bottom with deteriorating “service.” They know that no matter how horrible they make air travel, passengers will soon be back standing barefoot in TSA queues awaiting yet another round of cramped seating, lost luggage, delays, surly service, and new fees for everything. So executives gleefully squeeze, slash, and burn their employees as well as their customers, since their duty is to their shareholders and certainly not to their customers. And besides, their entitlements to continually-increasing bonuses and bankruptcy-proof pensions are guaranteed no matter what happens.

Obviously, if air travel becomes bad enough business travelers will turn to video teleconferencing and leisure travelers will decide that there are plenty of great vacation spots close to home. But like all executives, the fine folks who run airlines care only about this quarter’s numbers; the inevitable decline in business from former passengers who have been pushed beyond the breaking point is a problem for a future quarter– and dealt with easily enough by further cutbacks. In the meantime they’re desperate, so they focus on their real priorities (themselves and Wall Street) while throwing everything else out the window. As usual, the customers are at the bottom of the list.

What can we do about it? In the short term, we don’t have to wait for air travel to get worse before we replace business travel with electronic conferencing (when that’s possible), or spend our vacations exploring the great places we’ve overlooked in our home towns. I’m sure we all have better things to do with the money (and stress) we save by forgoing air travel.

In the long term, we can complain to our elected representatives about the lack of good alternatives to air travel and automobiles. They have long delivered the transportation policy airline lobbyists bought with their campaign donations. But if enough of us complain they’ll have to listen to us as well.

By: Mike Grapkowski

Mike Grapkowski — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:58:53 +0000

If airlines are coming up with these baggage fees as a way to raise money due to higher fuel costs, then I have a solution that will make people much less unhappy: Raise the airfares. It’s a pretty simple business premise that you need to at least break even in order to survive. Rather than tack on all of these ridiculous charges, figure out what the flight will cost to operate and divide it by the number of available seats. Add on 5% or so to make a profit and start selling tickets. Given that people who are taking any sort of liquids with them are forced by TSA to check the luggage, the least the airlines could do is to include the baggage handling costs in the price of the ticket.