Read between the lines in two recent reports on airline customer service, and you come away with two conclusions: it’s probably never been worse, and the government doesn’t care.
That’s the gist of a recent story about the government’s reluctance to fine airlines for their lack of service and another piece about airline complaints.
The first article made the altogether unsurprising assertion that The Department of Transportation’s enforcement of airline rules dropped sharply last year with the total of fines levied against airlines and travel companies falling to the lowest level since 2001.
In 2008, the DOT filed 20 cases against airlines and travel companies with fines totaling $1.2 million, compared with an average of 31 cases each year for the previous five years and annual fines averaging $4.3 million over that period. Enforcement activity peaked in 2003 and 2004, with fines topping $8.1 million in 2003 and 38 enforcement cases in 2004.
The Transportation Department, it noted, has historically taken a lenient stance on fines against airlines, typically forgiving half of assessed penalties if airlines or travel companies don’t get caught in the same transgression again for a year. Additional amounts are often forgiven if the airline spends money on training employees on policies such as handling disabled passengers or even reprogramming computer systems to properly display fuel surcharges and other airline-imposed fees charged to all customers.
Of the $1.2 million the government assessed in fines last year, for example, the most the agency will collect is $527,500.
The second report takes a closer look at consumer complaints against airlines, which it suggests are on a path toward record territory.
In a year that ended with airline travel taking its sharpest dip since the Sept. 11 attacks, the DOT was still deluged with passenger complaints — more than 9,200 through Oct. 31. That’s enough to make 2008 the second-worst year in the past seven for consumer complaints to the industry’s federal regulator.
The story quotes a noted airline apologist, who says reporting poor airline service to the government is meaningless. “You can complain that Grandma was attacked by a Klingon in the lavatory on the way to New York, and DOT will categorize it and pass it on,” he says.
Of course, that’s completely untrue. Airlines pay a lot of attention to the Transportation Department numbers. Some, in fact, base their executive bonuses on these statistics.
A third, related article that appeared on the same day represents perhaps the biggest missed opportunity. It detailed the problems of reporting delays to air travelers, offering an “inside baseball” look at how airlines operate without giving any meaningful context on airline delays, or what air travelers could do if they are held up as a result of an airline’s negligence.
If you have ever felt frustrated by the different updates given when you ask a gate agent, call the airline or look out the window — no aircraft ready to go — it turns out there is a convoluted flow of information that often leaves travelers in the dark.
Passengers are at the end of a communication chain that involves multiple computer systems, gate agents, pilots, flight dispatchers, air traffic controllers, and other airline and Federal Aviation Administration personnel, with updates moving along different paths.
What’s noteworthy about all of these reports is not what they say, but what they don’t say. They fail to connect some important dots.
For example, if we’re on track to break a record for complaints in 2008, why not say that, and explore what it means?
There’s a lot of discussion about the government’s failure to fine airlines, but is that such a surprise in the laissez-faire Bush administration? What about the failed efforts to legislate better customer service that didn’t even get any traction in Congress controlled by Democrats? Instead, customer service advocates are allowed to take shots at the airline industry without being held accountable for their own shortcomings.
Don’t get me wrong. I think some of these stories are well-reported and get some important facts out there. Others, not so much.
But air travelers need a more perspective.
If 2008 was the worst year for airline customer service, what does that mean for 2009 — a year when we anticipate even more cutbacks? If airlines can’t be reregulated even when Democrats are in control, will it ever happen? And if the Transportation Department won’t enforce its own rules with real fines, what options do passengers have to fix the situation? Is their only recourse a trip to small claims court?
Hopefully, these influential publications will connect more dots — and tackle these big questions — the next time they write about customer service.
