On Timeliness — Why we find ourselves at the mercy of the airlines?
A few weeks ago, I was on a trip to Vegas for a high school reunion to meet my buddies after thirty seven years. I reached the airport only to find out my United flight was delayed by more than an hour. I resigned to the fact and went to a book store to browse. Twenty minutes later I walked out and checked the monitor to find my flight had been reinstated and was now leaving from a different gate, on time. Miraculous as it seemed, I was excited as it felt like things were falling in place for my grand reunion.
I ran to the gate and stood in line only to be told that due to weather we are not boarding immediately. Thirty minutes later boarding was announced and we all got packed like sardines in the airplane tube. Then we sat on the plane for another hour before we left. Every 15 minutes the pilot would come on the PA to say everything but the truth — we were waiting for the luggage to be loaded, this door to be closed, etc. We left two hours late. To make things worse we couldn’t land in Vegas and were kept on a holding pattern for 30+ minutes. If you are an airline traveler you probably have experienced this many a time. If the plane was going to be two hours late why load the passengers in the tube and make us suffer.
Sitting on the plane that day I began to think why we tolerate this treatment meted to us by airlines, who don’t seem to want to treat us as adults. They are conditioned to tell us untruths and half truths anything that will keep them from having to face our wrath. It’s always unavoidable circumstances. When your flight lands there are no baggage handlers available or they are going through a shift change. So you end up waiting an extra hour waiting for your bags. Considering that your flight was delayed you would think the airline had enough time to coordinate that your bags show up in 15 minutes after you land.
Maybe it’s not the pilots fault for he/she is probably just following airline policy. Nor is it the fault of the gate agent or the baggage handler. It’s the system stupid and not any individual who is responsible or accountable. Then they have the small print on your ticket written by their fancy lawyers protecting the corporation. No one cares your reunion was spoilt or your vacation ruined. Yes, you can take travel insurance. But really, what happened to passenger rights that Congress was seriously debating to introduce.
The only relief in sight is Uberization of air travel. How long will it be before we have that option? When will big airlines have their Kodak moment and realize it’s their customer that’s important and that they have to do their best to improve the customer experience. Now when was the last time your airline trip was worth talking about. Does it really cost that much money to speak the truth, be honest with your customers or crack some jokes like those lovely flight attendants on Southwest seem to do.
