Are you satisfied with the airline industry?

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Swami Rama

No, they all stink except for Aeroflot and British Airways! Aeroflot let me fly 3 of their planes in Yakutia....the An-26, An-2, and the An-74. That was lots of fun! British Airways gave me all the bleedin' Watney's Red Barrel I could drink. gr

Tim

I fly a lot and I work for an airline, and I have mixed feelings.

Let me address all of the concerns the way that I see them.

1.) Lost luggage - Why is every airline loosing more luggage? It's not because more people are flying. It's because you cannot bring 3.5 or more oz. in your carry on, so you have to check that piece. With every customer checking in the two bag limit, that's doubling the bags per passenger ratio. That's a lot of bags!! Plus, in recent years, airlines have laid off a lot of employees. So while they are now getting back on track with profits, they are still working shorthanded and they don't have enough satffing to get all the bags loaded properly.

2.) Delayed flights - First of all, it's summer time. The weather all across the country is terrible most of the time. True, planes can land is almost no visibility, but you have to take other factors into consideration that causes a weather delay. The first factor is congestion. Since 9/11 many airlines are using little regional airplanes. 3 Embraer 145's will be equivalent to one 757 that used to fly a particular route. This is clogging up the system. Plus you have a shortage of Air Traffic Controllers. A lot of them are retiring and it's tough to find experienced controllers to replace all the baby boomers who are retiring.

3.) Cancelled flights - There are many factors for that. This summer has been the worst since 1999 for cancelled flights. This is mainly due to the weather causing cancellations. But I know a good question. How can a weather delay in JFK cause a cancelled flight in SFO? Well, if the crew is coming from JFK to SFO, they may get stuck in a weather delay on their way to JFK. When they reach 16 hours, then they time out. If the weather is really bad, than you will deplete your reserve pilots and have to cancel flights.

There are other factors. This year, United and Northwest cancelled hundreds of flights after they had computer outages in their operations centers. That computer glitch is just a risk you have when your run your business purely on computers.

4.) Poor Customer Service - That's getting worse. I would summise that it's bad because the airlines have been taking away from their employees for so long, that they are just tired of it. There are airlines you will get great service from because they treat their people good. Jetblue, Southwest, Spirit, and Frontier are all examples of carriers that I have never had a bad customer service experience with. Sure, I've been screwed by them with delays, cancellations, and lost luggage, but hey, when you fly a lot, that's what you come to expect.

Overall, I'm very satisfied with the industry. It will get better over the next few years I think. The airlines are making money again, so they will continue to re employ, and get newer fleets. They will start running more fuel efficient aircraft to maximize their profits.

If you don't want your luggage lost, then I suggest learning to live out of a carry on and buy travel size liquids when you reach your destination.

Simmi

I think they are finding ways to save money and have sacrificed service. I have had my luggage delayed 1 and 2 days when going and coming from a vacation (3 times). There has been no food, or poor food and now you have to get what is in the airport which is outrageously expensive. The seats are crowded in coach. I now just think about where I am going and just survive the flight.

boxjellÃ¿

I agree with Dee. The price that the public wants does not warrant laying out the red carpet. You either pay high prices and get gold star treatment or pay low prices and get service at best. There are so many demands by the general public yet they don't want to shell out. I believe that basic services are required or passengers be let out of airplanes if a delay on the ground is exhorbitant. Yes, there are many airline secrets now known to the public to try to get everything you can for nothing but when the entire public is fighting for it not everyone is going to get it. Too many flights out there, there is a broken air traffic control issue and the airline infrastructure is too delicate to overhaul to bring services in line with what the public want. Airlines need to survive, pay its employees, fuel its planes. When you are standing on the outside can you see what these people have to do to get you from point A to point B? If you think you can stroll up to an empty counter, empty security lines, get a magical first class seat upgrade on a pathetically cheap ticket or create your back pains to get bulkhead or exit row seating, get fancy meals, get smiling unwavering agents and flight attendants, you are in a panacea utopia. Get real.

Dee

The problem with flying today is that there are way too many airlines, too many flights. Years ago there were fewer flights, fewer problems. The reason for the delays is there are too many planes vying for the gates. Airlines have mega problems these days. The airline I work for spent three BILLION dollars more on fuel last year than two years ago. But do ticket prices rise? No. Tickets are actually CHEAPER today than they were fifteen years ago. So, all things considered, the airlines are doing a good job. Flying is safer than it has ever been. But people aren't satisfied with that. They want the cheap ticket, and then complain about what the airline has to cut back on in order to provide the ticket at that price.

sneaky

i think so far it's fine. While customer service is good, don't you think that where flying is concerned, safety is still the most important?

Allie wishes

No and its getting worse, I keep hearing horror stories from friends and relatives. Way too many delays.

Rana

still I have no experience on the subject.

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