Either way, any improvement is met by the public with skepticism as people wait for the next axe to fall. Or maybe it’s one step forward and two steps back. There may be rational justification for these moves, but they don’t play well publicly. That should result in better service.īut while airlines have started to improve, they’ve also introduced product changes people instantly dislike, including Basic Economy and the decision to add more seats to airplanes. And this stability also makes it a better work environment for employees. It’s now fairly normal to get free video content and free snacks when those were far from the norm just a couple years ago. Flush with reasonable profits instead of the razor-thin margins (often negative) they’ve lived off of for years, airlines in the US are investing in their products. People just want the airlines to be better than they are.Ĭan they do that? Well they’re trying. It’s just a general loathing, and there isn’t a silver bullet. This is different because there is no one fixable problem. My wife remains livid at the mess of a boarding process. That Fox reporter was mad at a la carte pricing, but others are mad about delays. It feels more like the Occupy Wall Street movement where people are mad, but everyone has a different reason for feeling that way. The crux of the problem is that there is no single, clear goal here. ![]() Today, tarmac delays almost never happen thanks to the will of the people, but this situation is different. Though we can argue whether the end solution was the right one, people rose up, took that to the government, and pushed for a regulatory solution. They wanted to make sure nobody ever got stuck on the tarmac for that long again. There was a tremendous outcry then, but there was also a clear mission. ![]() I thought back to a previous flashpoint, when scores of passengers found themselves stuck in an airplane on the tarmac for hours and hours on end on multiple occasions. But the bigger concern is that I don’t see a quick fix for the root problem here. Sure, the way the airline stumbled through the handling of this mess was part of it. I watched this United issue snowball last week, and found myself feeling frustrated. People don’t trust the airlines, and we’re now at the point where every misstep, big or small, helps as a proof-point to strengthen those anti-airline beliefs. Thanks to such a botched rollout of the a la carte model, the airlines never had a chance of getting people on their side. Most fees have been added in that fashion, and the customer experience was never a serious part of the equation. But the airlines were so desperate to grab cash back when the housing crisis began and oil spiked that they slapped that first checked bag fee on without giving it a second thought. But, as I’ve written here many times, I think this model makes sense (even more sense as a bundled fare family, like JetBlue has done). It was that whole nickel-and-diming thing. She said it was being charged “$20 for a blanket” or for peanuts. Case-in-point, when I was talking with that Fox reporter, she was clearly angry. ![]() There are a lot of reasons why this is the case, but while you can spread blame around, much of it lies with the airlines themselves, specifically primarily the big 3 legacy carriers (American, Delta, United). It’s all about United, and that really says a great deal about just how much people hate airlines. The Chicago Aviation Police even suspended officers over this, but nobody seems to care. You would have thought this would have ignited another round of vitriol aimed at the police, but no. And here was a textbook example of what people have been rallying against… a defenseless, older minority was dragged off an airplane by the police, and he was severely injured (though not killed, fortunately) in the process. It has spawned the Black Lives Matter movement, and it has polarized people around the country. Over the last few years, police violence has been a hot-button issue. We started talking about the Chicago Aviation Police, and that’s when it hit me. The severity of the situation really dawned on me last Thursday as I sat in an interview with a local Fox reporter. ![]() Years and years of pent-up anger aimed at airlines is being released, and it’s not pretty. United’s missteps clearly poured gas on this fire, but there’s more going on here. But I don’t think anyone expected it to erupt into the global rallying cry that it’s become. When the images of a bleeding passenger being dragged off a United Express flight began to surface, it was clear that this wasn’t going to be good for United.
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