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Thread: My Airline Experience

  1. #21
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Greenwood View Post
    The extra cost of first class may be worth if for long trips like overseas or if you are tall etc. of just wealthy enough that cost is not a factor. But for shorter triops, lets say first class is $500 more, that would buy you anohter night at a hotel in Hawaii or anoghter ski day for family or 3 four star dinners., or another 45 min dual in a T6
    Certainly! But the point is, when you decide to spend you money on something other than airline comfort, you have no one to blame but yourself if you're crammed into a too-small seat for hours on end. If you decide to spend your money on a wet bar instead of a refrigerator, it's not the furniture-makers fault if your beer is warm.

    Ron Wanttaja

  2. #22

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    There is a good paperback by Gordon Bethune about when he took over Continental Airlines and found they were ranked last in 9 of 10 categories and next to last in that one. He did rebuild the airline, a good book to read.
    One thing the prevoius mangagment tried to do was cut all corners to operate on minimum budget. Gordon said it was like making pizza, first you cut the fresh tomatoes for canned ones, then you use cheaper sauage, then less cheese. Pretty soon you succeed in making a pizza so cheap nobody wants to eat one.
    Airlines sell transportation and do it safely, an A for this. But they have cut customer service to the bone. Even my favorite airline, instead of real food comes around and hands out pnuts so everyone can have bad breath for the rest of the flight. And by crowding a few more seats in a plane they are getting to the point of so tight and confined seatind space the nobody is happy with that. Having a seat that holds a normal person should be part of the trip, just as if you bought a ticket on a train or bus or for a play. Having a place to seat is an implied part of the cost and airlines are getting pretty close to the line on that.
    Last edited by Bill Greenwood; 04-19-2017 at 02:27 PM.

  3. #23

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    And should airlines even be a part of EAA forum? Remember when the Concord came to Oshkosh, one of the all time highllgths there and also the Airbus 380!
    A big part of aviation, just like a guy in a wing suit.

  4. #24
    lnuss's Avatar
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    With the exception of the TSA crap, the majority of people's issues with airline travel is self-inflicted.
    And it's that "TSA crap" that keeps me away, though I keep hearing about other problems too.

    Larry N.

  5. #25

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    How was Dr. Dao's problem with United in any way "self-inflicted"? He bought a ticket, arrived, checked in on time and boarded, and was sitting in his assigned seat when United or to be exact Republic acting for United created the problem.
    I just did an online
    course about flight decision making, that reminds me of this controversy. There are really 3 steps to making a gen av flight, 1 you plan ahead 2 you gather wether info etc, 3. you act on info as you fly. The key is really in no 1. If you really want to be somewhere, say in 5 days at a wedding, you have to take into account that you may get to the point where you cant fly safely, have to go on airline, train or drive etc. This saves you getting into a situuation where you have to chose to contiue with limited fuel or make a fuel stop and face a night landing.
    United( Republic) didnt seem to think out their policy well. If you are going to have employees that come at the last minute to get on a fully booked, boareded, and seated flight, what are you going to do? You can offer compensation, and maybe for enough money get 4 people to give up seats, but a cupon for $800 is unlikely to do it. If you have no other option than to call security to attack a 69 year old Doctor seated with his wife, that is not good managment. Now, after the fact, the United management says they wont do it again, but they cant undo the bad publicity.
    By the way, anoying as the whole idea of TSA can be, I have had little trouble with them in the last few years, mostly went smoothly. Maybe somewhere deep in a computer it decided after decades of travel Im not a threat.
    Last edited by Bill Greenwood; 04-20-2017 at 11:12 AM.

  6. #26
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    Just when you thought you'd heard and seen just about everything bad and horrible that happens today at commercial airports and on commercial airplanes. Yesterday an AA pilot was physically attacked in an unprovoked manner by a passenger as he was leaving the Kansas City terminal.

    How is it that an airport and it's aircraft has become a more dangerous and perilous place than walking through a low income housing project after dark? We live in interesting times.

  7. #27

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Greenwood View Post
    How was Dr. Dao's problem with United in any way "self-inflicted"? He bought a ticket, arrived, checked in on time and boarded, and was sitting in his assigned seat when United or to be exact Republic acting for United created the problem.
    Just to be clear, the gate agent that "re-accommodated" the passenger was a United Airlines employee.

  8. #28
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    There has got to be more to the story that I don't know about. Otherwise United has been so exceptionally stupid that one will have to wonder about other aspects of their operations...like safety. A quick look on Travelocity shows that there are 32 flights from Chicago to Louisville every day. Some have an inconvenient stop. Southwest has another 4, with 2 departing after the last United flight out of ORD. So someone decided that the reputational damage to the airline was preferable than placing that aircrew on another airline, or even quick putting them on the EL to get to MDW. No matter how the situation would have turned out, even if Dr. Dao went happily, it was going to have reputation damage. When no one wanted to get off, the bad rep was certain. But somehow they were not able to figure out other options. Extrapolating from this, the airline seems to be unable to come up with other acceptable options when some undesirable event occurs.

    WRT fare variances. I made a business trip to Europe last month. $1000 each way. Plane half empty. I am leaving again today -- same airline, same destination. $800 round trip and the plane is near full. I am trying to figure out the business model that leads to that. (Yes, I know, more people will buy a ticket at $800 than $2000. But why charge $2000 to begin with?)
    Chris Mayer
    N424AF
    www.o2cricket.com

  9. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mayhemxpc View Post
    There has got to be more to the story that I don't know about. Otherwise United has been so exceptionally stupid that one will have to wonder about other aspects of their operations...like safety. A quick look on Travelocity shows that there are 32 flights from Chicago to Louisville every day. Some have an inconvenient stop. Southwest has another 4, with 2 departing after the last United flight out of ORD. So someone decided that the reputational damage to the airline was preferable than placing that aircrew on another airline, or even quick putting them on the EL to get to MDW. No matter how the situation would have turned out, even if Dr. Dao went happily, it was going to have reputation damage. When no one wanted to get off, the bad rep was certain. But somehow they were not able to figure out other options. Extrapolating from this, the airline seems to be unable to come up with other acceptable options when some undesirable event occurs.

    WRT fare variances. I made a business trip to Europe last month. $1000 each way. Plane half empty. I am leaving again today -- same airline, same destination. $800 round trip and the plane is near full. I am trying to figure out the business model that leads to that.

    There is no more to the story, you heard and saw it all just like the rest of the world. Giant name brand corporate behemoth of an airline doing really dumb s**t once again. And then a really dumb shmuck of a CEO who first commended his staff for their dispicable behaviour, then flip flopped after the backlash, then took over 48 hours to apologize and unequivocally state that the reluctant Doctor did nothing wrong. He should be fired for cause with no golden handshake because he showed zero leadership and an inability to get out in front of the story and take responsibility and control the damage.

    There are a handful of airlines that truly put the customer first and care about service. But for the rest of them, there is a profound sociopathic culture of indifference, apathy, inability to tell right from wrong,
    neglect, disrespect, dismissiveness, abusiveness and hatefulness shown to passengers and this is why they continue to be "exceptionally stupid". The American stroller on board incident this week and less than a week after the United event proves that.

    Fare variances and the airline business model: Very simple. For every seat on board no matter where located, no matter the aircraft, charge every passenger a different fare. It's called economic chaos theory. We passengers haven't figured out yet that the back of the plane arrives at destination at the same time as the front of the plane.

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