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Why You Need to Stop Whining About Air Travel

Soumis
 
IT HAS BECOME one of our greatest national pastimes: bitching about flying. The discomfort, the hassle, the cost, the ineptitude of everyone involved, from the baggage handlers on up to the CEOs. We bitch on planes and off, in airports, on Twitter, on the corner, all the time. And when we do, we often hark back to a time when flying was humane and glamorous; when service was king and people were treated like creatures worthy of dignity and respect. It was, we like to think, the golden age of air… (www.thrillist.com) Plus d'info...

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Bernie20910
Bernie20910 1
Interesting how the author says, "OK, sure: we stipulate that the security lines are endless, the seats are cramped, the cabin attendants are surly, baggage fees are annoying, there’s never enough room in the overhead compartments, the onboard Wi-Fi is balky, the person packed into the seat next to you hasn’t bathed in God knows how many time zones, and the gate agent who’s taking forever to hook up the skybridge clearly tanked the parallel parking portion of her driving test." but still feels we have nothing to complain about.
mzscapes
mzscapes 2
Good points... But I object to the on-time metrics, which are the real illusion... When you 'flex' the meaning of on-time to be within 15 minutes and exclude a slew of events (extreme weather, carrier action, security delay) as well as a prorating for late arriving flights at the departure airport, quoting those numbers is a fantasy... Also, passengers arriving late due to cancelled flights are also excluded... So what you have is a 'feel good' number that can be trotted out that does not reflect the real-world experience...

Ontime is ontime from the customer perspective and that is not accounted for... You can rationalize all you want, but if I get a ticket that has me arriving at 6pm, I am going to make plans based on that time... Of course, I will be prudent and build some flex... But when I arrive 10 minutes, that is 10 minutes late, not ontime...

What we need is a ton of transparency not illusionary statics... Publish all the numbers... 1.Raw on-time (a minute late is a late flight, no exclusions), 2.DOT standard with a breakdown of root causes (visibility to driving factors on a given lane), 3. Airport to airport performance (to help plan your flight)... We will live in a data world and we need to translate that into information that can help us make better decisions, not hide behind archaic and self-serving metrics...

A sure path to improve on-time performance is to seriously adopt zero-based tracking and live it throughout the corporation.. No excuses, constantly being reviewed by all levels of management and with on-going continuous improvement... Yes, 100% is not feasible, but you have to aim high if you want to claim superior customer service and you will be amazed how that translates into improved performance...

Cheers...
preacher1
preacher1 1
Well, I can agree with most as far as raw data goes, but 15 minutes on departure or arrival is accepted pretty much in any field as on time. Granted, if the Airlines go back to bunching at hubs as some already have, 15 minutes can make a hellacious difference on a connection, in particular if it is just a one niter, say with a dinner meeting or meet and greet.
iflyfsx
iflyfsx 3
Absurd. If you compare anything to the stone age, yes, we are doing better now, so you should not be able to complain about *anything*, ever. The real question is, can we do better today, with the technology we have today? If the answer is yes, then you do have valid reasons for complaining.

And it starts before you get on the airplane. "Security" is a bad joke. It has nothing to do with actual security, and everything to do with the illusion of security. Yet, people continue to put up with it. We most definitely can ad should do better. Are we? No.

Air travel may be safer *overall*, but if/when an airline cuts corners and there is an incident because of it, it's completely inexcusable.
airindia744
airindia744 1
This has being on going and it will never stop! That's the real truth about whining travelers. I have a file of the days at PAN AM with the growing list of complaints since 1969. I don't think it would fit all on this forum on flightaware Daniel. Some of the things you read are such a laugh coming from Idiots who have nothing better to do. It will never stop at all.
pilot62
Scott Campbell 3
When I here people complain about flying / and delays ... I always say " but in a moment your going to be traveling 500 mile per hour, someone will hand you a drink and it it will be over in less time then it takes to get out of any major city by car " If you want control over everything - try driving next time and see how fun that is. I'm always amazed at how we have figured out how to make air travel as seamless as it is, flying over a 100 flights this year already, I would be dead if I drove these distances or literately NEVER home. THANKS! AIRLINE INDUSTRY... your doing great !!
preacher1
preacher1 4
What's the old saying, quit'cherwhinin'.

preacher1
preacher1 2
This article is spot on. Good post Daniel!

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