Letters to the Editor
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The Southwest Secret
Patrick puts his finger on the core issue when he talks about the "attentiveness and dedication" of airline employees. The reason passengers like me have been flocking to Southwest over the past dozen years -- despite the pre-boarding lineup and the peanut-pack food service -- goes beyond that airline's low prices. Southwest has managed to create an airline culture in which most employees enjoy their jobs and care about the passenger experience.
No amount of restructuring by the major carriers will make them competitive unless they address the simple fact that a corporate culture that demeans and devalues employees can't help but result in a service that demeans and devalues customers.
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Another reason for in-flight audio...
...is the wonderful (for flying geeks) "Channel 9" service on United. I love being able to eavesdrop on the radio communications between the pilots and the various air traffic controllers, and even between planes on long overwater flights. I've never been able to understand why so many UA pilots won't allow this little, free-of-cost amenity for the <5% of us that enjoy it.
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The human element
The Pilot is right: the human element is the key.
I find that the things that stick in my mind are the interactions with airline personnel. I find, too, that I have become pretty rigid in my airline preferences based on memories: there was one airline I didn't fly again for 10 years, no matter how cheap it was, after an airline employee was particularly nasty. On the other hand, I'll gladly ride Southwest pretty much anytime, anyplace, because they have always been kind and helpful about the minor disability that was such an annoyance to the employee of the airline I will not name.
A clean lav and a container for waste paper would be nice, I admit. And yes, bring back the magazines. But I'll trade it all for a smile and reasonable, professional treatment at the ticket counter and in the cabin.
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In-flight comfort
"I'd go with a cabin that is 50 percent coach, more or less as we know it, at the same deeply discounted fares, and 50 percent of a whole new concept -- a coach-business hybrid that is light on the fancies, but with decent, streamlined amenities and comfortable, high-tech seats."
Singapore airlines has gone a bit farther than this on some of its flights. On non-stops to Newark and L.A. from Singapore, which take 18-19 hours each way, the airline has completely dispensed with economy. Instead what we get is "executive economy," a cross between business and economy class with larger seats that include recline options to elevate your legs; its usual 60-movie on-demand entertainment system shown on a nine-inch screen; its usual great food; laptop plug-ins; a pantry at the back of the plane to lounge around in and have some fruit, a drink or a snack whenever you want; and just generally appreciative staff and crew. (They've started free inflight WiFi on some flights but I'm not sure if the non-stops have it yet.) Oh, and did I mention it costs about the same or even less than other flights to the same cities, which often take six or seven hours longer?
When it started, those of us who took advantage of it speculated that they'd keep the prices low until we were hooked and then jack them up. But it's been about two years now and the prices remain competitive.
Here's a link to SIA's blurb on the service: http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/en_UK/content/exp/cabin/exececonomyclass_seat.jsp
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Customer Service.
The last time I flew Delta, was the last time I flew Delta. The employees acted as if they were doing me a favor, letting me on their plane and all. They treated me like crap. Now, even though I live in Atlanta, I refuse to fly Delta.
My last trip was on Frontier. I will make an effort to fly them whenever I can. The employees were all very nice and treated me well. One group of flight attendants was hilarious. They made the trip memorable, but in a good way. I still tell people about the one announcing that they would start serving refreshments.
"We also have Coca-Cola products for you. We do not have Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Lemon Pepsi, Caffeine Free Pepsi or Lemon Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi. We have Coke products."
I thought it was hilarious. Of course I asked for a Pepsi....
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How bad can it get?
Service aboard American airlines is quite possibly the worst in the world. For rudeness and a general air of brusqueness, nothing comes close to them. I'd like to see the American market deregulated to the extent that foreign carriers would be allowed in to the US domestica market. My prediction: every single US airline would go out of business in two years.
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Economy Airlines
Having travelled in Europe with Low cost Airlines You are right Cleanliness,numbered seats and good toilets matter more than giveaway prices.Simple curtisy and and good boarding procedures are a must.A further habit here (in Europe) is how heavy the staff are in selling overpriced refreshments; Easyjet and Ryanair are quite notorious.
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service begins at the airport
I typically fly short domestic flights for business with a few longer international flights for vacation, and truthfully it wasn't the experience in the air that turned me off. It was the lack of service and communcation at the airport. I know that the airlines don't have control over security or customs, but they do have control over their check-in and ticket counters. Case in point was a vacation flight we I had on a big US carrier that departed from Cancun airport and arrived at Charlotte-Douglas airport. If you've ever been to Cancun airport, it is a crazy insane place to try to check-in for your flight, many times 3 hours is not enough time to even travel through the lines to get to the check-in. And I use the word "line" very loosely, typically it's a crush of people not knowing which "line" of people some 50feet away from the desks going to which desk. So you end up standing in the wrong group of people for an hour until you realize that you were supposed to be in the innermost snake of people, not the outermost. The could be fixed very simply with a few airline personel with signs and rope or tape. After fighting through that mess, I was hoping that my transfer in Charlotte would be a lot smoother, but instead after going through customs, the airport makes you go through a non-secure area, thus requiring a second security check. Obviously the airline knows about this set-up since it is standard in Charlotte, but they do nothing to help their passengers. The flight that I was on contained about 90% transfers, and several of them missed their connecting flight because of the delay in going back through security. The airlines could have simply avoided this by either recommending or enforcing a minimum layover time in Charlotte when the tickets were purchased or by having an airline employee available at the congested security station to contact the gate to let them know that they had passengers at the airport that would be late and could either hold the flight or help their customers get ahead in the security line or direct them to the correct location to be re-ticketed on a later flight. Instead we are all left to fend for ourselves with security and airport personel that didn't know anything and couldn't help anyone. It was even more fustrating because after we got through the security check, there were no signs directing us to the correct gate so everyone had to run back and forth looking for their flights. After that experience I was just happy to get into my very uncomfortable economy seat.
As far as ammenities on the flight, I love Airtran's in flight XM radio. For food, I'd be fine with having to pay for it as long as the selection is decent and the food is tasty. For short flights where storage capacity is an issue, the airport in conjunction with the airlines should have to-go boxes available at the terminal or gates, and I'd suggest special low pricing for passengers where they could use their boarding pass as a discount coupon.