The Dreadfulness of Air Travel

The Dreadfulness of Air Travel

From Bruises to Broken Noses   

                                                                        

Long delays, awful customer service, and tight seats are just a few things that travelers have to deal with when travelling across America today. It is no surprise that airlines find themselves in the media’s poor view as they continuously provide customer service stories worthy of national attention because of their absurdness and downright disrespect to passengers.

What’s going on?

Airlines in the United States have been on a steady path of decline in terms of passenger satisfaction compared to the once known superb service they provided. Following the deregulation in late 70s, passengers have seen a huge shift in airlines attempting to take advantage and control of the amenities that were once free (Huffington). Anything from seats becoming smaller to being charged $30 to print boarding passes, airlines have been finding new ways to squeeze more cash out of travelers.

Seats, are we getting fatter?

You might ask yourself when sitting in United’s new slim line seats if maybe perhaps you have gained a few extra pounds over the holiday months or somehow grown an extra few inches taller. The simple answer however is that new aircraft are being turned into flying sardine cans. Domestic airlines have been reducing space between rows and on seats sizes in order to pack in more passengers on already congested airplanes. Spirit airlines, a low cost carrier, is the worst airline in terms of seat pitch at a mere 28 inches (Guardian). This is well below the already scrunched 32 inches for an average economy seat on U.S. domestic airlines (Seat Guru). U.S. regulators state the average seat width has fallen from an industry of average of 18 inches to about 16 ½ inches (Seat Guru).

This may seem like a small difference but in reality for most travelers this heavily effect their comfort during flight. It is now inevitable to be rubbing elbows with your fellow seatmate or simply having your knees thrusting up on the seat in front of you.

At what cost do you imagine the airlines are doing this at? To them it’s a huge win, they can add more rows of seats which they can now intentionally place in the front of the aircraft and market them as premium economy. In reality those new extra rows are the seats that would have been considered economy several years ago but now have been rebranded as premium seats because of their “extra leg room", that has been stolen from the rest of the passengers that are now being shoved in the back of the aircraft (Guardian).

 

Customer Service

Customers are furious already with the shrinking seats, but the tip of the iceberg on top of all of this is the blatant rude (aggressive) customer service that passengers experience. United made national headlines in 2017 when a flight in Chicago going to Kentucky was overbooked and one passenger got dragged of the plane with a broken nose. In this story, United randomly selected paying passengers to give up their seats so other crew members (of whom were not working) could board the flight. This procedure itself was not very sensible, as paying passengers were being forced to get out of seats they had paid for ahead of time. The liability of overbooking the seats falls on the airline and not the passenger to a reasonable individual, but Oscar Munoz the CEO of United blamed the passenger Mr. Dao for being “disruptive” and “belligerent” (Guardian). Sadly, this is not the only time this sort of occurrence has happened, this one “beating” just happened to get caught on video. United also forced a man flying to Hawaii to L.A. to get out of his seat because “they needed the seat for somebody more important”, they also told him “We have a priority list, and you’re at the bottom of it”. It was reported that the agent at the gate threatened that he would be arrested if he would not get off the plane (LA Times).

It appears that United has become more of bully than air carrier in recent years, but if you seek to get your money taken from you and be pushed around United might very well be the perfect airline for your travel.

Unfortunately, although, United is not the only airline misbehaving, American Airlines earlier this year accused two G-League basketball players of stealing blankets on the flight. The passengers were two young black males that had blankets from the first class cabin, the flight attended accused them of stealing the blankets and the passengers were removed from the flight. American airlines did later reach out and issue a formal apology to the players and said it would compensate them in some form (INC). At least American had the sensibility and dignity to issue a formal apology as oppose to the friends at United who tried to blame the passenger.

 

Cost

In the midst of this airlines are managing to make record profits by pinching passengers for “extras” that were once basic items. North American airlines last year were able to cumulatively score the biggest profits together, more than any other airlines in the world (CNBC). Airlines now are slapping passengers with extra costs which are known as ancillary revenues in the aviation industry. Last year it was recorded that United generated over $6 billion on extra fees from passenger, these fees mainly come from options such as seat selection, checked bags, food, inflight Wi-Fi, etc. (Financial Times). Many consumers know that a lot of these items they are now being charged for used to come with the original price of the ticket, but the penny pinching airlines decided they can make some good money by up selling these basic items. A new product came into service last year with the big three airlines (United, American, Delta), introducing basic economy, essentially a ticket that is bare bones no frills. If one purchases this ticket they are not even allowed overhead bin head space and the passenger will have to pay extra to have their carry own stowed. Airlines have in the last few years cut back so much that its nearly impossible to have an enjoyable flying experience unless you are flying business or first class.

Martin Mrozowski

Kasperkevic, J. (2015, February 03). United Airlines considers shrinking width of seats, report says. Retrieved February 09, 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/03/united-airlines-considers-shrinking-width-seats-report

Press, A. (2017, July 29). 'Incredible shrinking airline seat': US court says seat size a safety issue. Retrieved February 09, 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/29/incredible-shrinking-airline-seat-us-court-says-seat-size-a-safety-issue

Reid, D. (2017, December 05). US airlines to scoop almost half of global profit in 2018. Retrieved February 09, 2018, from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/05/us-airlines-to-scoop-almost-half-of-global-profit-in-2018.html

Reps. Cohen and Kinzinger, Senators Blumenthal, Schumer, Markey, Menendez and Feinstein Introduce Bipartisan, Bicameral SEAT Act. (2017, March 09). Retrieved February 09, 2018, from https://cohen.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/reps-cohen-and-kinzinger-senators-blumenthal-schumer-markey-menendez-and

Subscribe to the FT to read: Financial Times Airlines look to take flight with lucrative extras. (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2018, from https://www.ft.com/content/9ff6e4b4-9c40-11e7-9a86-4d5a475ba4c5

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Wong, K. (2017, March 12). The U.S. Airlines With the Comfiest Seats. Retrieved February 09, 2018, from https://lifehacker.com/the-u-s-airlines-with-the-comfiest-seats-1793163371