William,
Despite the opportunities for Amtrak, they have their own logistical issues with the "host" railroads and bureaucrats (read Congress). Limitations on available equipment also play a big role. Even so, Amtrak has made great strides in the positive direction in many areas, while the airlines continue to rob the passengers at every turn. Where else in business can you pay more and get the same service or even less for your money!

William,

Having come from Automotive and now working for a major airline, I can only say your comments are completely on target. FMEA, Lean, and Six either have been tried and abandoned or in most cases have never been pursued.

The management style is that of 1920's American manufacturing. Most amazing to me is the lack of software used to track the dozens of government forms utilized in day to day activities. 15% of the workforce could be eliminated as well as 50% of the errors with a basic ERP.

People are promoted based upon tenure not ability and unlike most industries I’ve worked in; everyone has been here at least 20 years. And oh yeah don’t forget we have unions mixed throughout some groups but not others.

Some of the parts manufacturers, maybe 25%, are versed in improvement methods but not the airlines themselves. With the possible exception of Southwest.

I hear what you are saying and you make many good points. I especially appreciate that you offered a reasonable suggestion for corrective action on the early luggage arrival incident.
But I can’t help but think how much this just sounds like another case of taking advantage of the opportunity to blast an easy target. Everybody hates the airlines and what good press it is to come out with both barrels firing and rip into them for everything we can in one short article. I guess quality writers are no different from the rest of media when it comes to jumping on the bandwagon.
A couple other thoughts I had during the article:
- Are you willing to pay more? After all, airlines have been losing money and going bankrupt for years. Somewhere in between the two extremes of being totally incompetent managers and having the economic deck totally stacked against them lies the truth. I’m sure it is not at either end of the continuum. But improvements don’t always come for free.
- Would you accept it if an airline executive just took one of the cadet lines and said “No excuse sir”, left it at that and walked away? Or would you accuse him or her of not facing the music. I believe if you want to criticize a person in a leadership position, you will criticize no matter what they say. So nice try with the cadet reference, but I think if he said ‘no excuse sir” you’d rip him for that.
- I always question motive when I hear the comment “they don’t care about quality” , “total disregard for quality”, “little evidence of any genuine desire to improve”, etc. I always assume it’s done for sport and effect when values are assumed and attacked.
- I did see the comment from KJP about the insiders point of view. Too bad. I was hoping it wasn’t really as bad as that, and I know sometimes its sour grapes coming from insiders, but it is not surprising. Heavy beaurocracies tend to create those problems. I hope they can fix it.

You forgot the incessent lying at the gate regarding delays, flight status and the like. What's so wrong with being honest- most of us are adults!

I have encountered several instances where my luggage arrived on a flight before the one carrying me. The first question on my mind is "How can this happen because passengers and luggage are NEVER allowed to travel on different aircraft!" This has been "explained" to me several times (Federal rules, no less!) when I try to capture a last minute seat which is available on the earlier flight, but alas checked baggage prevents my earlier, desirable, departure.

It would be great if media personnel asked better questions. For example, "How often do you consider it permissible to have delays caused by leasing a number of gates at our airport?" At my airport one (well known and generally profitable) airline leases two gates. It also has three different flights using the two gates over the course of 75 minutes in the afternoon. When the first two arrivals are late, guess what happens to the third? I was scheduled to depart on the third aircraft which was delayed so much I could not make a connection and had to rent a hotel room at my cost at the connecting airport (You know, the weather was bad. . .). Instead of brushing this off as "due to weather" we should learn how often this is considered acceptable.

William, unfortunately the bottom line is that carriers are fully aware of their failed processes and are absolutely willing to compromise quality and satisfaction if it maximizes profit (or minimizes loss) based on their business models. They are willing to overbook flights more than 10% over actual capacity fully realizing that they will inconvenience a small percentage of the customers. We have all heard the pleas for passengers to accept some remuneration for volunteering to take a later flight. They believe that they are still improving profit by paying customers to accept a lower quality of service. The competitive environment has lead to wholesale outsourcing of some services to low bid contractors also fully realizing that there is an impact to customer satisfaction. While there is some competition to perhaps infuriate fewer customers than the market, they are still willing to deliver poor quality of service. Until the customers realize that they are really getting what they pay for and will agree to pay more for improved service and amenities, this madness is not going to change.

I have had some not so good flights, but overall I have been pretty lucky with air travel. Since we're naming names, I would like to share my very positive experience with Virgin America.

Two years ago my husband and I were on our way to CA for my daughter's wedding. On the way to JFK we were caught in traffic and nearly missed our flight. The staff at Virgin took excellent care to make sure we were on the plane, but alas, our luggage had to wait until the next flight out to San Francisco.

My daughter's veil was in my luggage, so with great trepidation I agreed to allow it to be sent separately. That night (next morning NY time) I called Virgin to make sure that my suitcase was indeed sent along.

The luggage arrived as scheduled and the bag was even marked for special handling. The staff was excellent the entire time, especially when I explained about the veil.

Another thumbs up goes to Delta who handled my mother's special needs attentively during our last coast to coast from Newark to Fresno. I had booked the flight on line and indicated that Mom is handicapped. The airline(s) were careful to make sure that a wheel chair and porter was available at all times during initial boarding as well as the layovers in SLC.

My experience with Cathay Pacific was absolutely wonderful. They still offer complimentary in-flight meals, by the way. Tasty ones, too!

So, the moral of the story is, there are still people who care enough about their jobs to do them well, and some of them work for the airlines. But I agree wholeheartedly with the new legislation regarding fines for leaving human beings trapped in a can for more than 3 hours, especially since once we board we have basically waived all of our rights. I was a big fan of JetBlue before that whole fiasco, now I won't fly them.

Shop by airline and not by price. Reward those who treat you right.

P.S. United left 6 servicemen stranded at LAX for 9 hours last November - if there had been some communication on the part of the airline, they could have gotten another ride to Fresno and been home 4 hours later - but the staff at the gate couldn't be bothered. My son-in-law's unit now refuses to fly United.