dispatches from the new world of work

Alas ...

Nope! No "bad service" airline stories from me! My attitude is one of ... sadness. Fly IAH to ORD via DFW last night on American. (I'm a 2-million mile guy, Member of the Admirals Club since 1977.) Houston: PA system out at gate, a problem as we were both overbooked and subject to a "mechanical." Eventually arrive in Chicago (hey, I really didn't expect—or need—a snack of any sort on the combined 3-hour, $800 flight); no one at the ORD jetway at 11PM ... we wait about 15 minutes. My bags arrived, thankfully—as I was next to the lost baggage line, about 40 deep, with 1 employee painstakingly processing claims, at 1130PM.

It's Catch23! (One worse than Catch22.) To deal with horrific losses, AA and the Other Decrepits are all very short staffed ... hopefully not extending to Mechanics! (Don't want to go there.) I am totally unemotional about the non-existent service; it's simply pure sadness watching the Pleasure of Flight, which stayed with me for decades, deteriorate to something reminding me more and more every day of my traveling youth on Greyhound and Trailways. The equivalence, other than price, is eerie. One wee implication, not good for the airlines: I'll take Acela from Boston to Washington to Boston for my Christmas visit to my Mom in Annapolis this Sunday. (I'd take Southwest, but the SWA lines, esp security, at BWI must come close to worst-in-nation.) Hmmm. I used to love Hitchhiking up and down the East Coast; am I too old for that?

Tom Peters posted this on 12/17/04.

Comments

The death spiral (again, hopefully not literally) of the old-guard airlines is the failure of a business model, not the end of the Pleasure of Flight. The certification of new 5-6 passenger jets in the $1-$5 MM range will open air taxi service up to frequent fliers around the country, flying into small airports, closer to your final destination.

The woes you saw in DFW and ORD are a function of their dinosaur-size scale and the inflexibility that accompanies it.

Air Taxis are still 2-3 years off, in the meantime, someone with your schedule (and rate schedule for the services you render) should really look at NetJets or a similar service.

Posted by Jerry Richardson at December 17, 2004 1:10 PM

BTW, "There's no free lunch" anymore for us cattle class passengers in AA...

I just read this from the WSJ website:
"American Airlines will start selling food in coach on longer U.S. flights, in some cases in lieu of complementary food service. American will no longer offer free meals in coach on domestic flights."

Happy Holidays!

Posted by Gabriel Salcido at December 17, 2004 5:26 PM

Maybe a bit of hitchhiking! Watch out for the tort lawyers though - one false step and they swarm ala naziesque John Edwards!

Posted by Freeman at December 19, 2004 9:33 AM