Complaints grow, but airlines still allowed to get away with poor service - Business - The Boston Globe
A nice summary of why business can sometimes be as bad or worse than government when it comes to doing things. I will not fly cattle car airlines at all unless it is absolutely an emergency. On top of that, I don't believe they take safety, or customer relationships as something other than a cost cutting possibility.
Jan
Of course, applying that to the TSA might solve a lot of ground problems, but not the crowding and poor service between the Departures Entrance and the Arrivals Gate...
I will drive my car. Yes it takes more time, but I refuse to subjugate myself to these government boneheads, taking over the private world.
The solution is simple and requires everyone to just stop flying until the government gets its face out of it.
This is also a hard thing because it means possibly inconveniencing yourself in other ways, like taking 2 - 3 days to drive from NY to CA.
Everyone keeps talking about it and complaining about it but few actually DO anything about it.
Ayn Rand is totally right, take away their money, i.e. passengers, and changes will come very rapidly. Or I became a private Pilot and started flying my own Piper Aztec. No more TSA concerns. Unfortunately Obamanomics ruined my income so I sold my plane but I still refuse to step foot on a commercial airliner until the Government and TSA idiots are no longer a factor.
We *did* have to fly an American carrier - twice. One was Delta (particularly awful cattle car experience that charged for *everything* - I have not flown *anything* Delta since) and the other was United (Overpriced, exasperating delays at every turn, and the cabin was so filthy I didn't want to sit down - for a 10 hour flight).
My stepdaughter makes the jump fairly frequently from Britain to the US - she flies Virgin because they have consistently lower fares, but you get what you pay for - the one time she flew BA (rebooked due to some issue or the other) she was shocked at how "luxurious" BA was compared to VA.
I found... that unless there's a d@mn#d good need to fly somewhere, I will either drive, or pay a couple bucks and hours more and take the train. While it's nothing like the old days, it's still far better than the Totalitarian Suspicion Advocates free x-ray strip search theater & complimentary cavity grope, and the sub-par sub-service by the US carriers. Sure, it's slower, but you have these things like legroom, decent food, and much more professional service.
It requires a paradigm shift, however - one has to get out of the "instant gratification/need it NOW" mentality, and realize sometimes that slower is indeed better.
I'm considering a train trip (atlanta to NYC) in the spring. How have you found the security issues? What is your biggest complaint and highest praise for recent train travel? Done any overnight trains in the US?
All my train travel experiences have been in Europe, Thailand, and OZ.
Biggest complaints? They can get delayed. As freight traffic is the Railroad's major money maker, freight has priority traffic on most of the routes (hey, business at its finest, as the freight can't be late), so I've seen schedules shot occasionally by an hour or so... once we were almost a day late (and the crew kept us informed throughout, and we got free food as well...) - from a derailment ahead of us, but that was the worst.. Not a biggie - just add time to your schedule. Other - internet access is spotty, tho I usually work or read so it's not that important - you upload and download near the cities you pass thru.
Overnight? Anything long distances is an overnighter, and I like it. If you have a choice of getting off a 5 hour flight rumpled, pissed, and prodded to go to a meeting sweaty and wrinkled, VS waking up in your own bed and feeling well rested and energized, and taking the meeting like a storm, well, there ya go. I **highly** recommend getting a roomette for overnight travel - it's in addition to your ticket (and not cheap), but it's like having your own cabin. I've done the coach overnight thing as well, and while it's not as nice as a roomette, it's survivable... like sleeping in a recliner at home. (At least it's not a Pullman dropdown!!).
Recommendations? Make sure you have access to a 110 outlet at or near your seat. I used to grab a table in the clubcar (which has 110) and work from there (I used to channel my inner Dagny :-) )... And get used to the idea you will both get into conversations with people around you, and find yourself smiling a lot - it's NOT an airplane! If you're in coach, and are prone to motion sickness, get a forward-facing seat (doesn't bother me, but it does some people).
My overnight 'room' trains in Oz and Thailand were bargains compared to Amtrak's offering. Probably will pass on the roomette due to cost and see a couple broadway shows instead.
I enjoyed my train travels overseas and will likely enjoy it here, too.
Probably the best part is that TSA has yet to bring their special brand of "Terrorist-fear Theater" to the rails. They've wanted to for a while now, but IMO the logistics of doing that would be sketchy - too many stops, not enough militia - and ridership would plummet, which would kill the system. Anyway, between the train staff, the Amtrak cops (rare, but I have met a couple, overall damned nice guys and gals) and the other passengers, there's no need for the TSA Grope and Probe Squad.
Probably my favorite overnight train experience (don't laugh) was in Russia. There's something about traveling via train there that really does make you feel like you are traveling 70 years in the past - absolutely stellar service, good food, and great staff. Of course... that could have been hallucinations from the vodka --giggles-- but it really was fun.
Its so sad that the politicos/banksters/elite appear to be set on fomenting trouble with Russia. They could be a great ally and partner for Americans if liberty were to break out here and there.
All provided better service than recent flights in the US (2007-2010 timeframe), although some low cost carriers just barely better.
The airlines best to worst (all travel in coach at lowest price available at the time):
Two best where coach is like business class:
Emirates (Oz - Thailand -Oz)
China Southern (Thailand to Los Angeles)
Good service (coach the way it used to be in the US:)
Air New Zealand (US to NZ, NZ - Oz - NZ)
Virgin Australia (OZ - NZ)
China Air (OZ - NZ - Oz)
Jetstar (Oz-Thailand-Oz)
Scoot (Oz-Singapore)
Tiger (Singapore-Cambodia)
Barely better than US:
Jetstar (Oz-NZ-Oz)
Quantas (Oz-NZ-Oz)
Your mileage may vary.
El Al.
That's Hebrew for "Up, Up, and Away!"
The national-flag airline of the Republic of Israel.
The last round trip I ever took was on El Al. March-April 2011. A ten-deay tour of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Caesaria Maritima, Mounts Carmel and Megiddo (overlooking Ramat-David AFB in the Valley of Jezreel), Tiberias, Kefer Nahum ("Capernaum" in Latin), Beit She'an, the Dead Sea (including Qumran), and finally Jerusalem.
El Al, in getting me there, gave me the best service I'd had in a long time. They also have their own security. They grilled me something fierce, and wanted to know whether I'd bought anything in the Duty Free shop (I didn't; the airline runs a duty-free shop on board). But I knew with absolute certainty my flight would make it without incident.
Other than that, from baggage handling to the tasty meals they served: no complaints.
I was impressed, at a later date, by the Israeli security - while the plame is on the ground, it is surrounded by [presumably] Israeli military, with automatic weapons, at short distances that meant one could always see 2 others. and nobody went on the plane except their staff.
They took it seriously, and what they do works.
We also flew Midwest, from Denver to Minnesota {I think}. After they reach altitude, the chocolate chip cookies go into the oven, and you can have milk, chocolate milk, coffee..... and all seats were business class size. They, of course, went out of business. The American consumer, for the most part, is driven by price because that's what advertising tells him is the only thing that matters. Midwest was what I considered at the time, slightly more expensive - but I don't remember the numbers.
After that, flying got less expensive and everyone and their screaming kids boarded the planes and a lot of the fun bailed out.
In my experience, the airlines that kept a sense of humor about the discomfort of their customers became the ones that were the most fun to fly. I tend to blame the loss of that 'sense of humor' (or plain 'humanity') on stupid middle- and upper-management, trained by all the B-Schools which taught from the same playbooks, emphasizing cost cutting as THE WAY to higher profits, rather than the now-unheard-of concept of "customer satisfaction."
I worked 'in industry' (semiconductors and computers) for over 30 years, and MY focus was ALWAYS on customer satisfaction, whether the 'customer' was a sales rep I was helping or an end-user customer trying to choose the right solution to solve their problems.
And in that vein, I was hugely successful... until a lot of MY management bought into the idea of profit being The Goal, at the expense of everything else.
I'd love to bring my attitude back into companies, but I've only seen one or two who have that kind of measurement in their goals list.
So I live in my Gulch and don't get a lot of job offers regarding my skills. I've worked in Marketing long enough to know that if there's no market demand for your skills, you ain't gonna get any market share, no matter how good your 'product' is.
The causes and effects that happened since the '60s are much more complex than anyone ever lists in a discussion of the topics. I love Socrates.
Too many stories to tell, unless I publish an autobiography some day... :)
My theory is that some time in the 80s or 90s, Critical Thinking died in the US and other places around the world.
Everyone demanded a completely safe, no-risk world and demanded that they not have to pay for it.
Today, I've had almost too much fun pursuing what a friend informed me to be the Socratic Method...
If someone complains about a Problem, I ask them to consider WHY that problem exists.
When they come up with their First Reason Why (which is inevitably wrong), I ask them, "Well, why does THAT happen?"
All in an effort to try to drive them towards looking for the Real Root Cause of that initial complaint.
I've already corrupted one grandson's mind with that... we sat at lunch a month or so ago drilling down into a problem he brought up, and by HIS count, peeled that onion back something like eleven layers, without even getting to something we could agree was Root Cause.
His mom jumped in around level five or six with HER 'answer' to 'why that happens,' and I merely bounced "well, why does THAT happen" off her and she left the discussion immediately and I went back to onion-peeling with her son.
Such fun.
However, I have noticed a LOT more Mentions of "Critical Thinking" on blogsites and even in newspaper articles! Makes me very happy.
Almost gives me hope for the future...
It was originally a way of gaining control over variance in manufacturing. Until you can make your manufacturing processes extremely repeatable (ie, narrow dispersion of the sometimes-Gaussian distribution of some parameter,) there's no way in hell that you can move the desirable peak to where you want or need it to be! He was/is a wizard of that. Motorola didn't invent it.
Actually, funny you should mention Toyota... I ordered one of the second-generation Priuses around the end of 2003. Turned out that what Toyota was doing back then was to quesstimate demand for colors, models and options, then order the parts to manufacture them, then manufacture them, then ship the output to the US. Dealers would 'horse-trade' with each other to get the combinations their live customers wanted.
That amused me, because I ORDERED my First Car from a Chevy dealer back in 1968 and GM, at that time, let me choose from a large list of options for what I preferred. And then they built it to my spec and delivered it.
Toyota had obviously made a semi-conscious Management Decision that Build-To-Order would be cheaper for them at the hidden price of customer aggravation.
They've been quite successful, overall, with that style, but I've always wondered if the alternative might have served them (and me) better...
Who knows... I'm not an Auto Executive... I'm just a lowly EE... :))))))
Nick, an old friend of mine got a Ford Hybrid and just loves it. We got my wife a Prius V in '12 when her Camry XLE started leaking in multiple places under the hood. Probably would have done as well with a good steam-cleaning (cheaper than a new car, probably, including whatever repairs were actually needed) but 40mpg and lots of bells and whistles and she's quite happy with the V. And without even checking, Nick, I'll bet you're not in the US... our selections, economics and lots of other aspects are way different from many other parts of the world.
Like, my '04 took me, wife and two dogs across the US FIVE times, Pulling a small trailer, to the tune of 11,000 miles and still averaged around 35 mpg, down from its normal 45 or so.
Ya look at your needs and wants and decide accordingly.... a Very Gulchy Decision :) of course.
Ignition switch broke loose from the lockout gears in the steering column and if I didn't have an aftermarket remote starter, I could not have driven home... from the dealer's! Hundreds of dollars to fix a fifty-cent bad design of a tiny plastic lever.
Then I discovered that when Jiffy-Lube refilled my radiator flush with tap water and saved themselves the cost of replenishing the antifreeze, the heater core rusted out and flooded the floor pan under the front seats. $50 or so for the new radiator core, but $400 in labor to field-strip the entire dashboard to get the new one in.
But hey, my '69 Corvette had a bad solder joint holding the radiator's drain plug in. Took a year or so for the dealer and local 'decision makers' to cough up the $100 or so for the $10 radiator repair followed by the water pump replacement, since that innocent byspinner died as a consequence, too.
Top of the line Chevy; highest volume Ford at the time...
My Prius? Yearly oil changes and checkups and other than that, insert gas and go.
Life in America.
Happy motoring!
Oh, it isn't Oregon, but our Raleigh area of NC is just LOUSY with Priuses. They're freaking Everywhere! :)
As for auto ordering, it is almost always a trade-off for the customer on getting the features one wants and the time to receive it. A manufacturer overseas has a disadvantage in the time dimension since the most cost efficient method of transport is by ship, and that's months on the ocean vs. days on a rail car or truck hauler for a US manufacturer. Thus, most US customers even for US manufacturers usually make a compromise on color, features, etc. to get something on the lot, or soon to be vs. the exact configuration that they may want. The other factor is the factory efficiency of bundling features together. Customers often will get a bundle that includes some features that they don't necessarily want in order to get a couple at a reduced cost because it saves the factory money to install them all together. Efficiencies of scale.
It's actually a Business Model type of thing and all business models are built on decisions and tradeoffs (my First Law) and once in place, are pretty much set in stone. Until something ... what's the term we used to use?... A Stochastic Shock to the System forces fundamental change.
Such is life. Been there, participated, observed...
I say "actionable root" because the true root cause for everything is, as many on this site like to say, that "existence exists." All else is effect.
You should stop your root cause analysis (why questions) when you get to a level of actionable cause that you can address and prevent or guard against. That is sufficient.
But good training for the youngsters. They'll frustrate their teachers to no end.
I won't deny the excellent point you made, Robbie, about "actionable root" and that makes a lot of sense. In my (limited) experience but lots of observations, the higher level 'actionable' things may look good on the surface, but if they aren't well thought out and linked to any underlying Real Root Cause, in the longer run, those 'solutions' will end up being more expensive and failure-prone than if Real Root Cause were sought out.
Basically, when I've looked for Root Cause, the conversation with other folks really doesn't identify Truly Actionable Solutions at a sufficiently 'deep level' to be a good long-term solution.
A trivial example is Funding Social Security in the US... the lack of indexing of contributions Plus the changes to life expectancy are simple Root Causes that appear easy to address, but the Problem developed across scores of years and multiple generations of Americans! Most of the Solutions you'll read about look out a whole five or ten years with the expectation of Fixing The Problem Without Causing Anyone Any Discomfort.
And that's where I raise my hand... :)
Don't blame me... I would never vote for her, but mark my words just for the hell of it.
Only when people may invent any transport mode they care to, will the airlines realize they either improve passenger comfort, safety, efficiency, and service, or they lose business.
Here's a barrier which ought to come down, and a company seeking to crash it. Terrafugia is making a name for itself with its designs (yes, designs, two of them now) for the world's first street-legal aircraft. The Transition (a fixed-wing push-prop) and the TF-X (a twin-engine tiltrotor!) are two exquisitely beautiful designs. To make them legal, Terrafugia had to arrange for special bendings of rules from the FAA and the NHTSA.
Now if this design had come up in Galt's Gulch, Judge Narragansett would have refounded Underwriters' Laboratories, which would have opened a new division for road-capable light sport aircraft. In fact, these are the sort of aircraft Ragnar Danneskjöld would have designed, or at least conceived.
Now imagine if everyone had the choice of either flying some puddle-jumping airline, or getting into their Terrafugia Transitions, or even Terrafugia TF-X's, taking off maybe from a standing start, and flying to the nearest airport to board a big jet. Or what if they were allowed to take off from and land on a sufficiently deserted road? Do you really think people would put up with the poor service of airlines today?
You notice that in my other comments about overseas airlines which carrier is the worst?
Quantas (and its subsidiary Jetstar) is the national-flag airline of Oz.
Nonetheless, I travel a lot, around 100,000 miles a year on Southwest Airlines. I really don't have any complaints, they treat me pretty well, and I have a KSA/WKT from TSA, so I just pick the Pre-Check or the Priority line that Southwest gives me - whichever looks faster. I can't remember the last time I took my shoes or belt off or take my laptop out at the screening checks.
I see a lot of people whine & complain, but this is unfortunately a necessary evil when we have been at war for 15 years. We have thousands of kids coming back without limbs or without their life, and we have old women griping about "groping" - which I have never actually observed to happen in 100,000 miles. Although, for many that I see, that pat-down might be the only action they got that year... Take off the fake jewelry and leave it at home and it gets pretty easy... It's called a Metal Detector.
If you're going on a one-week or less trip, do you really need to pack like an African expedition? The less you carry, the easier it is.. I haven't checked a bag in over a year actually with an average of 4-day business trip and I never re-use clothes. If it doesn't fit in my trusty Duluth Trading roll-up wardrobe thing, it doesn't go.
Alaskan Air is pretty good as well, and so is JetBlue. Stay away from United, Delta, etc.
It's the HUB thing that gets me, well besides tsa. Delta wanted to take me to Salt Lake, then Minneapolis, Phoenix and then to Mexico. That's crazy. As it is it will take 2 days to get there. It will all be worth it though, :) :) :)
I like being able to change my ticket on Southwest if I need you, you only pay the difference in airfare, or as I've actually gotten often - a credit if the other destination or time is cheaper. My last trip to Las Vegas (business) was actually free (got home last night) because last month I switched from flying into Baltimore to Flying into Washington Dulles on the same day and was $230 less.
On Delta or United, I'm sure they would have figured out some fees to charge to eat that up...
My boss flies on United... he has been Premier 1K for over a decade and has 1.6 million Marriott points, and United still treats him like dogsh*t. Need a change? no problem, $150 fee plus $400 for what was originally a $300 ticket and the seat next was probably sold for $199 to someone on Expedia. He gets no consideration, and rarely an upgrade anymore, and boarding on that stuff, if you have a regular "ticket" you are a long way behind the credit card customers, the ones with a Gold Mastercard from United, the ones with Premier 1K, the Continental Medallion customers, etc.. by the time they called me the last time I did that 2 years ago, I was the last person in the waiting area.
Southwest is pretty simple, if I buy a ticket today for a flight today, my A-list rating still gets me to be on the first pile to be boarded. If I buy it a week or so ahead, I'll always board right after business class. You get on in groups, and pick your own seat, so if I was flying on someone else with assigned-seats, I'd always be in the middle seat in front of the latrine in the last row with my weird buy-the-last-minute schedule. Basically my boss's problem, he does last minute travel, is Premier 1K, and still in the latrine seat.
I even like the snarky jokes that Southwest stewards make about United. "Don't smoke in our bathroom, its a federal felony and a $10,000 fine.. and, you know, if you had $10,000 to spare, you would be flying United right?"