It is funny that the businessmen of today seem to respond to falling revenues with cost cutting and price hikes rather than trying to get those lost sales back.  Heck, read the blogs and comments: people seem open to the idea that a businesses is perfectly in its right to do anything to make a profit, even pushing the boundries of fraud.  To people with that mindset, concepts such as customer satasfaction don't even enter the euqation.  What's next, product quality and safety?

Customers aren't the enemy.  They're the lifeblood of the business.

I used to fly USAIR almost exclusively starting back in college in 1992.  That lasted until 2003 when they stranded me in DC, Christmas night and told me they would not be offering me anything for my inconvenience.  Since then I have flown USAIR once and that was when my girlfriend booked a flight for a vacation we took last year.  My point ?  I fly on average 3 times a year and due to an accumaltion of bad experiences, culminating with what happened in 2003, USAIR lost a loyal customer.  I dont know if they care or not, but I havent been stranded in an airport since dropping them like a hot potato and I will continue to avoid them if I have any control over it..

A Boeing 737 can't be a Heavy....   Fully loaded it doesn't weigh enough.

Don't blame the customer service agent for doing thier job. They work for a company that sets the rulkes and if they don't follow them,they get called in the office.Also, air traffic is very congested in the NYC area and delays are common much like a traffic jam on the highway during rush hour. The airline agent has no reason to make it up. One word of advice-be nice to your gate agent.

I used to do a lot of flying, now I avoid it at any cost.  One example: I was doing work up in Rhode Island and traveling back and forth every week or 2 weeks for months.  I lived in PA and took a small flight to Philly, then a flight to Providence.  Many of these flights were full fare due to the fact I could not tell exactly my time and schedule on certain parts of the project.

On return trips, US Air, on 3 occasions, canceled the small flight from Philly back to my home airport.  They gave reasons as mechanical, etc.  It then took them 6 hours to get me home by van.

After another rude encounter with US Air, I decided to drive.  It took me a little over 5 hours and I did not have to put up with the useless US Air.  I did not have to drive through NYCity, so the drive was not bad at all.  I was in complete control of my destiny and felt a lot more comfortable about it.

I estimate that US Air lost 20 round trips fares dues to their short sightedness.

I was/am in their frequent flyer program, but it has become so worthless to me that I only look for the cheapest fares now.  Loyalty is not worth the paper it is printed on in the airlines point of view.

I fly between 25 and 40 round trips per year, depending on length of stays. I lived on the east coast and had to fly Delta , US Air or Continental most of the time. The usual was bad service, long boarding times, missed flights and no comp for airline scheduling problems. I now live in Phoenix and fly 95% on Southwest. What a great airline. In the last 9+ years I have had 1 cancelled/rebooked flight and less than 5 delays of longer then 15 minutes. I still have to fly US Air/United and Delta on occasion, and they haven't changed except to charge you to be their customer.  I hear non-regular SWA passengers grumble about the no assigned seats and that all the planes are older 737's, but if they flew SWA regularly and learned the tricks of the frequent flier they would not fly anyone else.

If you run into a gate or check in person who just dosen't seem to care, have them page their supervisor. This will usually do the trick. The supervisor is the one to explain the written complaints to the executive bean counters. Oh yeh, submit a complaint on the airline web site, especially if you fly regularly and your company personell fly 200 or 300+  times a year. They don't want to lose the business class patrons .

Did this article ever ring true with me. First my experience with US Air. I tried boarding the flight with a small backpack, carryon luggage bag and a calendar that I had been given at a conference. The calendar was too big to place in my luggage. The gal at the gate was insistent that it was a third article and I couldn't carry it on. What, a flat calendar that takes up no space? Thankfully a friend had only one bag and carried my calendar on the flight. Unfortunately US Air doesn't allow its employees to think. They're basically drones. I will not fly US Air again (oh, and they were charging for drinks on my flight!)

Last weekend my daughter is flying back to college after spring break. This time on United, switching airlines to Frontier in Denverto get her to her final destination. Of course the first flight is delayed due to weather. The manager on duty told me he didn't have to do anything about her missing the second flight as the delay was weather related (blaming it on the weather is even more popular than blaming it on air traffic control!) As the article says, "Get Mad". I did and United finally found a solution to getting my daughter back to school. Now I have a sour feeling for United. Why couldn't the manager show a little empathy and helped my daughter? One wonders how he became a manager in the first place.

If you want to be treated with respect as a passenger then your only option is to fly internationally. Why international airlines understand customer service and US airlines don't is a contributing factor to the US airlines' woes.

USAIR lost me years ago.  I avoid them whenever possible.  UNITED is about two ticks away as well with their CONSTANT overbooking.  Last year I flew over 85000 miles, most of that was with DELTA and their code-shares.  Most of those fares were Y-class as well!!!  They managed to irritate me LESS.  The more seasoned you are it seems the more you're willing to tolerate.  USAIR and UNITED have severely delayed me at times more than 24 hours.  I've heard every lame excuse...and I figure you might as well not stir the pot by making your own remarks.  Sooner or later they'll realize it's the paying customer that raises the bottom line...you can't buy pretzels if you aren't on the plane!  FYI to you people:  Four things take a back seat during tough economic times:  Training, safety, security and people.

If you really want to know whether the FAA issued a ground hold, check out FAA.GOV and check your airport...you'll get the true info, and not the "adjusted to keep you on the plane" estimate many pilots give to avoid letting you off the plane and the re-boarding process and to make you feel better.  

My bottom line:  It's better to be down here wishing you were up there, than up there wishing you were down here!

Here's a good one for this blog. I run a golf trip to Myrtle Beach every April and 8 of us fly SpiritAir out of Atlantic City. While it's a 2 hour drive to AC, the fact that it's a direct flight and their prices have been good we willingly make the drive to AC. The existing model for airlines has always been to book as early as possible to get the best prices. Usually as you get closer to the date of your flight the prices start to go up. No problem, I booked in September of 2008 for an April 2009 flight.

In December I saw that the flight could be booked for $ 80 less than I paid in September. I called India (why else, that's where their ticketing offices are?) and got someone who pretty much told me that he had no control over anything and that there was nothing he could do. I then wrote a letter to SpiritAir's home office in Florida explaining that , in addition to getting screwed by booking early, I wasn't too thrilled with paying $ 90 for my bag and golf bag. I received a voice mail message from someone at SpiritAir telling me that if I wanted to resolve this "unfortunate experience" I should call them at xxx-xxx-xxxx and they would help me. I called India again (that's where it was answered) and got another worthless person who had no idea what I was calling about and I had to re-explain everyting from the start. The person to whom I was speaking then told me "Mr. Bill, I will help you". (As an aside he insisted on calling me Mr. Bill, my first name).He explained that he could not re-book my flight at the same rate that I could get on the internet and suggested that I just cancel my flight and re-book it as soon as I hung up. This sounded like an acceptable solution so I told him, "Let's go ahead and cancel my flight and I'll go online and save the $ 80). He said, "Perfect, Mr. Bill. Now how would you like to pay for the $ 90 cancellation fee"? Yup, I could cancel my original flight, save the $ 80 by re-booking and then pay a $ 90 cancellation fee. Isn't this unbelievable. I then wrote another letter to SpiritAir recounting this ridiculous experience but have never heard back. Does SpiritAir care about this at all? Obviously not because the flight is now filled and that's all they care about. I feel like if I could only get someone, anyone from SpiritAir to hear me out I'd stand a chance of getting satisfaction, but they've insulated themselves so well from these types of problems that no one in authority will ever know my story.

Can someone please explain how the union debt for retirees is hurting the airlines?  They have gone through bankruptcy so many times, one would have thought those costs would have been mediated.