Reply #32: All because of one "flight attendant's" actions?

[smoogatz]

Hardly. I take it you don't fly commercial--or if you do, you must only fly domestic. You've almost certainly never had the experience of flying with a child on a domestic airline (woe unto those who dare--good luck even getting seats together). The U.S. airlines are now among the worst on the planet--no meal service, no leg room, packed flights, uncaring and unhelpful employees, dirty planes, rancid bathrooms, recycled and contaminated air for God's sake, long delays, lost baggage, on and on. And no, it's not my disposition (but thanks for suggesting that it might be)--most domestic airlines score consistently in the "mediocre" to "crappy" range in consumer surveys. I guess that's because the passengers all just have bad attitudes, right? The customer is always wrong, is that it?

On edit: in this case, I'd be in favor of outsourcing if it meant I could deal with helpful, friendly and competent people when I fly. But really the problem with the domestic airlines is that deregulation has placed them in such a competitive environment that they're all imploding--worse and worse service in order to cut costs so they can compete on price--as if we all wouldn't pay an extra fifty bucks or so if it meant flying wouldn't suck.