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:sounds of crickets chirping:
Didn't the Fed Gov't (read: You and I) bail out these airlines after 9/11 to the tune of several billion dollars because they were so broke, so mis-managed, so quickly trailing down the tubes because of TERRORISM (when the reality is that these airlines were facing bankrupcy LONG before 9/11, but how conveeeenient that 9/11 came along and gave them a proper excuse for their miserable existance!!!)
So we bailed them out then. What happened to all the money? Didn't they lay off a few gazillion workers, and cut pay and benefits back then too, you know, to justify the federal gov't bailout?
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The Airlines and Government need to decide what the relationship between them is going to be. I see two choices:
1) The airlines STOP receiving government bail-outs. They either sink or swim (fly or drop like a stone). Not too many other industries get the BILLIONS of dollars that Airlines do. In fact, I see many storefronts in my local town with FOR LEASE signs in the windows---why? Some of them I'm sure are because of bad business, bad bookkeeping, the owners eating up too much profit for personal gain instead of putting it into their business. But the Gov't doesn't help out TINY TOWN CLEANERS---that small business is left to rot. Airlines, on the otherhand, can pretty much do whatever they want, have the worst managment possible, and still get their hiney's wiped by the Gov't
or
2) The government goes back to regulation of the Airlines and controlls EVERYTHING. If the Gov't (read, you and I) have such a financial stake in the airline industry, then there should be some regulations placed on that industry---wage caps for CEO's, iron-clad contracts for workers, etc.
The airlines can't have it both ways---Give us money (when we're poor) but don't you DARE put any conditions on how we run our business when we give you that money.
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My husband and I are AVID travellers. I love to travel, but I hate to fly. My Mother in Law was a flight attendant for SEVERAL decades and she just can't stand how low the quality of air travel is today compared to X years ago (i'm only 28, so I have no memories/knowledge of the "good old days" of flying). But who can blame the flight attendants for being snotty when they're constantly threatened with the idea of loss of benefits, cuts in pay, layoffs always looming over their heads.
The "powers that be" at the Airline Industries have ALWAYS put profits above customers. They have decreased the seat width so that they could cram more people into the Cattle Car once known as Economy Class. And to counter that, they're now asking people who can't fit in a 2-inch seat to pay for an extra seat---how about this---make the seats big enough for NORMAL people (like me, like my husband) to fit in. We're not wide by a far stretch, but even for us, sitting in an airplane is a horrible experience.
Pay for headphones. Pay for "special meals". Pay for everything. Only one drink per flight----last year we flew from SEattle to SC---a 6 hour flight, and we only got ONE cup (not even 6 oz) of SOda. Had to pay if you wanted another. WHAT THE FUCK did I pay over $500 a SEAT for?
Of course, you must add in the $5.00 9/11 handling charge, and the$15.00 charge if you don't book your tickets online, and the $75.00 fee if you have to change your flight, and you better hope to God your plane gets you to your connection on time or else you're FUCKED---we had a plane that left 45 minutes late, so we missed our connection. We got to the connecting airport and asked about getting on a later flight (we were travelling with the same airline the whole way through). We were told that they have no obligation to put us on another flight, and that we would have to pay $75.00 per ticket to "change" our flights. I said "we're not changing our flights. We missed our flight because YOUR plane took off late". Their response "Our responsiblity ends once we get you to your destination. We have no obigation to ensure that you meet your connecting flights, and rearranging for another flight is your responsibility, including your financial responsiblity".
Walked away from the counter right then. Luckily, we came upon another airline who was willing to put us on a connecting flight -- FOR FREE -- because of the utterly rude attitude and inconvenience we were given by our original airline, which I will NEVER fly again, and have paid MORE for flights on different airlines rather than take a cheaper flight with the shittiest airline on the planet (imo)
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