One airline pilot's rant on comments about the demise of my industry

[ResistTheCoup]

My airline is one of those "dinosaurs' that some people on other threads here at DU have been cheering the demise of. It saddens me to see a fellow DUer take pleasure in my misery because they are wishing ill will on our management. Please remember that the CEO's that everyone loves to hate don't represent the thousands of employees that have lost their jobs or taken drastic cuts in pay and benefits to keep their airlines afloat. Please don't wish disaster on my career and my family's future and my airline friends and their families.

When the Bush Administration's ATSB refused our airline's request for a government-backed loan my airline went bankrupt. Bush had been pushing for the denial of the loan and the Republicans were gleeful that now they would have a way to guarantee certain concessions from airline employees and hope for a domino effect throughout the industry. Other CEO's could threaten, "Do what we want or else we'll declare bankruptcy and the courts will impose you're new lower wages/benefits."

When our bankruptcy was declared the local paper asked people to send in their thoughts. Here are some of the actual responses:

"XXX's troubles are a true pleasure after receiving such lousy service between Chicago and Boston."
-Peter

"XXX's employees deserve their trouble. They are overpaid and probably are Democrats".
-Rebecca

"Kudos to President Bush for adhering to the true laissez-faire capitalist spirit this country was founded on. XXX has no one to blame but themselves for their situation. It's not the government's job to play EMS to every failing business."
-Perp

"Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without Hell. When you operate an airline, or any company, the way xxx has, this is what you deserve. Cheers to the ATSB for making the right call."
- Tom

"XXX employees should quit whining. The "unity and caring" in the US vanished soon after 9/11. You are on your own now."
-Shlomo

(Ain't that the truth!)

I have been a pilot for over 33 years. I'm a Vietnam Era Veteran who served six years in the Air Force enlisted. I used the GI bill to help pay for my flight training and I had 16 years of flying experience before I was hired by a major airline in the late 80's. (I originally interviewed in the late 70's but there was very little hiring at that time along with massive furloughs. Had I been hired I would have been furloughed for at least 6 years.)

I've spent the last 17+ years at a profession that I love and am extremely proud of. It's been a post-deregulation rollercoaster ride, with the corporate-raiding, airline-raping 80's of Frank Lorenzo and Carl Icahn and Stephen Wolfe, et al. I've fought through my union to eliminate a two-tiered wage scale, to ensure the benefits of fellow pilots and we've all ridden the various other financial ebbs and flows that an airline pilot learns is part of the gamble of an airline career. Most of the older Captains I used to fly with said airline retirement was a crap-shoot. When you get hired by an airline, which operates on seniority, you are basically "married" to that airline. If you leave it for another one you start all over again at the bottom of the pay scales. That's why it was so popular for Lorenzo and his friends to destroy airlines and start new, lower-cost airlines with employees at much lower wages. Some of the older Captains I flew with who were hired in the 60's used to say that until you retired you never knew if you went with the right airline. After all, who would have envisioned that once strong carriers like Pan Am, Eastern (thanks again Frank Lorenzo), TWA, and Braniff would be footnotes in the aviation hall of fame?

In the last two and a half years since 9/11 I've lost 25% of my fellow employees to either furloughs or early retirement. 2,000 fellow pilots are on the street due to our furlough. The rest of us who are lucky to still have a job have taken huge pay and benefit cuts. And with the bankruptcy we have each lost literally tens of thousands of dollars in stock. Stock that we were not able to cash in until retirement and that the bankruptcy court would not allow us to sell and it was therefore liquidated.

All of the above was as a result of a plan that was put in place at the end of the first Bush administration. Back then employees were given a choice of bailing the company out by taking pay/benefit cuts in exchange for stock when the company became profitable again. All of which is gone.

Everyone swoons about the "good old days" when tickets were reasonable and flying wasn't a "cattle car" experience. So nowadays everyone thinks the answer is the "low cost carrier". They seem to be profitable - why doesn't everyone else go "low cost"?

Well, when using that same logic, let's say with consumer products which are so expensive these days, why don't all of the businesses just go "Walmart"? Sure. We could do that with the airlines, too. Just start a whole new airline, get rid of your employees with their pay and benefits and hire your new employees at much lower wages, with no benefits, fight any sign of unionizing, and use these new LowCostCarriers to whipsaw the rest of the industry to match the new, lower-paying "Walmart" jobs or else face liquidation and eventual employment at the new Walmart airline.

Then the taxpayers could pay for food stamps for airline employees and their families like they do for some Walmart employees. Remember Michael Moore's "Stupid White Men" where he was incredulous that he found himself sitting next to a commuter pilot who was actually eligible for food stamps? Not so unusual. When we had a two-tiered wage scale at my airline and I was a low-paid new-hire, there used to be a joke going around; "Do you know why the B scale pilot never eats a crew meal on his last leg? He doesn't want his family to smell food on his breath."

Why stop at "Walmartizing" all the airlines? How about some good old cabotage. Why pay American pilots with years of experience who expect to make a decent living when you can have foreign carrier pilots, preferably from third world countries, operating domestic flights in the U.S.? This isn't some far-our scenario. It's a Bush Administration's wet dream.

Sorry for the rant, but it's depressing to me when I see folks here at DU casually tossing off remarks like, "I hope they all go bankrupt!" because they want to see the greedy CEO's go down. Remember when he goes down we all go down with him. So I'll end my rant with a couple more very different comments about our bankruptcy in the above-mentioned paper.

"Amazing! The flight crews that died on the hijacked planes on 9/11 were heroes. Now they are just over-paid bus drivers and waitresses. How soon we forget."
-Mary

"The real face of conservatism is on display in many postings here, and it's anything but compassionate. Hate and fear, the two cogs in the conservative machine that make the ill-informed vote against their own interests."
-XXX kid

Out of the mouths of babes.

[Bozita]

1. It all started with PATCO in '81

Your argument is well-stated ... and heard.

Thanks.

[ResistTheCoup]

2. Thanks

It started before that with deregulation and the PATCO strike emboldened the Republicans to start busting unions.

Were you a PATCO striker by any chance?

Thanks for the comment.

[MercutioATC]

11. Actually, PATCO brought many of it's problems upon itself...

The government was willing to pay what they wanted, but in a way that would save face (32 hour work weeks with a built-in 8 hours of overtime to make a 40-hour work week). PATCO wanted the government to pay a higher wage using straight time (even though it worked out to the same amount). Not willing to be put in that position, the government gave them a deadline to come back to work or be terminated. We all know what happened.

That said, I do sympathyze with what many pilots are going through now. They can't even count on their pensions, in many cases. In general, they're getting a raw deal.

[mhr]

3. 9/11 And All The Furloughed Pilots Killed My Entry Into Aviation

Thanks *, for nothin!

[Oilwellian]

4. Great post...

and much needed food for thought. :thumbsup:

[LastDemocratInSC]

5. I fly frequently - our nation fades as our airlines fade

Kudos to you, Captain. I don't doubt that as much as I have flown in the past, and fly now, I've flown under your capable leadership. Thanks for your good judgement, good hands, and good eyes.

We in the United States invented flight, we nourished it, we showed the rest of the world how to do flight, and when we end up with Indian pilots bungling their "Hello from the cockpit" messages because they can't speak English ... well, you know.

I fly frequently and the fact that we are losing our airlines is a serious matter. This is an economic barometer ... a canary in the concourse, if you will.

It's just not good at all.

Kudos, Captain!

[Skittles]

6. Excellent post

thank you.

[Delano]

7. There is a HUGE double standard here...

I personally wish no ill to the airlines. I'm well aware of how historically low the fares continue to be, and I think keeping those fares low is good for our economy, and thus merits the loans.

My objection is this: The airlines get tens of billions in loans everytime they start to have problems - it's not a new or infrequent phenomenon. Many have been in the red for years.

But whenever Amtrak, which is forced to share its under-maintained rails with heavy freight trains, needs a trifling $1 billion, it's called a "subsidy" and the repubs again try to get rid of it. The thing is Amtrak is no more "unviable" than any of the airlines. They all need subsidies to keep fares low. I wish our country would invest much more in high-speed intercity rail. On a route like Dallas/Houston, rail would be much more prractical than flying when you take in the longger post-9-11 checkin.

All I'm saying is I hate the double standard of calling it "loans" when it's the airlines, but "subsidies" when it's rail.

[spinbaby]

20. ALL public transportation should be subsidized

Public transportation is a public service and, IMHO, should be both heavily regulated and heavily subsidized. This goes for everything from buses to airlines. If we subsidize SUV drivers by building them interstate highways, surely we can cough up a few bucks for safer, more efficient forms of transportation such as trains and planes.

[lazarus]

35. the airlines fight that, btw

Every now and then, a proposal will come up to put in a high speed rail line in the Dallas-Austin-Houston-San Antonio area.

And Southwest Airlines spends tons of money to defeat the proposal.

[TexasMexican]

8. I think we will be better off...

without so much air traffic.

Cars, Buses, and Trains are the future.

[JCMach1]

9. Come fly for 'Emirates' you won't regret it!!!

:)

[KT2000]

10. We are all on the same sinking boat

This is not to belittle your pain but this country has been headed for "Second Rate" with all but the very wealthy on board. I am sorry you are going through this and the comments are rude and crude.

You are not alone

When I go to the doctor now, I see a Physician's Assistant, not a doctor.
My brother supervises a manufacturing process that will be going to China shortly.

My sister-in-law worked on a project setting up new programs for everyone at the large company where she works - those she worked with were computer programmers from India.

There are cans on the checkout counter in the grocery store for little children with cancer. They need donations for their health care.

A friend on Medicaid who was dying was transferred three times during her last several days of life just trying to find a covered situation for her dying.

People on Medicaid can no longer have dental work or glasses covered.
A freeze was put on Section 8 housing so there are more homeless.

Doctors where I live will not take patients who do not have insurance, they have to go to a low cost clinic that is open Monday evenings only. One woman with a disabling lung condition had to wait a year before she found someone to help her even get a diagnosis.

More employers are using partime workers and not giving them benefits such as health insurance.

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health is being reorganized into oblivion - so that means workers will lose recourse when employers put their health at risk.

Environmental laws are being rolled back so that we will have more people will illnesses, more premature death and more children with disabilities.
and on and on

[saigon68]

13. You forgot the Rich in Their Gated Communities

Who have private armed guards on the compound and shuttle back and forth to the exclusive country club.
They all vote Repuke and think that everyone less fortunate than they are exude laziness and are bums.

We can however be employed to clean their toilets--although the name of the person usually employed to do this task is Maria Gomez </disgust>


And as far as certain airlines are concerned, they treat their customers like cattle.
Hell at the large meat packing plants in Green Bay they treat the cattle as well as the airlines treat their paying customers.

Surly and over worked the uniformed customer service types would instantly be given pink slips in my company if they were caught doing what I have personally seen them do.

I saw a woman being ripped by one of these "heros" in Detroit at NWA. "Have you been drinking ?" The woman- my wifes cousin had not. This in response to a pointed question about why a flight was cancelled.

No we are not complaining just because we are down on the CEO it is because in MHO certain airlines are run very badly.

[Neecy]

23. it's a two-way street

I spent more than 20 years in airline passenger service, first as an airport agent, then a supervisor, then as a station manager and finally as a regional airport manager for an international carrier.

Yes, there are rude individuals who have no business in customer service. Generally, they don't last long.

Walk a mile in their shoes, though. There's constant schedule pressure, staffing pressure, and working with the public isn't always a picnic. As an agent, I was abused on a daily basis if a flight was ten minutes late, or if someone ran up to the gate late and demanded to board a taxiing aircraft, people who refused to pay for excess baggage or who demanded free upgrades, plus the standard drunks and lunatics that are a daily part of the job. Physical violence (thrown staplers, monitors being pushed over at an agent) wasn't uncommon.

Some people handle the pressure and could still smile through the day. I could, but that was back in the early 1980's when I was an agent. Add the new security issues, the bankrupcies that wipe out retirement, the pay concessions and the constant threat (usually realized) of furlough and it's not the easiest job in the world. If someone is surly to you, remember they may have just worked a delayed departure and been bombarded with abuse for the last three hours.

If someone is nice to an airport agent, they'll bend over backwards for you. If someone's a rude abusive bastard, don't expect to be showered with love. It's human nature.

[ResistTheCoup]

32. Exactly right

Thanks for the comments and please see my post #30 regarding this same subject.

[saigon68]

41. Many more used to be nice years ago

Its now few and far between. Just my humble opinion. I did write a letter to NWA guess what? --- no answer and no reply

[0rganism]

12. With a little tweaking, you've got one helluva Letter to the Editor there

Nothing more to say. You've smacked the nail right on its 10-penny head.

[ResistTheCoup]

29. Thanks

I tried to clean it up as much as I could an condense it. It's hard to reign in a rant!

;-)

[ShaneGR]

14. Here's my take on the airline industry's troubles

Certainly I wish for no one to lose their jobs, in fact I have a good friend who works for Delta in Atlanta. But, the industry as a whole, in my humble opinion, is a complete mess. Why? Customer service!

I fly somewhere around 10 times per year. After being herded like cattle through a line to check-in, I'm herded like cattle through security. Once I get to my gate, it's a cattle-call all over again. Somewhere around 25% of the ticket-agents, gate-agents, and security personal tend to treat you like cattle. Not everyone, just enough. Rude enough to make the experience negative. Did I mention the seats crammed so close together that at the end of the flight you need a massage to get the blood circulating again?

So when people talk of airline bailouts, I have to say I'm only in favor of them if that particular airline has a REAL plan to change and be successful. And I'm not talking about better planes or other such nonsense. I'm talking about training employees to smile. I'm talking about not overbooking flights. I'm talking about making flying a great experience for the paying customer again. How about captains who actually greet and say bye to the passengers? Perhaps if flying was fun again, these failed airlines would have a chance at survival. Minus that, I say let them die until someone figures that out.

Peace out, no offense, just my take on the situation.

[napi21]

37. Problems aren't customer service!

I read all your complaints about feeling like hearded cattle and I suppose you could look at it that way. YOu don't like it that the employees don't smile all the time, and need to be more customer friendly. You're right, it wasn't that way in the early stages of passenger flight. But PEOPLE have changed!

It used to be a real event to be able to fly somewhere! Then they fares discounted so much, it became a common means of transportation. Gee, I wonder why you feel like you're riding on a flying bus? You are!

The flying public has demanded cheep fares, and now they're complaining that the airline food isn't what it used to be, and they're not treated special anymore.

People complain about overbooking, but make 4 different reservations for the same day so they can chose what they really want to do at the last minute. No airline can afford to fly planes that are half empty!

I happen to thing there is a place for the discount airlines for those whose only interest is the price of the ticket. But there's also a place for full service airlines too, for the complainers who want to be catered to. After all, it's up to the individual to chose a home in a gated community....that costs MORE...but they want the advantages of security and ...hmm...upperclass neighbors. They don't ride the bus because they don't want to!

It will require all airlines to rethink their plans. Maybe the price for that highr priced ticket, you would get to go through separate security lines, separate lines at the ticket counter(which already exist for frequent flyer members), better food on the plane, attendants with more time so they can be nicer and more attentive to passengers.

Try to remember, be careful what you ask for, you just might get it! I think the flying public got exactly what they asked for...Cheap fares, and more people able to fly. They just didn't realize the tradeoff.

[Puglover]

39. When I started in reservations at NWA in 1979

before deregulation a supersaver ORDTPA at XMAS LOWEST price was 298.00. Now, 25 years later, 264.00. What is wrong with this picture? Funny, I pay more for a car now then in when I bought one in 1979. I also believe a barrel of oil is just a tad more expensive now (over 40.00 a barrel) then in 1979. When the public is willing to PAY to fly again then I think the airline industry will be more then happy to fix the problems. I had a customer pull me away from a urinal once in mid-pee and tell me he wanted to machine gun every employee at the airport. After I zipped up I calmed the guy down and helped him with his problem.....it works both ways...trust me.

[ResistTheCoup]

43. True, true

I know a customer service rep. in San Fran who had an irate passenger (mad about delays due to fog) follow him into the men's room and threaten to kill him. This was one of the nicest agents I knew! He made a hasty exit and called the airport police.

[Jacobin]

15. I'd like to see the airlines re-regulated

Flying in the 1950s and 60's was much more pleasant, predictable. Many more flights to smaller cities that are no longer reasonably served.

Things started going downhill fast after they were deregulated.

[AngryAmish]

24. But much more expensive

All in all, anything over 250 miles I would rather fly.

I have to say, I am a bit of an airplane geek. No matter how much I fly, I get excited. Also, I live really close to an airport so my ground time is really low.

[trof]

16. Retired TWA here. My PATCO story:

Hired on at TWA in '68.
Reagan's firing of the striking controllers precipitated my third layoff.
This is kind of long, but I think you'll find it interesting.
(I've forgotten some of the names, but you'll get the gist.)

The "strike" was brought on, on purpose, by the Reagan administration. A total revamping of the FAA, especially air traffic control, was in the works. More computers and less warm bodies. Rather than face protracted lawsuits, job actions, and general turmoil within the system, they needed a way to dump a lot of personnel in a hurry. I won't get into all the hows and whens, but the FAA began handing down a series of draconian edicts designed to piss off as many workers as possible. They wanted to drive PATCO into a strike. It worked.

When PATCO walked, there was a meeting in Miami. Attending were a representative of the administration (Ed Meese, I think), the director of the FAA or Sec. of DOT (Helms?), and the head of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), J.J. O'Donnell.
The question: Would J.J.'s AFL-CIO affiliated union (ALPA) pilots honor the walkout and ground all their airplanes, or would they fly?

O'Donnell asked:
1. How about air safety with a greatly reduced staff of controllers?
Answer: Take-off and landing slots would be strictly regulated according to the ability of the system to handle traffic. Deregulation had dealt a body blow to many of the established air carriers. Due to reduced operations, the industry would, in effect, be re-regulated for months/years. This would give carriers some much needed breathing space to regroup.

2. With reduced capability layoffs are inevitable. How many ALPA pilot jobs will it cost us?
Answer: A lot...but...we will create jobs at the FAA to take up as much of the slack as possible. Obviously these will be much lower paying jobs than pilots now have, but they'll be jobs.

3. And last, but not least "What's in it for me?".
Answer: Within a year or so (as I remember) O'Donnell "retired" as head of ALPA, and smoothly and comfortably slid over to the feds as an undersecretary of transportation.

For two and a half years I had one of those created jobs at the Boston Center. I got to know some of the higher ups in the FAA who related the meeting story to me. That's when I began to lose a little faith in mom, apple pie, and the flag.
You can call me a cynical old bastard, and you'd be right.

[seaglass]

17. The airlines are an easy target, everyone has one complaint

or another, a bumpy flight, a delayed flight, a surly flight attendant, a crying baby, a bad seat assignment. I guess getting from point A to point B safely and at a reasonable price doesn't count for much anymore.

I was in the travel business for 20 years on the agency end and even though I have dealt with all kinds of people and flight experiences, I have never wished for the demise of an airline (well, once for People's Express - but never seriously).

I don't think most understand the integral role that airlines play in our economy.

In any case, good luck to you and your fellow employees.

[sendero]

18. I missed getting quoted..

.... but your post doesn't change my attitude one iota.

This is a capitalist economy. Capitalism has its flaws, among them being huge swings in supply and demand that cause major disruptions.

I lost my job as a result of the dot.com bust. I did not participate in the ridiculous decisions that led up to the bust, but my career is over nonetheless.

If there was some short term fix that would solve the problem, I'd be all for it. But there simply isnt. For one thing, wage structures in the airline industry will have to come to earth. They are beyond ridiculous. Secondly, demand for air travel is well under supply and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

I'm not remotely happy with ANYONE losing their job, but funnelling billions and billions more money into a failed industry is not my idea of good public policy.

[ret5hd]

21. any facts behind your "wage structures..." opinion?

just wondering why you feel a decent paid job in the u.s. should be wal-mart-ized.

[Puglover]

42. Exactly WHERE are

you getting your "wage structures" and for what airline. Get a clue pal. I made less money last year and paid more for my insurance then in 1990. Before you make such broad statements you should be able to back up your "facts".

[Loonman]

19. I sympathize with the pilots, they have a job to do

But the quality of customer service at 99% of airlines is horrible.


You pay up the ass to be treated like shit.

[JHB]

22. Another (but similar in parts) perspective on the problem

Here's an article from a few years back on the problem, which seems to have changed depressingly little. Considering the source he doesn't exactly go into political angles (i.e., it's bad business by top management, not feeding at the trough), but he does place the source of the industry woes where it belongs: the top management.

Yet even with this new universe of passengers, the airlines weren't making money. They couldn't, not with supersaver prices so low, and the supersavers were fueling the boom. During fare wars, such as the one that United and Continental waged out of Denver for years, tickets occasionally cost so little that the airlines were losing money with each one sold, the same inside-out business paradigm that holds the plot together in the Mel Brooks film The Producers. They could only hope they were building brand loyalty for the next time a passenger had to travel for work.

The airlines were stuck with that economic model because of an astonishing lack of creativity. Beyond subordinate businesses such as American's SABRE reservation system, and the minimal income provided by cargo flights and the sale of frequent-flier miles to credit-card companies, the industry had no revenue streams other than tickets. So when ticket sales went soft with the recession, the losses mounted.

It's as if each of these major carriers was a sports team that needed to sell out its stadium or arena for every game to merely have a chance of breaking even. The difference is that sports teams get a percentage of their income from television and radio rights, souvenir sales, signage, luxury suites and playoff games; if they didn't, ticket prices would be even higher than they already are. Airlines are attempting to survive almost exclusively on paying passengers, and charging many of those far less than logic would dictate.

It's a shortsighted approach, any marketing consultant would tell you. It isn't validated by anything the airline executives learned in business school, or anywhere else. But when you're fully leveraged and fighting for financial survival, it's hard to see further down the road than the next summer travel season-and the income spike that will keep shareholders happy and the airline solvent, at least for the moment.
---more-----
http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Archives/CA_Show_Article/0,2322,152,00.html

[shrike]

25. I owe my life to pilots whose names I don't even know

Been on flights flying through some very rough weather. The one plane got caught in a storm, and quite frankly I don't know how he managed to land the thing. We all applauded when he got us down.

[DemoTex]

26. Damn good post, ResistTheCoup!

My sentiments exactly. Too bad some of these critics cannot ride the jump seat for an eye-opening look-see at what our job is really like. They would probably crap in their pants on a tight CAT-3 approach in heavy snow and fog. Over paid? Hardly! I earned every damn cent I ever made at my airline.

Captain DemoTex (retired)

[ResistTheCoup]

31. Thanks Demo Tex!

High praise from a hero of mine is a great way to start the day!

Damn straight comments and thanks for watching my "six".

;-)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

27. I do not blame the front line personnel at all

because they have no choice but to carry out managements' lame-ass decisions.

For example, one of my favorite in-flight drinks is plain tonic water and lime. It's refreshing, but not as dehydrating as a vodka tonic. All of a sudden, I couldn't get lime with my tonic water on a certain airline. It was only for the people who were paying for the alcoholic version.

I complained to an acquaintance who was a flight attendant for that airline, and she said that some bean counter had decided that the airline could save $40,000 a year by not providing free lime and lemon slices with their soft drinks.

Another acquaintance, who worked at the check-in counter for the same airline, said that she and her colleagues were being heavily pressured to accept part-time schedules, especially if they were senior employees. If the check-in agent was crabby, she said, that was the reason.

Then there's the seating! Arrggghh, I could rant for hours about the seating! A 31" seat pitch and an 17" width is simply not adequate for anyone who is over 5'6" and/or 120 lbs. While air rage is inexcusable, you never heard of it before the seats were crunched together. I'm normally a placid person, but after a few hours in one of those tiny seats, I'm ready to punch out the walls of the plane.

There's a reason that passengers seek out the cheap seats: they know that increasingly, they'll get the same cramped, hungry, irritating experience on every airline unless they pay exorbitant prices for business or first class. Take, for example, the flight I know best, NWA's non-stop between PDX and MSP. The walk-up fare is about $2100 RT, but I've gone for as little as $298 on an advance-purchase fare. On a "bereavement fare," it's $700. There have been times when the AP fare has stayed at $550 for weeks, only to drop below $300 without warning. But whether they pay $2100 or $298, the passengers will be jammed into tiny, hard seats, receive a "meal" that Swanson's TV dinners would be ashamed to sell, and possibly have an overworked flight attendant snap at them. Under those circumstances, who wouldn't try to reserve a fare as close to $298 as possible?

I may be going to Japan in the fall, and NWA has a non-stop from MSP to NRT, but I will try to avoid taking it unless I have to--or unless I feel like using my World Perks miles for an upgrade. I'd rather pay a couple hundred dollars more and have an extra stop on the West Coast in order to take one of the Asian airlines, preferably ANA, which has good leg room and the world's sweetest flight attendants.

There should be a market for passengers who don't want the cattle car atmosphere but can't quite afford business/first class.

Why not have a standard fare that is higher than the current discount fares but lower than the current full fare and stick to it, except for an old-fashioned standby fare available only 1/2 hour before boarding. Planes would fill at the standard price during heavy travel periods, and during slack periods, people with more flexible schedules could go at cheaper rates. In-flight services and seating arrangements could be restored (even 1980s levels would be an improvement).

If I were in charge of drawing up airline bailout packages, I would specify that all cost cuts had to come from executive compensation, with no executive allowed to make more than 25 times the lowest-paid employee. This would prevent the Icahns of the world from using the airlines as cash cows.

[ResistTheCoup]

30. I hear you and could tell a million more stories like yours

about the "bean counters" and their money-saving ways.

And for all the others who are mad as hell about poor/rude service I can relate to that as well. You don't realize how many times we fly as passengers, either "deadheading" (riding in the back en route to another flight) or traveling standby. We've seen it all and been victims of it, too.

The rude service, the ridiculously tight cramped seats. I always joke about how they cram so many people closer and closer in a small aluminum tube in uncomfortable seating, with poor air circulation, feed them alcohol and serve them crappy food by disgruntled employees and then they wonder why they have "air rage".

In defense of the front-line customer service people I have to say that while I, too, have fallen victim to some horribly rude customer service people, I've also had the pleasure of working with and receiving service from a much larger number of extremely over-worked, under-paid, courteous, competent, hard-working professionals. While our customer service people are truly our front-line employees who customers see as the "airline" itself, they are also treated like indentured servants who have to be so-focused on the almighty "on-time" departure that they will do whatever it takes to get the aircraft door shut. We joke that they must make them walk on hot coals for every airplane that doesn't push back on time and that's not too far off. For every late push-back some manager is losing pay and they will make sure the shit flows downhill.

I'm not trying to excuse rude service, but that, too, is a subject that volumes could be written about.

Thanks to everyone for all the positive feedback and wonderful comments to my rant. It's much appreciated.

[Neecy]

38. thanks to you as well

While there are some rude asses who work in passenger service - and I've fired my share of them - for the most part they *are* hard-working professional people who work under an enormous amount of stress (baggage service people in particular - god, they all deserve medals. I worked it for two months as an agent and had things hurled at me all the time, underwent constant profanity and one nice person who wished death on me because her baggage was short-checked by an upline agent).

And yes, the schedule pressure is enormous for everyone. One minute late from an originating station is almost a crime-scene investigation.

[callous taoboy]

28. My brother is a captain

for a major carrier. I understand exactly where you are coming from. He loved his job when he signed on in '87. Morale is extremely low at his airlines. Good luck.

[ResistTheCoup]

33. Thanks for the nice comments, Callous

Give your brother my best wishes.

[loudsue]

34. Thank you for this post, ResistTheCoup....

I've flown so many miles for business that I've often given my Frequent Flier miles to my friends -- like flying them business class ...for free...from Miami to Buenos Aires to join me while I work.

My life has been in the hands of some exceptional pilots on more occasions than I care to remember. One INCREDIBLE Northwest Airlines pilot convinced Air Traffic Control to let him fly at low altitude on a short hop in Michigan with 6 or 7 active tornadoes in the area. He stayed at an altitude where he could see the weather, and we just held on for the ride. He spoke w/ us over the intercom throughout the ride. He had shown dismay that we were told to fly at all. This was in the Spring of '92. When the plane landed, almost every passenger on the plane either hugged or shook hands w/ the pilot. Me...well, I was a hugger.

I've been through thunder/electrical storms where the plane was rocking and rolling, up, down and sideways, for HOURS, between El Paso or Albuquerque and Atlanta.

These are only a couple of experiences I've had...there are many more. Each time, I've trusted my life to a pilot that took that trust seriously. Each time, the Flight Attendants, whose life was also on the line, handled themselves beautifully, in spite of being paid around $15,000/ year and having responsibility for hundreds of whiny passengers.

I will never believe they pay Pilots or Flight Attendants enough money for what they actually do. I've had some "bad apples" in the airline industry treat me with incivility on more than one occasion, but for the most part, I have seen their plight day in and day out enough times that I can hardly fault the whole lot...there are jerks in any job.

It's the CEOs that I resent. The CEOs that make sure shit flows downstream to the people who are actually doing the hard work. The CEOs are protecting the stock holders -- NOT the passengers or the workers. In fact, they're not doing shit for the actual business they're supposedly running, and yet they get MILLIONS of dollars in salary, stock options and benefits. The stockholders and CEOs don't give a whang about my safety or comfort. They only care about taking more of my $$ from me, and giving me as little in return as they can possibly get away with.

Deregulation has been a blight on our Democracy, and is nothing but a scam to return the country to the days of the robber barons. Deregulation (of EVERYTHING that I've witnessed) is just another meme for reshuffling money from the bottom to the top.

In fact, it shouldn't be called deregulation...it should be called re-monopolization, or oligopolization. It just wouldn't be as easily spun for the masses....it would require that the masses actually had to learn something about government and economic systems -- something the very wealthy DON'T want the masses to understand.

:kick::kick::kick:

[ResistTheCoup]

44. You hit the nail on the head about CEOs and stockholders

>> In fact, they're not doing shit for the actual business they're supposedly running, and yet they get MILLIONS of dollars in salary, stock options and benefits. The stockholders and CEOs don't give a whang about my safety or comfort. They only care about taking more of my $$ from me, and giving me as little in return as they can possibly get away with.<<

Abso-friggin-lutely!! They are, as you said, the modern day robber barons. That's why it's so distressing for me to see people take out their frustrations on the workers and not the leaders. Those CEO's are laughing on their way to the bank at the rest of us peons who are fighting over the crumbs. Gleeful to see the general public blame their travel problems on the "over-paid" airline employees.

Excellent post. Thank you!

[AP]

36. I'm reading Stiglitz's last book. He writes about the subsidy corp jets...

...get.

He makes the point that Republicans don't always want deregulation. They fought privatization of parts of the structure that regulates airports because corporate jets don't have to pay the same landing fees that public carriers pay. They get away with this because the decision to do so is made by politicians, and they can control politicians.

They know that if a private company took over the part of the airport regulation structure that makes this decision, a private corporation would never let them get away with this freebie which shifts a huge part of the burden onto the public and off of super wealth passengers of corporate jets.

Are you familiar with this issue?

[Cannikin]

40. ResistTheCoup, some of us hold airline pilots in very high regard.

I for one would give anything for your job. I envy you everyday. Every time I see a contrail, every time I park outside that airport fence to watch. And I most certainly do not wish anything bad on you or your industry. You folks are MY heroes.

Keep the blue side up!

Cannikin

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

45. Bravo.

Thanks for your comments. I work for one of the other major airlines, and it's very much the same here. We never went bankrupt (at last so far), but there have been a lot of layoffs in all employee groups, and it's been a really difficult few years -- even for those of us who were fortunate to keep our jobs. I get so depressed when I hear people complaining about the airlines -- yes, maybe air travel isn't what it used to be, but it seems like some passengers think it's reasonable to be able to fly cross-country for $100 and for that price also get a steak dinner, free drinks and the undivided attention of their own flight attendant, and are angry when they don't get it. And some gripe about "overpaid" airline employees, obviously not understanding how long it takes and what it costs to become an airline pilot, or what those pilots have to go through to stay qualified in the aircraft they fly. I know of pilots, mechanics and other airline employees who have lost not only their jobs, but their homes and even their marriages. Nobody should wish that kind of hardship on other people. I hear rants from people who wish doom on the airlines for no other reason than because years ago they lost their luggage or a gate agent was snippy. And it's true that some airline CEOs make more money than the condition of their companies can justify. But if an airline goes out of business, tens of thoussands of jobs will be lost. That doesn't help anybody.

Hang in there, Captain.