We sure do like to bitch about flying around in airplanes. Here's the data for the past four years:
We're up from about 1,000 complaints per month in 2019 to an average of 4-5,000 complaints per month in 2022. Is airline service really five times worse than it used to be? Most of the objective numbers don't support this, but according to you, the American flying public, the answer is yes!
Why would it have to be 5 times worse to get 5 times as many complaints?
Why would it be linear like that?
I'd expect almost no one to complain about a 10 minutes delay, if it went to 100 minutes I'd expect the number of complains to increase more than 10x.
beat me to it.
"Is airline service 5 times worse than it used to be?"
That's the wrong question. "Is airline service A LOT WORSE than it used to be?" That's the right question. The answer is ABSOLUTELY YES.
Trying to measure a subjective value statement like "better" on a linear scale with uniform increments is a fool's errand. If something is "good" it will nevertheless accumulate some number of complaints, just because it isn't perfect. If it goes from "good" to "bad" it might accumulate a VERY large number of complaints, with good reason.
Here, I'll try to say something nice. I just flew on a cross-country trip this weekend and had a lovely experience. Passengers were all in pretty good spirits; flights left right on time, no delays; attendants were cheerful. Even the touchdown on the runway at my final destination was so smooth, some passengers broke out in applause. Like buttah, it was.
Clearly you didn’t land in Newark.
Oh, I know Newark. See my comment about airports below.
Not totally related, but it is astonishing that one of the safest places you can be is in a jet flying across the country at 40,000 feet. Modern air travel is humanity's most amazing technical triumph.
Makes me think that tackling carbon emissions should really be no problem by comparison.
Part of the problem lies with the traveling public. Airlines for years have been paring back services, making what were once basic amenities like checked baggage, exit-row seats, and snacks up-sells on top of low-priced tickets. And it's apparently been a *very* good business model. People keep buying those tickets and they keep trying to see how big a roller board they can cram into the overhead. Didn't RyanAir at one point entertain charging for using the restroom? I think regulators ultimately nixed that plan, but I wouldn't be surprised if they try again at some point.
RyanAir also abetted the disappearance of a Belarusian journalist by the Lukashenka regime.
And since Kevin has basically invited random rants here about air travel, let me add that for me, the worst part isn't the flight itself or the airlines, it's the airports in the US. The parking sucks. The terminals suck. TSA/US Customs personnel are often shouty and rude. If you're not flying first class and get to use one of the swanky lounges, the gate areas are horrible, with all the boarding lines spilling out into the fairway. Food options at most airports are terrible and horribly overpriced. I could go on. I recently took an international flight that returned to the US via Dulles. I've been through customs in third-world countries that had a nicer re-entry facility than Dulles. To think that this is the first thing foreigners see when they enter the nation's capital should be a national humiliation.
You are right about the flight itself (generally just fine) and the airpits (generally mediocre-to-awful). But I don't agree with you about the airlines. I began flying for business in 1966. For 30 years I watched the airlines' attitudes towards customers, and their treatment of customers, decline from pretty darn good to pretty darn bad. And in the next 20 years I've watched from the sidelines as it has continued its descent into hell-on-earth.
If every airline executive, and every Senator and Representative in Congress, would have to fly Coach, and their only contact with the airlines would be the same telephone system the rest of us have to use, and the same airport personnel the rest of us have to deal with, then I suspect we'd notice a very rapid improvement in the way the airlines deal with us. Short of that revolution, my wife and I travel by car or train and will continue to do so.
I would assert we equally get the coach we deserve. Even on airlines where checked bags are free, people bring all their worldly possessions into the cabin. And try to act like they are the gravitational center if the galaxy. Etc etc.
Air travel is far more democratized than it was 40-odd years ago. And it shows.
Yes, I agree with you. My suggestion about flying coach was not meant to be a condemnation of the cheap accommodations we get in return for the parsimonious attitude we bring to the purchase of our tickets.
Rather, I was emphasizing my opinion that if the folks in power (airline executives and congressional legislators) had to deal with the airlines exactly the same way we do, then we'd get better dealings from the airlines.
How would that change public parsimony?
I am at the stage of life where I need to and can afford to fly business class, where the service is generally fine. When I do have to fly coach or, heavaen forbid fly Ryan Air or some such abomination, I am appalled. Then again if I was twenty and poor again, I would probably save money and put up with the discomfort, but I am not and don't have to. I still find it ironic the airlines were able to outsource baggage handling to the passengers who were happy to do it for free.
I don't fly all that often, usually 2 or 3 times a year.
Frankly, almost all of my issues are with other customers. Sure, the seats suck if you don't fork out to escape the cattle class and they don't feed you. I can live with that, although stiff legs suck more with age.
It is the jackass in the next seat who won't stop talking to me, the crying babies, and the jerk who needs the entire cabin to know he doesn't like being told what to do.
The airlines make the experience miserable. But humans make it intolerable.
“Is airline service really five times worse than it used to be?“
Can’t say cause I quit flying more than 10 years ago. (after logging more than 1 million miles)
To get me back they are going to have to dramatically increase the leg and elbow room.
The thought of being packed in a crowded aircraft stuck on a runway for hours is enough to give me nightmares.
The other thing would be to compare complaints for other services. Maybe people are just complaining more in general? Or feeling more empowered to register complaints?
Now wait--did you correct this for inflation?
😉
Heh. Kidding aside, normalization to something is indicated. Passenger miles or departures.
Some of it is a continuing refusal by the airlines to accept that the world has changed and they need to change.
To take a petty example, which shows the point:
- ten years ago: "OK, I'm in a plane and I can choose my own movies on my own screen! Damn, this is magic!"
BUT
- 2022: "look, my crappy free phone from Cricket Wireless can respond to taps faster than your PoS resistive touch screen. My free phone is visible in sunlight, whereas your PoS screen is barely visible in deep darkness. And WTF do you need to stop my movie at every inane announcement that you feel compelled to make every five minutes???"
Is this unreasonable? Well, yes and no. When the technology experience in the world outside the airplane advances, I don't think it's *that* unreasonable to expect the technology experience to somewhat keep track. I don't think it's surprising that become bitter about this difference; and bitterness leads to a willingness to argue/complain about *anything* actionable, rather than letting it slide.
How often do you replace your phone?
How often do you think an airline can redo the cabin interiors and get an updated, and most importantly FAA-approved, infotainment system?
Flying is like being strapped to a giant crossbow bolt and launched into the air in the general expectation that at some point you will return to the Earth.
Retiring to earth is a certainty. The only questions are when, where, and whether one walks away.
Retire. Return. Sigh …
I'm sure few of us "like" complaining. Particularly since it seems to fall on deaf ears. I visualize meetings of the airline boards where they show Kevin's graph of complaint frequency and all give themselves big bonuses for cutting those so-expensive amenities.
Let the customers howl! They don't like it, they can drive, or take a slow boat. Amtrak? Is that still a thing? What else can we cut or bill for?
Air travel has sucked for a whole lot of years, and has been made far worse by the pandemic. The main reason for the massive increase in customer complaints has been the massive increase is flight cancellations this year. So in addition to the usual inconveniences of air travel made worse by the pandemic (and MAGA folks/ blithering idiots refusing to wear masks), you now have the significant uncertainty whether you will actually get to your destination or be stranded somewhere, and the financial cost of dealing with it.
My JetBlue flight was cancelled at 2:00 AM on the day of the flight this March, and I was stranded in San Diego for 2 days waiting to get a flight back home. JetBlue offered no assistance and we waited 1 1/2 hours for customer service, which I believe is considered a good response time these days.
Can’t personally say it’s any worse other then pandemic related crap. Cxcl flights and not enough customer service personnel to help. Could give you a list of the usual garbage but see no point. It’s always been thus….BTw, the cancellation flexibility my two airlines Jetblue and Delta give you is very nice. That’s something new!
" Is airline service really five times worse than it used to be?"
Yes.
Oh god, yes.
They nickel and dime you to death. The sticker price for the ticket is nowhere near the actual price once you've paid all the extra fees. Delta keeps talking about a carry-on bag fee to go along with their checked bag fee.
They have crammed so many seats in coach that I no longer fit. My legs are too long. I get an aisle seat so I can stretch my legs out in it and relieve the cramps. They twigged to that so now aisle seats cost extra.
Because of all the extra seats and the checked bag fees, there is nowhere near enough overhead bin space. On Delta, if you are not in one of their special categories, you will be checking your bag.
Last time I flew, they changed the gate. But they didn't bother to announce it or to push the information to their app until about 5 minutes before gate closing. Despite paying extra for a comfort seat, I had to park my bag way in the back of the plane. That is part and parcel of a general level of extraordinarily shitty service from every aspect of the airport crew.
I'd like to visit the west coast again, but there is no fucking way I'm sitting in those cramped seats for a 3 to 5 hour flight. Of course, if you're rich, all is sweetness and light and your every whim is catered to.
I remember once hearing about a study that showed that incidents of "air rage" were higher in flights where the coach passengers had to walk through the first/business class cabins, vs those where the coach passengers entered through a separate door that bypassed the front cabin(s).
Makes total sense, given how many people (and it also showed that air rage incidents were very disproportionately committed by male people) get really upset by someone having more than they have, especially if they can invent narratives about how those others are undeserving and/or how some evil forces have conspired to keep them in their low position.
There are so many ways for those with means to bypass the horrors of travel, and regular travel clearly has gotten yukier (less leg room, smaller seats with fatter people squishing into them, etc). I traveled a lot in my pre-kid days and have 1K status, so I get shorter lines, priority bag handling, and I'm high on the upgrade list. This stuff is ALWAYS visible to the people squeezing into coach after being in a long line.
And I am not a male people, thoough at least I am a white people. But my very presence in business probably sets some male people off.
The whole experience has been made worse at every level. Going through security makes it a public stripping and takes a lot of time, which means you have to arrive much earlier. On the plane, the aisles are noticeably narrower, which is another slight stress. And then the seats are crammed together. The very act of sitting is an irritation. All this having been said, it's fairly inexpensive to go L.A. to Europe round trip and to get there in half a day instead of a week.