Improving customer service in the air

Skinny people complaining? Now it's bad
Window seats used to be the big desire, but not anymore, no one wants to be squeezed in there for hours.

I would think an airline that gave you a couple more inches across and for your feet would have a great advertising campaign to win customers.  I'm one that actually likes NWs option to buy the premo seats at the front (but still no more room), but I've booked their flights when only middle seats were left knowing that I'll most likely be able to buy something better for just $15 at check-in.  This leads into my next thought ...   Read the full entry

Unions impact customer service
For me, there are two major issues that prevent good customer service from the airlines:

1. Unions — the unions are the reason that the airlines cannot get rid of the surly, miserable flight attendants in favor of those who are actually doing their job.  I spent part of my last flight on Northwest listening to the flight attendant complain about how she doesn't get paid enough, how the airline treats flight attendants horribly, and the fact that she can't get on the better routes because she doesn't have seniority.  ...    Read the full entry

Infrequent fliers' wish list
We fly 2-3 times a year.  Here's our "wish list":

1. Put the folks that insist on dragging everything but the kitchen sink on their vacation in the back of the plane and charge them $10.00 per piece of luggage that they store in the overheads.  We are sick and tired of having these people hold up the line when getting on/off the planes and hogging what little space there is up there.  What's more, it's no fun getting clunked on the head by a bag that comes tumbling out of the overhead compartment.

2. Make it clear from the start of the flight who is in charge:  the flight crew.  Remind passengers before takeoff that if there's an incident, the pilot has the final say as to what action is taken, and, if the offense is egregious enough, they'll be hauled away in handcuffs.  No excuses, no exceptions.  ...   Read the full entry

Be upfront
1. Provide honest and accurate information about flight delays.

Southwest is the worst about this. They post delays 20 minutes at a time typically — and this can go on indefinitely.  Well, they know where their aircraft is, they know when it left its destination, and they know when it will be arriving at your gate.  Why do they do lie about this?  I don't know, but if you ask the gate agent more than one time for a honest and accurate estimate of departure time, that Southwest phony perkiness quickly becomes aggressive hostility, and combative confrontation, and quite possibly insults to your integrity and threats against you, just because you asked that question in a perfectly reasonably unangry way.  All that after we've been insulted by being lied to repeatedly that the flight was leaving in ... 20 minutes (even though it wasn't even at the gate).  And just as bad:  piling you on the plane, pushing back and THEN telling you that there will a 2-hour delay before departure.  Frankly, I think that practice should be considered criminal and should be stopped.

2.  Seats, as noted elsewhere here.  Heads pushed forward awkwardly.  No pillows to help stabilize your head if you want to sleep (hooray to Southwest for keeping them, boo to American and others for eliminating them, saving a few hundred thousand dollars system-wide, which is peanuts, but at a great cost of discomfort to passengers).  Seat width, and aisle width, too:  Yay Airbus, boo Boeing. ...   Read the full entry

They should stop over booking
This is the only company that I know of that can break a contract and get away with it.  When you bought your ticket there was a contract between you and the airlines. ...   Read the full entry

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