How to stop travel’s sad customer-service slide

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Call the cops.
The travel industry’s second-biggest fear, behind telling your friends about your lousy experience, is telling the government about your lousy experience. Why are they less afraid of the cops than your friends? Mostly because local, state and federal authorities stay out of the affairs of airlines, car rental companies, cruise lines and hotels.

For example, if you write to the Department of Transportation with an airline complaint, chances are it will just acknowledge your letter and add it to its monthly report. It doesn’t have the resources to investigate every complaint. Still, you should tell them. (I have a list of every relevant regulatory agency on my site).

The reason: times are changing. There’s a move to increase the Transportation Department's Office of Aviation Enforcement & Proceedings budget $2.5 million next year, which could add 25 staffers to the division, and increase enforcement actions. In other words, the cops are on their way.

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Become an activist.
If none of the above seems like enough, consider turning things up a notch by becoming a full-time crusader for better customer service. That’s what Kate Hanni, a Napa, Calif., real estate broker did after she was trapped on an American Airlines flight for nine hours earlier this year. Hanni took her fight to Capitol Hill, where she’s been pushing for an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights.

Last month, when I caught up with her in Washington, she told me she was dedicated to the cause for the long haul, but could use a little help. That’s true. Although there are many other self-described consumer advocates, many have hidden agendas and are funded by the very companies they’re trying to change. Unless more concerned travelers like Hanni come forward and try to change the industry, bad service may become a standard.

Bad customer service isn’t inevitable. But unless more people vote with their wallets and speak up when things go wrong, we might one day look back on the first decade of the 21^st century as the Golden Age of customer service.