That’s it. Griping about airline service is a long-standing cultural tradition, and doesn’t have to be fact-driven. Only a few customers pick flights based on *anything *other than minimum fare for the dates and destinations, no matter how they talk. You can put up with almost anything if you know when it’s going to be over, and it’s over in just a few hours, so the tight leg room and nonreclining seats are tolerable.
Follow up on my AA complaints: surprisingly, they responded to the complaint I made and sent us a $400 voucher.
I’m good with travelling cheap and uncomfortable, but if I pay for “frills” I expect them to actually be frills: Don’t sell your wi-fi for $12 an hour if it’s absolute shit, serve expensive food that most folks would reject as gross at an Applebee’s, and for hell’s sake how does a cross-country flight not have COFFEE?!
Also: as a good citizen I always check my rollie luggage and incur an extra $25+ whilst other yahoos roll up to the gate with an enormous suitcase that has no chance of fitting overhead that the gate agents check in for free. Good scam!
It was evident that the attendants on our flight were understaffed and overworked. There was no one to sop up the sloshing floor piss – it’s not their fault, but for a $650 seat I expect a lot more. Much more. When we fly really cheap (Frontier, Southwest) I don’t expect much more than not having to tread in pee.
And NO airline should make passengers sit for 90 minutes in 105 degrees without AC.
I’m curious, as I don’t think I’ve ever seen FA’s selling clothing or jewelry in the aisle of the plane. On which airline(s) does this happen?
I see it every time I fly to St Martin. Duty free sales, sign up for airline credit card and get miles, etc.
IME it is a thing on international flights.
That’s my experience, as well. On domestic US flights, I’ve never seen flight attendants selling anything but food, alcoholic beverages, and occasionally headsets for use with the in-flight entertainment system.
I think a lot of people don’t realize just how highly regulated and comprehensive airliner maintenance is. There are four different levels of mandatory overhauls set at different flight hour levels, from A checks, which are every 200-300 cycles/flights and take 50-70 man-hours and around 10 clock hours, up to D checks, which are every 6-10 years, and the aircraft is literally disassembled, checked out, and put back together. These take 50,000 man hours and 2 calendar months. Each commercial airliner gets roughly 3 D-checks in its lifetime.
Plus on top of that, there are other flight-hour/cycle related maintenance thresholds for the various components such as engines, etc… that carriers should follow, as well as stuff like daily checks, walkarounds, etc…
That stuff adds up.
You need to go fly on Air Koryo (North Korean Airlines) or Lao Aviation sometime. United won’t seem so bad after that.
You don’t understand American business marketing. Consider hotels. If you pay $50 for a hotel you get a free breakfast and free wi-fi. If you pay $250 you pay $15 a day for wi-fi and are stuck with a breakfast buffet for $20.
Southwest FAs are as least as good as any others not in first class, and free luggage too.
Now really pay and it is better.
If ever there were a perfect place to use scare quotes, it’s around the word “breakfast” in that sentence.
I just flew cattle class to and from Costa Rica on Delta a few weeks ago, no hawking of clothing or jewelry in the aisles and headsets were free. Is it specific to one or two carriers? No to derail the thread, but this fascinates me.
I’ve flown to/from Japan several times (Delta), free headsets and no captive-audience marketing.
IME flying to the Caribbean, American Airlines and United both push their credit cards, duty free crap, and things like sunglasses.
I bought a pair of sunglasses once. They looked great, seemed like a good deal cost wise, but fell apart before my return flight.
ETA: it’s one reason (along with chatty peeps) I keep my earbuds in the entire flight, even if I’m reading.
I understand American biz marketing really well, thanks, and I “really did” pay upgrades for comfort. However, everybody on that plane suffered the heat, pee-covered potty floors, lack of coffee and tea, and shitty/nonexistent wifi (and a few grapes on their way to becoming raisins, if they bought the cheez froot platter; the sandwiches were worse - my seatmate’s bread was sopping wet and inedible).
AA apparently agrees that they didn’t meet their basic responsibilities to customers, thus the vouchers they sent us. I hope everyone on that flight, from cattle to first class seating, complained and got vouchers. Hell, I overheard an attendant telling a passenger that he should file a complaint.
I’m fine taking Frontier, Southwest, and other cattle transport for flights under two hours. I pay premium for cross-country flights because it’s agonizing for me to sit huddled up for hours (herniated discs and stenosis). And flying cattle still wouldn’t excuse keeping customers hostage in dangerous heat for 90 minutes and not cleaning lav floors of piss.
Some aspects of flying just aren’t controllable: delays due to weather and mechanics, waiting to takeoff, and so on. These are just the realities of flying around in metal tubes. Issues caused by an airline’s incompetence, deliberate understaffing, lack of maintenance, and just-don’t-give-a-shit money-grubbing are controllable and should be complained about. Punto final.
As I said, paying a very large premium can get you somewhat better conditions. But I just flew business class back and forth to Hong Kong, and except for the seat and the booze it was not all that different from economy back when I was in college, before deregulation.
But paying $800 for an economy seat doesn’t get you much more than paying $300 - though now it is better than the super-economy fares. It used to be low cost airlines gave you less and higher cost ones gave you more, now the higher cost ones don’t give you more than the lower cost ones. (Not counting the super low cost ones.)
I’ve had some that were not bad. Not the Savoy, but comparable to what I’d do at home.
I recently had to make a last minute trip and the Economy and First Class RT fares were both around $1K, with only about $200 difference either way. So I went for First. If Economy isn’t particularly economical, then why not trade up?
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I realize this is late for this thread, but one thing that bugged me about the OP was the airline’s decision to divert to Corpus Christi. Austin and San Antonio are both closer to Houston than Corpus, and much more likely to be able to have pilots and FAs to replace those who are likely to “time out” as a result of the diversion.
After thinking about for a month, I have come to the conclusion that the decision to go to Corpus was based on the fact that the only way to get from Corpus to Houston on a commercial flight is to fly United. Both Austin and San Antonio are serviced by several airlines that fly to Houston, so the passengers would be able to catch a flight with another airline (or, even, rent a car and drive it, it might be quicker). But, by diverting to Corpus, United is pretty much guaranteed that all passengers would have to wait for the United flight to resume their journey. Although it would be much more convenient for the passengers to fly to Austin (or SA), it would make United less money.
Just another reason I hate flying.
Not true. We have airports in the US that are not staffed 24/7. When not in use they are locked up and monitored remotely.
As to the op’s fuel question, it is determined by the airline’s Operations for maximum efficiency under given conditions. It ca be overridden by the Captain which happens often. But weather is a fickle thing and what looked optimal at departure often changes upon arrival.
Southwest flies from Corpus to Houston Hobby. There are also flights from Hobby to Bush.
I have a question that’s a slight hijack. If the flight you’re on diverts to an airport that is your final destination, will the airline typically let you get off at that airport? For example if the OP was actually going to Corpus, would they have made him stay on the plane, fly to Houston, then get the connecting flight, or would they let him deplane since he was already there?
They could catch another flight with another airline at Austin or San Antonio, but they’d probably have to pay out of pocket, so why would United care? The legacy airlines are a lot more reluctant to send customers over to other airlines than they used to be.