American Airlines Sucks and Why the Airline Industry is Similar to the Healthcare Industry
I am writing this on a Saturday morning. I traveled all day Friday from California on American Airlines. Can we just state upfront how terrible this industry is? A 5.5 hr flight and they may give you a little packet of pretzels and one offer of a drink. Do you remember the days of actual meals? Yes, they weren’t great but it was something. Here’s a picture from even before my time.
Today these crooks pack people in like sardines. Anything to maximize profit. But that is all tolerable, I guess. We now accept this piss poor quality of service. What bothers me the most, however, is the lack of accountability. Let me explain.
My first flight from California to Austin was late for NO reason. None. I sprinted off the flight to get to the next gate and, alas, that flight was now late. NO reason. The weather was fine. Finally, after over an hour wait we take off. I had plenty of time for my last connection to Lynchburg where I live but it was the last flight of the night. Initially, it was going to be more than an hour layover but we were down to 35 minutes by the time we landed. Then the fun began. The plane landed about a mile away from the gate. Uh oh. When we finally get to the gait it is blocked by “some carts” according to the pilot. Uh oh. When we finally pull up to the ramp there is no one there to dock us and open the door. Uh oh. When I finally got off in the Charlotte airport (one of the worst airports to ever navigate), I sprinted to the gate for my next connection. When I got there they had already closed the doors. These bastards had to know their last two passengers were on their way!! You can’t tell me they don’t have that technology. They just don’t care. And that’s the problem. It was 11 PM and my wife and I were stuck in Charlotte for the night.
I was irate. Somehow American Airlines picks the last flight of my day to be “time sensitive”. We went to the service counter and immediately the woman said that it was not their fault due to an unforeseen backlog of planes (whatever the f#ck that means) and they would not cover food, hotel, taxi, or anything. They were telling everyone in the long line the same thing though those passengers were from different flights. I smelled a scam. These service counter people are obviously told NOT to give anything out. They fight and patronize and condescend until the customer gives up. Luckily (maybe), my wife was tenacious and the service person gave us a hotel and a voucher for food. We were the lucky ones, I guess, but the hotel they gave us was 20 minutes away costing me over $50 in Uber fees. Also, it was a dive in the seedy part of town. The voucher didn’t even cover coffee and a croissant sandwich in the morning. My Uber driver told me some of the airline secrets. The service counter attendants wait as late as they can to give anything out so as to get the lowest hotel prices. This was why our room was so far away and in a slum.
The airline industry and American Airlines should be ashamed of themselves. This is what happens when the free market is shut down and these bastards get monopolies and strongholds over certain areas. Nothing but American uses my local airport.
Let’s not forget the terrible service at the airport. The service counter person actually screwed up our ticket for the next morning making us wait in line again for our tickets. Luckily we got seats. And how about the workers at Charlotte who couldn’t bother to clear the path for the plane to dock or open the door? Where is the accountability for them making so many of us miss our connections? The airport was basically empty and I saw tons of workers were just sitting at different gates on their phones.
Let’s summarize;
- Monopolies.
- Poor service.
- Lack of accountablity.
- Lack of caring.
- Probably bounty hunters motivated NOT to give hotel, taxi, food vouchers and if they do then they cheap out and give you crap.
- High cost and lack of amenities
This is the same as the healthcare industry. You see it with hospital systems that control certain areas.
Whatever happened to great service, pride in your work, and being good at what you do? It’s gone in the airline industry and the healthcare industry, except for Direct Primary Care.
As I live in the metroplex of Texas near the hub I will mention that that is actually non-American Airlines, ever since their merger with US Airways the cultures have clashed and there has not been any pleasantness coming from any worker in a long time, and for the record it was not a merger but a takeover and US Airways is in charge. And it shows. But I have told some of my staff in the past is that if we don’t work on service, the building we are in will become a Baby Gap. Isn’t that what happened in 2020? We just decided we didn’t have to fly around the country all the time and they got desperate and they started to offer lower fares and they were happy to see us? Since we do not have a legitimate opportunity of capitalism here, we just have to walk out. But I don’t plan on walking to Washington DC in two months, so everything I just said is pretty much garbage. we are captives.
Monopolies don’t go away on their own – it requires government action. Would you support that?
Has flying gotten better or worse since airlines were deregulated in 78 (I can see both sides of that one)?
I support a real free market…especially in medicine. That is why Direct Primary Care is so successful.
Agree that DPC is great. We’re not doing it, but it’s really the only completely ethical type of medical practice.
But don’t we have monopolies, in both medical care and airlines, because of extremely lax anti-trust regulation and enforcement?
I am not educated enough on this to answer appropriately
7. Big Wall Street investors looking for short-term gains
Disagree with 6. Prices are generally too low. We get what we pay for.
Great summary of how corporations seek to maximize profits. Applies to every industry. Unfortunately customers usually look for the cheapest (not best) option, thus incentivizing the behavior.. welcome to the future world of NPP’s providing your medical care…. Maybe non pilots flying your planes is next? 🤣
Americans in all areas of business and service have stopped taking pride in a job well done. I find this so sad. No matter what one does for a living, one should show up daily to be the best at that job, anything less is un-American.
The rest of the world (except maybe Japan) gave up on being great at least 20 years ago. Pride and work ethic are quickly fading away as we emulate the European poor service, “don’t really want to be here attitude”, minimum pay should be 20 dollars/hr and 8 weeks/year of vacation attitude here in the US!!
Unfortunately consumers demand lowest prices. Airlines are barely profitable and stocks alternate between bankruptcy and stagnation.
On the other hand the recent fights between University hospitals and insurers are the fight over profits. Universities have realized they have negotiating clout , as the patients always come. While the rest is us fight for 1.5 x Medicare they demand 4x Medicare or they will out of network 6x. University medical school full professors are routinely 7 figure salaries.
Flying is miserable. We travel cross country to visit our daughter many times per year and we have rules that we follow when planning the trip:
Avoid American Airlines. Several years ago, our trips on American went okay. The past year or so, it’s been terrible. Inexplicably canceled flights, late flights, etc. A good flight means I will at least land in the right spot the same day I take off. American? Good luck with that!
Direct flights only. Yet, for American Airlines, this won’t help you at all. You will arrive at the airport and find you have been moved to a multi-connected flight with no time to dash to the next flight.
It’s been a while since we traveled on our old standby, SouthWest. We gave up a couple years ago when we found an airplane ticket on SouthWest felt more like a lottery ticket.
Big city airports only. I don’t know what I’d do about Lynchburg. Drive to Richmond Airport?
The systems with prepaying airport parking and rental cars are another scam. We haven’t figured out how to avoid parking prepayment in the D.C. area. Hundreds of dollars and if your flight is delayed by a day, you lose all of the money when you trudge back to your car. Same with rental prepayments. Yet, if you don’t prepay parking, the parking lot will be totally full.
Carry on luggage only. If you check luggage, be prepared to lose it for a week or two. Apple Air Tags kind of give you a clue when you have last minute flight switches and are wondering if your luggage is following you. Yes, if the flight is full, we will check the carry on at the last minute.
Crazy as it sounds, we started flying Alaska Airlines to California. We just avoid the window seat…
It’s not as if flying has gotten more affordable. If anything, it’s gotten insane.
Yes. They have you and they know it. Working in the industry is probably hell.
I liken it to CVS Pharmacy.