As fares and fees rise, passengers want service

Airlines today are nothing more than busses with wings. Their service is horrible and not one of them deserve any loyalty.

If Southwest can control its costs through aggressive hedging, certainly not a proprietary tactic, why are the execs at the other airlines still getting performance bonuses? By following their logic of reducing space in order to control costs, why don't they just cancel all flights and maximize their savings?

As a longtime Alaska Airline Customer I have made the switch to Southwest. Charging for a second bag was the last straw. If Southwest can fly and make a profit why can't all the other airlines?
Now if Southwest would just fly to Europe I could dump Continental and American too!

I am not happy with any of it. But mostly the hassle of getting in past security at the airport. Not to mention, with the ever increasing delays, and lack of smoking options, it is all just too much. I'd rather ride my motorcycle to my destinations. I can see much more, go where I want when I want, and I can smoke when I want. Now that my friends is the freedom we ALL use to enjoy.

If airlines are going to charge for first bag, they need to enforce the carry-on policies. As more people carry-on to avoid the fee, the overhead compartment space is filling up before everyone can get on board the plane. So you can either pay to check your bag, or pay to get a premium seat and board the plane sooner. Unfortunately, the last few flights I was on, they could have boarded the plane 10 minutes faster if not for the search for overhead compartment space.

As a person who has had a knee replacement, (steel) I receive a full pat-down search each time I am forced by circumstances to fly. It strikes me as overly expensive these day to do such manual searches on someone who has flown commercial since 1959! Airline service? There is no service! You are just another steer in a cattle car! Move along or we'll tap you with a prod! You can't take your own food and airports really stick it to travelers with exorbitant sandwich and drink prices. In Tampa recently, I spent ten dollars for a sandwich. Turned out to be an inedible piece of garbage made in New Jersey, probably three days earlier! Oddly, Tampa is a nice airport. I feel the local governments are the main reason food is priced out of sight! (High rent, piece of the profits, no quality control)
An aside; I cannot imagine smoking, particularly on my motorcycle! But I'm sure there is a clip-on ashtray on the handlebars?

Flying is an exercise in misery unless you fly first class, and even that's not even a guarantee of a flight worth the cost. The horrible seats, the crappy service, the miserable rations, the bins full of luggage, the idiot next to you blaring his iPod earphones. This nation needs high speed rail.

The services offered by the Airline Industry as a whole has made the prospect of taking more time and driving where I want to go more appealing than flying aside from time , in most cases the cost factor is about the same, unless forced to by time constraints. I have a similar problem to the fellow with the knee replacement, as I have a bunch of staples in my knee due to a Baseball injury more than 30 years ago. Not only do I get socked with all the added fees, I get to step aside and raise your hands please Sir. The personell do their best to make it as painless as possible, but why the heck can't they take the Doctor's note and leave me the hell be?

I have quit flying! I will probably die on this island without ever getting off it. If I want to go to the other islands I can take the supperferry. I have had a hip replacement and get the full treatment every time I fly. It sucks! If I don`t use the airlines I don`t have to worry about it.

If we have to pay more for flights...why must the customer service at the ticket counters, gates and on-board go down? One way to make the experience of paying more for the flight better would be to INCREASE service to the customer and lose the attitudes. Most airline employees greet you as if YOU are trying to take money out of THEIR pockets. With the current check-in technology reducing their job's necessary skill sets to sometime a monkey could do; it seems like the least that they could do is treat US like humans. Otherwise it seems like it only puts their jobs in jeopardy in the long run.

I have only two expectations: Get me to my destination on time as promised. Get my bags to my destination at the same time as I arrive. I get a little tired of all the excuses that airlines use to explain delays. Weather? Is the weather now that much worse than 10 or 20 years ago? I don't think so. Increased costs? Fine, charge me what it costs. I will gladly pay the real price if you can fulfill my two expectations. What other businesses fail to charge what it costs them to do their thing? Price competition from your competitors as an excuse does not make much sense as everyone is in the same boat so-to-speak. This whole industry, with maybe the exception of Southwest, has "lost their way" for their business model.

I'm right with the biker (by the way, if you have a good fairing, you can smoke at 70 mph!) - I use airlines only when it is impossible to get where I need to go in the time available. If there was a sensible rail service in this country, you would never see me in an airport again. And I used to love flying - still do when it is private flying.

But the cattle chutes, complete with Taser armed Gestapo, and seats that wouldn't accommodate a kindergartener, and uncertainty as to whether you even have a seat, are intolerable. Bring back the regulated airlines - at least you had some reliable flights and quality of service.

I think I can best describe POOR service by sharing my most recent flight experience. Soon after boarding had begun for my 6 p.m. flight out of LaGuardia, a tornado warning was issued for the county immediately across a narrow stretch of water from the airport. The airline (Delta) made no mention whatsoever of the warning to its passengers, but continued boarding us onto the plane as if there were no cause for alarm. I boarded because I assumed that they had a flight plan that would allow us to take off going away from the storm. Only AFTER the plane had pushed back from the gate were we told that we were about to embark on an extended cruise around the tarmack, waiting for the weather to clear and then taking our place in line for takeoff. We taxied around for over 2 hours. Moments before we finally took off we were finally told that we had been 48TH in line. Almost everyone missed their connections when we finally arrived in Cincinnati after 10:30 pm, but we were told that the airline would not pay for hotels for the stranded passengers because the delay was 'weather related.'

GOOD service in this instance would have been to wait out the TORNADO WARNING in the terminal rather than force the paying passengers to choose between riding around in a flimsy airplane on the open tarmack, or paying high fees to switch to a later flight. GOOD service would have included telling the passengers BEFORE they boarded the plane that they would be delayed on the ground for a couple of HOURS. GOOD service would have included paying for hotel rooms for those passengers who got on the flight and missed their connections. Canceling the flight would have been a more humane choice for the passengers than the inconveniences and actual risk of bodily harm we were forced to endure.

I understand that bad weather happens, and it really messes up travel schedules. But passengers should be given choices about how to deal with the delay, along with sufficient reliable information on which to base their decisions. It's our money, our time, and our safety, after all.

They could hire people with personalities. And i am not talking flight attendants. In general I have gotten excellent service from them. How about folks behind the counter who are helpful? Or just FOLKS behind the counter.

I landed in O'Hare late, missed my connection and had to run 2 terminals (1 mile) to find an American Airlines staff member to rebook. I tried the 1-800 number to get a patronizing rude person who could only tell me i had to find a person. They knew I was on the flight. They KNEW THEY ran late and I missed my connection, THEY should have put a person at the gate to help us out.

We wanted deregulated airlines,we got them!
We wanted a deregulated finincial sector,we got it. Now the poor people are waking up to the fact that they've been
screwed......and the rich fly in their Gulfstream V jets, laughing
their butts off. Time for the poor,tattooed,and obese to wake up.
Self-regulation means NO regulation.

To improve service do the little things they are supposed to do:
Begin boarding on time, then they do not have to rush people when it is their fault they are not in the seats.
Be sure passengers are not bringing on packages they know will not fit. Stop them at the door, not when they have crowded the aisle.
Be sure seats are upright on takeoff and landings. Safety, right?
Be sure gate personnel are available when a plane arrives at the gate (how many times do you have to wait).
As for security, if you have an unopened sealed bottle (water, coke) let it through. Change the size of liquid containes to 4 oz that resemble the sizes sold by most companies (P&G, gillette, etc).

Enough! Give us value for what they are selling and stop whining. Act as a business.

It's time to bring back government regulation of the airlines. With government regulation, fares are set by the FAA and since fares for the same route are identical, airlines are forced to compete on service. Back in the 1970s, airline travel was a pleasure. In flight service, even in coach, was very comfortable, with sufficient leg room and seat size and in flight meals were luxurious (remember filet mignon steaks cooked on board in coach? Well I do). Since the airlines wouldn't be afraid to increase their fares for fear of losing customers -- since the fares are set by the FAA -- they can cover their costs without absurd additional fees. Air travel would become civilized again, airlines would return to profitability, and we could even - gasp - return to non-stop flights between major cities.

As we've seen in the financial sector, deregulation has been a disaster. It's been almost as bad in the airline sector.

Bring back regulation. Time to return sanity to air travel.

To improve service do the little things they are supposed to do:
Begin boarding on time, then they do not have to rush people when it is their fault they are not in the seats.
Be sure passengers are not bringing on packages they know will not fit. Stop them at the door, not when they have crowded the aisle.
Be sure seats are upright on takeoff and landings. Safety, right?
Be sure gate personnel are available when a plane arrives at the gate (how many times do you have to wait).
As for security, if you have an unopened sealed bottle (water, coke) let it through. Change the size of liquid containes to 4 oz that resemble the sizes sold by most companies (P&G, gillette, etc).

Enough! Give us value for what they are selling and stop whining. Act as a business.

What do passengers want? We want to be treated like real people; I'm not expecting personal service unless I pay for it, but basic human dignity would be nice. We want seats we can sit in without endangering our backs, circulatory systems (deep vein thrombosis concerns), and general health (air and water quality on board). We want fares that don't nickel and dime us to death. We want posted schedules that are realistic representations of when we will reach our destinations and / or make our connecting flights. Charging for checked baggage is crazy. It's just creating more chaos on board. And I'm in a situation that for medical reasons I have to carry extra liquids when I travel more than a couple of days; with the 3-ounce restrictions for carry-ons, I don't really have choice about whether to check my main bag.

It takes a lot of money to satisfy a culture that is obsessed with getting everything it wants. Hopefully next time we enter a period of prosperity, more people will save for hard times like these instead of buying Cadillac Escalades and eating sushi every night.

Rising airfare is just another sign that the bill for all the years of living beyond our means and ignoring the reality of scarcity is finally due.

Put in real consumer protections

1. If you are on the tarmack for more than one hour return to the terminal
2. Issue refund for tickets if notified befor 72 hours or give us a method to sell the ticket
3. Reasonable bagage fee
4. Stop nickle and diming us
5. Speed up check in.
6. Allow me to give my ticket to some one else
7. Properly publish your prices
8. Be on time
9. Understand that the passenger is the customer
10. Implement real security solutions not BS like take your shoes off, or you can only have X number ounce of a shampoo.

"We realize that in order for us to regain that brand recognition and the customer loyalty that we used to own in the '80s and '90s, we ought to do something very dramatic and different," said Mark Mitchell, American's managing director of customer experience.

What is wrong in this picture??? It's this "Managing Director of Customer Experience". It sounds like Microsoft and their OOBE - "Out of Box Experience".

I did drugs, and I did Hendrix - now that was an EXPERIENCE...

But somehow these Bozo's miss that it's about Customer SERVICE... And until they get that mindset, and give TRUE prices, rather than getting $3, $5, $10, and $25 to death, they will atrophy and die...

I fly Southwest and only southwest. I always have a good experience, hands down. I fly almost once a week and would kill my self if I had to fly on American. the people are rude and the fares are terrible. Southwest seems to honestly care about whether or not you fly with them again and that is a rare quality in any industry these days.

Frankly, For the most part, I believe the customers are getting what they demand. All the internet sites are geared to shop for the lowest fare. If an airline charges even fifty cents more than a competitor, he goes to the bottom of the list of options - if he appears on the screen at all. We can not have great service at fares that have not increased in years.

Look at American Airlines. Several years ago they went with their "More Room Throughout Coach" promotion. Customers complain because seats are cramped. American was the only airline to do this. Did they win customers from their competitors. No, not even charging the same fare!

I read these gripes, and I wonder if passengers expect their shoes shines, their necks massaged and their kids burped. Phil Graham would have been more correct when he said we are a nation of whiners if he had been discussing airline passengers and not citizens is this economy.