Jim,
I admire your zeal, but I just feel like the situation is beyond repair. Airlines need to fail and the industry needs to get smaller. It needs to become more expensive to fly. Airlines must be able to conduct their business profitably. I have never seen an industry that continued to sell their product for less than their costs and decide they need to sell more of it because their competition does.
Madness.
And finances are not to be taken lightly in an industry where safety is critical. I used to fly NW when I flew to Hawaii/Japan and Korea. They were one of the first to
file Chapter 11. I used to think about how happy the mechanic was who worked on the 747 I was riding in while I was at 38k over Alaska. I then switched to United, but there was/is not place to run and hide. They are all the same. And you cannot run an airline like Greyhound. People can easily die when cargo doors aren't latched properly, maintenance is done improperly/not at all, de-icing is done improperly, etc..
I have 2 brothers who are in the industry. They both worked for carriers but now work in other segments. One was a station manager(regional carrier - folded), the other was in commercial sales(United - downsized twice). They were both stessed out adreline junkies who became defensive when I would regale them with my road warrior tales. They sounded the industry hacks on this site who some how always blame the customer. I don't know, I used to pay my money, follow the rules and yet continued to be screwed by the airlines. And it my fault?
And since I am related to a couple of guys who worked behind the scenes, I heard the stories about how people lied, ran away and hid when the pressure was on and avoided their contractual responsibility. My brother told me of having mulitple mechanical delays at the same time that extended beyond the deadline where compensation was due. His boss came over wringing his hands worried about passing out 500+ travel vouchers and my brother said, "don't worry, I'll take care of it". He worked the crowd, kept them informed, made jokes and saved his airline a sh#tload of money.
And do you know why the had multiple mechnicals? They had filed for bankruptcy and laid off the younger mechanics who had been doing the day-to-day maint. This forced the senior guys out of the hangers who had been doing heavy maint out onto the front line. He went down to their breakroom to get an update and found 8 guys enjoying their breaks. He says, "dudes, where do we stand?". Their response,"we'll get back to you".
LOL.
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