[stevicus]

Since I joined this forum a couple of months, I've been browsing and reading most of the threads, and I have to say that I'm both fascinated and outraged by what I've been seeing here. I also appreciate the feedback from those who work or worked in the airline industry and are in the know about various ins and outs of the business that might be unclear to the average passenger.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the impression I get is that the culture of the airline industry is such that there seems to be tremendous friction between the upper management and the front-line employees. My sense is that the line employees are under a lot of top-down pressure from management, and this seems to have the effect of rubbing many passengers the wrong way.

I also find it interesting to read that when people write to the airlines to complain, they don't really get much in the way of any responsive answer. It's gratifying to read that some have followed through and won in small claims court, but even then, I'm not sure if I would find that very satisfying, since the airlines don't seem to learn their lesson or change their ways.

Don't the airlines have any kind of response to these occurrences? Do they even care about their image or reputation as businessmen? I've known a few unscrupulous businessmen in my life, but at least they had a little more finesse and style. But from what I'm reading here (and drawing on my own personal experience), their "style" is very shoddy and brutish, like something you'd expect from a third world street vendor.

That's what I'm not understanding about the airline industry. I can understand that they want to make money, just like the oil industry, the tobacco industry, the pharmaceutical industry, etc. But even their executives have PR departments to kind of whitewash whatever sleazy practices they might use. But the airlines seem to be so brazen and arrogant about it, as if they graduated from the Soviet Commissar School of Management.

I just don't even understand how it can be a successful business model. It seems that for most of my life, airlines have had various financial woes. Many airlines have gone belly-up and disappeared entirely. The service is always in demand, and there have always been people who are willing to pay for transportation from one place to another place. It's almost like the funeral business in that there will always be customers. I'm reminded of the movie Wall Street in which Gordon Gekko says, "If he owned a funeral parlor, nobody would die."

So what's the real problem here? What would the airline executives say in their defense?