[Gromit801]

I'll bet you wouldn't expect to get a flat tire on the way to work, or delayed by traffic accidents in front of you on the freeway, but they happen.

Hope for the best and plan for the worst. Life's works better that way.

[jimworcs]

The classic "so would you prefer to fly on a broken plane" response to any complaint of technical difficulties is ridiculous. There is an alarming trend in US avaition to allow airlines to consolidate into huge behemoths, which have huge monopoly hubs and work against the interests of travellers and frankly their employees. This site and others are rife with numerous complaints of problems associated with this anti-competitive merger... complaints in customer services, processing of complaints, handling of baggage, delays, cancellations and re-routing without being notified. Instead of acknowleding the validity of the concerns and complaints of previously loyal customers such as this one, he is instead subjected to the kind of snarky response of xjcaptain and gromit....and this typifies the problem in this industry. Not only does it not respond to customer experience, it abuses them when they do complain. This industry needs to be broken up... it is the modern day equivalent of the "robber barons" and illustrates perfectly what happens when companies get too big to fail.

[xjcaptain]

Originally Posted by jimworcs

The classic "so would you prefer to fly on a broken plane" response to any complaint of technical difficulties is ridiculous. There is an alarming trend in US avaition to allow airlines to consolidate into huge behemoths, which have huge monopoly hubs and work against the interests of travellers and frankly their employees. This site and others are rife with numerous complaints of problems associated with this anti-competitive merger... complaints in customer services, processing of complaints, handling of baggage, delays, cancellations and re-routing without being notified. Instead of acknowleding the validity of the concerns and complaints of previously loyal customers such as this one, he is instead subjected to the kind of snarky response of xjcaptain and gromit....and this typifies the problem in this industry. Not only does it not respond to customer experience, it abuses them when they do complain. This industry needs to be broken up... it is the modern day equivalent of the "robber barons" and illustrates perfectly what happens when companies get too big to fail.

BLAH..BLAH...BLAH...


Your response had nothing to do with the fact that it was mechanical problems. The aircraft has no idea how many other airplanes are owned by the company. They are incredibly complex machines and these things happen. You should appreciate that they WILL NOT put schedule ahead of safety which is more likely to happen at the small carriers you seem to want. As usual the people who complain the loudest when there are delays also complain the most when an incident happens. They say they should have not flown in that particular condition, weather or with a maintenance problem. I guess as a captain i'm more concerned for your and my own safety than your are. Its very obvious that you like to complain but do not possesses the technical knowledge of what is going on behind ths scenes during these situations.

I hope you don't confuse facts with "snarkiness". Delays and mechanicals happen and often switching aircraft its the quickest solution to minimize the delay and inconvenience to the passengers. A solution that is often not possible at carriers that are too small to have adequate spares available.

[Delayed]

Originally Posted by Gromit801

I'll bet you wouldn't expect to get a flat tire on the way to work, or delayed by traffic accidents in front of you on the freeway, but they happen.

Hope for the best and plan for the worst. Life's works better that way.

What a terrible analogy. If my car broke down every time I tried to get home from work, I would get a different car. If my car got a flat tire every time I drove home, I would try a different route home. If my airline is unreliable, I will try another one. If they are all unreliable, I'll drive.

If my car only breaks down occasionally, I'll deal with the inconveniences without complaining. If I am occasionally delayed by an airline, I don't waste my time complaining in online forums. I took my time to register my complaint because I found the level of service completely unacceptable. Perhaps the flying public cannot expect to receive better service because airline employees and their sympathizers find their current level of service acceptable.