3 ms·

I'm fine with being at 30,000 feet, I'm fine with the takeoffs and landings. It's the tiny seats, horrible service, frequent delays and cancellations and consta

by dlgeek 8y ago

I'm fine with being at 30,000 feet, I'm fine with the takeoffs and landings. It's the tiny seats, horrible service, frequent delays and cancellations and constant fees for every little thing that make me hate flying.

symlinkk 8y ago
> tiny seats, horrible service Improving either of these would raise ticket prices. If you want more luxury, pay for a first class ticket. > frequent delays and cancellations Shit happens. Bad weather, human error, random acts of God. Airlines aren't delaying or cancelling flights on purpose. What do you want them to do differently here? > constant fees for every little thing Again, the fees are there because the tickets are so cheap. Look at the airlines who don't have fees - like Southwest. Their ticket prices are always slightly higher than the competing airlines - like United - that do have fees.
- null000 8y ago
  Airline profits have been rising over the past several years or so[1] due to lack of competition after a long period of industry consolidation[2] and the rise of anti-consumer practices (extra fees, less leg room, etc). This occurring even during the period where oil prices were dropping to pretty steep lows[2]. There's plenty fat to trim, and suggestions that it has to be this way are unfounded[3] [1] - https://thepointsguy.com/2017/12/airline-profits-record-38-billion-2018/ https://thepointsguy.com/2017/12/airline-profits-record-38-b... kinda outdated, but I had problems finding reports on profitability over time. [2] - https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/011215/airline-industry-oligopoly-state.asp https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/011215/airline-indu... [3] - https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherelliott/2018/10/07/this-is-the-real-reason-bad-airline-service-is-profitable/#1fb8a45a5db2 https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherelliott/2018/10/07/t... - point being that airlines could offer better service, but don't because there's no financial incentive to do so. This is where regulation needs to step in to fix broken incentives.
- dlgeek 8y ago
  > If you want more luxury, pay for a first class ticket. It's not just luxury, it's also safety, though I blame regulators here. The minimum standards are demonstrably laughable if you look at the details about testing "safe" evacuations. > Shit happens. Bad weather, human error, random acts of God. Airlines aren't delaying or cancelling flights on purpose. What do you want them to do differently here? Several things: * Staff appropriately so that pilots don't run so close to the edge of their allowed hours that a small delay results in a cancellation because they've been on duty too long. * More/better preventative maintenance. Airplanes are flown way too long with equipment MEL'd down to no redundancy, then the airline acts surprised when the no-longer-redundant thing also fails. * More slack in general. I know it's not reasonable to expect them to waste planes sitting in hangers at every spokes, but a few planes kept in reserve at major hubs would go a long way to preventing massive knock-on delays. For that matter, so would extra gate crews, so planes aren't bottlenecked there as well. * End/outlaw overbooking entirely.

by dlgeek 8y ago

symlinkk 8y ago

> tiny seats, horrible service Improving either of these would raise ticket prices. If you want more luxury, pay for a first class ticket. > frequent delays and cancellations Shit happens. Bad weather, human error, random acts of God. Airlines aren't delaying or cancelling flights on purpose. What do you want them to do differently here? > constant fees for every little thing Again, the fees are there because the tickets are so cheap. Look at the airlines who don't have fees - like Southwest. Their ticket prices are always slightly higher than the competing airlines - like United - that do have fees.

null000 8y ago
Airline profits have been rising over the past several years or so[1] due to lack of competition after a long period of industry consolidation[2] and the rise of anti-consumer practices (extra fees, less leg room, etc). This occurring even during the period where oil prices were dropping to pretty steep lows[2]. There's plenty fat to trim, and suggestions that it has to be this way are unfounded[3] [1] - https://thepointsguy.com/2017/12/airline-profits-record-38-billion-2018/ https://thepointsguy.com/2017/12/airline-profits-record-38-b... kinda outdated, but I had problems finding reports on profitability over time. [2] - https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/011215/airline-industry-oligopoly-state.asp https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/011215/airline-indu... [3] - https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherelliott/2018/10/07/this-is-the-real-reason-bad-airline-service-is-profitable/#1fb8a45a5db2 https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherelliott/2018/10/07/t... - point being that airlines could offer better service, but don't because there's no financial incentive to do so. This is where regulation needs to step in to fix broken incentives.
dlgeek 8y ago
> If you want more luxury, pay for a first class ticket. It's not just luxury, it's also safety, though I blame regulators here. The minimum standards are demonstrably laughable if you look at the details about testing "safe" evacuations. > Shit happens. Bad weather, human error, random acts of God. Airlines aren't delaying or cancelling flights on purpose. What do you want them to do differently here? Several things: * Staff appropriately so that pilots don't run so close to the edge of their allowed hours that a small delay results in a cancellation because they've been on duty too long. * More/better preventative maintenance. Airplanes are flown way too long with equipment MEL'd down to no redundancy, then the airline acts surprised when the no-longer-redundant thing also fails. * More slack in general. I know it's not reasonable to expect them to waste planes sitting in hangers at every spokes, but a few planes kept in reserve at major hubs would go a long way to preventing massive knock-on delays. For that matter, so would extra gate crews, so planes aren't bottlenecked there as well. * End/outlaw overbooking entirely.