I've been away from home for about the last week, so I haven't had the time to sit down & put together anything "irrelevant & crappy" recently, but my travels & recent news have me thinking about something else. The state of air travel.
It still amazes me that after 9-11 & all the money that was spent on "Homeland Security", the level & quality of said security at any major airport. American taxpayers spend about $5 billion a year on the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA), and it's largely a clusterfuck of "Epic Fail" proportions. I mean don't you feel safe by the crack TSA security staff, whose prior experience was probably working at McDonald's, worrying about whether you have more than 3 ounces of toothpaste or the content of sippy cups?
But I did not come to pick on the TSA tonight. No, it is the shittiness of the airline industry that has drawn my attention. So, for the question of the night, which airline is the worst to fly?
I hate to sound like Andy Rooney from "60 Minutes", but it would be one thing if the airlines were running good operations, with flights that got you & your belongings where you were going on-time, but instead you have delays & cancellations, people getting stuck on the tarmac for hours in holding patterns, and "nickel & dimed" over the damn luggage.
Delta announced this week that it would be $50 to check a second bag. This is after many of the airlines have started charging to check any luggage, citing the rising cost of jet fuel (fewer bags means less weight for the flight, less chance of losing bags & having to track them down, less work to be done loading/offloading, etc.), as well as becoming more "vigilant" about whether something is too big to be carried on the flight.
However, after all the new fees & the new vigilance, something called competence was not apparent yesterday for American Airlines, which sent somewhere around 67 flights out of JFK in New York without the luggage.
A software glitch crippled the baggage handling system in an American Airlines terminal at Kennedy Airport on Wednesday, delaying some flights and causing a luggage pileup at the ticket counters.
The malfunction created big problems throughout the day for passengers flying out of Terminal 8, one of the newer buildings at JFK.
Thousands of customers had to leave their luggage behind and hope it would be delivered later. The breakdown was galling to some passengers already steamed over the airline's recent decision to start charging fees for each checked bag on flights within the United States and Canada.
There is now an argument it is cheaper (if you are carrying heavy or large amounts of luggage) and safer to ship your luggage with Federal Express, UPS, or the Post Office than putting it on the same bloody plane that you're flying on.
.....Is sending your worldly possessions ahead cost-effective? This Airfarewatchdog.com chart shows that, within the United States, indeed it is - particularly for heavy or oversized bags.
Another bonus is that, considering the long lines at check-in counters this summer, you can generally expect shipping your bag ahead to be more secure, not to mention more convenient, than checking it in. You're also far less likely to have your bag "mishandled" - that's the fun word the Department of Transportation uses - by your airline or the Transportation Security Administration. And if a shipper loses your bags, which is unlikely, at least it will apologize.
Airlines won't insure many types of articles, such as electronics, business items (such as samples), and other valuables. Also: You might well ask, if an airline loses or delays your bags, will it refund all those fees? Don't count on it.
But FedEx and UPS will refund your shipping costs if they lose your belongings - which, in general, they won't. Delivery companies have a much better track record than the airlines.
However, the airlines might screw up your luggage, but what about just getting someone in need of help from point A to point B inside a terminal? According to The Consumerist, personnel working for Delta are accused of giving no aid to a woman with Muscular Dystrophy, and watching as she crawled off a plane in an attempt to make her connection. And it wasn't the last time she would end up having to crawl.
On July 20th, Julianna's (delayed) Delta flight landed in Atlanta at 7:30pm, with a connecting flight scheduled for 8:05pm. Julianna, who has muscular dystrophy, missed the connecting flight because nobody came with a wheelchair until 8:05—the same time the connecting flight took off. To make matters worse, the plane crew told Julianna she might make the flight anyway if she stopped waiting for help and got off the plane right now, so she crawled down the stairs on her own. When the wheelchair came she was "wheeled into a back room and advised" that her plane had taken off. But that was just the first half of her ordeal, and the next eight hours only got worse.
Now, I'm not a lawyer, but I have to believe, that if her story is true, Delta was breaking... you know... some laws and maybe some people (i.e. the people that let a physically handicapped person crawl down a jetway) need to be fired.
But who am I kidding, this is the airline industry, where the powers that be are strong with the "fail" side of the force. Whose bright idea was it to deregulate them again?