Today there is a most excellent article in The New York Times about just how bad flying in the US is. Delays are up by 39% this year and that’s based on the airlines’ stats which everyone says are deeply wrong:
As anyone who has flown recently can probably tell you, delays are getting worse this year. The on-time performance of airlines has reached an all-time low, but even the official numbers do not begin to capture the severity of the problem.
That is because these statistics track how late airplanes are, not how late passengers are. The longest delays—those resulting from missed connections and canceled flights—involve sitting around for hours or even days in airports and hotels and do not officially get counted. Researchers and consumer advocates have taken notice and urged more accurate reporting.
The vast majority of internal US flights I’ve taken in the last four years have been delayed or cancelled or our lugguage has been lost. We’ve even managed to have all three happen on the same trip. Now when I book tickets, I first check to see if there’s a train I can take instead, then I do whatever I can to make sure it’s a direct flight (thus no missed connections) and that it leaves in the morning. Because if your flight is cancelled and it’s later in the day no way are you getting on another one until the next day.
It’s reassuring to know that my experiences are in no way unique. Air travel in the US is falling apart. The delays, cancellations, lost luggage aren’t even the worst of it. Dealing with the often grumpy airline employees makes everything a thousand times more horrible. It’s totally understandable that they’re unhappy—they’re underpaid and overworked and spend all day dealing with seriously pissed off people. It has to be one of the worst jobs in the world. And yet the crankier we are, the crankier they are, and it becomes an ever spiralling thing.
I am so very very glad we’re taking the DragonTrain to DragonCon. And that it’s a hundred days or so before I have to endure more air travel.
It’s so weird to read articles like this because I have (I guess) remarkably good luck with flying. I do it all the time, often internationally, and I can only think of one flight offhand that was cancelled; that one was for horrible horrible weather so I wasn’t surprised, although it did result in an 8-hour layover in the mideast, so I was rather cranky. I would say maybe a third of my flights are typically delayed, but that by only 5 or 10 minutes; it’s memorable when there’s a half hour delay. I’ve never lost luggage, though I have had suitcases beaten up severely.
*knocks vigorously on wood*
That said, I much prefer to travel by train; it’s just the more expensive and inconvenient option in the US for the most part, so it doesn’t happen yet.
I completely agree. During ALA, several of us were flying out the same day and all of our flights were delayed, then eventually cancelled. Luckily, we still had friends staying in a hotel where we could crash for the night. There were about 7 of us in the same room. Someone even lined up the couch coushions on the floor as a makeshift bed.
Cancelled flights aren’t really a big deal, if you have a flexible schedule. But when you over-schedule (like me) it’s a real pain. The thought of losing my luggage makes me break out into a cold sweat. 🙁 Especially since I’m like our pal Maureen and I have a tendency to overpack. That pretty much means that everything I own would be lost. Unless I was smart and put a change of clothes in my carry on bag. Who can remember to be responsible like that, though?
I will totally pay more money (even though I’m perpetually strapped for cash) for a direct flight, rather than having to make connections.
Ellen: Wow. How often do you fly? That’s kind of miraculous. I will say that international travel isn’t nearly as bad especially if you fly with non-US carriers.
I LOVE trains.
Nichole: You and me both. Money saved on flights with lots of connections is never ever worth it.
We’re not that good in Canada either. When we went to Australia, we managed to miss both flights, to Australia and back to Canada. And it wasn’t even our fault. The airline hadn’t recorded our tickets right on the departure flight, so of course before they could find a way to get us on it we were too late for it. So we had to run like crazy once they found us a new flight, because it was very very soon. Then, on the return trip, they put our connection flights so close that by the time our luggage got to us, we’d missed the connection. After waiting for hours and hours, we finally got on a plane.
Not very happy-making.
And as you said, the employees were incredibly rude. When my mom got a little fired up by the missing of our flight, the employee told her to calm down, and not in a very sympathetic way.
Wow. I am completely in agreement with this post. It’s not too hard to understand why things have become so poor in the US (it’s not justified, but you can see the business pressures that have caused it), however, as a consumer, it doesn’t make it any less pleasant. I’ve slowly arrived at a similar place as most other regular travelers: assuming something will go wrong and it will take longer than indicated when I fly inside the US.
Trains are fun. They take longer, but you see so much more. Unfortunately, many routes are also very expensive inside the US (a car and plane society side-effect), so there’s a vicious circle there. Not used as much as needed, so costs are disproportionately high.
I’m so not looking forward to flying to the US for Christmas. Northwest Airlines has been pretty good for the most part, except for three months ago when Janet and I moved to Singapore, and our flight from Raleigh to Detroit was late and we missed our connection and couldn’t leave until the next day. If there was a train from Singapore to South Carolina, I would seriously consider it.
i don’t fly 🙁 i wish I could cuz that means traveling. They had a whole section about the precentages from last year and everything in the news and they said that New York and Philly had some of the most delays in the u.s.
well, it’s 1:25 a.m. and i’m on scott’s site watching but I guess i’ll go to bed
I fly pretty frequently (as my 158,000 air mile credits attest – and that doesn’t even count those miles when flying with non-affiliated carriers – miles I’m saving for a trip to Australia). I’ve had my luggage lost once, but they did manage to find it and deliver it directly to my house (at three AM!). I’ve been re-routed, spent multiple hours in terminals after flight cancellations, had my plane pulled back to the terminal after sitting on the tarmac for an hour (no parking brakes!), had to change seats to re-distribute the load (small plane), had the pilot miss the end of the runway while landing, causing a bone-shaking bounce before he managed to wrestle it onto the runway. I’ve been stopped by customs for a circuit board I was carrying to fix a system (they only wanted about $1300 in customs tax; I just didn’t have the right paperwork). I’ve been bounced all over the sky in a tiny 4 passenger plan while the pilot laughed at our discomfort (quite visibly – no door between to hide his actions). I’ve had missed connections caused by one airline that insisted that the passengers pick up their luggage and cart it over to check-in for the next leg of the journey on an aircraft run by the same company (I have refused to fly with that airline ever since). And don’t get me started on those airports that charge a tax (fee, as they call it) that has to be paid in cash in the local currency, after you’ve already converted all your money back to US dollars.
But remarkably, throughout various mix-ups and screw-ups, my relations with the counter folk have been very good. They have invariably tried their best to fix me up, in one case even managing to find me an earlier direct (and normally more expensive) flight with a competing airline than my purchased ticket. This despite language problems, down computers, and an incredible press of distressed passengers crowding around trying to get their tickets fixed. In all my years of flying, I’ve only run into one case of a counter person being very un-nice. As you say, that job must be very hard, not one I would like to have.
Ally: Scott never posts after midnight US east coast time.
Travelling is wonderful. I mean the being somewhere else part is. It’s just the getting there that’s gotten less pleasant.
Patrick: I should have been clear: the grumpy counter folk I was talking about were in the US of A. I’ve never come across it so consistently anywhere else in the world.
And in the US of A it’s only been in the last five years or so that it’s gotten like this. And in the last two years worser and worser. Which is not to say that they’re all like that. There are still some wonderful, helpful, awesome counter staff out there. But I fear even they are starting to be worn down.
My heart does not fill with dread at the prospect of flying in Australia or Asia or Europe like it does at the prospect here in the US.
Surprisingly enough, all my flying in the last two years has been on domestic us flights. My poor passport has gotten a long rest (which it needed; I had to get extra pages for it). Now I won’t say that us air travel has gotten better in that period, it definitely has not. Much of this change has been because the us airlines, stressed to make a profit, are making sure that they have full flights, every flight, accomplishing this both by overbooking and reducing the number of flights they have going to any particular place. So when any little thing goes wrong, either with an airplane or an airport closing down due to weather conditions (or presumed terrorist plots), there ensues a domino effect on other flights and airports. Delays, delays.
And of course, as a further cost-saving move, most of the airlines have reduced the number of counter people they have, or replaced their senior, experienced people with fresh newbies who haven’t learned all the ins and outs of traffic re-scheduling. Still, my own experience with the counter folk has been good – perhaps I’ve just been lucky. What I can’t say the same for is the quality and demeanor of the stewards/stewardesses on board the aircraft -far too many have become brusque and not too helpful.
It was your saying “despite language problems” that made me assume you were talking about os counter staff.
it’s a fascinating (if rather horrifying) article, but why is this happening? And why is it getting worse? why don’t airliners make flights more expensive (if they’re all so full), so they have more money to put into better systems and capable, motivated workers? if people are willing to still fly under these horrid conditions, methinks they’ll also be willing to fly if tickets get more expensive… Mmm, will think about this some more.
Ooh, yes, Justine and Nicole: I fully agree on the ‘no connections’ rule. My time is worth that money; my sanity, even more so.
Not to get all industry-speak on you all but since my husband and I are in this particular industry (we lease aircraft) we get all the industry pubs and are constantly having aviation type conversations. The delay issue is really interesting because there is a lot of question as to how real the delays are – meaning, yes, the planes are delayed but are they legitmately delayed. Here’s the deal.
The airlines fly more air miles than general aviation (all the small owner-flown aircraft, flt training, corporate aircraft, etc.) and the airlines thus pay more to support the US ATC system (and all the Nav Aids, etc.) The airlines want to change this and force general aviation to pay more – in what is referred to as “user fees”. (You use it, you pay for it – like toll roads but on a way more expensive scale.) The airlines are lobbying Congress bigtime and claiming that all those delays are due to general aviation taking up too much time at the airports. So – if Congress would charge GA operators more money, the system could be updated and everyone would be happy.
Except of course it’s pretty much bunk.
Bottom line, there is a huge thought in the GA world that maybe the airlines – who have always been lousy at being on time, lost luggage, overbooking, etc., might be trying to exaggerate their problems to sell the user fee idea to Congress. Are they running late on purpose? I doubt it – but are are they doing everything they can to be on time? I doubt that too. I worked for a small airline for years and trust me, you know when a plane is going to be delayed long before the depature time and then you decide what you are going to do about it. Either cost the company money to get it out the door ontime or tell the passengers to suck it up.
You can see what is happening here.
I have to fly to Alaska in two weeks and I’m dreading it. Alaska Airlines is one of the worst, but the only way to get to Fairbanks. This is going to suck bigtime!!!
Okay – off the industry soapbox now…….
If anyone’s interested, I’ll soon be able to report on internal flights in Mexico. Since you’re talking about in the US, you might not be interested, but if you are let me know.
C
colleen, the scenario you sketch is horrible. but it sounds kinda plausible to my foreign laywoman’s ears.
ah, i wish someone would throw this subject into making light, and they would come up with the jim macdonald of aviation…