willbeurdaddy -> RE: Obama at the House GOP retreat (1/30/2010 8:30:22 PM)
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ORIGINAL: thornhappy quote:
ORIGINAL: willbeurdaddy Service sank? There are more routes with more frequent flights than ever. Lost baggage is at an all time low. Reservations are easier than ever to make. The food always sucked on US airlines. Nope. They've been consolidating routes for years, and with all the mergers a lot of choices simply disappeared. Capacity's dropped enough that if your flight is canceled you may have to wait 48 hours to get out. Take a look at the size of an OAG now and in 1980. Not even close. Ticket prices for a coach seat on the same flight can vary from $200 to $1500. Nothing whatsoever to do with deregulation. Price variances are due to the economic value of flexibility of plans and decision making. Seat pitch is tighter, and seat width is too. Many airlines are removing and/or charging for blankets and pillows. (Try sitting in a fuselage seat, especially by the exit door on a red-eye and see how warm you are.) Again, nothing to do with deregulation, and those charges are temporary because of the cost spikes. Food didn't always stink on flights. On US airlines? Sorry, yes they did. The interiors are dirty, especially since people started bringing so much food on board. Tarmac hold times are gawd-awful. Again nothing to do with de-regulation, although I agree some new regulation is needed. A real travesty is the outsourcing of maintenance. That was a major cause cause of the Valuejet crash. Outsourcing was always allowed, there was no deregulation. the problem with outsourcing is differing standards for foreign and domestic repair facilities under the FAR. IMO the security risk of those policies is far greater than the mechanical risk. Safety risk is greater due to decreasing pilot salaries than outsourcing. The major airlines cut costs by forming and/or using regional airlines on short routes. Regional airlines pay amazingly low salaries, given the certifications required; have higher fatigue rates; and often are piloted by people with relatively few hours in type compared to the major airlines. Which benefits the consumer via lower prices and again has nothing to do with deregulation I'm not a global traveler type like in the movies, but I've racked up about 170,000 miles since 2002, primarily on United, American, Delta, Airtran, and US Airways, along with all their affiliates. I can tell you, personally, that service sucks. And I fly and have flown 3-4 times a month for the last 30 years. the only discernible change in the quality of service is that the stewardesses (gasp!) are 30 years older (btw, Patrick Smith writes an excellent column on Salon.com (Ask A Pilot), with great info on the industry (you should see his writings about the TSA)).
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