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- TriL1011Star
- Posts: 79
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So sick of hearing of all these cancelled flights!
Ever since things started opening back up, there has been report after report of thousands of flights being cancelled. AT LEAST once a week there's some huge problem. It's ridiculous. Pass a law that makes the airlines put their passengers up in hotels if their flight is cancelled for any reason and see just how fast this gets resolved!
Re: So sick of hearing of all these cancelled flights!
No law like that would be passed - talk about massive interference into corporate operations.
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- TriL1011Star
- Posts: 79
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Re: So sick of hearing of all these cancelled flights!
Aaron747 wrote:No law like that would be passed - talk about massive interference into corporate operations.
Yeah and God forbid THAT happen! The CEO's having to step up and lose one dime and actually take responsibility? Government would never allow that to happen. The airlines have paid too many lobbyists.
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- CosmicCruiser
- Posts: 2622
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Re: So sick of hearing of all these cancelled flights!
I'm always reluctant to make a "new" law but the airlines certainly need to get their Sh*t together and be the customer service industry they are supposed to be. Not only do they not care about you or your schedule but don't go out of their way to help. This goes back pre-Covid for a few years. Interestingly on int'l flights to Europe they must abide by European law that requires compensation. Most of my family has experienced this one way or the other. For me Delta had to compensate me for a cancelled LHR-ATL flight to the tune of $750 and my wife and daughter PRG-YYZ. Let it happen domestically and see what happens. It's funny that Delta's motto a few years ago was Delta We're Ready When You Are. I'm not just focusing on Delta either. There's other stories about United and American. Most folks I talk to say the same thing "it's not fun to fly anymore."
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- eurotrader85
- Posts: 546
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Re: So sick of hearing of all these cancelled flights!
Yes I agree. Ultimately airlines will try to get away with whatever they can at the expense of the paying public in the quest for profit. When the EU introduced passenger compensation for delays/cancellations the airlines went up in arms with the usual cries it will kill the industry etc. It didn't. It forced them to improve their operations and meet the standards demanded, and the paying public have benefited as a result.
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- davidjohnson6
- Posts: 3930
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Re: So sick of hearing of all these cancelled flights!
If you introduce a compensation scheme for cancellations and/or long delays, airfares will go up. The increase may not be large... but there will be very intense lobbying against an increase in fares on the grounds that it is anti-capitalist. One wonders whether there is the desire for that sort of fight in Congress and the White House
Re: So sick of hearing of all these cancelled flights!
Speaking as someone who works for the airlines, people may not realize that the labor shortage extends to aviation as well. My company, for example, is having a hard time hiring enough people to work the ramp. These are the people that push planes back, throw bags, guide planes in, etc. You can make all the laws you want, you can make the airlines pay for the inconvenience, but it won't solve the issue. There are a lot of factors that go into flight ops, and when you have issues in one area, it extends to all the others.
Re: So sick of hearing of all these cancelled flights!
TriL1011Star wrote:Ever since things started opening back up, there has been report after report of thousands of flights being cancelled. AT LEAST once a week there's some huge problem. It's ridiculous. Pass a law that makes the airlines put their passengers up in hotels if their flight is cancelled for any reason and see just how fast this gets resolved!
I hear your frustration, but I am not surprised or angry that there have been interruptions. I worked for United during 9/11. From an operational perspective, the Covid era has been exponentially more difficult. Demand cratered to 1954-levels by the end of March 2020. It stayed very low for a long time on most routes except for Western and Southern VFR. Then it came back really fast. We aren't talking about having to scale up the size of the operation by ten or fifteen percent. We're talking about having to quadruple the size of the operation, all while you have no idea if the gains are actually going to stay. Even since you made your original post, corporate demand for the fall has gotten much softer. The employment forecast might end up having been too optimistic if the Delta variant continues to worsen. Airlines take a long time to scale up and scale down, as there are giant logistical and human related challenges to adding and pulling as much capacity as the demand curve has demanded. In 100 years of the business, no disruption has ever gotten close to this.
Re: So sick of hearing of all these cancelled flights!
It isn't just the airlines. It's also the airport authorities. CBC reported tonight that the YYZ authority is saying to allow 3 hours (!!!) to clear inbound customs. Yet, AC and WS will happily sell me a ticket with a 90 minute international-domestic connection at YYZ.
Meanwhile, my home airport (YXE) doesn't have on-site COVID testing available at all hours that the airport is open. I live ~2 hours from the airport in a small town where the only testing site can't reliably return results within 72 hours. So, I get to drive 4 hours round trip to go take a test - because YXE can't manage to have on-site testing whenever there are flights departing. Airport open? Testing should be open. It isn't rocket science.
If I could, I'd drive to Havre and take 9K to avoid it all.
Meanwhile, my home airport (YXE) doesn't have on-site COVID testing available at all hours that the airport is open. I live ~2 hours from the airport in a small town where the only testing site can't reliably return results within 72 hours. So, I get to drive 4 hours round trip to go take a test - because YXE can't manage to have on-site testing whenever there are flights departing. Airport open? Testing should be open. It isn't rocket science.
If I could, I'd drive to Havre and take 9K to avoid it all.
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