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“I could hear them talking about what a pain customers are”

July 3, 2008

Ten years ago a United Airlines flight attendant appearing on The Late Show with David Letterman was fired for calling passengers “the enemy.”

That was then. This is now.

Today airline employees are more open about their feelings toward what crewmembers call “self-loading cargo.”

Take what happened to Dave Kifer, for example. His sister and her husband are schedule to fly to Las Vegas for a family reunion in September. They had made special arrangements with Continental Airlines to bring their daughter, who is in a wheelchair.

The family was able to secure a bulkhead row on the plane. But several weeks later, they lost their seats when Continental changed planes.

My sister called and the customer service agent was steadfast and very short with her, insisting there was nothing he or anyone else at Continental could do.

He suggested she should just keep checking back every day and select her seats when they become available. Her situation with a handicapped traveler was of no interest to him.

That’s when Kifer got involved. A Continental frequent flier, he figured the airline might listen to him. He figured wrong.

I gave the agent a brief run-down and asked to be connected to a customer service manager. A manager picked-up the phone within a few minutes. She started explaining to me that she had no way to assign seats.

I allowed her to finish. But as soon as I started trying to explain that she was given the facts incorrectly, she started interrupting me.

This went on for several minutes — she interrupted him, and he tried to explain what he was looking for. Kifer didn’t want a seat assingment, but needed to know if the agent could keep an eye for the seats when they did become available. After all, his sister had paid extra for these special seats.

The supervisor said she would. And as he got off the phone, Kifer asked if the call was being recorded, because he though this might be a teaching moment for the airline.

That set off the supervisor. After a terse exchange with her, he heard a click and thought she had hung up.

I sat for a second, then I could hear her talking again, but she wasn’t talking to me, she was talking to someone around her.

I could hear them talking about what a pain customers are. I sat and listened for 10 minutes while she complained about how rude I was, what an arrogant jerk I was, after she offered to help us.

Funny, she never mentioned how poorly the previous calls were handled or how she was given bad information before we spoke to each other, which was the reason for my comments in the first place.

I understand the aggravation of dealing with the public. I’ve done it for years, but the attitude the airlines have developed — ”You’ll do it OUR way and like it” — is not helping their bottom line.

I agree. At the very least, the supervisor could have hung up before badmouthing a customer.

In the meantime, Kifer might want to contact Marla Daniels, who managers DOT affairs at Continental. Daniels is in charge of a group of six managers who only handle disability-related complaints. She’s at marla.daniels@coair.com.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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9 comments

  • http://www.jetsetlife.tv Jet Set Life

    Great Post!. We’re on our way to Greece Tuesday to tape our next show and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that there’s no airline drama. What happened to the days of glamorous air travel?

  • Richard C

    2 stories..about 10 years ago on Delta from Tampa to New York this stew was giving absolutely everyone grief…if a passenger asked for a drink, she told them to get up and go the back of the plane and get it..she told people to sit down and be quiet as they were giving her a headache…people were looking around at each other in wonder…she told this guy sitting next to me to get his big feet out of the aisle or she’d crack this bottle over his head…I swear to you this all happened….when we got off in New York she was all smiles…I casually mentioned that “gee whiz if it wasn’t for all these gosh darn passengers your job would be a snap and did someone actually put a gun to your head and force you to be a waitress in the sky?” and she looked at me very puzzeled…also told her that DL was getting a letter about her since she was one of the rudest b*t*h*s I had ever met at which point she burst into tears and sat down in one of the first class seats…

    second story…2 years ago on a frequent flyer award to New York using NW miles but flying on CO and DL…there was an unplanned event which compelled me to inquire about coming home a day early…called NW, was told I could get on the exact same flights (on CO) a day early…coughed up $50 but it was worth it to me…got to LaGuardia and found out I was on a different flight which would have gotten me home too late to deal with my issue…called NW and got some loud-ass supervisor at NW World Perks…and when I told her that I was told that I’d be on the same flights she called me a liar, told me that there were no ff flights available anyway, and when I said that it was impossible for her to tell me this since I hadn’t even told her what flights I was on in the first place..(I was stunned to be called liar)…the whole point was to get them to get me on the flight which got me home sooner, the one I was told I would be on….she left a terrible taste in my mouth about NW…there was an angel on my side since a seat was available for the flight home…CO was very receptive to my urgent need….

    ok, a 3rd story….last summer on CO I encountered the very best stew ever…she had been with CO for 27 years, loved her job and I told her she was the best I had ever seen and her love of her job was very evident…a breath of fresh air….

  • Jacob

    Yes, airplanes have become buses in the sky.

    Welcome to the 21st century.

  • Joe Farrell

    Hey Dave Kifer – send CO President a letter – threatening action under the ADA – for what they did. Have the time and date you called – and ask them politely to pull the tape and listen to it with you so YOU can see if there is anything YOU could have done to be more clear. Make it YOUR fault. It’s likely someone will pull the tape, listen to it and then get back to you right away . . . .

    Then bring a small claims action agains CO for the refund for the extra price you paid. At least you will get that back.

    They can change equipment but NO ONE EVER checks to see if there are special ADA seating requests . . . . that takes the time of a human being and no humans are involved in the process -

  • http://www.ffocus.org Robert Johnson

    Joe is right. Sounds like a majorADA violation.

  • scir

    i hate aircraft travel. the days of good service are way over. jetblue is still alright imo.

  • Joe Farrell

    Airline travel over the years –

    1968 – 9 years old. Flew from JFK-Miami on Pan Am. I recall being referred to as “master Farrell’ when we checked in. Flying in coach, we received drink service and a choice of hot meals. Captain wore a white jacket just like a ships captain. The boys got little flight packets with wings and little 727 gliders – and I seem to recall the adults walking off the airplane sideways. . . the departure lounge had coffee, donuts and milk and cookies for the children.

    1968 also – TWA to San Fran from JFK. Mom splurged for F and the champagne flowed and I tasted crab for the first time as a topping for my filet – I wanted a hamburger – I also received a little packet with wings, a promotion brochure on the forthcoming 747 a game packet and a deck of playing cards. I remember there was a lounge in the front of the 707 where people played cards during the flight and generally hung out drinking. I recall the stewardesses were ancient, like 22 or 23, but were real pretty.

    1978 – Deregulation. I was scheduled to fly home from college on AA in first class on a DC-10 – they had the Chicago crash and grounded them – within 12 hours of the announcement of the grounding I got a phone call from AA telling me that they put me on TWA – same day and time in a Tristar and TWA called me to confirm that all was well with my reservation.

    1988 – Honeymoon – TWA to HNL from LAX. Preboard F class to champagne, cocktails. warm nuts and crab dip with crackers. You were gone before they closed the boarding door. Meal was filet or fish or chicken – cooked on board! Seats were the first generation of lie flat beds – with mechanic pull out leg rests and about 150 degree recline. Pitch was 62″ which was absolutely massive for those days. Over five FEET of leg room – gosh that was nice. It was so nice thatI got premium status on TWA for years and we paid an advance purchase business class fare and were ALWAYS upgraded to F. This mean we could take the 11pm red eye home, arrive @ LAX at 6am after 4 hours of sleep and go right to work. It was nice being under 30 – you could pull that off!

    1998 – TWA from LAX-JFK – on a Tristar again from LAX in F. Still had pre-departure cocktails, no nuts, no filet cooked on board, only 1 service, JFK terminal looking really really bad – worn and dirty carpets – a general air of not enough money coming in. Seats are broken, look like no repaired since Bush 41 was President. The slide is becoming obvious. ‘Stewardesses’ stopped being pretty about here and became battleaxes or male. Either way was not an improvement.

    2008 – Horror stories of self-loading cargo, elderly women left to fend for themselves in airline terminals overnight after canceled flights, No food, no free drinks, luggage or much of anything any more. Those of us who can afford F class internationally are treated as royalty, while flight attendants seemed genuinely bothered to do their jobs, rudeness abounds, rules are rules and no one has the authority much less the ability to change them or bend them. Speak up and you are arrested for interfering with a flight crew when all you wanted to do was use the F class lav.

    Personally, I’m sitting up front in my own airplane, having given up the airlines domestically after discovering one too many lies – if they are lying about service related issues – are they lying about maintenance? Yes, we find out they are.

    When I arrive at my destination in my own aircraft, I am greeted with a ‘How are you, Mister [too old now for master!] Farrell, how can we help you today?” Rental cars are driven out to my aircraft, I get help with my luggage. If they have to remote park me I’m helped with my bags in a nice van to a lounge with coffee, snacks, cold drinks in a fridge, free internet and often free telephone calls if I need them. I get special rates at local hotels, often 40% of rack rates, for last minute travel, negotiated by one travel company with another. It seems I’ve come full circle, and you know what, it costs less to fly myself.

    Perhaps we need re-regulation. If the airlines have an overseer again, they’ll be more honest with their passengers – both in scheduling and when delays happen.

  • Esther

    Joe, I concur completely with your timeline. My first airline trip was in 1969 on TWA when I was 7 years old and I still remember it vividly right down to the sterling silver plated flatware and china dishes that our meal was served on. Those were indeed the days.

    I wish that I could afford to fly myself like you do, but that’s not going to happen, unfortunately. Meanwhile, I no longer have any expectations service-wise of the airlines anymore. They are merely a means of getting me from point A to point B as quickly as possible. My mother, who was a stewardess from the late 1940′s through the 1950′s before she was grounded at age 30 and then worked in KLM’s corporate office, has had the hardest time adjusting to the lack of service in the airline industry because she remembers how it used to be and still expects it to be the same.

    I’ve long held the postion that it’s time to regulate the airline industry again.

    One small point, though. While the airlines did deregulate in 1978, the AA DC-10 crash occured the following year in May of 1979.

  • Joe Farrell

    You would be surprised what it costs to fly yourself.

    When I fly it is either with the family or on business. Business is deductible – and generally costs the same as a last minute airfare these days. In fact, I usually spend about $200-400 less traveling on business flying myself out to about 800 miles from my home than the airlines and generally also it takes less time and is much less stressful.

    I’ve done the math here before – and we own a vacation home which we travel to about six times a year. since we generally travel during school vacations, fares are high since the airlines know when to gouge people, or, shall I say, when demand is higher.

    However, taking the 6 times we travel to our vacation home, the difference in airfare, car rental and airport parking for three people is about $2600 annually – this is enough for me to fly about 18 hours – which equals about all of the pilot proficiency training time annually – so – essentially- that 18 hours is free.

    I fly about 110 hours a year; about 60 hours in travel to the vacation home, 20 hours in proficiency and fun [like impromptu beach days in Marthas Vineyard or Golf at Cape Cod in summer = normally each is about a 3.5 hour each way if driven and less than an hour flying], and then about 25-30 hours a year on business.

    The big advantage for us is time – not cost. Every single trip I take, takes less time by as long as 3-4 hours over the airlines.

    In August we are traveling to Chicago for a wedding and there after going to the in-laws in Moline, from Moline to our South Carolina vacation home and then back home at the end of the month for the start of the school year.

    Our choices if flying [I simply cannot imagine driving that - it would take a day on each end, a day [16 hrs] from MLI to SC – and that cost would be $825 in fuel, plus tolls, plus untold hassle from highway construction and traffic] are:

    1. Fly ourselves, leave we want or need to leave. Cost will be $2300 for our airplane and there is no need to rent a car anywhere – no cost of airport parking either.

    2. Fly commerically all legs – cost per ticket is $725 per ticket – or $2175, plus $100 in airport parking, plus $100 each time we rent a one way vehicle at SAV to get to the house, plus the hassle of returning it the next day – total cost = $2475.

    This is using the LOWEST cost flights, all of which depart before 7am. If we selected flight at human times, such as 8-9am in the morning – the fare rises to $1000 per person, roughly.

    So, using the CHEAPEST tickets and least convenient times, it costs $175 MORE to fly commercially. Assuming we do not need to check luggage. Add in the hassle factor, the cost of meals at the airports, or enroute, and the costs just gets higher.

    I find this to be the case literally with every single trip we take. The only real cost was flight training – and thanks to the USN for that one. . . for sure there is the lost opportunity cost of the airplane – but I did not pay all that much for it compared to buying a new one – and with the annnual inspections it is essentially in the same condition as a new one.

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