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What to do about the mergers

December 13, 2006

When airlines merge, there are no winners.

Sure, a few senior executives walk away from a combined carrier with a big bonus check. Ditto for the advisers and lawyers who help close the deal.

But at ground level, we all lose. Passengers get a combined airline that often bears the worst traits of the combined airline (cheap with a bad attitude, for example … and you all know who I’m talking about).

Employees don’t win. A lot of them, in fact, lose their jobs. Or they end up with a contract that sucks.

So given that you, the reader of this blog, are probably going to suffer as the result of any proposed or speculated airline merger, what can you do?

Contact your legislator. If you live in a state where on of the airlines is based (Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota or Texas) that’s even better. Let them know what your concerns are about having your hometown airline merge. Here’s how to find your Senator or your Congressional representative.

Write to the airline. This is particularly important if you’re a frequent flier, because your opinion usually means a whole lot. And don’t just write to the generic e-mail address on the airline’s site. Take it directly to the top. I list the e-mail addresses of the top airline execs on my CSR blog.

Take the fight online. You would be surprised at who pays attention to what’s said in the blogosphere. It isn’t just a lot of frustrated journalists writing about their pet causes. Start your own blog. (Last time I checked, stoptheusairwaysdeltamerger.com was still available … then again, that assumes you’re against it. Why not supporttheusairwaysdeltamerger.com?)

Bottom line: don’t just sit there while these airlines merge. Do something — before it’s too late.

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.

3 comments

  • Terrence Cimino

    As a 2 million miler on Northwest, I have seen my share of airline industry ups and downs, ins and outs, strikes, etc. over the past 20 years. And without a doubt, every time an airline has said that something is “the right thing” for them to do, it has been bad news for the consumer.

    1. Bring in regional jets to replace mainline aircraft on many routes. Oops, there goes the comfortable seats and the first class upgrades.

    2. Outsource reservation and customer service calls to some foreign call center. Oops, do they really understand our American idioms? Do I really understand their English with a heavy foreign accent?

    3. Outsource ground staff at airports to some outfit that pays $6.00/hour. Oops, there goes all of the people who had years of experience solving problems for customers at the airport, when things started going wrong. Now, it’s “I can’t help you, you will need to contact Reservations in order to be re-routed.”

    4. And if they could find a way for the plane to fly itself, they would probably do away with the pilots!

    Now, the airlines keep telling us that they “need” to merge in order to survive. This talk has been going on for years, and it can only mean one thing: fewer choices for consumers, which equates to higher fares. Every one of the airlines that has been or is currently in bankruptcy has been headed by a group of executives who have “shown by their actions” that they don’t know how to run the company. They failed miserably, and yet the Boards of Directors have not called them on the carpet for their ineptness and canned the whole lot of them. I can remember one CEO who held a press conference in the morning and repeated the same old tripe about “we need to fix this industry, because there is overcapacity” and then in the afternoon he signed off on another purchase of new airplanes!

    They are all a bunch of double-talking crooks who have absolutely no concern for their customers, and any future mergers will only make the situation worse. The simple fact is, if IT is good for the airline, then IT is only “bad news” for the customer.

  • BriCo

    I agree with letting legislators and web site readers know what is going on and your feelings on it, but “writing the airline”??? We have all seen in recent years how seemingly little the airlines care about us, EVEN the so-called “elite” members. Those members just have it better than others, but it’s not good.

  • Robert Johnson

    Do not doubt the power of ONE. You can be heard at the highest level of airline management. I know first hand as I have done it.

    If Chris wants to provide greater detail that’s cool as I’m NOT here to toot my horn but rather to build a symphony of folks who fly and just flat don’t like being lied to, cheated and generally treated like self loading cargo, Frequent Flyer or not.

    you don’t have to be an “Alluminun Tube Gypsy” like me, you just have to stand up for what’s right. There are tools at your disposal and there isn’t one corporation in the US that likes to be embarassed in the media OR deal with a federal agency.

    When you let them win, we all lose.

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