Airline Frenzy
link to this entry | February 19th, 2007
Speaking of operationalizing your brand, I tried to log on to USAirways website and forget it. Tried calling their reservations line and waited 25 minutes only to get an operator who put me on hold with a wait time of another 30 minutes.
How long can the airlines use the Valentine’s Day storm to justify the absulutely deplorable treatment of travelers? I’m now convinced that the notion of a Passenger’s Bill of Rights should be adopted by the Congress and airlines should start paying penalties for their disregard and mistreatment of flyers.
Their recent trend to profitability has been won at the expense of the traveling public, with non-existent reservations service. lost bags and rude staff.
What’s your view?
Entry Filed under: Branding
2 Comments Add your own
1. David Friedman | March 12th, 2007 at 12:53 am
The problem here dates back to deregulation. We democratized air-travel, but dumbed-down service across-the-board. For below-cost pricing, what do consumers expect?
A passenger bill-of-rights with real teeth will enable all airlines to raise prices. The consumer will receive a better bundle of guarantees, but will pay for them.
2. Bob Pagano | March 19th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
David:
I agree. All of the recent staffing cutbacks are visible at the ticket counters, long wait times on the 800 numbers and slow website performance. What’s not visible until its too late is the impact of the cutbacks on air travel safety. We have been fortunate not to have had any major disasters in some time. I fear that we are overdue and may discover it’s only a matter of time before airline cutbacks are reflected in a serious mishap.
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