A New York Times article provides an interesting behind-the-scenes view of the balance airlines are trying to strike between maximizing revenue through overbooking, and raising the ire of customers and their front-line employees when passengers get bumped from oversold flights. Interviewing a number of people at US Airways, the article reveals the tensions between the back-office analysts trying to wring the last penny out of every flight and the gate agents who bear the brunt of passenger fury when the desk jockeys get the math wrong. One of the more revealing insights was the lack of repercussions (other than hosting a toy crow for a week) the analysts faced when they caused significant numbers of passengers to be bumped.

This is a timely article because, as much as I hate the “perfect storm” metaphor, I think this summer could be an ugly one for US air travelers.

• Airline seat occupancy is forecasted to be 85% this summer
• Airport delays are already high and are growing as air traffic exceeds pre-9/11 levels
• Airline profits are under pressure from high fuel costs
• Airlines are having difficulty hiring the ground and support staff (ramp workers, gate agents, customer service reps) needed to handle disruptions caused by weather or plane break-downs (see this TravelCommons posting for a further discussion)

All this portends more passengers being involuntarily bumped in the coming months. Knowing your rights when overbooked and setting your expectations before you travel is probably one of the best strategies for limiting inconvenience and high blood pressure. The ASTA - the American Society of Travel Agents - has a good primer on their web site. The write-up on the US Department of Transportation’s site isn’t bad either. The best single piece of advice — if they can’t give you a seat assignment when you book the flight, look for another flight.

Tags: travel, travel delays, overbooking, bumping, US Airways

We’ve talked many times here about how the act of travel has lost its glamor, is no longer fun for the frequent traveler. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, life isn’t so glamorous on the other side of the travel counter.

Airlines used to offer prestigious jobs with good wages and coveted flight benefits. Now, in the aftermath of aggressive cutbacks, a growing number of airline jobs are more akin to those at a fast-food restaurant. The pay is low, the work is tough and, in a new twist, airlines are having trouble hanging onto workers and finding new ones. “What once was a glamorous job…doesn’t look so good any more,” says Andy Roberts, executive vice president of operations for Northwest Airlines Corp. Mr. Roberts says Northwest and its peers used to have a list of applicants “as long as your arm.” Now, “we have to go seek them out, even pilots.”

Southwest Airlines’ ramp workers start at $8.75/hr. Northwest Airlines ramp workers start at $9/hr. Wal-Mart sales associates average, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers (who are trying to organize them) $8.23/hr. Some may say that working in a Wal-Mart is a soul-numbing job. However, working outside on the ramp in Chicago or Minneapolis in January is a body-numbing job, and not for a whole lot more money. The resulting short staffing, absenteeism, and high turnover just give us three more reasons not to check luggage.

But even positions where there seem to be enough job applicants — pilots, flight attendants — could the quality of the applicants be slipping. A discussion thread on the article at airliners.net suggests that regional airlines are reducing their minimum hiring requirements and that the quality of new flight attendants is leaving something to be desired.

I think these articles are true. I’ve been with AA for 19 years, and the quality of many people hired in the past 7 years has steadily declined. I fly with flight attendants who NEVER would have been hired when I was hired. Although you can’t generalize, because there are some good ones out there, I have seen many a newer hired flight attendant sitting reading a book or magazine instead of answering call lights and taking care of passenger needs. If you say something to them, they always say, “They don’t pay me enough to do that!”

No wonder that in the most recent American Customer Satisfaction Index released by University of Michigan this week, U.S. airlines scored 63 out of a possible 100. It’s their worst score in seven years and, to emphasize the point, nine points worse than the US federal government… and two points worse than the Internal Revenue Service. There’s something for the suits to put on their bonus justification write-ups.

Recorded in Marriott Courtyard in San Francisco’s SoMa district, I confess to some base emotions — my inner child has been throwing tantrums now that American and United Airlines have taken away some of the special treatment they used to give their mid-tier status fliers. I also had a bit of an awakening while on vacation with my family in South Africa — the number of electronic devices they carry has mushroomed and they suffer from bad Internet withdrawal. We have a few stories about how diapers make for some “smelly skies”, a listener finds great free bandwidth in Denver, and we feature some listener music. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.

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