March 25, 2007

I just received this email:

[Dear Peter],

I have just returned from a wonderful holiday in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Unfortunately it ended badly, as we were among the 100,000 stranded by US Air in Philly. We spent all day Saturday at the Charleston Airport.

They finally put us on a flight to Philly at 4:30ish. They were crazy to do this since they must have known the chaos in Philadelphia.

When we arrived there, it felt like we had descended into hell.

Thousands of people were milling about and the queues were miles long.

All planes were either canceled or delayed, but each time a flight number went up as canceled, one had to stand in line to get another flight.

We must have spent, all told, six hours or so standing in line. Each time we were given a new flight, we would watch the board until “canceled” went up. There were very few US Air reps there to help. People were remarkable in light of the discomfort we were all feeling. I felt so sorry for those with babies and old people in wheelchairs who seemed to be just abandoned.

We endured until about 9 p.m. and then said the hell with it, and searched for a hotel. Next day, we stood in line for another two and a half hours to report missing luggage. There was one person behind the desk and the line had about 100 people in it. We were lucky we were about number 12, yet it still took hours. Imagine those at the end of the line!

Every flight arriving dumped people out, without luggage, and they just joined the line. All this aggravation was caused by poor planning by the airline, not enough personnel, not enough planes, and poorly trained people. What a mess!!

In all three airports that we were in, the luggage sat in piles up to the ceiling. There must have been thousands and thousands of suitcases. It will take months to sort through them. As of now, Wednesday, I have not received my luggage, nor do I expect to. If one calls the number they supplied, the automatic idiot recording says you have to go in person to a claims counter. If one tries to enter the number on the Internet that one was given, a “sorry, no such number” comes up. All this makes my wonderful and delightful holiday in Hilton Head one of the most expensive weeks I have ever spent, if I count in the extra hotel, car, food, lost luggage with gifts, new clothes, etc.

===

This story is not atypical. And it happens even when there is NO weather related cause.

And it’s getting worse.

A few days ago, I found myself at the airport 90 minutes ahead of departure time for a domestic flight, and the counter lines were out of control. I had a more complicated itinerary (other than just a simple roundtrip); so dealing with a kiosk was out of the question. But the lines were not moving. Just when I got to the front of the line, a counter agent stopped working and left. I asked her where she was going.

Her response: “They want us to take our breaks on time.”

And MY response: “At least ONE of us is on time today!”

It soon became obvious I was going to miss my flight. I asked those in another line if I could possibly jump in ahead of them. There were two people not leaving for three hours, so they graciously let me cut in. But another couple headed for Miami on my same flight was standing five people deep behind them.

We made a deal: I would do everything in my power to delay my actual boarding of the flight at the gate to give them time to race out there.

In the end, we all barely made the flight. But their bags have yet to be found.

Logic would seem to dictate that there are severe economic consequences for both passengers and airlines when delays — avoidable delays — occur. But apparently, those economic consequences are not severe enough for the airlines to change their systems or their staffing or their patterns.

We don’t need a general or all-encompassing passenger bill of rights. We just need to know to whom we send the financial bill when these things happen. Without that compensation option, nothing will change.

For more on air travel, check out “A Bill of Rights for Air Passengers?”.

Read more from Peter’s blog, the Travel Detective Files.