What Was That Smell, Anyway?
United Airlines’ quality has deteriorated so significantly in the past several years as to be shocking. I’m not talking about charging for food in coach class; that’s a reasonable step, in my view, and in fact the fresh food United offers in coach is well worth the cost.
The condition of the airplanes, however, is shabby. Starting with maintenance: On at least five trips this year in Boeing 777 aircraft, we’ve been held up for hours due to mechanical problems. That’s more in a few months than I can remember in all the other years combined on the aircraft, the maintenance of which has been outsourced to China.
Is this a coincidence? All I know is that United’s maintenance system seems to be deteriorating, and from what I hear about other U.S. airlines United isn’t alone in this. All of which makes me hope that federal inspectors are being extremely tough on the airlines (assuming the U.S. government actually cares about such things anymore, which I no longer take for granted).
Mechanical woes are not the only sign of lower standards. This morning, boarding a flight from Washington to San Francisco, passengers were greeted by an odor that can only be called rank. To be precise, it smelled a bit like the inside of a public toilet. The flight attendant shrugged apologetically when several people asked him about it, saying only, “We smelled it, too.” Gee, thanks.
United employees are not terribly friendly these days, either. It’s hard to blame them, given the outrageous way they’ve been treated by their management, which is lavishing massive salaries and stock deals on the top people and whacking away at the rank-and-file in every possible way. The shamelessness of the executives there is testament to a system that rewards greed and treats actual work as an afterthought.
All this contrasts with the European carriers, notably Lufthansa, that I’ve flown in the last year or so. Everything from service to cleanliness of the aircraft to the attitude of the employees is superior to what I’ve seen on U.S. airlines.
It would be wise in many ways for the U.S. to allow foreign carriers to enter the market in competitive ways, not the barely competitive assignments of routes that allows a bad system to get worse. Sure, there are plenty of other items that need fixing, especially the archaic air-traffic control system and the cartel-like fortress hubs that let airlines dominate city air travel with such plainly problematic results.
I’d pay a few more dollars per trip for cleaner and better-maintained planes, and to pay a living wage to human beings whose livelihoods have been chopped away for years. But the fact remains: the airlines compete solely on price, apparently because passengers are choosing solely on price.
I hate to risk jinxing things, but I’ve seen no drop in quality on Continental—if anything, their quality seems to be improving. This might be due to my living at a Continental hub city (Cleveland), I suppose. But from small things (dropping the price on headsets to $1) to big things (continuing free meal service; upgrading planes with AVOD systems and standard U.S. 110v AC grounded plugs; friendly and helpful ground and in-flight staff) they’ve continued to meet the already high expectations they’d set in previous years.
Of course, this will be a signal for everyone who’s had a bad experience on Continental to tell me how wrong I am.
You mention that “[it] would be wise in many ways for the U.S. to allow foreign carriers to enter the market in competitive ways”. Of course, the recent Open Skies agreement between the EU and US saw the Europeans roll over to a key American demand, namely that carriers from one bloc cannot offer domestic flights in the other.
The difference, naturally, is that a domestic flight with the UK, or even France, isn’t a market that a US carrier would even care about, but the US domestic market is completely different. To be fair, the agreement should have treated intra-European flights the same as intra-US ones (and I think the UK - pushed by BA and Virgin - wanted this), but that’s not how it worked out.
Speaking of Virgin, possibly Virgin America will be able to shake things up a bit, but their long regulatory battle will hardly encourage other European companies to try and start a similar company.
The Americans talk a good game when it comes to market forces, but when it comes to implementing open markets at home they’re more protectionist than any other country I can think of (including China).
Which is bad news for American business and the American public. Unfit American companies are unable to compete on the world stage (try Motorola for another instance), and the public get a raw deal.
Well, Continental was responsible for this incident:
http://pooponaplane.blogspot.com/
I used to work for Continental, and in fact opened the Cleveland hub when I was one of the airline’s markeitng managers in the late 1980s. However, I can’t say I see I see any magic when I fly Continental. However, I only fly CO domestically, as I live in San Francisco and they have no nonstop service to Europe/Asia out of SFO.
As a regular United flyer, and airline/travel analyst, I can’t say anyone should expect great things from United. Though United has commited to increase “deep cleaning” of its domestic fleet, and some cabin refreshing, UA have no new aircraft on order. Its product investment focus is on its international feet — and there, primarly on its premum (business class, first class) cabins. Economy will get some frsh upholstery, that’s about it. No in-seat IFE, let alone AVOD (that’s being reserved for business and first). Equally bad, United recently posted a toothless “customer commitment” program that essentially commits the airline to nothing. As a long-time United flyer (I qualify for United’s “Global Services” program, which means I meet a UA internally-established revenue metric), I am dismayed to see the airline slide backwards, rather than progressing forward. Instead of making me want to pay more, they encourage trading down. That’s simply bad business.
Having flown Virgin America SFO-JFK (granted, in first), I can tell you that every US “legacy” airline — which must now include Southwest and JetBlue — have reason to be concerned. Virgin America is sassy and fun, though not perfect. Its IFE system, which they have branded RED, has a buggy satellite TV component. However, the other aspects of the Virgin America premium product and experience are quite enjoyable. Virgin America’s economy class seat pitch, though, can be quite tight (32″). A few rows, such as bulkhead and emergency exits, offer extra legroom and are available at a surcharge. If you’re tall, or need/want to work or otherwise use a laptop, you’d be wise to choose a seat in one of these rows.
Dont trust any arousing ad about Virgin America and don’t trust their promises! We supposed to leave at 9:25pm from SFO to IAD on Oct. 28, 2007 but the Virgin America flight delayed over 2 hours. Even Virgin America staff members were chatting and walking around despite of lateness. They did not move forward and operate quickly. They were chatting and rumoring about their passengers. They performed too slowly and boarding was too slow. Boarding took longer than one hour.
Virgin America staff members are long tongue chatters than Southwest flight crew and staff members. I feel that my trip time is abused by Virgin America chronic lateness and sloppy service. We were expected to arrive at 5:30am next morning in IAD because we supposed to open a business meeting at 8am in DC area but the flight delayed and we arrived at 8am!!! The flight captain promised us to arrive late not longer than 6:30AM next day.
Many passengers are angry and mad. The flight crew was rude and with their negative attitude. I am a business traveller and have experienced with many red eye flights. Most airlines turn off lights during night time in order to allow passengers to sleep and rest well but airlines usually do turn on only a few of lights in cabin. Virgin America refused to turn off lights during night(bed time) and lights were on all night and morning. Honestly, we were surprised about that. Their flight crew was rude. I asked a flight attendant to turn off some lights for our bed time but he refused and told us to close eyes and shut up our mouths.
Results after Virgin America flight:
We missed the business meeting and lost our potential clients!
We lost revenue and profits;
Our feelings are not good after the flight;
Enormous disappointment;
More expenses on parking after the lateness of the flight;
Bad traffic in IAD area.
The Virgin America is not reliable and not punctual with schedule and departure/arrival time. The Virgin America is NOT for business people and full-time employers or es! It might be good for senior citizen who usually do not hurry somewhere. The Virgin America guest care does not respond and never follow up with complaints!!!
DON’T FLY ON VIRGIN AMERICA!!!