Seems as though the air travel industry is having tough times nowadays.
On Thursday, JetBlue and other carriers laughably claimed that they were canceling the flights because of weather. This was garbage, as the weather where we were (NY) was perfect. Why would they do this? If they can claim it was the weather, they don’t have to pay for your meals, your hotel—anything. (Yes, there were some scattered thunderstorms across the nation. Hardly enough to cancel 10,000 flights.)
What? You mean airlines will lie to you to save money? (In other news, politicians lie and water is wet.) And:
How does this keep happening in America, over and over? (By the way, things were no less of a disaster over Memorial Day weekend.)
Mostly it’s due to staffing shortages: pilots, crew, and air control. This is partly due to the fact that the Biden Administration mandated vaccines for pilots and other personnel, many of whom either quit or were fired for refusing. Guess what, Joe; you need pilots to fly planes.
Here’s the situation, luggage-wise, in Britishland (where they can’t blame Biden, but they can blame their own BritGov for mandating similarly moronic policies):
That’s just one airport and one baggage gate, but apparently similar scenes can be found at all Brit airports right now. What a fuck-up.
My rule of not taking checked luggage on any flight is looking better and better — and if I can’t pack sufficient clothes for a trip, I just set aside a little money to buy whatever I need Over There.
Not, mind, that I’ll be able to afford to fly anywhere for the next decade after Qantas Fucking Airlines emptied my wallet, twice in one year.
Speaking of which: New Wife gets in tonight from Oz, U.S. Immigration permitting. (That’s another whole kind of cock-up, but I’ll talk about that tomorrow.)
Layoffs, furloughs, early retirement packages, fired for refusing the COVID shot……..who would have ever imagined that when the lock-downs ended and the economy rebounded increasing demand for air travel, that a lack of pilots, flight attendants, A&P mechanics, and baggage handlers would cause delays and flight cancelations… 🤦♂️
Kim, over here in the UK the airline problem is not so much due to vaccines (despite a few well-publicised stories) but rather corporate greed and short-sightedness. The air industry laid off lots and lots of people, despite being paid to not do so. Those people found other jobs. So now that restrictions have been lifted there are insufficient staff. Even baggage handlers need to go through training and be checked for security clearance.
For some sad reason this morning I remember the poetry of a couple of long dead white guys who of course don’t matter because they are white, dead, and guys.
Things fall apart. The center cannot hold.
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but with a whimper
It’s as bad in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Amsterdam Schiphol has people lining up for kilometers for the checkin desks and luggage belts for some reason.
People blame the airport CEO but nothing he did would have caused any of it as it started quite suddenly with a wild strike by the luggage handlers about a month ago, demanding a massive pay increase “to give us fair pay” when they already make more than the other companies handling luggage at the airport (a small detail that was of course omitted from the press coverage)…
Ever more insane noise and emissions restrictions don’t help either, and cause large scale flight cancellations, leaving passengers with already paid tickets hanging out to dry (as the airlines of course can’t be blamed for not carrying out the flights), something else blamed on the airport CEO personally when the real culprit is the responsible government minister.
the older I get the more I prefer to drive when traveling.
I don’t like being herded through a line to get molested by TSA to have common pocket items confiscated because some jackasses misuse them or TSA is too stupid to know what it is. Then there is the airline nickel and diming you on bag fees, uncomfortable seats, boorish other passengers, then delays, bumps and over booking. The Airlines have had such poor customer service for decades. Now they treat their employees horribly too. The Airlines have shown that they have little interest in customer service so that will bring in more interference from the government and we all know that the government only makes things better by accident rather than on purpose.
JQ
Decades of paying substandard wages at “regional” carriers to do the exact same job…. Check.
Threatening furloughs in order to get DC to give you billions in bailout money during covid…. Check.
Offering early retirement packages to buy out your senior and best paid employees during covid…. Check.
Threatening the careers of people like myself because we didn’t want the damn shot, and creating an even more hostile work environment…. Check.
Acting surprised when everything falls apart as your employees have warned about for years …. Completed.
sounds like most companies follow that same ideology. They don’t value their people and drive out the folks with institutional knowledge and skill.
JQ
I will only check a bag if I’m flying with firearms, period. When I travelled more for business I used to pack clean underwear and shirts into a tyvek UPS envelope and send it to the hotel I’d be in later. I’d also put in another envelope and pre-paid label. I’d send dirty stuff back home in it. No need for checking bags.
JC
Smart move. who was most cost effective, UPS, FedEx, USPS?
A couple of months ago I had a United flight out of Charlotte. While waiting in the mile-long security line, I noticed that the American Airlines board was full of cancellations – on a beautiful sunny day from their hub. I was temporarily glad I wasn’t flying American.
Then we got to the gate where our place was parked, and United told us that we were delayed until the crew arrived from wherever.