gcarter
Contributor
Well then, since you've got such a deep understanding of how an airline should be run, why don't you start your own? Otherwise, what exactly is it that you mean to do about this "shoddy treatment" that I am so accepting of? Talk is cheap.
One reason I accept it is that it really isn't a big deal to me. There are always options; you could pay extra to sit up in first class in those wide comfy seats and not have to wait in line with the slobbering masses to get aboard. Or you could stay home; that'll show 'em!
You accuse me of oversimplification, but to assume that since I don't raise hell about the minor inconveniences (yes, minor, in my worldview. YMMV) involved in flying that that means that I "go through life simply saying 'it's a futile exercise. It is what it is.'" about everything I encounter, what is that but a gross oversimplification? I choose my fights, and this is one I do not choose. That doesn't mean I never choose to fight. I try not to tilt at windmills, though.
I do a simple cost/benefit analysis when I buy an airline ticket, and if it's worth it, all things considered, I plunk down. If not, well... not. If you are surprised when you get your Visa bill, then you didn't try very hard to keep track of the numbers. It's really not that hard to find out exactly what the bottom line is going to be.
It is very easy to go onto an internet forum and bluster about how much better you could run the airlines; it is quite another thing to actually run one. Drop me an email, though, when your airline starts running flights to Cozumel with wide seats, big overhead bins, streamlined boarding, no charge for checked bags or meals, and what-you-see-is-what-you-get pricing. I'll probably buy a ticket.
For someone who professes not to much care about this issue, you sure are taking this pretty seriously and have some pretty strong / defensive opinions.
A couple of quick points, then I am done.
I do not bluster about how much better I could run an airline. I do have some knowledge of costing and price development. IMO, they could be doing a much better job. Do you accept every disagreement with how an airline is run, or every suggestion as to how to do something different as an assertion of superiority? It is certainly not in evidence here that I have made any such assertions. If you think differently, please re-read what I have written.
I vote with my $$ and where there is a choice, I will choose the airline that burdens me with the least nonsense. I have communicated my displeasure directly to several airlines with regard to some of their current policies. No, I do not mean that I complain to the desk staff who have no say in such policies. I address my communications to management. Will any of this make a difference? That depends on how many other people bother to do anything. Businesses react to their customers.
I am not surpised by my Visa bill. Disliking the severe disconnect between advertised pricing and final cost does not equate to any inability on my part to properly manage my finances.
