Aug 22 2008
The physical toll of travel
Air travel has to be one of the worst industries in America. I say this with a lot of respect for the airline personnel, who come into contact with the frustrated public every day, and do the best they can with the hand they’ve been given by the airlines.
Take, for example, Northwest. It’s an old adage in customer service that your employees will treat your customers the way they themselves are treated. While I am sure there are many happy Northwest employees, I can also tell that the airline isn’t making their employees happy, nor their customers. Their newest money-grab? Charging for the seat. No, not charging for your ticket. Charging extra if you want an aisle or window or exit row seat.
Personally, I would only pay extra for an exit seat– the only seat worth paying extra for is one where you are legally guaranteed there won’t be a 2 year old child discovering the joys of shrieking squirming on the lap of the person next to you.
After being wedged into an unusually narrow seat in between two ladies who were even larger than me (we were in an extra legroom aisle– these aisles have more legroom but less seat width, and they put three short, round ladies there…. why?!?) I resolved never to fly Northwest again. Ideally, I would like not to fly ever again– John Madden doesn’t fly. Why should I?
In other news, I’ll remind everyone that today is the deadline for the postcard giveaway! I only have a few valid, non-spam entries, so drop a comment or your entrecard today!
One Response to “The physical toll of travel”
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Stumble it!
Hey hun,
I had a bad experience with Delta when going back to Boston from Baltimore near the end of my vacation. I don’t believe it was entirely Delta’s fault, but I also don’t think it should be possible to lose the captain and co-captain of a flight even if there’s bad weather that could have prevented them from making it to Baltimore in the first place. I also think they should have extra people on hand available to fill in on these situations.
They did put us up in the Sheraton and give us food vouchers ($14 each for me and Danielle) and book us on another flight (that was delayed by 2 hours) but still. I’d have preferred all that plus my money back for the flight and the second flight actually leaving on time.