01/08/09, 03:34:24 UTC

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Airline efforts to minimize headaches fall short

newsday.com

What, if anything, are airlines doing this summer to ease the pain of flying? When you tally up their efforts, the sum seems to be not enough, given almost daily horror stories.

I queried several carriers by e-mail and phone as to what they were doing to help their passengers. Here's what some of them had to say:

American Airlines. "We're using e-mail alerts and text messages to notify passengers ahead of time when there are issues with their flights," a spokeswoman said. Her best advice: Remember that you can check in 24 hours before your flight online to reduce the airport hassle factor. But, she also warned: If the weather goes bad, it doesn't matter whether you are flying or driving, you are going to have issues.

Continental Airlines. Customers who can't make their original connecting flights are automatically rebooked on the next available flight. This information is sent to the customer's e-mail address or cell-phone number on file (given at the time of reservation).

Delta Air Lines. The carrier has added additional upgraded kiosks that allow customers to perform ticket changes. Delta also said it is upgrading its baggage infrastructure and tracking systems.

JetBlue Airways. Customers can use their PDAs or Web-enabled cell phone to visit mobile.jetblue.com to check flight status and weather alerts.

United Airlines. It says it has added extra, more sophisticated self-service kiosks beyond TSA security at O'Hare and other airports so passengers whose trips were disrupted can see if they were rebooked, or rebook themselves, forgoing the need to stand in line at a customer service counter. The carrier also is working on a system to inform its employees and customers of flight problems accurately and quickly.

US Airways. It hired more than 1,000 employees system-wide and is replacing 600 old (pre-merger with America West) check-in kiosks with new, more efficient ones.

That's what the airlines said. Here's another point of view.

"Anything and everything the airlines claim to have done to make things easier is simply eyewash," e-mailed Joe Brancatelli, an airline critic and expert who producesJoesentme.com, a Web site for business travelers. "For example, airlines will tell you that they have added more check-in kiosks. But they don't say that they have reduced staff by a cumulative 17 percent since 2003" (from government statistics).

Airlines, he said, "have scheduled perhaps 20 to 30 percent more flights than the system can handle in good weather. So we get a little bad weather and on-time drops to 50 percent." Brancatelli also faulted airlines for their lack of truth telling. "United Airlines had a computer meltdown in June - the system literally turned off for two hours. When the computers came back on, everyone who knows anything about airlines knew that United was going to be a mess for the rest of the day.

"Instead of posting on its Web site that there would be difficult hours ahead, United posted that things were returning to normal. The result? Chaos. For the day, the airline did 32 percent on-time, more than half of its schedule was 'severely delayed' (more than 45 minutes) and 5 percent of the day's flights were canceled."

Brancatelli said Northwest canceled flights throughout July to mask its crew shortages.

Asked for three things airlines can do to ease the pain of travel, David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, replied: "1. Information. 2. Information. 3. Information. Most passengers would benefit from up-to-date, correct information on the status of their flight," Stempler said in an e-mail. "With correct information, passengers are best able to plan and make decisions about what to do - like canceling the trip, rescheduling to another flight or staying with the existing flight."

That the antiquated radar-based air traffic control system in the United States is clogged is an understatement. Countries such as Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom are using next-generation precise satellite systems that permit much less than the normal 3 miles separation between planes, explained David Castelveter, spokesman for the Air Transport Association, an airline trade group. Congress has yet to provide funding for the satellite system.

In the meantime, the Federal Aviation Administration is implementing an Airspace Flow Program, Castelveter said. Simply put, the program gives airlines the option of either accepting delays for flights scheduled to fly through storms or opt to fly longer routes to safely avoid them. In tests conducted last summer, the program cut delays by 9 percent, according to the FAA, and saved airlines an estimated $100 million.

 Printable Version  | published Aug 19, 2007