It always strikes me odd when there are massive flight cancellations followed up by even poorer customers service. This weekend has experienced massive delays across the nation as something like 6,000 flights were cancelled or delayed on Friday (USA Today). To me that just seems a little over the top and it is unlikely all of those cancelations were weather related. Seems like a chronic airline logistical management failures that are too unprofitable to be corrected.
First, while I'm not a flight expert I would think one would build some some slack in the flight chain with an additional pilot and/or plane on stand by per region. If a flight is going to be delayed significantly this stand by flight can get there in a few hours and take people to their destination.
Second, when things do go bad there should be a level of compensation. proactivity, and general remorse for really messing things up. If its the airlines fault they have totally put their customers in a bind and should be doing their best to take care of all expenses, find hotels, and compensate per day customers are stranded (I'm not sure what that would cost. Maybe too much. Maybe they will learn quickly to fix their long term problems before a donkey and cart seem to be more reliable. 🤷).
Someone might say why should the airlines do this? They are a business not a charity. I think it would help them to sort of develop strategies that don't include putting customers at risk. Some industries learn from the school of hard knocks and as long as they are not required to "make it right" then the customer is the one who eats the costs and inconvenience.
If your consistently running too lean I think that your just begging for problems. If you don't have enough pilots or don't expect a few to call off from time to time one is engaged in gambled wishful thinking where the customer always gets the bad hand (We have lots of smart people who can calculate what it costs the airlines during call offs/pilot sickness but are way less concerned about the customers costs. We might consider requiring them to calculate the total costs to customers.). When you don't schedule well and everything turns into chaos that seems to be an airline problem.
We are not talking about someone being a little inconvenienced or waiting an extra few hours. We are talking about being completely stranded with no place to go but sit in the airport. Some with kids, pets, important meetings, etc... New cities and unsure of where to stay for the night or being too late to do anything. Some might not have the money to pay for hotels, cabs, and food.
That won't stop natural disasters and weather related cancellations because those are unforeseen but it might put a dent in poor management practices. It will tilt a little more toward the customer stakeholders versus the airline bank accounts (I have been told that some seats are even sold 2X in hopes that some don't show up.)
Now, on the flip side of that argument someone could argue the cost would rise for customers if airlines had a stand by plane/crew per region. I think a reasonable profit and a few dollars extra for more guarantees would be ok. Yet, I would trust my accounting versus the industry's accounting as I suspect $20 more a flight versus $200 a flight would seem more reasonable. I would have to ask an economist (Someone independent would have to calculate the total profits, costs, and market potential.).
For now it looks like the consumer is stuck eating the costs of inconvenience. We will see what everyone comes up with. I travel a lot so I'm cringing at my next flight. My last one was terrible but the airline did make an attempt. An extra $200 a day for related expenses would have been reasonable. Instead I had to chase them to pay for the expenses. grrrrrr 😬
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