If the currency for air travelers is the flight miles besides the actual money, then airlines have to treat this currency with some respect. I have been flying into the Atlanta airport a lot lately. Each time, my flight either gets delayed taking off or landing when it's not altogether cancelled. They blame the weather a lot for this.
My point is if I am delayed and circling ATL for permission to land, I want to be compensated for my time in real money or flight miles. Why is it such a hard concept for the airlines to understand? There is a very disturbing article on WSJ today, which outlines the heavy penalties that airlines charge travelers for changing their travel plans. This would seem somewhat fair if there were two specific steps that travelers could take to balance this.
- Resell their flight ticket, or swap their tickets with travelers.
- Claim compensation for time lost when it is the airlines' fault (mechanical faults, crew not showing up on time, gate not available, runway not available, ….. you get the picture).
There is another view that can be taken on this issue. Airlines are in the business of maximizing revenue based on air travel. Everything else is noise or a distraction from that goal. While change fees can lead to high revenue figures (American Air travelers paid $116 million in change and cancellation penalties in just the first quarter alone), it only adds to the bottom line. The top line revenue growth, which would come from higher customer retention, etc. is sadly all but forgotten. The minute any of the legacy airline customers have better options, they will leave and along with them will go the change and baggage fees.
This should serve as a wakeup call to legacy airlines and I also hope it gets the attention of any watchdog organizations out there.
The complete WSJ article can be found here.
