My Airline Vent

[JandD Mom]

** Disclaimer: I am not an airline employee, and I mean no disrespect to anyone employed by an airline. I am talking about the companies (the people at the top that run them) as a whole.***

I am so disgusted with some of these greedy #&$*&^s that run these airlines. They are laying people off, despite a huge bailout package from the federal government. I guess we are supposed to feel sorry for the industry, even though it has treated us passengers like s*** for the past several years, and even though the airlines cut costs so much that there was virtually no security on any of the aircraft. Yet they are getting no blame in any of it. In fact, American and United are trying to get the US government to shoulder some of their liability in the inevitable lawsuits.

Now I read that in addition to laying off huge numbers of people, airlines like American and North Worst are trying to invoke some "emergency" provisions in their labor contracts so that they can get out of paying laid off employees the negotiated severance!! I did read Continental is not trying to get out of severance, saying people deserve it. But as to AA and NW, COME ON. What's the emergency? The Federal Government is giving you BILLIONS to help bail you out. WHy are you trying to screw over the honest wage earner just trying to make ends meet. You are PATHETIC.

To those of you who work for USAir and others, I do hope your companies do not try to do this with you.

****End of Vent****

 

[MJS]

What a great vent! We live in Northwest Airline's hometown, and they are something. They have a monopoly here, so they can treat the consumer poorly, not to mention their employees.

 

[Beverly Lynn]

can't say that Uselessair is being any better. how about this one...back in 90 we all had to take a pay cut(I didn't make enough to take the pay cut but my pay was frozen) during this economic crucnh of them giving us pay cuts and freezes and laying off quite a few people Seth Schofield who was CEO at the tiem gave himself a raise...why you ask? because he was not making as much as the other CEO's of the other major carriers. and guess what...he got it!

people with 13, 14 and 15 yrs are being furloughed from uselessair right now. why no take some of the 52 vp's that make 500 grand plus instead of the little peeons?

 

[flyingcircus]

Steve Wolf gives the kiss of death to everything he touches!! Can you say "platnium parachute"!!!!! BL- sorry about your friends being laid off

 

[JandD Mom]

BeverlyLynn,

What is USAir doing about their severance packages?

 

[nuthut]

I don't think the bail out is offical yet, is it?

 

[JandD Mom]

Here is what Reuters is reporting today:

UPDATE-1 Airline Bailout Cash Starts To Arrive

September 27, 2001 17:15:12 (ET)


(Edits and adds Delta, America West aid details)

NEW YORK, Sept 27 (Reuters) - U.S. airlines on Thursday said they had started to receive portions of the $15-billion federal bailout package to help staunch mounting losses from the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

AMR Corp.'s (AMR,Trade) American Airlines, the world's largest carrier, said on Thursday that it had received half of its cash portion of the federal aid money approved earlier this week by the George W. Bush administration and Congress.

Donald Carty, American Airlines chief executive, said the airline had received its first installment on Wednesday, but did not provide an amount.

The nation's third-largest carrier Delta Air Lines (DAL,Trade) also said Thursday it had received half of its part of the cash bailout, which came to about $327 million.

The bailout package, $15 billion in total, consists of $5 billion in cash and $10 billion in loan guarantees to the airline industry which has been hemorrhaging cash, after all flights were grounded for two days and as passengers avoid air travel.

America West Holdings (AWA,Trade) unit, America West Airlines, said on Thursday it had received an initial payment of $60 million from the government. That was about half the $120 million the airline expects to receive as the cash portion of its aid, a spokeswoman said.

America West, the No. 8 U.S. airline, was among several carriers that had warned about filing for bankruptcy protection if it did not receive federal assistance.

U.S. Transportation Department officials on Thursday were working through airline applications for the $2.5 billion in aid already cleared, a department spokesman said.

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said the purpose of the bailout was not to save all the airlines, but simply to give them some footing and to help rebuild their cash position.

 

[msdis]

I heard that with the bail out they will reap 4 times what they would have had for earnings normally. I was on an AA plane on the 5th. IT was empty. So were the planes that were hi-jacked. What does that tell you? They were already hurting. Not to mention the only reason we ended up with AA was because Comair went on strike for so long. They have been discouraging passengers for some time now.

I have another beef with AA anyways. After driving home 1500 miles from WDW on the 12th we inquired at the AA desk after dropping off our rental car about our unused return portion of our ticket. She gave us a number to call which I did. I explained we were stranded and had to drive home and could not use our return portion. The lady on the line was beligerant with me, yelled at me, and told me how lucky I was that SHE was a generous person and was going to refund 1/2 our ticket price as it was not THEIR fault this tragedy happened and did not feel anyone was entitled to any compensation. We still do not have a credit on our credit card. How's that for customer service. I have some choice thoughts I will not share, but they NEED their customers right now and I for one do not care if I ever fly again, and will never fly AA ever again. This was not the customers fault either, and I don't feel treating us like WE are the enemy is going to do a thing to save that industry.

 

[Meagansmom]

Thank you MJS! - I also am a native Minnesotan! The funny thing is that Northworst was already hurting before the tragedy. They need to look at their prices! In all of the times I have flown to Orlando, it was only once that we used Northworst. We booked our tickets through Delta for our next visit at $132.00. I have looked at Northworst - about the same time (within a half an hour), same days, and they have been $400.00 or more - never lower. With the price differences, who could afford to fly them.

Beverly Lynn - you are so funny!!! Who would expect a CEO to take a pay cut or the other 52. Not them!

JandD Mom - YOU GO AHEAD AND VENT! Sometimes we need it!

We need to keep attitudes positive during this time and it will not help with the airlines treating employees the way they are.

 

[seashoreCM]

>>> Lady on the line was belligerent, yelled at [me] ...

Write a letter to the airline pointing this rudeness out and asking for something specific such as a $100.00 travel certificate. This is on top of the requested refund for the return trip that you did not take because the flight was cancelled.

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[JandD Mom]

Msdis and SeashoreCM,

I wish you luck, but American has the absolute worst customer service. I will never fly them again unless I have absolutely no alternative and I am desperate. They refused to allow me to board a flight once to the Cayman Islands even though I had the correct citizenship documentation. their antiquated information said I did not. It took me going home with DH and crying kids in tow, arranging a conference call between Cayman Islands Immigration and an American manager to get me on a plane. I did arrive a day late. After all of that, and information from the British consolate telling them I was right, I never received a dime.

(As an aside, other family members were on USAir that same day. They knew what was happening, and they were trying to page me in the airport as USAir customer service was going to accept my ticket for a USAir flight WITH the same citizenship documentation).

So I am not suprised you got that response. American's attitude is "we are the biggest, we don't need you peons or your money." They deserve a big loss in market share in all of this.

 

[Planogirl]

Note that Southwest Airlines has no intention of laying off any of its employees. They have a large cash reserve and believe that they can use that even if this turns into a long range problem.

I wish so much that SWA flew from Dallas to Orlando!

 

[seashoreCM]

Don't give up. If the first written letter fails, write another letter, this time addressed specifically to the president of the company. If you recall some catchy phrase from the airline's own advertising, you might quote it and add some comment about how they did not live up to it.

Incidentally American Airlines a long time ago had this slogan: "Doing what we do best".

 

[Beverly Lynn]

depending on the amount of time with the carrier says to what severance pkg you will get. its not a bad one from I read on the memo's.

a refund to a credit card could take up to 2 billing cycles to get on there. no clue why it just can. this is no excuse but do you have any idea fo the stress they are under? do you have any idea of how many people call them a day and go off on them about what happened and are demanding their money back and how scared they are to fly etc etc etc? its not an excuse but maybe you could understand why they might be as touchy as they are. I agree that if its hitting them that way then they need to get off the phones and take a break but you have no idea of how AA is with agents and call work time. I don't know who is worse AA or US. I would however write a letter to AA CEO and let him know about the rudeness of the employee but stress how you fully understand the amount of pressure they are on but if its affecting them this bad then they need to have their agents take a break so as not to treat their current and future passengers in this manner. they too have to understand how scared americans are to fly right now. this is not a time to drive away passengers but they should be a little more compassionate as to draw them back after this tragedy and obviously this agent was not doing it. (I hope you got her name) always get the name of the agent you speak to and if possible get their agent sign. this will tell them exactly who it was and what city they are in.

 

[DebbieB]

a refund to a credit card could take up to 2 billing cycles to get on there. no clue why it just can.

That's something I could never understand either. I recently cancelled a trip to Las Vegas (for medical reasons involving my Mom) and Treasure Island had the credit for the room deposit on my VISA the next day. Why would it take 2 billing cycles? Because they want to hold your money as long as possible to get investment income on it.

 

[Beverly Lynn]

actually it has to go from building 7 down to accounting revenue which is in a completely differnt building about 10 miles down. then it goes from one desk to another. I guess channelling it from 4 people takes time. it would make more sense to me to have one person/department handle it rather than 3 different departments.

 

[msdis]

Beverly Lynn- I do understand what kind of pressure those agents must be under but in no way, shape or form did I provoke that kind of treatment. I also had to deal with Disney and DVC member services and National car rental who were under as much stress if not more and ALL those people were as friendly, helpful, sympathetic and ALL went above the call of duty to myself and to those around me as I witnessed.

The only reason I ended up with AA in the first place was because of the strikes with Comair. When it appeared they would still be striking as my trip approached I went to Delta/ Comair and expressed my concerns and that I was thinking that the rates of the other carriers would go up and availability would go down the closer we got. The Delta agent was just GREAT. She refunded our credit card which by the way did show up in a matter of days. As some of you may remember the thread I posted to a month or 2 ago about how AA was playing games about giving a credit to me when their fares went down and they out and out lied to me and not on one occasion but with several attempts. I eventually caught them in their lies. AA employs a very dishonest group of individuals, be it thru training or incentive. I have learned my lesson with them and am sharing it with others as I hope someone else never goes thru this with them.

 

[TZMOM]

I agree w/everyone's "vent" so to speak. I think from time to time everybody who has flown has had one problem or another, we're all under stress - regardless of the attack. It's really hard to separate the people that talk to us on the phone, at the gate or on the plan from the people that are making the decisions. I agree about the CEO's who are making such big bucks - they could all take a several hundred thousand cut in pay for a few months & save several hundred if not thousand "peon" jobs, but God forbid - they'll use the government help & who gets to pay for that? ummmm I guess it's us. I once worked for a toy company who gave their CEO a $10 million (yes - that's $10,000,000) bonus & within 6 months were laying the "little people" off, only to keep giving the "suits" raises, stock options, etc. Well w/that little stunt I switched careers & had to start dealing with the general public more often - I was totally surprised to say the least. It seems that when people are talking to a faceless voice on the telephone, the ruder they get. I've been threatened, called incompetent, stupid, "you don't know anything, you're just the . . . ." SOOOOO now, whenever I'm dealing with ANYONE whether it's face to face or on the telephone, I am really trying to be calm, understand that the person on the other end is basically taking a "cold call" , isn't me so he/she has no idea what I'm talking about, so I try to completely explain myself in a very friendly tone. So far I haven't had too much of a problem. If I had people calling w/panic & demanding tones in their voices ALL DAY, I'm not sure how I'd handle it - maybe w/some Dewars - then things would REALLY get messed up. now I'm done w/my vent - next person, please.

 

[Beverly Lynn]

well I have been on both ends of the fence here and I can see both sides of it. the problem many people do not understand is that this agent could have had 10 right before you berate her and be as ignorant as possible and unfortunately you got it back from her.(and you didn't deserve it) thats not right either. and since I wasn't there to witness either end of it then I don't know what happened. all I can tell you is to do what I stated above in my other post about the letter. and remember you get more with honey than vinegar. and let them know that you will be forwarding a copy of the letter to both the FAA and the DOT> they don't like to hear this as it is a mark against them.

 

[The shadow knows]

I find it ironic how people are always saying I was not mean or rude or raised my voice..yet we all know it happens. maybe you don't realize how you come across toothers. its quite possible that maybe the tone of your voice said something else to the agent in question. is that possible?now I am not saying you did I am merely asking. somepeople do not realize hwo the tone of their own voice sounds. and remember the way you phrase something also depends on how it will be taken.