NY Times on Airline Inequities

My inbox contains a growing number of press releases and promotional messages from airlines promising great service (i.e., flight attendants who are truly attentive), wide seats, with lots of legroom, food created by name chefs, personal entertainment systems, outlets for laptops and iPods, magazines and, for longhaul flights, bedlike seats that can lie flat. The great majority of these features are reserved for the passengers in the front of the plane, domestically and especially on international flights.

For everyone else packed into "steerage," flying is more a trial that a pleasure. The New York Times noticed too, in its usual articulate way, in a feature called "Class Conflict." Michelle Higgins, who writes the "Practical Traveler" column, likened the back of the plane to the ninth circle of Hell. She wrote that "flying in coach has become an increasingly miserable experience. Legroom is practically nonexistent. Passengers are more tightly packed together. Hot meals have been eliminated. Ditto pillows and blankets. And the next time that guy in front of you leans his seat back directly into your face, few of your fellow passengers are likely to blame you if you feel a brief, murderous urge to strike back."

She interviewed an executive who told of an appalling American Airlines Dallas-Honolulu roundtrip flight and told her that the audio for the movie was broken, the light indicating whether the lavatory was occupied was "squirrely" and confusing, and the food alledgedly available for purchase ran out before the entire cabin was served. On his return, the audio worked but only in Spanish, and his seat would not stay in the upright position, which is required for takeoff and landing. Of course, it the plane was not totally full, he might have been able to move at those times, but if it was, he wouldn't have been able to comply with the rules.

The Times observed, "The fact is that airlines, flying so close to full capacity today, have realized that they really don’t have to cater to economy passengers — most of whom are booking on price alone, and who increasingly have no real airline loyalty — because the cost of doing so would never be worth it in pure bottom-line terms." At United, according to the report, eight percent of the passengers generate 36 percent of the airline's revenue.

As a thrifty flyer, I am ambivalent about all this. I do believe that you get what you pay for and those front-cabin passengers do pay a lot more than those in the back of the plane, but a fully functioning airplane (including seatbacks, lights and even audio systems that work) should be a given in both cabins.

The article is fascinating, citing how much money various airlines claim to have saved by cutting out meals and even snacks, eliminating pillows and blankets and other former comforts that even coach passengers were once able to expect. The piece noted that many discount carriers now have better amenities than mainstream carriers. It also include online place for venting anger ( flyertalk.com, airlinerage.com and flightsfromhell.com) and for reading other travelers' rants.