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Why AA and others can do what they want

Stranded Passengers

Way to go American Airlines plus all the other lines that followed in suit, way to leave 100,000 people stranded, and way to cancel 2000 flights. No matter how much these airlines try to “push customers away” they will be returning very soon.

That is the problem with the airline industry. For such a vital part of today’s global market, it seems like the airlines are creating a monopoly. What?… are people going to take a train instead or maybe they’ll find the local Greyhound station. Nope… that will never happen. So why should we expect airlines to act like they care about their customers?

For those that are like “WHAT??,” over the past couple of days American Airlines canceled around 1500 flights to check for safety issues. Sure it is bound to happen sometime, but the problem is that AA essentially put off expecting any airplane. So with no announcement, they basically cut off tons of their flights. You can read the full detailed story on CNN.

Now if this just happened to AA, then there wouldn’t be a huge problem. People could just switch to a different airline… so you would think. Apparently other airlines now want to protect their passengers and make sure many of their aircrafts are still safe, or, in other words, “we are behind too, so we will used AA as our whipping boy.”

So where are people to turn? Again, are you going to take the train across the country? Most likely not. This isn’t the 1800′s. Are you going to find a Greyhound bus schedule? Signs point to no. This isn’t the 70′s. We will all continue to travel by air. Not because we like being treated like trash, but because there are no other options. It is a horrible business model, but can you blame them? Where else would we turn to?

Now if I could only find my personal body transmitter…

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One Response to “Why AA and others can do what they want”

  • April 10, 2008 at 9:23 pm

    The problem is that airline executives at traditional airlines refuse to “think outside the box”. They manage to lose money over the long run and alienate their customers.

    That is why discount carriers have been so successful.

    One of the things that always bothered me about traditional airlines is that, when there is a weather problem and O’Hare closes down (causing chain-reaction delays all over the country), the airlines always take no blame and say “it’s an Act of God”.

    No – it’s the result of a business decision to use the Hub-and-Spoke model and bottle-neck all domestic air traffic through a handful of airports.

    Southwest, for example, keeps things simple: only one type of aircraft and flies point-to-point.