Anybody flying the friendly skies? I hope not. The drive is a lot better.
I love flying. I first flew on my grandfather's private plane from Knoxville to New York before I was a year old. I don't remember that one, but I do remember flights that followed. For a few minutes, I was a privileged kid.
The exhilaration of take off, that split second of wonder if the separation between ground and wing is heading in the right direction--which is up if you were wondering...is a sensation I have never shaken. It is a moment of to be thankful and to be awed by the things humans can do.
To this day, over a half century later, I am dazzled every time I eat lunch in one place, then have supper a thousand miles away just by getting on an airplane. I've done it hundreds of times and I don't think it will ever be different.
But the things humans can do go in different directions, don't they? We have managed to take the wonder of air travel and come up with United.
With a revenue of $36.5 billion, United Airlines, Inc., is the world's 3rd largest airline. Although it's revenue was over 4 billion dollars less than the number one carrier, American Airlines, it's profit amount was only a half billion less (7.6 billion vs 7.1 billion). It did this carrying 35% fewer passengers.
United's revenue per passenger is $382 versus $279 for American and it's profit per passenger is $74 against $52.
You'd think the airline with the highest revenues per passenger would be a model of customer service. And you'd be wrong. In 2016, United was dead last in customer satisfaction among North American traditional air carriers.
United, if nothing else, is the poster child for corporatism run amok. It is the result of years of acquiring smaller carriers and undercutting its labor force. With next to no competition in markets like Chicago, it doesn't need to pay much attention to its customer.
As several recent news reports and viral videos attest, the corporation views its passengers as annoyances. If only they were boxes instead of living objects capable of complaining. Overbooking and getting bumped are just part of the cost of travel and you just have to live with it.
That's United's philosophy. It's the corporate philosophy adapted when businesses lose sight of their most important asset--the customer. It's what happens when deregulation encourages monopoly over competition.
Corporatism is anti-business. It is anti-competition. It is anti-regulation. And it is, most definitely, anti-customer. But it IS the horse our 2 main political parties have chosen to ride for the last 30 years.
Why isn't there a third party you ask? Because two huge corporations have agreed to shut out competition.
United treats its customers with the same disdain as the Republican and Democratic parties treat most Americans.
The good news is that ultimately, customers have control. People seem to be waking up to that inconvenient (for the monopolies) truth.
You don't have to fly the friendly skies. Flying might be fast, but driving is the way to see the countryside. And drivers are never overbooked.