Has the quality of airline flights declined?
I just got back from a trip. It was the first time in a while that I had flown in an airplane, and I am wondering if what I experienced is the norm.
My flight was delayed by a few hours due to “maintenance.” There were no remaining connecting flights for the same day, so I had to schedule a flight for the next day. On the next day, a flight at one of the adjacent air terminals was delayed for maintenance, so I am suspecting this may not be so uncommon.
They announced that there was not enough room in the overhead bins for carry-on luggage. They asked people to voluntarily use the baggage check-in process. Otherwise luggage would be randomly selected to be placed in check-in. This is apparently routine, because they did this for each of my flights back and forth.
On one flight, some seat assignments were reassigned. They told us to check for gate changes on the connecting flight, and in one case the gate had in fact been changed.
The room between seats is pretty much non-existent. There is no elbow room. The seat recline button did not work, which is a good thing, since there was no room for it.
On one flight, there was a really loud buzz on the intercom, making it hard to hear what was being said. No apologies were given.
My flights and connecting flights were scheduled really close. The outbound flight was delayed by 15 minutes. When I reached the gate for the connecting flight, boarding had already started.
The biggest annoyance was having to come back the next day, but the other features combined to make flying a much less pleasant experience than it used to be.
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7 Answers
What airline did you fly with it sounds like one of the commuter/regional airlines (American Eagle or Sky West etc) ? ?
And yes it is common for the small guys that fly shorter legs and equipment is maintenance a problem.
It was my first time on Delta, which is one of the larger airlines.
The big guys have trouble too, maintenance on the flight line means it is needed immediately. How big a plane was it?
Regarding the interior of the plane, like lack of room for luggage, your body, etc., it may have been an older model of a plane. I’ve been on a flight from BOS to EWR and it was a tiny plane with two seats on each side of the row, and about 30 rows. It was very claustrophobic and not roomy at all. I think that airlines do a good job personally, having been on a decent amount of flights. I don’t expect too much luxury because it’s just a plane, but the prices could be better.
I’ve been flying, commercial, since 1966 and it is a fact that air travel has had a constantly decreasing quality of service. Typical meals in 1st and tourist class used real dinnerware and silverware, the only time plastic was used was to cover the plates while they were heated. Another thing that has changes is the quality of the passenger. You wore your good clothes when flying, nobody wore blue jeans or shorts. Flight attendants were professional and apparently liked their jobs and airports were comfortable places with outside viewing areas where you could watch the activity in and around the airport.
It is really ironic that Americans have gotten bigger while airplane seats are smaller. Air travel was much better when airlines were controlled and they didn’t have to squeeze every penny possible from the passengers.
That being said, I find most of my travel in Continental/United airline much better than others and Northwest the worst, especially on international flights.
It depends on the airline. I just read an article that reports on the best (Southwest) and the worst(Spirit). Delta was low on the list.
@YARNLADY South West loads like a cattle call with no seats assigned unless you pay extra and Delta lost my toolbox in Hong Cong the box and contents were valued well over 1200 dollars, U.S.. I declared it at check in and they “lost the papers” along with the tool box. I haven’t flow Delta since and that was 15 years ago.
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