$10 and a Dozen Hours Later, You Might Fly Home

by Mike Hall, Jun 4, 2007

With a great deal of fanfare and a pledge to improve customer service, United Airlines last week announced its new policy dealing with the extraordinary, hours-long delays that have plagued passengers during the past year—and that experts say will continue to frustrate travelers in the busy summer season. (Remember JetBlue?)

But the Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) union says there’s one problem with the new plan: It does nothing to address the underlying causes of the near-hostage-like delays some passengers have endured. In a press release, the union says:

It does nothing to fix poor planning, poor scheduling, poor staffing decisions that cause increased cancellations. The policy does nothing to address abysmal employee morale, minimal ground personnel or inadequate gate access. Instead, according to the union, it signals to employees that management has set travelers up for a long, hot summer of delays, missed business meetings and disrupted family vacations.

At a glance, the new policy doesn’t  offer a lot of hope that much will change. The plan is to first identify delayed flights with the goal of keeping them to less than three hours. Hmm. That wasn’t obvious?

These “flights of note”—United’s term—will occur after a taxi-out delay of four hours or more, a taxi-in delay of 90 minutes or more or a four-hour on-the-ground delay. But in their effort to show a little love to passengers cooped up and delayed as long as it takes to fly nearly across the country, the airline will hand out some real generous compensation—20 percent off their next United flight and a $10 meal voucher.

Says Greg Davidowitch, president of the AFA-CWA unit at United:

Flights of note? Who are they trying to kid? Trust us when we say flight attendants won’t be whistling while they work on hot, minimally staffed, dirty airplanes full of understandably disgruntled passengers. All United workers will be doing their best this summer. But no matter how hard flight attendants, pilots and other employees work, we will never be able to make up for the operation management built like a house of cards.

So, next time you’re stuck for four or five hours on the ground at O’Hare, LAX or JFK, just think of that $10 food voucher. That should lower your blood pressure and ease your frustration.

Just so you won’t be surprised, or to help you in travel planning, don’t forget to check out the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) two new websites—here and here—to help you avoid delays this summer.

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