You can't regulate all of that stuff. Requiring certain seat pitch, etc. That would never become a reality. Also, the airlines do not create connections. They happen by default. The airlines create flight schedules based on flights leaving from, and returning to a hub city. They do not create a connection specifically for you, flying from Orlando, FL, and wanting to go to Little Rock, AR. They create a flight leaving from a hub, to Orlando, then returning to hub. It is you, who had to get on that flight returning to the hub, and then catch a flight going out, from the hub, to Little Rock. Whatever time that flight happens to leave, is whatever time it happen to leave. The airlines cannot work every flight around all flights coming from all cities, just so everybody had a chance to get to Little Rock, and have a specific connection. If what I am saying makes any sense to you at all. It is hard to explain. basically, connections happen by default, based on flights flying from a hub, to a city, and back to a hub. Based on the market, some cities get more flights than others, and thus more options. This is why you may have a very short layover, or very long layover. In all, when you book airfare, you can pick and choose and get better connections. Leave on an earlier flight that gives you more time at the hub, for example.
Allowing foreign ownership of the airlines will cause what has happened in many other industries. It will allow foreign labor to come do American jobs, for less, cutting people's pay, and doing away with people's jobs. That is just what we need more of, in this country. We need foreign people owning, and running our companies, and paying their significantly less wages. That really makes a lot of sense. Just so you know, it is airline labor, not airline management, who has fought to prevent foreign ownership of the airlines, to prevent just that. To prevent what has already eroded income, and jobs in this country.
As per making children under 16 sit with parents. You need to understand. It depends on when you book your ticket. The airlines do what they can to get families, and all people under the same reservation, seated together. BUT, if you buy a ticket, when the majority of seats are already sold, that leaves limited seats open, and results on people being spread out. I'm also very surprised at the people who book tickets, for their family, but book them all under seperate reservations, and complain that the airlines didn't seat them together. And how were we supposed to know yall are family? They are all seperate reservations. I guess we should start sitting any and all people with the same last name by each other, because they may be family. LOL!! Also, unless you request reserved seating, when you book your flights (which everybody should do), the seats are assigned randomly at checkin. If you are going to be traveling as a family, book ahead of time, and get reserved seating. Booking on a last minute flight, with limited seating, results in being split apart. And no, we cannot just go in and start moving people around. That would create a major mess at boarding, when your boarding pass is being scanned, and it doesn't go through, because your seat has been changed, without you knowing, and now your boarding pass doesn't match. You really need to work for an airlines to understand why some things are the way they are. It never made sense to me, until I started working for an airline, but now it all does.
I agree something needs to be done about tarmac delays, and allowing people off.
As per making gate agents, etc., go through training like the crews. So I should go through, as the pilots, years of training to learn how to board a flight, so I can make my current $8-9/hr, what will be less than that when foreign countries are running the show. I don't think so. Believe it, or not, gate, ticket, and ramp agents already have to go through training. Not some extensive training, like flight crew, but if it gets to the point that you have to start having some license to be a gate agent, the airlines better start paying up. Because as it is, if they pay fast food wages, that is the service you will get. AND, are YOU, the passenger ready to pay the bill for all of these things? You do realize if the airlines were forced to do all of these things, it means fares are going to sky rocket, to cover the costs.
In the end, the airlines are private companies (I realize they are publicly traded, but you get the point). They can ultimately do what they want. They can charge what they want, for what service they want, or don't want. It isn't anybodies right to fly, it is a privilage. The airlines are like any other company. They set their prices, and their service, and it is a customer's choice to fly, based on that.
Don't expect anything to change. Air travel is no longer what it used to be. It is the greyhound of the sky. It is a means to get from point A to point B, not some 5 star hotel and restaurant in the sky. And, if passengers want air travel to go back to the days of luxury, maybe passengers should stop flying in tank tops, flip flops, smelling like cigarettes, and alohol. Today's typical traveler is an embarrasment in and of itself, compared to the days of old.
I am sure some people will have some nasty things to say to me, about my remarks. I don't care. I have my opinions. I just think people make a much bigger deal about all of this than they need to. The majority of the time, flights go out on time, and without a problem. When things don't go off as well, well, such is life. Sometimes things happen we don't like. Get over it. I wonder how some people stand to go through life, constantly worrying, and stressing over every little thing. I've been on delayed and cancelled flights. I've sat on an airplane for 3 hours, on the tarmac. Oh well. I didn't find it THAT BIG of a deal. But that is just me.
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