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Originally Posted by jimworcs
Ok, lets take it from the top:
Let's assume Pax is inexperienced international traveller. Judges 90 minutes before flight to be reasonable based on past experience. Ticket says 60 minutes. He may have misread or misinterpreted that, but that is what the ticket said. Pax thinks.. well I will play safe and get there an hour and half before the flight just to be on the safe side. Arrives... to chaos. Who's fault is that?
PHX says...
Based on what? Pax accepted standby for next flight, and stood by and watched others failing to get on and general all round chaos. Then went to get bags and stood by a further 30 minutes, now a full 3.5 hrs since he had first checked his bags. I consider him to be a paragon of virtue.. and far from impatient.
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I only said he was impatient when waiting for his bags, which required special handling since he was standby, not before. My comment was that from the moment he was told his flight was closed for check-in I think nothing the Continental employees could have done would have altered his perception.
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The pax is now expected to anticipate the failure of the airline to adequately staff for numbers required. Lets compare that say to a Department Store gearing up for the day after Thanksgiving. Do they staff as normal for the busiest day of the year? Or do they anticipate extra and ensure that sufficient staff are on hand to manage the workload. Does the post office anticipate extra demand at Christmas? Continental knew exactly how many customers they were going to get that day and knew how many had checked in online and how many would require their check in services. Let's see what they could do...
1. Cancel all leave
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When they grant leave it is based on anticipated flight loads. They offer fewer vacation slots during peak periods.
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2. Draft in part time workers to do extra hours at times of high demand
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Continental already employees many part time employees at their hubs. They also offer part time as an alternative to furlough for full time employees if available.
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3. Offer and/or require overtime from their staff
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They can only force mandatory overtime for a given number of hours per week due to union contracts.
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4. Hire temps to undertake less skilled tasks releasing other staff to focus on demand
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The hiring and training process for US airlines is very expensive mainly due to the extensive background checks and drug testing that must be performed. This expense and the time necessary precludes hiring temporary labor.
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It's amazing.. how did I come up with such innovative ideas when I have never run an airline? Perhaps it is because this is an exercise in the bleedin' obvious.
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No comment!
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It is reasonable for a customer to expect a service provider to provide the service requested in a timely manner. 90 minutes before a flight is not that unreasonable.
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It is when check-in is cut off at 60 minutes and the queues are more than 30 minutes long!
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A seasoned traveller might be more cautious but who says these people are seasoned travellers. Anyway, why are your expectations of the airline so low? Now, we know that when you have essential stuff, you no longer trust the airline to get your luggage to the same destination as you, and you therefore pay someone else to provide this service, namely FedEx. Would you be so accepting if when you got to FedEx they told you that this was a very busy time, please allow up to three hours to queue before they could accept and process your parcel. Then if you don't get to the front in time, refuse to guarantee it's arrival. You still ready to pay them for the service? If not, why not?
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I have waited in line at FedEx at holiday time to send gifts to family. They have an 8 PM cutoff to guarantee overnight delivery. If you're still in the queue at 801 PM then your package will not be guaranteed to arrive until the 2nd day.
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That "probably" indicates you are guessing right? An alternative explanation could be that they didn't call out this particular flight becuase they knew they had already overbooked the flight and all the seats were allocated. It suited them to "blame the passenger".
Proactive processing in this case, is called queue jumping. It may have been that our OP may have got to the desk in time, but some bloke in a red coat was legalising queue jumping to cover Continental's imcompetence. This rendered the virtue of arriving at the airport early moot... because late arrivals were processed before you. So much for the early worm and savvy traveller being rewarded. In fact, Continental were doing this because they knew they were understaffed and were frantically trying to limit the damage their incompetent management of the situation had created.
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This "queue jumping" is common practice when things get hectic at Newark. They'd rather get people processed and to their gates rather than have to clean up the mess of passengers who missed their flight because of the queues. The planes will depart with or without them and sometimes during peak travel periods a missed flight means a two or three day wait for a confirmed seat to the destination.
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I think we have covered over-booking.. which effectively renders all airline tickets a form of lottery. You are simply buying the "opportunity" to get on a flight. Arrive at the airport 5 hours before departure, queue for 4 hours whilst being glared at by hostile employees in red coats, ****** off after 5 years of pay cuts and loss of benefits and then get given a lottery ticket, sometimes called a Boarding Pass. Enter the casino some airlines call the "Gate" only to find that your lemons didn't line up and you will have to wait another two days and travel via Seattle to get from Charlotte to Atlanta. Welcome to the 21st century flying experience in the USA.
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The slot machine analogy has me giggling. Go to the gate, pull the one-armed bandit...
Really, though, if you check in online and get a seat assignment chances of being involuntarily bumped are slim. And there are always those who will take the incentive to bump voluntarily freeing up seats. I don't mind overbooking. An airline seat is a perishable commodity. Most airline tickets are valid for a year and can be reissued with a fee so the price of the ticket for that empty seat can be applied towards another. I also sometimes take advantage of the offers to bump. On Continental alone I've been compensated with vouchers totaling $1500 in a single day plus was put up in a hotel overnight.
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The "late" arrival at the airport (ie 90 minutes before flight instead of 120 minutes), resulted in a 5.5 hour delay and this is the passengers fault!! You surpass yourself PHX, but you know I still love you
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No way to tel if the extra 30 minutes would have made a difference or not. It sounds like it was a crazy day at EWR. I hope the next time these travelers allow a bit more time even for a domestic flight. Once or twice I have been waiting in the "Elite Access" security line and noticed someone looking frantic. I motioned for them to join me in the faster security lane and just told the ID checker he or she is with me!
