Co-dependent economy stuck with abusive airlines

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If you have not noticed, we have all just been taken for a ride. The ride is at the Springfield-Branson Regional Air-port.|ret||ret||tab|

As a very frequent flyer, I am appalled by the blatant victimization of the business traveler by the airlines. These are not friendly skies.|ret||ret||tab|

Let's deal with reality. Prior to Sept. 11 (the direct result of airlines cutting costs by hiring incompetent security), the airline industry was on the carpet in Washington for regularly lying to me ("This flight is canceled because of a mechanical problem"), bumping me off flights ("We want to apologize for overbooking this flight by 2,688 people") and deciding I needed to rediscover my kneecaps by making sure they were firmly embedded in my chin for three hours during commuter flights.|ret||ret||tab|

The rudeness and insensitivity of this industry has only been matched by Bobby Knight, Leona Helmsley and Ebenezer Scrooge on their good days.|ret||ret||tab|

So, how does our government reward these cretins of the clouds? Well, why not provide $5 billion in immediate cash grants and then make $14 billion available in loan guarantees! |ret||ret||tab|

About now you are screaming, "Well, if we didn't bail them out, it would have been disastrous for the economy." You are right! No argument. But let me also point out that Southwest Airlines, with the smallest debt load in the industry, did not reduce schedules or lay people off. In capitalism, it is survival of the fittest.|ret||ret||tab|

Unprofitable and poorly managed airlines should die a quick death. But this economy has become so co-dependent on an abusive, but necessary, airline industry that we cannot allow the marketplace of supply and demand sweep with a new broom.|ret||ret||tab|

The latest assault on the business traveler came this week when American joined Delta in eliminating all fees to travel agents. Hey, you reason, why not drive all travelers to airline Web sites or reservation phone banks?|ret||ret||tab|

Think this through. If I am going to Disneyland with my family, logging on makes a lot of sense. All you do is give them the date you want to fly to Florida and the date you want to come home. If you ever played Pac Man, you can buy an airline ticket online.|ret||ret||tab|

What about last week in my professional life? I needed to be in New York City on Monday; leave Tuesday morning on a transcontinental flight to Seattle; leave Seattle on Friday for Ft. Wayne and then return to Springfield on Sunday. |ret||ret||tab|

How long are you willing to spend on a phone to make all those arrangements, or, worse still, how will you deal with your emerging pathology when the computer screen you have been mumbling to for the past hour, filled with incomplete flight schedules, unrepentantly blinks, "Good-bye, please visit our site again"?|ret||ret||tab|

The airlines, in effect, have reduced their operating costs by making the consumer responsible for his/her reservations. So, ticket prices should come down. Right? In your dreams!|ret||ret||tab|

I will now have to pay someone on my staff to make my travel arrangements or I will have to pay a travel agent for each ticket written. Either way, I pay. You pay. We all pay.|ret||ret||tab|

But the "paying" goes far beyond cash. Have you ever had a flight canceled and you had an electronic ticket? Forget about getting in line at the gate to be rebooked. You will have to go back through security (we all know the fun this will be) and wait in line at the main ticket counter.|ret||ret||tab|

Yes, you do have the option of calling the reservation 800 number, but lots of luck talking with a real, breathing human being after you listen, again, to the 14 electronic voice options. (Do you notice they never give you an option, "Please push 9 if you are thinking of coming to our headquarters building to inflict bodily harm on one of our associates"?)|ret||ret||tab|

We are being jammed into dirty, cylindrical torture chambers replete with rude gulag masters who have traded in their whips for beverage carts and all of this unservice for exorbitant fares (try flying between Springfield and St. Louis without a Saturday night stay!). |ret||ret||tab|

Please do not misunderstand my intent: I love to fly, but I hate being taken for a ride.|ret||ret||tab|

(Dr. Cal LeMon solves organizational problems with customized training and consulting. His company, Execu-tive Enrichment Inc., can be contacted via the Business Journal at sbj@sbj. net.)[[In-content Ad]]