This is United's "summer from Hell", paints a recent Bloomberg article. Yet, how is this different from any other summer?  

Labor unrest. Disgruntled United flight attendants staged a worldwide protested at airports July 16.

In the airlines' race to the bottom, United is winning.

Planes are packed, security lines are long and airline seats are shrinking - plus we're shelling out more every year.

US airfares are up, averaging nearly $400 last year despite plunging oil prices.

If you feel that's skyway robbery, finally the government agrees with you.

The Department of Justice announced this earlier month it will investigate airlines for possible anti-competitive price collusion - basically, informing each other on how many flights they're planning, and reducing capacity, resulting in higher ticket prices across the board. 

Still, the US government allowed these mergers, thereby hurting consumers. The fact iremains, there are not enough seats in the sky to meet demand today. 

Then, earlier this month we saw 'The Great Technical Glitch' of July 8 - when a United computer malfunction grounded all its mainline flights. 

United abandons passengers in Goose Bay, Canada barracks for 24 hours during unscheduled stopover. Another reason that Montreal Convention compensation info is essential, and airlines should not be permitted to include mechanical breakdowns as Acts of God. We need to feed a drumbeat of these stories to Congress as they happen. -Paul Hudson, president FlyersRights

 

United Becoming A Low-Cost Carrier?

If the current trend continues, United may become a glorified low-cost carrier. In many ways they already are. Their product lags that of JetBlue which is moving from low-cost carrier to something less. United could, in theory, make money in that scenario. The question is whether that is who they want to become.

Let's look at United's own Preliminary Operational Results for June on-time performance, straight from the horse's mouth, - 66.4%.  

It means 1 in 3 flights were delayed more than 15 minutes. The numbers don't lie, United is also at the bottom of just about every metric compared to its network peers, both operationally and financially. 

The carrier seems to have completely thrown out the fundamentals practiced at Continental Airlines following the merger in 2010, which was: Treat your employees well, and they'll work well. Treat the customers well, and it'll be good for the bottom line.

Instead, the airline has closed hubs, outsourced half of the company to the lowest bidder, and threatened the remaining employees that they're next to be outsourced, which shows in their work. 

Maybe Wall Street folks are finally starting to take notice that United's inflated stock performance is due to the rising tide of reduced competition and lower fuel prices than any concrete actions taken by its management.  

All international carriers should be invited to fill the void and hold permanent slots on all domestic routes. Free up Americans the right to vote with their dollars.

Dear FlyersRights:

I took a trip from DFW to Louisville last weekend on American Airlines. What could go wrong on a short hop like that?

It turned out to be like The Odyssey as re-written by Homer.... Simpson. No problem on the first flight, except the seat in front of me was 8 inches from my nose, sitting upright. My return flight was due out at 12:09 pm. Rolled back from the gate and then sat on the runway until 12:44, when the pilot announced "We had a problem, now fixed. Just need to do paperwork." That took another 20 minutes. About 13:05, eight seconds or so of acceleration, then heavy braking "We had another problem, returning to gate. Take your carry-on bags." About 75 of us lined up at the counter, where for almost 3 hours one agent, with a second agent about 1/3 of the time, processed people. The first announcement said, "10 min till mechanic arrives, then about 45 minutes more." Then, "No more news, another 45 minutes." Then, "Departure 5:00 at the earliest." 

I talked to two first-class passengers who were flying via DFW to Tucson. They used 100,000 AA miles to visit their granddaughter on her first birthday. He was wearing a face mask to avoid infection because he was a transplant patient, and had an appointment for a critical checkup the next day.  

They were given the option of waiting for the original flight, or renting a car and driving to Lexington for a 7:46 flight scheduled to arrive at DFW 49 minutes. At 6:37, "Found a spare plane, being towed in." 6:49, Pushback from the gate, 6 h 40m after the first one. 8:50: arrival at DFW gate. 

The last thing the gentleman with the transplant needed was more stress, but American Airlines certainly provided it, in spades. -- Inadequate staff to process passengers for re-booking connections. -- Not making two lines with one for those with connections. -- Almost total lack of informational announcements from pilots or gate staff over several hours. -- Booking young, apparently healthy passengers on an earlier flight, while ignoring people like the man with health problems, who was flying first-class and had AA Gold status. When I got home, I found an automated email from American's computer saying it was so sorry, [deep in it's processor, I assume] and giving me 6000 miles.  Same for the first-class passenger, I found out.

I paid $434.20 for my trip +25 each way for a bag. The first-class passengers using their miles would've paid over $4300. So the paltry offer of 6000 AA miles for them was an added insult. 

Way to treat your most loyal customers, American. Seems like they should have gotten more like 60,000. D'oh!, American. 

DP 

In response to "The Emerging Revolution":

Dear FlyersRights: 

Good comments. I have little sympathy for US carriers which have erected trade barriers. Here is a note (from the Delta in-flight magazine for July) from the CEO of Delta lamenting the competition from gulf carriers and trying to get us to join their cause.

BTW I am ok with the new seating pattern as it week give me more elbow room and not have to deal with other's "man spread". 

PL

Dear FlyersRights: