Quick turn arounds
 

On a recent flight that was already delayed the crew did a quick turn around. Consequently they didn't clean up the plane after the incoming flight. When I boarded the seat pocket in front of me was crammed full of garbage from the previous passanger. There was even garbage lying on the empty seat next to me. I felt as if I was flying on a garbage truck.
I would really have preferred an additional five minute longer delay to fly on a somewhat cleaner plane. However maybe it was just a lazy crew since they didn't pass through the cabin but one time to pick up the used cups on our flight and we had no place to put our garbage either.

Neuman605,

I think the problem unfortunately is more with fellow passengers than it is with the airlines or their employees.

I have walked off many flights and thought maybe I missed a F5 tornado that passed through the cabin.

I have seen some unbelievable disasters in Coach and First Class. Unfortunately, there can be some trashy passengers that contribute significantly to the problem you are talking about.

For most airlines, cleaning the airplane is not a part of the crews responsibility. Most full service airlines hire outside vendors or have other employees for this task.

On flights with flight attendants there is often many attempts made to collect trash other than the items served on board. I think it is unusual that a crew would pass through the cabin just once to pick up service items or other trash.

Depending on where you are traveling to/from an additional 5 min delay for an already delayed flight could be significant. At high density airports like NYC/ORD/ATL certain flights may have a limited window for take-off so there can be a rush to get the airplane boarded and off the gate.

From a business stand point "Quick Turn-Arounds" add to an airline's bottom line. This helps maximize the airplane utilization and companies like SWA made this a key part of their overall operation strategy. A Southwest Airplane was turned in 20 min or less from top to bottom but this required the flight attendants to assist in cleaning the airplane.

In a perfect world we would all fly on reasonably cleaned airplanes that operated on time and for the most part I think most airlines come pretty close :)

DMBTraveler,

You are so correct about getting off a plane and thinking a tornado had gone through, esp on an international flight.

This flight was from CLT to CLE with a turn around back to CLT. CLE is not comparable with NYC/ORD/ATL, sorry this time I can not agree with you.

When observing the flight attendants on the flight, they just show no motivation.

I do think the problem is with passengers, some of whom can be real slobs. I don't see why people can't take their own wrappers, cups, apple cores, fruit peels off the plane with them, instead of leaving them on the floor or stuffing in the seat-back pockets. Flight attendants are not the cleaning crew.

Neuman605,

Since you flew direct CLT to CLE, hopefully not during the DNC, I will make an assumption that you flew on US Airways or United.

As you might not be aware both of these are airlines that have severely cut their employees wages and benefits in recent years along with imposing difficult working conditions. As a result employee moral at both of these companies is low. Despite these conditions most employees at these airlines still do an admirable job although it is not surprising to hear about a lack of good customer service in some areas.

On top of the poor treatment employees receive, they are still under pressure to get flights out on time and have to answer daily for flight delays. So it does not surprise me that your flight was rushed and not properly cleaned. This is an issue that should be addressed with upper management at these airlines who foster this type of poor customer service.

CLE may not be NYC/ORD/ATL but your delay could have been because of operations in and out of CLT which is a major hub for USair and has it's own share of Air Traffic Control issues. :(

DMBTraveler,

Again you are correct on many issues and your assumptions. And you are correct the flight crew is not responsible for cleaning the plane. But somewhere we need to draw the line on flying in somewhat sanitary conditions.

Unfortunately it seems our domestic airlines are not as efficient or conscientious as many of the international carriers.

Neuman605,

I agree with you.

Many International Carriers are heavily government subsidized and do not have the same operational pressures as our domestic carriers. This is not an excuse for passengers having to fly on dirty airplane but often the underlying moral of employees translate into the type of service customers receive.

I know for example that moral is so bad at United that the CEO is trying to tempt employees with monetary rewards for nice letters received from customers. Unfortunately, this is all artificial because the real problem there is the CEO and management at UAL treat their employees like crap.

For example, I believe the pilots at former Continental have not had a pay increase in over ten years, yet UAL/CAL have had record profits. Some of these profits have come on the backs of employee wage cuts and benefits.

So I would say for the most part when you receive poor customer service in any business it is usually a problem beyond one or two specific employees actions.

Companies that provide good customer service often have great management and employee relationships. Unfortunately, that is lacking for many of our domestic airlines :(

Right again DMBTRaveler...as you so often are!