Jim

Just took a British Airways flight from Paris to London.It lasted about 40 minutes, we were served a nice sandwich and desert and beverages. In the U S you'd be lucky on a 2 hour flight to get peanuts. Can someone tell me how we as passengers allow this to happen to us here in America?

Bob Brown

I don't know the answer to your question. My biggest complaint is cramped seating, with Delta being the leading cramper that I have flown recently. I think some of the answer to your question about better service on BA flights may be in the fact that flights within Europe tend to be more expensive than flights of the same milage in the USA, and train travel is a viable alternative in Europe. (There is the chunnel train for London Paris that does not take much longer than an airplane flight when you factor in city to airport and airport to city conveyance times.)In the USA, train travel is not an option in most cases, with the possible exception of New York - Philadelphia and possibly DC.

John

The reason is because most non-business travelers pick an airline based on either their frequent flier points or price. Service doesn't enter into the equation. So airlines cut back on service so they can make more money (or hold prices down when other costs rise). If there were an airline that truly showed better customer service but cost more, and people would pay more to get it, then you would see better customer service. I think the International carriers (British Air, KLM, asian airlines) can afford to have better service when flying to the US because the price of airfares allows airlines to spend a little more for service, and on long international flights, people want a little more service. I know I can put up with just about anything for a two hour flight, but not on a 9 hour flight.

JIM C

Same reason we put up with the lack of service at Wal-Mart, McDonalds etc. etc.

We want to be able to fly coast to coast for less than $400, and usually can. That means max capacity aircraft configurations and the sheer volume of PAX means very little time for customer service.

You can get better service by joining airport clubs, flying first class etc, but it all costs more $$.

I am a 100K flyer on Delta so I am almost always in F/C, and generally get treated fairly well. But I spend a lot of money (and time)with that airline to get there.

I am not defending the airlines, but you gotta expect to get what you pay for.

duh

PROFITS.

herself

I also look for price not service. I don't care if they don't serve food since I have found I sleep better if I don't eat on the plane. Give me a comfortable seat with leg room, water, a good price and they can keep their movies and food. I don't even mind snappy flight attendances. Heck, last time I flew Bristis Air the attendents looked like my grandmother.

Lori

You get what you pay for. Most people look at the price first not the quality of service. That's why Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Costco, etc. are the giants they are. They are not getting you in their on their personality.

I agree BA feeds you decently even on the short hop between London & Paris, this would never happen in the U.S. on any flight that short. It's pure economics. The airlines in the U.S. basically know you are going to fly whether they feed you or not, so why spend the money on you? 99% of the passengers look at the price of the ticket. If the price was $300 without food and $310 with food most people would opt for the lesser amount and airlines know that. As for BA's flight attendants looking like the last posters grandmother -- well we've flown with all ages of FA's on BA (and other airlines - flights to Hawaii frequently have more senior attendants because it's a prime bidding route) and in case of an emergency I'd trust the older FA's experience and level headedness over some cute little airhead any day.

Cindy

To the extent "service" includes airline meals, they are pretty bad, but it all depends on your point of view. When I wedge myself into that tiny seat, and I start to smell the food being cooked up in back, I imagine that the flight attendants are warming up a big vat of Alpo for coach passengers. So when they present me with salisbury steak or odd chicken, hey, I'm happy enough.

Michael

It's the Southwest factor since they pioneered the low cost low frills service style of flying (that being said their flight attendant usually do a good job). As they expanded service across the country other airlines had to compete with them on their terms which means lower fairs, which is good for us, but less service. I'm less concerned about food, and more concerned with baggage, and bumping.

Ruth

Sure it's money -- high executive salaries and shareholder returns -- but it's also because they can get away with lousy service. We have no choice and we put up with it. They'll push us to the exact limit of tolerance and pull back only when the outcry is deafening. It's supposed to be such GREAT NEWS that airlines like American just decided to "give" us a wondrous 2 more inches of legroom -- this after reducing the space between seats to slave-galley cramping conditions.

Deregulation may have gotten the gummint out of their hair, but it didn't give us passengers a smidgen more choice. It just meant that the big, hungry airlines ate the small ones and decided (not by conspiracy, just by having the same general mindset) that the only way to draw the business traveller was to give HIM the perks, like freq. flyer plans, etc. for which others would pay -- and that drawing the business traveller outweighed any other possible interest. Business travel may be 75% of their market but ONLY 75% -- the remaining 25% could make or break them, something they seem to forget.

Moreover, the irony is that in the process of reducing service to something like prisoner-transport levels, only the wealthiest business travellers now get gold plated indulgence, while the rest of them/us have gotten shoe-horned into the misery that everyone else now has to suffer. They've gone too far. They know it. So instead of fixing it, they spend more money on advertising. They think we're idiots. Maybe we are.

Jim

Addressing the subject of some flight attendants looking like your grandmother.Who cares what a flight attendant looks like? I care about their attitude and not their looks. It's a pity that so many people say you get what you pay for,I'm amazed .
I've been on flights for example where I was paying full coach from NY to Dallas and that's well over a two hour flight, I got a soda and some peanuts in coach. Is that getting what you paid for? I'm not flying an airline for the food. Of course I check to see who has a better rate, but there are limits to what you can submit yourself to.
Would you fly with the cargo if it were cheaper? Perhaps they would throw in a blanket if it got to cold down there.

Ozzie

Jim:

I thought carefully about your latest post, and, yes, I think I would fly in the cargo hold if it were cheaper:

1. My laptop would still work--and think of the legroom!
2. There would be no large person next to me hogging the armrest.
3. No jetway line to stand in.
4. No person in front of me reclining his seat without warning.
5. No frivilous intercom messages blasting through my brain while I'm trying to concentrate.
6. No Bistro Bag.

I think you've inadvertantly come up with a great idea. In fact, I'm calling American right now.

Jim

What can I say?