What amazes me about the ranking of complaints (#1 Lack of Communication, #2 Negative attitude of airline personnel, #3 H= andling of Complains, #4 Flight Delays and Cancellations, #5 Lost Luggage) is that the TOP 3 are completely within the co= ntrol of the airlines. Only the top 3 were identified as critical. Weather/mechanicals/acts of god and those pesky luggage conveyer belts are facts of life. How one deals with them is sepe= rating the men from the boys. Over on www.errorplan.com an Air Canada employee quoted their manager reminding her that they were "in the transportation= business, not the customer service business." -- that speaks volumes to the problems. As Bethune duly noted, JetBlue and CO share the same issues with planes, weather, labour, airports etc. What they don't s= hare is attitude. That's why JetBlue's IPO skyrocketed, and COExpress' barely passed muster. It's also why SouthWest's ma= rket capitalization is greater than their top 8 competitors, combined. (WestJet's is also many multiples higher than Air = Canada's) By the way, the author of the Canadian government report that the CBC is reporting on is an ex-NHL referee who had a repu= tation to let hockey games, well, umm. Let me put it this way, he didn't exactly call a lot of penalties. This time he has. Matthew Original Message: ----------------- From: talkafrica talkafrica@zol.co.zw Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 22:48:27 +0200 To: AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU Subject: Complaints by Canadian air travellers Hostile, Indifferent Airline Staff Still A Problem This story -- the link was posted by Roger James -- is well worth a look. Interesting research that highlights some of the problems in the airline industry. I still don't believe that airline execs take passenger complaints seriously and, no matter what the ads say, the service on most airlines is awful except in First Class and even that has its moments. One problem is that, while airlines produce slick TV and Press ads that raise passenger expectations to impossible levels, they don't pay their ground or flight staff enough to attract (and keep) the calibre of people who can deliver that kind of service. One thing that bugs me about cabin staff is that, on longhaul flights, once they've fed-and-watered the animals and turned off the lights, they disappear and relax in their alcoves. Rarely do they take turns to watch the cabin and, if you ring the service bell once the lights are out, no-one comes because no-one is listening. You could be having a heart attack but, unless another passenger noticed your plight, you'd just die in your seat. Back to the Canada complaints page, is there any other passenger research available on the Net? Geoff in Harare PS For those who missed Roger's email, the link to the Canadian story is at http://cbc.ca/stories/2002/04/18/Consumers/travelcomplaints_020418 -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .