tarmac-delay

It seems like the quality of people who work at the Airlines is going down fast. As a regular business traveler I see so many cases of rude and indifferent service and employees who seem to lack any type of public relations or customer service skills. In many cases it seems like the people who have the most connection with the customer come from welfare to work programs and lack any work skills at all.

I am shocked how poorly the Airlines pays its employee's and have to believe that this causes a poor quality worker. Many of the people are no better than someone who is working at a fast food restaurant.

I was talking to a worker at the ticket window at American Airlines and she told me she has never received any training in customer service at any time. She said most workers are part time and turnover is incredible.

I remember the days when workers for the Airlines were the best customer service professionals America had. I can understand keeping costs down but I suspect the poor quality and untrained staff is really costing more in the long run as bad decisions are made.

skylady

Management wants cheap labor, customers want low prices. Unfortunately, it rings the old adage, "you get what you pay for"!

tlhanger

Amen
When you sell a million in tkts a year, do customer service WELL, then fall and can't work for a while and then find you need to work from home and are turned down. Just doesn't make any sense.

PTravel

It's not just low pay. Nearly all the airlines have required give-backs from their employees while they were in or avoiding bankruptcy. Now that many are turning a profit, the employees are seeing the profits distributed to upper management in the form of large bonuses, rather than to compensate the employees for the sacrifices they made.

HereAndThereSC

Ding-ding-ding! Winner!

JP

biggestbopper

Before "deregulation" working for the airlines in service positions such as flight attendant, ticket agent etc. was prestigious and pretty pleasant. The FAs didn't make a lot, but the job had some glamor and most of the FAs got married and quit (or were pushed out as too old--before age discrimination laws) without trying to make a career in the airlines. The better working conditions were supported by government controlled fares. Competition was on service, not fares.

This all has ended. But, I suspect many of the service problems in the airline industry are related an overall decline in civility in society. Folks are just louder and crasser and worse mannered than they used to be in US. Can anyone old enough to remember imagine dirty word loaded music being played over a PA system twenty or forty years ago?

Of course, cutting pay and staffing to the bone and beyond didn't help.

Athena53

If low pay is the problem, why are the people in the grocery stores in my area so darn nice? If I ask where something is, they stop what they're doing and WALK with me to show me where it is. I can think of plenty of minimum-wage workers (i.e., making less than FAs) who don't treat customers like a nuisance.

I think it's because the airlines tolerate that kind of crappy attitude. It's also the wacky compensation system that requires you to start out at the bottom of the seniority and pay ladder if you get disgusted with Airline A and move to Airline B. I know that's what their unions negotiated, but the result is a lot of FAs who hate their jobs but don't want to move.

bkramt1

I often wonder if it's the chicken or the egg: ie. whether the service is so bad because they have to spend all day covering up and making excuses for a poorly run airline OR whether the service is just bad to begin with because of poor training and wages.

adams828

Sure pay can effect performance (their pay, as well as seeing those above them get those bonuses), as can cutting costs result in cuts in training.

But another thing to think about - YOU might be a courteous and well behaved traveller, but just think about how often you've seen someone else in an airport behaving rudely and irrationally. Now multiply that. Some passengers may act that way due to poor service, but odds are it's a result of the opposite...

travelmad478

Um...great post by the OP.

Marathon Man

I second that. I would have soooooo much to say on this subject and maybe later I will but the whole issue makes me boil in fury. I think, basically, that CS sucks industry wide. Once, long ago, you'd maybe find one bad apple once and a while. Now it's the other way around. Once and a while you get a good CSR. There are so few now though.

For those who know me in here, this issue hits the nail on the head and I now DO hope airlines are lulrking in here watching THIS thread! I am trying to stay calm here... but man oh man do I hate how service has become! We NEED to fix it! Business-wide, not even just airlines! It comes from how people view themselves and the world around them too. It comes from customers who should be more able to deal with the fact that they are not THE only person in the universe, and it comes from companies who want to do business for the long term and do not mortgage their own helpers!!!!!!!

And so PT traveler is probably right about the money thing.

MM

Marathon Man

when you (plr) see someone upset at the airport, ever wonder these things in your (plr) mind?

1) wow, what a loser/jerk

2) bummer, I had the same thing happen to me (but it's a good thing HE is having the problem today and not me! a haaaa!)

3) why doesnt someone in this lobby get up and do something about this?

4) I wont get up and concur with that person but someone else will.

5) call security, his loud outburst at the desk agent is bothering me. that only happens to other people, not me.

6) if more people DID try to help, this would maybe go away. But hey, maybe that person arguing with the airline employee IS irrational and so I would stay away.

Can anyone find anything wrong or right with any of these? I think unfortunately, many of us secretly admit to thinking this a lot, and we really should try to change it: "it's a good thing HE is having the problem today and not me! a haaaa!"

HereAndThereSC

I honestly think that some of the airlines (if not all) are trying to de-sensitize people to the point where people have very low / or no expectations at all.

I often feel that airlines have given up on the "let's have great service & have great amenities to be competitive against others" to a "let's just cut prices to win market share". Obviously, cutting prices is at the expense of the quality of service.

JP

Marathon Man

yes, and in time it will work because the masses are like sheep. One day you will get a smile from a FA and as a result you will start to tell everybody to fly on that airline because they were so great.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

I think that low pay is only part of it. When a GA or FA is dealing with more and more vulgar and rude paxs (sometimes paying a fare that does not even operating costs), a system that is broken, indifferent senior management, insufficient resources, their pay cuts only make the situation worse.

Still, some of the particularly older GAs and FAs still have a high standard of customer service despite all of the challenges. You could not pay me enough to do their jobs.