I don’t know if everyone else is experiencing it too, or if I have just been lucky lately, but airline competence seems to have taken a dive. Fees are going up, service is going down, and apparently it is not just limited to Continental.

Last month I had a trip combining business and pleasure royally screwed up by Continental. Back-to-back flights with maintenance problems, re-routing which cost us a day on the beach in Greece, and lost luggage to boot – causing me to have to give a presentation to a prospective client in jeans and a tee shirt that I had been wearing for three days. And that was just the outbound. On the way home, they topped it off by damaging my luggage.

It wasn’t just me who was in the crosshairs either. The whole fiasco was so bad that at my layover in EWR, a Redcoat had to board the plane to apologize to the passengers for the actions of a gate agent. At least they bought the plane a round of drinks – we sure needed it.

I was so mad about the keystone cop routine and the pitiful 5,000 mile comp they gave me that I decided that KLM would get my business this month when I went back to Europe. Unfortunately, they don’t appear to be any more capable and my luggage didn’t survive the apparently complicated transfer from one KLM flight to another in AMS during a scheduled two-hour layover.

I am running out of airlines to fly out of IAH and don’t know which of these dolts to select for next month’s trip. It reminds me of the presidential campaign.

However, I am not just here to moan, but to also offer a Modest Proposal regarding compensation for such screwups.

As I mentioned, when Continental blew it on so many levels last month, they felt that 5,000 miles was suitable compensation. It struck me as comically inadequate, especially considering that they charged me $200 for a minor change in my ticket from one flight to another at pretty much NO inconvenience to Continental.

Now, while lurking on the boards today (and waiting for my luggage) I see that CO Insider has given us the heads up that fees will soon increase.

Soooooo, I would like to suggest the following: How about if Continental and the other airlines simply give us the option to use Miles to pay for the horrible inconveniences we occasionally cause them – like using their computer to schedule a move from a full plane to an empty one, etc…

Seems reasonable to me. In compensation issues, they are the ones who established Miles as the currency of choice.