Originally Posted by
mikethe1
Hi,
In overall the average opinion about the 3 legacy is negative, usually in the sense of it's easy to compare Emirates A380 First to them and see the difference.
But this is how I see this:
1. More people actually travel with 3 legacy so as the saying goes: More you do more you fail (or something like this).
2. They have huge fleets and in charge of real logistics of transportation. So as you scale up to fletts of up to 1K you can't afford extra luxurious services, that actually might be overrated and outdated in 2017 air travel. For example LH has half fleet size of legacy.
3. Some internal U.S. general mess with domestic air travel: You don't have trains, 100% relay on air travel, weather + hub & spoke causes net delays etc.
4. FFP in U.S. are still much better than anywhere else: credit cards options, matching etc.
There are a number of reasons, although they vary between the 3 mainlines. UA in particular is just outright failing at Customer Service, and the staff are unhappy.
But other factors include the fact that expectations are not properly managed. Once a decade flyers seem to have a nostalgic hangover that impacts their expectations, going back to how it was in the 80's. They still expect a meal in coach. They still expect to check in at the desk an hour before the flight and get seats together. When this fails, they end up hungry in the middle seat by the lavs separated from their companions, outraged at how they are being treated.
This also applies to non-Americans taking American legacies. Even second world domestic carriers like Avianca in Brazil blow American domestic legacies out of the water in terms of comfort and service. You still get a hot sandwich on the short flight between GRU and GIG WITHOUT having to pay for it. And legroom as they have not stuffed the aircraft full of seats. So when your basic domestic travel in your home country has good service, and you get on an American domestic carrier, it must be absolutely horrifying.
The other is a cultural entitlement, and this is solely on the customer. Everyone who travels is doing it for their own reasons, which are really important to that customer. It's always critical that you get to where you are going, no matter if you are going to hang on the beach or if you are going to get a liver transplant. When things get in the way like weather delays, irrops or simple run of the mill delays that put connections in peril, the airline is accused of absolutely ***ing up the customer's life. This was behind the recent temper tantrum I heard at the gate recently when a newlywed couple was not given seats together.."But we are on our HONEYMOON!!". The customer expects, wrongly, the airline to care.