"I'll never fly --- again"
 

"I'll never fly --- again."

I've heard that from friends and acquaintances. I've read news stories that quote people who say it (usually after some significant irregular ops event). I've read it on FlyerTalk, for that matter.

However, in my experience, they usually mean: "I'll never fly --- again, unless they're a nickel cheaper than their competitors for some trip that I'm booking." :) Not too long ago, an acquaintance swore that he would never fly TZ again. (A wise idea, in my opinion.) But, when TZ turned out to be slightly cheaper than the other options, he decided to fly TZ again.

To me, unfortunately, this crystallizes why airline service is unlikely to improve, in most cases.

So, in your experience, do "highly price-sensitive" travelers ever vow to avoid an airline and then actually stick by that?

The passenger might figure that the chance of bad treatment on the airline is no higher than if she flew a different airline. That's how I figure. There are a few airlines that I think do have a higher chance of mishap, every service related or safety, so I avoid them.

I'll never TWA or Eastern again :)

I think it's a combination of things.

First, as much as people complain about a bad service experience, when the next purchasing decision comes along, $$$ seems to be the deciding factor. Some people are at places in their lives there this doesn't matter as much (and fortunately, I'm gradually getting there), but the reality is that most aren't. Thus, they look at it in terms of: "If I spend the $100 extra to go on a different carrier, I won't be able to go out to as nice a restaurant." I call this the Wal Mart phenomenon: Nobody really likes to shop there (I mean, really!), but they go because they feel it'll maximize what they can do with what they have.

The other part might be availability of options. Unless you live near a place like New York, Chicago, LA or the like, the range of options that get you where you want to go when you want to go there can be limited. Or even if you technically have options, they may involve more stops, bad connections, etc. If they flew airline X before, chances are that part of the equation was that they were available and convenient.

I agree - And to answer your question, no I don't think people stick by their vows - They pick the cheapest flight.

I do think the competing airlines could help themselves if there was some mechanism for a passenger to ask the airline to price-match. i.e. If I can fly from A to B for $X on Airline Q, but I'd rather fly Airline P becuse I'm "Never Flying Q again!" there should be some mechanism to request that Q match P's price.

Cheers,
Geoff Glave
Vancouver, Canada

I will NEVER fly UA from CAE-IAD. But that's really for combination of reasons including I will NEVER use IAD for domestic flights!!

Well try Branif or PanAm instead

I find the "I'll never fly ---- again" to be the most humorous when you hear people at the airport yelling this during something like a massive thunderstorm that grounds ALL flights on EVERY airline. But, of course, these tend to be the 'fly-once-a-year' crowd who will forget almost any miserable incident when it is time to book tickets for next year's trip to see Aunt Jenny in Cleveland.

Interesting concept. Do you think that the staff at your typical India Call Center are going to be able to handle that?

Everytime I've done a price-match at a retail store, the store has to confirm the price via an ad, phone call, etc. Can you imagine trying to have a Airline P CSR confirm your price on airline Q? All so that Airline P can lose $ matching? It's lose-lose in the airlines mind, minus giving customers one more warm-fuzzy about their airline. They aren't in the warm fuzzy business anymore as shown by their continual devaluing of FF miles, programs, etc.

The walmart thing is spot on.

I disagree to a point. I used to fly transaltantic a mix of Virgin and Continental crediting all the miles to CO. I had a poor experience at EWR at the so called service desk that if I hadn't known better would have left me with a 24 hour delay instead of a 12 hour overnight delay (total denial on CO's part of code-share)-I resolved it by calling customer service but I shouldn't have HAD to- That alone didn't stop me flying CO but when followed by a very poor Virgin flight that included safety issues led me to switching all my transatlantic travel to AA- a decision I'm happy with and am unlikely to use CO/VS again as the miles with AA are mounting up and I don't fly enough to justify diluting them (am currently gold-with a reasonable chance of making Plat this year). I wouldn't say I'd never fly either carrier again but there is little incentive to pull me away from AA at this point with the routes I currently fly and the incentives I get from Aadvantage (served also by CO and VS-but I'm happy with AA and if it ain't broke-why try and fix it)

I disagree, too. I'm unlikely ever to be in a position not to compare fares, but by now I've learned to factor in the cost of the wear-and-tear that certain airlines/itineraries are likely to add to a trip. Life is too short--I'll give up that $100 dollar meal if I can arrive feeling fresh and unabused by the flight. Ok, maybe $50....

(I miss Pan Am. They were generous even to non-status frequent flyers. Probably one reason why they went under.)

I would probably fly any airline outthere. Preconceived ideas about airlines and often countries that people have are often unture and ridiculous.

Never even occurred to me it would happen with a CSR - I envisioned it would be in Expedia or something - You'd click the "match best fare on AA" button and the computer would talk to AA's computer and choose whether to match the best fare. The AA flight might route through DFW as opposed to DEN or whatever, but you'd get the fare.

I suspect this is where most of this 'pick the best fare' stuff is going on - In online bookings engines where all the options are presented. For people who still to TAs, Saber (Sabre?) could offer the TA the same option.

Cheers,
Geoff Glave
Vancouver, Canada

I don't recall the exact details, but it's my understanding that the Continental Airlines of today is more Eastern than Continental, Texas Air just rebranded everything under the Continental name. I could be wrong.

FWIW, I said I'd never fly American Eagle again, and I have pretty much stuck to that--flying them only when there was no other air alternative (and even then, I've sometimes driven).

3 years ago I said I'll never fly Midwest airlines again (nevermind why), and I still haven't, even though they've been cheaper than their competitors many times from MSN or MKE. But, I would probably fly them if they had an obvious fare mistake. My goal is to not allow them to make money off of me again, so it's okay if they're going to lose money because of my business (assuming I actually want to go to a place where the price mistake applies).

So, maybe I would change "I'll never fly --- again" to "I'll never fly --- again, unless they make a price mistake and it's to a place I want to go."

I'd say that today's Continental is more PeoplExpress and old Frontier (which was bought by PeoplExpress not long before Texas Air took over). For years, PeoplExpress talked about that glorious new terminal at Newark that would solve all their problems. And today, it's CO's east coast hub. :)

Or just simplify it to "---- will never make money off me again."

I'd never fly again if they dumped the dead body next to me like they did to that poor guy on BA....;)

In 1998, I said I'll never fly AI again.. and I kept my word

In March 2006 I decided never to fly CO again... and I did just that. I was nice
enough to give them 3 strikes before I stopped.

I swore off WN and HP several years age. My only slip was PHX-LAS two weeks ago on US.

i said it, meant it, and plan to continue following it, since there is another option if i need them.

UA.

after i ended up leaving IAD 12 hours after i was supposed to for LAX/MRY, and during the flight, we went through a fairly unnerving "unsafe to land" rigormarole, which ended with an apparent decision that they had been wrong the whole time, and it was safe. very strange, unnerving, whatever.

considering i havent had great experiences with UA in the past, (like an absolutely HORRIBLE LH flight they operated, and ran out of food for economy class both directions. and i wasnt even sitting in the rear, i was middle/front of the cabin) so it was a fairly easy choice.

ill fly US if i need a star alliance partner domestically.

i also dont plan to fly jetblue, southwest, or frontier much. (no good miles) although my one frontier flight went very smoothly, and i thought the service at all stages was great.

and after hearing CO lounges actually have free internet, i plan to fly them for skyteam domestically. (switching from DL)

I had such shocking treatment on Qantas once I vowed to never fly them internationally again (domestic it's a duopoly so no choice). I've described the incident on FT a couple of times.

Of course, one often has no choice but to fly Qantas. My AF to SIN last year was Qantas operated, and the only decent schedule I could get to SIN on another trip was with QF.

It helps that QF is usually more expensive than other carriers, so I've generally been able to stick to this vow ;)

It's like Amtrak....many say "never again".

But then they do tend to come back.

Otherwise, eventually everyone will have been on Amtrak at least once and they will run out of customers.

i dont see any need to ever go back on UA. (because US is there if i need it)

whereas saying youll never go on amtrak again is kind of silly, because its the only real train network in the US. so if you had to take the train, there is nothing else you can go with.

The Wal-Mart mentality applies more to the infrequent traveller than to the frequent traveller, at least from what I see. Infrequent travellers do seem to be more obsessed with getting the cheapest fare possible--- I had a friend who suffered a grueling 9-hour trip between ATL and LGA, complete with 2 connections, just to save $50 on the airfare, and I just don't get that nickle-and-dime vibe off of the real road warriors. Although some would gladly take that itinerary for the miles/segments... money's not the motivator.

So finding a Ma/Pa Kettle who "refuses" to fly Carrier A any more then sticks to it when the fare wars begin might be a little harder to do!

Personally, though, when I say it, I mean it. I refuse to fly AA. Long, horrible story about bad situations and how crappy customer service made it worse. It's been 10 years or more since I swore I would never fly AA again and I have stuck to it. It does help that I have 3 major airports within a 90-minute drive of me, one of which is a mini-hub for my preferred airline. But a couple of times at my last job I had to jump through some hoops to avoid AA, as AA was our preferred vendor. I'd rather end up with the ridiculous paperwork and the fare difference out of my pocket than put any money into AA's pockets.

LOL maybe I should fly AA with lead bars in my rollaboard, which would then get so heavy that I would actually be taking money out of their pockets because it costs so much in fuel to fly my lead suitcase around!

PS I had some bad experiences with Home Depot, too, and I decided they don't deserve my money either. I drive the extra 20 minutes to get to Lowe's now. Haven't been in a Home Depot in almost 6 years.

oneworld needs another domestic carrier :(

AA broke my brand new samsonite spinner (wheel and pocket) on first trip :rolleyes:

I don't even need to have a bad experience to ban airlines from certain routes. For instance if I'm flying Y international I'm flying a non-US carrier. Better service, better drinks, many times better seats.

I'm surprised no one has said anything about DL. It's the only airline I know of that I see get made fun of out of the blue on the late night talk shows.

Actually, after being treated so poorly everywhere, I have ceertainly said this statement about every airline (Jet Blue, CO, AA, DL, TWA, PAN AM, Piedmont, Eastern, Freddy with the possible exception of UA). But I have now vowed to never say "I never fly XXXX" ever again.

Flying from a county airport is what gives me less choices for air. which in turn does factor in $$$$ -I dont travel for business and am not able to travel alot for pleasure- once or twice a year I fly.

I did just return from Tucson (both markets are expensive to fly in and out of) I flew UA on miles that I accumulated a number of years ago - I did need to buy some miles but a $200 fare beat a $500 fare hands down. But I can say if rates are comparable I wont fly UA- I would have to see the type of saving above to fly them again. Which probably wont happen as I have compared prices with other carriers in my area and UA is not even in the ball park.

I'll never fly SABENA again...

I know that if I say "never" I'll end up having to use a particular airline again sometime, but I've managed to avoid the following:

1. Lufthansa, where on our one trip with them (honeymoon, yet) my husband and I were involuntarily bumped from a flight to St. Petersburg and then the flight we actually took arrived an hour late. Yes, I've had worse happen, but this was after paying premium prices on an airline that used to advertise its reliability. That was 2003. Haven't taken them since, despite the fact that I've been to our offices in Munich twice since then, and could have taken them on my 2004 trip to India.

2. Continental, after they decided to award only 50% EQM for people on bargain airfares. I know they eventually backed down and started awarding 100% if you booked through the Web site but they lost almost 3 years of my business- during which I made Platinum on AA and my husband and I went to Europe twice a year. We flew CO once in that period- to Cleveland.

3. Heathrow. My boss is in London so it's hard to avoid completely, but since a nightmarish connection at LHR early last year, I booked our next 2 European vacations to avoid LHR, even going to the point of taking CO to get to Edinburgh to avoid a London connection. (Never say never, right? And I made Platinum on AA anyway.) And I plan to continue to avoid LHR whenever I can until they stop making life hell for the average Coach class traveler. I'm not holding my breath.

BleAAgh!
 

As I reported earlier, I missed an interview with an international employer because AA, though aware the flight was not going to arrive on time, said NADA about that fact, thereby preventing me from informing the interview team of my enforced delay.
Yes, this occurred before the days of cellphones and ubiquitous internet access, back in the seventeenth century, as it now seems.:)
And so, especially angered by their repeated, canned, "oh fly with us amd give us another chance" reply letters (what, another chance to mess up my schedule again?) as a UA1K I've never given AA my bux for lo! these several centuries.
From what I learn here on FT, though, writing the "I'll never fly" letter just lets the offending off the hook; if they think I'd never spend money with them again, they're hardly motivated to work to earn my business or compensate me.
Ironically, a UA RCC concierge put me on the last/only available flight out of MCO during weather problems some time ago, a dreadful AA 767. BleAAgh!