Chelleology

It was to be a family vacation of all family vacations.  My parents were celebrating their 50^th wedding anniversary and they wanted to spend it in Hawaii with my sister, my husband and myself.  We were able to arrive in Honolulu as scheduled.  But my parents, the ones that should have had a dream vacation, had problem after problem… all compliments of American Airlines.  They lost more than a day after their flight from Fayetteville to Charlotte was canceled not once but twice before they cut their losses and flew out of Raleigh.  I would like to say that things got better on their return flights.  But it only got worse.  Much worse.  They boarded their plane for Raleigh and proceeded to wait 90 minutes on a hot, stuffy plane waiting for a pilot that NEVER SHOWED UP.  They were deplaned and another group was put on a flight where their pilot did show up and they flew out.  Meanwhile, 200 people (including my parents) were made to stand there waiting for some sort of instruction on what they should do.  In the end, my parents had to stay the night in Dallas and try to catch another flight home the next day.

I could argue that this is just an isolated incident.  But I would be lying.  One year, not long after I moved to Iowa, I went home to visit my parents because I was a little homesick.  After my visit, I flew back home.  I was flying from Fayetteville to Charlotte enroute to the dreaded Chicago O’Hare.  I bet you already know where this is going.  When I arrived at my gate, I saw that my flight was delayed.  Curious as to why, I asked the agent behind the counter.  She told me it was “Windy in Chicago”.  I smiled and said “Welllll, Chicago is the Windy City” she was not amused.  I told her I needed to make a connection in Chicago and asked if maybe I should just rent a car to avoid missing my connection and being stranded in Chicago.  She assured me that if I was delayed coming into Chicago, I would likely be delayed leaving Chicago.  I should have listened to my gut.  As we were touching down in Chicago the flight attendant cheerily informed passengers that if we were connecting to a flight to Cedar Rapids, we just missed our flight.  What I knew but could not prove was that I was not delayed due to “wind”, I was delayed due to too many planes in the air over Chicago.  It wasn’t so much the dishonesty that made me mad, it was that while standing in a long line of passengers needing to be rebooked because of a missed connection due to “wind”, some four foot nothing guy sauntered out at 9:45 pm to inform us that they were closing down customer service for the night at 10 pm whether everyone got through the line for rebooking or not.  That made me mad.

I think we all have a story about airlines that have treated us poorly.  Lost baggage, delayed or canceled flights without explanation (or a lame act of God explanation – airlines like to blame God for every delay), dragging people from flights they overbooks and now more recently overzealous flight attendants that want to punish parents of fussy 2 year olds that keep removing their masks. 

I did a Google search on parents being treated poorly by airlines because their children are having problems keeping their masks on and I was bombarded with story upon story of parents being treating like criminals because their children won’t cooperate with their masking game.  Probably the most recent and arguably the most upsetting was the story of a mom flying alone with her two very young children.  One was an infant in a car seat and the other a fussy two-year-old who was at this point in the day very tired and very hungry.  As the mother got on the plane, a very stern flight attendant informed her that her 2-year-old required a mask.  As the mother attempted to put the mask on her child, the attendant became impatient and demanded the mother get off the plane and get the mask on her daughter.  She complied but it was too late.  She had already gotten the ire of the flight attendant.  Once the child was masked and mom and kids were in their seats, the toddler began to fuss.  To stifle the crying as not to disturb the other passengers still boarding the plane, she gave her daughter a bottle.  After all, the rule was if you were eating or drinking, you could remove your mask.  But no.  The flight attendant was furious.  She made everyone deplane!  As people were deplaning, a woman by the name of Colleen Kavenaugh, said to the flight attendant “You should be ashamed of yourself.  A two-year-old?  Really?”  Good on that woman.  It’s time we all start speaking out when we see an injustice.  Sadly, Colleen also became the target of this overzealous flight attendant.  When she reboarded the plane, the flight attendant came over to her demanding to know if she had a problem and then accused Colleen of drinking and saying she could have the woman removed for being drunk.

This week I read an article about Pete Buttigieg creating a “No Fly” list of passengers that are unruly.  Now, I’m not here to defend people who can’t control their liquor and behave badly on flights.  I’m not defending anyone who tries to enter the cockpit or do anything that blatantly endangers the lives of passengers or crew members.  But it is concerning that the government is keeping a list of American citizens they deem unruly.  What constitutes as “unruly”?  Why must the punishment be so severe?  No flying for life?  That’s a little extreme.  What about due process?  I would think that if I found myself on a “No Fly” list, I would like to think I would be able to hire an attorney and defend myself.  Being on a “No Fly” list is serious.  It’s where you find the names of terrorists.  You know, those people who want to kill Americans.  It means you can NEVER fly again.  Yes, punish people who put people lives at risk on flights.  Make them pay a fine.  Make them serve jailtime (provided they get due process).   But don’t treat them like terrorists.

It would be easy to turn your back on airlines altogether like many of us do to places that treat us poorly.  Take away their income revenue by not buying their goods and services and they’ll go broke.  Sadly, airlines don’t operate the same way.  They can treat you poorly, lose money and then cry to the government for a bailout.  Or they will come up with schemes to make you pay more for services that were once free like food and checked bags.  It won’t be long before they charge you for the coat you’re wearing because it might spill over into the seat next to you… “I see you’ll be needing some extra room.  We are going to have to charge you for another seat.”