Miles to go, promises to keep

Feel better? Probably not.

Air travel has been getting steadily worse for years. The number of complaints filed with the Transportation Department has quadrupled since 1995. But the airlines don't want Congress telling them how to run their businesses. So, in 1999, to ward off the specter of regulation, most of the nation's airlines promised in a letter to Congress to improve their customer service. One year later, Transportation's inspector general says the airlines are doing a better job-but it's still not good enough. Some of the problem is outside the airlines' reach. They can't change the weather or build more runways. They can't upgrade the air traffic control system. Still, as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., pointed out at hearings on the issue, "bad weather does not cause mishandled baggage, and congestion does not prohibit [airlines from] giving timely information on delays."

Getting Worse Since January 1999, when hundreds of storm-delayed passengers sat for as long as eight hours on Detroit runways, "the state of aviation as measured by delays and cancellations has worsened," the inspector general said in its February "Final Report on Airline Customer Service Commitment" (AV-2001-020).

Delays, cancellations, mishandled baggage and generally bad customer care (things like poor employee attitudes or unsatisfactory seating) lead the list of travelers' complaints. Last year, travelers faced more than a one in four chance of having their flights delayed, diverted or canceled. In gambling, those are good odds, but for getting somewhere, that's lousy. Here's a dose of the report's plane truth:

• Delays increased 19 percent last year alone. And delays are getting longer: The average arrival delay topped 52 minutes in 2000.
• The number of flights waiting on runways for an hour or more before takeoff increased 165 percent between 1995 and 2000 to more than 45,000 flights a year.
• The number of flights that were canceled or delayed 15 minutes or more at least 40 percent of the time increased 390 percent last year. And, as many people suspected, some airlines have revised their schedules to allow more "fudge time" and thus keep their on-time scores up. This means that delays are actually worse than statistics reflect.
  

Progress, Not Perfection

In their pledge to improve service, the airlines didn't promise to actually reduce the number of delayed or canceled flights or to lose less luggage. They did pledge, among other things, to give timely and accurate information about delays and cancellations and to reunite luggage with owners within 24 hours of receiving a lost-bag claim.

And the inspector general's report noted improvements in several areas. For example, efforts to notify travelers of delays and cancellations have increased, and some airlines are providing updates to customers via wireless devices such as cell phones, pagers and handheld organizers. Some airport monitors have been upgraded. Some airlines have purchased stairs to get people off planes when they've been sitting on the tarmac too long and no gate is available. Some have made plans for dealing with medical emergencies. Some have invested in new technology to help find lost luggage.

The airlines also agreed to support an increase in the maximum amount they will pay-from $1,250 to $2,500-for each piece of lost or damaged luggage. Airlines also are faster off the mark in dealing with written complaints: Almost all are replying to unhappy customers within 60 days more than 90 percent of the time.

Some airlines, the inspector general's report noted, are going beyond their commitments and competing in the area of customer service by increasing legroom, enlarging overhead bins and the like.

Carol Hallett, president of the Air Transport Association, said the report was fair and objective. She told a congressional panel the airline trade group's members are continuing "to adjust, develop and make improvements to their [customer service] plans." The six major airlines contacted for comment did not return calls by press time.

Good Intentions

It's a good thing the airlines are still working on their customer service problems, because despite improvements, the situation is still dire for air travelers.

Updates about delays and cancellations, for example, still often are "untimely, incomplete or unreliable," the inspector general found. One-fifth of flights listed as "on time" were, in fact, 20 minutes or more late. When announcements about a delayed flight were made at all, 43 percent of them provided incomplete or inadequate information.

"This should not be classified information," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, chair of the Senate Aviation Subcommittee, at a recent hearing on the inspector general's findings. "But the airlines often treat a delayed flight as if it were the Manhattan Project."

Airlines have pledged to "meet customers' essential needs during long on-aircraft delays . . . make every reasonable effort to provide food, water, restroom facilities and access to medical treatment for passengers aboard an aircraft that is on the ground for an extended period." But most haven't yet figured out how they define the words "food," "essential" and "extended." For those that have defined "extended," it ranges from 45 minutes to three hours. One airline has decided it will provide free alcohol after a one-hour on-board delay, which might dull the pain of waiting but generate other travel irritations.

On the baggage problem, the inspector general noted that the statistics don't accurately reflect the magnitude of the mess. Airlines measure the rate of mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers, but many passengers-perhaps up to 70 percent-don't check bags. Only two airlines met the goal of returning missing bags within 24 hours 90 percent of the time. And no airline followed up with its courier service to make sure delivery was prompt.

Hope: The Thing with Wings

The situation may sound bad for air travelers, but all is not lost. The inspector general made several recommendations for airlines, including:

• Reduce the number of chronically late and canceled flights.
• Provide on their Web sites the prior month's on-time performance for each flight and disclose to customers at booking, without being asked, that a flight is chronically late or canceled.
• Set up a uniform system for tracking delays and cancellations and their causes.
• When possible, contact passengers before they arrive at the airport about a lengthy delay or cancellation.

Congress is losing patience with the sorry state of air travel customer service, and several senators and representatives are crafting legislation to force changes. "What the airlines agreed to in their commitments were minimum basic passenger needs," said McCain after receiving the Transportation inspector general's report. "After a year, we are still not in a position where basic customer service needs are being met." McCain is leading the charge by introducing the Airline Customer Service Improvement Act, which would mandate many of the changes the inspector general recommends.

In the end, it all comes down to getting where you need to go. Hutchison agrees: "Passengers don't want a bag of peanuts and a free Coca-Cola; they want to get to their destination without spending hours in the terminal or on the tarmac."