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Monday, Nov 9, 2009
Never mind the worst airlines. Let's talk about the ultimate horror: The worst passengers!
May 28, 2004 | "Now that we have plumbed the depths of passenger dissatisfaction," says reader Seth McDowell, with respect to this column's recently concluded airline satisfaction survey, "Why don't we turn the equation around, with examples of the worst behavior by passengers?"
McDowell wasn't the only one to raise this obvious corollary. "Does it ever occur to you," asks Steven Flowers from West Hollywood, Calif., "that passengers sometimes have crappy attitudes?" Flowers goes on to tell the story of how, by virtue of remaining calm and patient after his bags were lost by TWA, he received a thank-you note from the airline's ground staff.
Any audit of airline quality has to delve a little deeper than smiles and manners, but the point is well taken and shouldn't be ignored. Last week's story of the urine-soaked seat aboard China Airlines, as an example, doesn't just raise the question of why the mess hadn't been cleaned, but how it got there in the first place. Abuse of airline workers and property is well documented, and it's safe to say that passengers out-thug employees by a heavy margin.
I'm a tad hesitant to dissect the matter, lest it become bogged in an unsolvable quandary of cause and effect. Has a sense of entitlement -- an assumption of privilege -- caused passengers to grow more pugnacious than ever? Per the evolution of technology, flying is no longer the rare and special event that beckoned our imaginations and, in turn, our best Sunday suits and behaviors. Are we spoiled, and thus more liable to whine, complain, and start screaming? Or have the affronts and hassles of flying, in and of themselves, reached a tipping point and blown out our patience? Are we coarser and more unruly as passengers, or as human beings? Or a measure of each?
Whatever the reasons, expecting an airline worker to maintain a bulletproof facade of dignity, courtesy and a twinkle in his or her eye is, all things considered, a bit much. Put yourself in the position of a typical counter agent or flight attendant, who in some cases is lucky to be pulling down $300 a week. How jaded and/or defensive would you be after untold clashes with infuriated customers, hardly any of whom were reacting rationally or coherently to a given situation?
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, "unruly passenger" events resulting in FAA enforcement actions nearly doubled between 1995 and 2001, peaking at 299. Since then the frequency of instances has dipped only slightly, doubtless owing to a heightened sense of fear and anxiety. Whether or not they have reason to be, many people are more spooked than ever by flying, and more prone to respond overtly when further agitated.
Looking at the data, the skies are safer than ever. Since Sept. 11, exactly two passenger airliners -- one of them a 19-seat turboprop -- have crashed in the United States. Two departures out of approximately 25 million. Worldwide, the year 2003 was the safest in commercial aviation history. Unfortunately, these sorts of numerical platitudes neither stop people from playing the lottery, nor keep them from getting jittery when stepping aboard a plane. For the most part it has always been this way, yes, in full and fair deference to human nature, but a portion of fliers have become disproportionately anxious.
I truly despise the relentless, post-Sept. 11 intertwine of terrorism and flying, but apparently we're stuck with it. If that day's criminal cabal succeeded at one thing, it was grafting a virulently toxic psychology into the very DNA of air travel. Not entirely surprising, if you'll allow me to turn political for a moment, in a society that increasingly encourages fear, front and center over rationality or common sense.
