Friday, May 5, 2017

Air travel - the Almost Constant Gamble



I came to flying on airplanes fairly late in life. I was in my mid-fifties before I ever flew. During the past ten or fifteen years I have only ever flown between Ontario and British Columbia. Clearly I am not an experienced air traveller. It is not that I am, or ever have been afraid of flying - in fact I quite enjoy the sensations - I just never had a reason (or the financial resources) to fly when I was younger. I am not however, a fan of the whole experience - getting to the airport  90 minutes before your flight leaves, having to partially disrobe for the security check and the following awkwardness of putting on my belt and shoes afterwards, the endless walks- sometimes done in panic as the connecting times between my flights has been shortened by mechanical difficulties, de-icing and other assorted delays; a walk exacerbated by the fact that the runways for short flights are at the opposite end of the airport from those of longer flights. But now I have a new thing to be worries about. Getting kicked off of the plane.

It may be because people losing their seats on airplanes has become a story to watch for that the media are reporting it more often; it may be that I am just more aware of it, but it feels as if, almost on a daily basis, someone, somewhere has been asked to leave their seat because the airlines have overbooked. Airline travel is already surprisingly inconvenient. It is quite clear that the airlines, at least for those of us who travel economy, see us as cash cows who willing can be squished into ever smaller seats and who require minimal services. When things do not work out according to schedule - there is barely an apology. For example last November when I was making my near semi-annual trip to Ontario, in Toronto, at sometime around 10:30PM I was informed that the fight had been cancelled due to weather conditions. I was not to fly out until 8:00 AM the next morning. I was offered $20.00 in food vouchers to compensate me. While I could appreciate the fact that the weather is beyond the control of Air Canada and that I did not want to fly if it was too dangerous to land, at the very least giving me a suggestion as to what I could do for the next ten hours would have been nice.

I find it absurd that I, who bought a ticket months ago, have no guarantee that I will get on my chosen plane. That some airline employee who is dead heading - to get to another airport to work on another plane - can get my seat. The seat that I paid extra for so that it does not feel as if my knees are being  forced to rest somewhere near my chin might go to someone else. Yes I will be offered some financial compensation. But how much would be enough for me to waste hours/days in waiting for a next flight. If I wanted to spend 24 hours flying the 5,000 kilometres - I could have chosen a series of flights that did that. I chose a more direct route. It would be nice if the airline companies respected my choice.

I understand that airlines over book on some flights because there are some cancellations or no-shows on some flights. For the airlines, they can only maximize their profits if the plane is full. I get that. If I were a share holder of Air Canada - I too would want my returns maximized. But I don't understand why I should be punished or treated badly because other people cancel their flights. It is not my problem.

To make matters a wee bit worse - my daughter has just sent me a message from the Greater Sudbury Airport that flights maybe delayed or cancelled due to runway maintenance at Toronto Airport. Lovely...they have know about the repairs for months....perhaps Air Canada could have told us.

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