Passenger satisfaction fails to soar again -

Perhaps it's a little unfair to compare the 1970s and 80s Air travel with today's luxurious and vastly superior (sic) customer serviced product, but it seems to have come to the attention of the US Dept of Transportation that bumping has increased.

So says the WSJ. The Wall Street Journal I am sure this comes as new news to many of the Professor's readers. Perhaps even more shocking is that the airlines are having a harder time in compensating passengers and getting people to give up their seats in an oversold situation.

By now every frequent flyer and the vast majority of everyone else knows that if you don't have a seat assignment – then your chances of getting bumped are now pretty high. Airlines conversely know that unless they can allocate a seat assignment a passenger is highly unlikely to confirm the booking.

Against this backdrop and that of the "Imprisoned Passengers" of recent fame – the US Congress is still considering whether or not to legislate. However this is the same group of folks (Congress that is) that has once again deferred addressing the issue of consolidation when considering competition amongst airlines.

You have to wonder if the Dept. of Transportation is actually asleep at the switch or the supposed oversight committee in Congress is paying attention. So far the US Dept. of Justice is being far more aggressive in cases of airline related service and competition issues.

The recent spat over the CO application to Star Alliance is a good example. Yes once again deferred reviewing Airline Competition practices and set no date for reconsidering it. Thus ensuring that anything coming up in the near future will be assessed (or rather ignored) since there will be no context.

Thanks for reading - private comments please to professorsabena@gmail.com

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