The Not-So-Friendly Skies

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United Airlines has sparked a public relations nightmare with the recent forcible removal of a passenger from a plane in Chicago, a medical doctor who protested being bumped — literally — because he had patients to attend. To make it worse, four passengers lost their seats — three peaceably — to accommodate flying a quartet of United employees who needed to be in Louisville to crew another flight. Surely United could have figured out how to transport its employees without throwing paying customers off the plane.

The passenger ended up being bloodied when two officers dragged him off the plane, screaming while fellow passengers looked on horrified. At least two videos have surfaced of the event. Neither the passenger nor the officers behaved well, in my view. The passenger reacted rather badly, screaming and protesting. The officers behaved worse, treating him like a criminal instead of a paying customer being denied a flight. And the doctor’s fellow passengers bear some culpability. Someone could have stood up and volunteered to get off the plane so the doctor could fly — and received a voucher for at least $800. Nobody did.

But the gate agent and the captain bear the greatest blame. They escalated this into an ugly situation that has sparked widespread calls for boycotting United. I don’t think boycotts are effective, though I certainly will not go out of my way to book with that airline. Increasingly, I am reluctant to fly at all. Even if everything goes as well as can be expected, flying is unpleasant and stressful. Flights are almost always overbooked, particularly from one large city to another, leaving one to decide whether it is worth taking the voucher — usually about $300 — or forging ahead and hoping one is not tapped on the shoulder and ordered off, which the airline has the right to do. It’s in the fine print when you buy a ticket.

Before one gets on the plane, passengers are forced to undergo an arduous security process that is absurd and demeaning — and does little to make anyone flying safer, in my view. You pay to check baggage, and with some airlines you pay to stow carry-on baggage. Complimentary meals — no matter how tasteless — are a thing of the past. And be prepared to spend an hour on the tarmac because of a traffic jam of planes waiting to take off. Good luck making a connecting flight if that occurs.

As the New York Times pointed out in a recent editorial, much of the blame in airlines’ cavalier attitude toward its passengers — and anyone who flies has been the recipient of an airline employee’s snooty attitude — comes from a lack of competition. Four airlines — United, American, Southwest and Delta — control 69 percent of the market. With the hub system, the choices for passengers are actually fewer. If you want to fly out of DFW, invariably it is with American. In Atlanta, it’s Delta. In Chicago, it’s United.

Passengers have gotten used to cheap prices, and so we put up with these indignities. One of the rare times I am thankful for being vertically challenged is when flying. At least I can sit without my knees bumping the seat in front of me. But pure misery is to be in the center seat, flanked by two large people taking up both the armrests and part of my space, both chomping down on stinky sandwiches.

I fly once or twice a year on average. Prices are absurdly cheap right now largely because fuel prices remain low. I could book a non-stop roundtrip flight for early June from DFW to LaGuardia in New York City for $251. That low price makes up for a lot of inconvenience, at least most of the time. But increasingly, as I grow older and more crotchety, I look for alternate modes of transportation. I checked out taking Amtrak from Longview to Santa Monica, California for a vacation we are beginning to plan. The price wasn’t bad, but the trip takes 54 hours. That is more than four days on a train roundtrip, which does not sound appealing.

Most likely, we will grit our teeth and fly once again, hoping our luggage arrives, our name is not called to be bumped — although if the price is right I am willing to cool my heels in the airport for several hours — and we don’t spend hours stuck on a tarmac with inadequate air conditioning. “Fly the friendly skies” is now an oxymoron — unless you have your own plane.

Maybe I’ll take flying lessons.

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