Another 18 hours of my productive, income dependent life generously donated to air travel

I’m hesitant to post this blog, as so many seem to see air travel as a hopeless cause. So, consider this my first and last.

Yesterday Chris and I flew back to San Francisco from our snow home in Idaho. Our flights were delayed by just an hour and a half. Remarkably uneventful compared to our adventure getting to Idaho from Florida. On December 27th and 28th, we experienced a 16.5 hour delay (not including a surprise overnight visit to a Denver hotel).

All this waiting caused me to wonder...are there other growing industries beyond air travel that operate with a similar lack of commitment to service and timeliness?

During our time in the airport, Chris and I talked a lot about mismatched expectations. Thinking, perhaps if we had accurate expectations, we wouldn’t be quite so frustrated by the situation. We experienced the mismatch with:

• Seating. Apparently there is no way for a passenger to select online seating with their flight mate if their reservations aren’t in the same digital folio. Nor is there a way to guarantee seats (no matter your status) on partner airlines (even domestically) in advance of travel.
• Flight delays. Wouldn’t one know whether a flight was going to leave on time as boarding is about to occur? The hostesses may not have known, but I knew, because I used my iPhone to see where that flight was in transit and learned that it hadn’t left it’s previous destination. :)
  
• Flight cancellations. Why were we one of the only flights canceled due to weather? If there is weather, wouldn’t all flights to the area at that time be canceled?
• Baggage delivery. Did you know that many carriers, United included, do not track or know where bags are at any given time? With heightened security, doesn’t this feel like an issue?

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if we did have accurate expectations, we wouldn’t be quite as resentful as we are now. But... what does this even matter when the major passenger airlines just reported their first, second and third most profitable quarters since 2000? Or, the amount of air travel being done is steadily growing?

The mismatch between consumer expectations and unparalleled growth signal massive opportunity to improve the experience of a tarnished product, category or industry. If the industry can grow given current dissatisfaction, can you imagine how successful carriers would be if they sought to create a better (yes, it could be profoundly different, not just better, but now I'm managing expectations...) experience for customers? Southwest, JetBlue, and Virgin America are doing it for certain segments of travelers...I'd love to see it done for me.