Airlines are Silly

Planes are late often. Passengers miss connecting flights too often. This issue was brought to mind on a trip to and from Boston, years back. I’m an efficiency expert and I was struck with a brilliant idea the night right after I missed my flight home. I am surprised the brilliant industrial engineers and managers at every airline have not implemented this very simple system to reduce missed connections. I can’t believe this idea has not crossed someone’s mind before. Please indulge me as I relay my recent travel log.

On a Monday I was flying to Boston with a connection in Philadelphia. The flight into PHL was late and I thought I was going to miss my connection to Boston. I did miss my flight yet US Airways had arranged for the next flight out that evening and I got a $10 meal voucher to boot. Not bad. On board, the same flight were 7 passengers going to Frankfurt. The flight attendants made several announcements to ask the other passengers to wait in their seats until the Frankfurt passengers had deplaned. Another announcement was made during taxi and just before arriving at the gate. When the plane arrived at the gate and the seatbelt light was turned off, the whole plane stood up, almost in defiance. I was shocked at how inconsiderate the other passengers were. I’m not sure if the Frankfurt passengers made it off the plane first and made their connection.

Thursday night, that same week, I was planning to take the redeye home so I could drive 3 hours to go on an annual salmon fishing trip. I arrive at the Boston airport hours early and as soon as I get there the US Airways flight to Las Vegas was already going to be 25 minutes late. That meant I had 20 minutes to catch my flight home. Well, the Boston flight left an hour late, which meant I would miss my flight home for sure. En route, the pilot put the pedal to the metal and made up some time. We would only be 45 minutes late into Vegas. I alerted the flight attendant I had a close connection and could I get off the plane first. He said there were 60 other people on board who had connections and operations in Las Vegas was working on it. I’m not sure what that meant.

The Boston flight arrived in Las Vegas at gate A8 and my departing flight was at A12. Not bad. Looking good. I ran to the gate and I noticed the plane was still on the jetway. I asked to get on and the gate agent said it was too late. She absolutely refused to do anything to help me. Well, that lit my fuse. The rest of the story gets pretty ugly since I huffed and puffed all through the LAS Airport, trying to take down every US Airways employee in my way. I didn’t enjoy the glitz at all.

It was obvious that the Boston to Vegas flight was a party plane. I guess every flight to Vegas is a party plane. Then it occurred to me that most of the 18 rows ahead of me did not have a connection to make in Las Vegas and I would have had a better chance of getting off the plane in time if it weren’t for them.

I believe everyone does the best they know how with the information they have available. The airlines do their best, the airline employees do and even the passengers do. These people are not bad. Yet airlines will have late planes and passengers will miss flights. The system sucks.

Then my stroke of genius occurred. Why don’t airlines seat all the connecting passengers in the front of the plane for every flight? If you are not connecting then you sit in the back of the plane. Just like the old smoking section decades ago. Simple and easy. It should be fairly easy to program airline computers to make the appropriate seat assignments. It can also be very transparent to the passengers. I don’t know about checked baggage, but I guess a “last in first out” process would work there as well.

I plan to write to every airline and make this suggestion. I would like to find out if they have ever considered it. If they have considered it and rejected it, I would like to know why my genius plan would not work.

What do you think? Write your airline.

UPDATE: One Year Later

Approaching one year now and no communications from the seven airlines I wrote to, with the exception of the perfunctory, “Thanks for your comment,” “We’ll look into it” and “We’ll be back to you.”

I’m getting old waiting for an answer. Just tell me you have a better plan. Tell me why my plan is bogus.

PROVE ME WRONG! ANYONE?