Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

travel turmoil

My Christmas tale of woe was nothing compared to what tens of thousands of passengers on U.S. Airways and Comair (a Delta subsidiary) had to deal with over the holiday weekend. A coworker of mine was stuck in Philadelphia the night of the 23rd and never made it home to Illinois for Christmas; he ended up getting a flight back to D.C. the night of the 24th. He described insanely long lines and ridiculously understaffed (or completely unstaffed) ticket counters and gate desks.

The massive winter storms earlier that week in the Midwest led to flight cancellations and crew/flight rerouting that overwhelmed Comair’s computer systems. Meanwhile, U.S. Airways explained its 300 flight cancellations thusly: “Our efforts to recover from the severe weather on Thursday were complicated when some of our employees chose to call in sick at record numbers over the weekend.” (usairways.com: “U.S. Airways Special Bulletin Regarding Holiday Travel” - 12/25/04)

It all seems so ludicrous.

• Comair - It really worries me that there aren’t backup systems for these kind of things, and that one computer freak-out can cause so much trouble. The folks at Slashdot have an interesting thread going on about Comair and airline scheduling stystems. (“Comair System Crashes; Passengers Stranded” - 12/26/04)
   
• U.S. Airways - The unions are saying that the sickouts weren’t union-organized affairs, but it seems awfully suspicious that folks from the two unions that haven’t settled their contracts yet with the airline — the flight attendants and baggage handlers — were the ones calling in sick. What a way to shoot yourself in the foot: The airline’s already in bankruptcy; a public relations fiasco like this may only hasten its demise and lead to the company’s liquidation — and the loss of all those “blue flue” workers’ jobs.

Related stories from the Washington Post:

• “Airlines Struggle to Recover From Weekend Delays” (12/27/04)
• ”Airlines’ Weekend Disruptions Draw Probe” (12/28/04)