Stress In The Skies

Surly staff: You finally arrive, late and stiff, in St. Louis. Unfortunately, your bag just arrived in Denver. Want to bet your airline's customer-service rep will be happy to assist you? "Customer service should be renamed the 'further-abuse counter'," says Michael Boyd, an aviation consultant in Evergreen, Colo. Customer service is the second most common cause of complaints. As airline passenger loads have risen, flight crews, gate staff and service people are often stretched to the point of snapping. Especially as passengers vent their frustrations in the form of air rage (sidebar), some airline personnel approach their job as a battle. Donal Ruth Robison, 50, a lawyer in Fullerton, Calif., describes almost missing a flight last summer because the gate staff wouldn't let her husband board. The ticket agent "kept saying that his reservation had been canceled out from the computer. It turns out she was typing his name into the computer incorrectly. I guess airline workers are overworked, just like the rest of us. But it makes the whole flying thing a lot more unpleasant."

What you can do: To stave off a federal "Passenger Bill of Rights," the airline industry has volunteered its own reforms, which will roll out Dec. 15. Measures include quoting customers the lowest fares available, providing more information about delays and processing refunds more promptly. In the meantime the single biggest favor travelers can do for themselves, say experts, is to budget for delays. Fly in the morning if possible, before airlines get backed up; avoid the last flight of the night. Ask about the food selection on a flight when you make a reservation. If the answer doesn't suit you, request a special meal--kosher, vegetarian, whatever--or bring your own. Trip insurance is rarely a good bet, unless you have good reason to believe you'll have to cancel your trip, says Harold Skipper, an insurance analyst at Georgia State University. Such "specialty" policies return very little for each dollar they take in.

Beyond that, says Dean Headley, an airline analyst at Wichita State, you can complain--reasonably. "I recently saw a guy at an America West gate who was being bumped, and he started yelling and screaming. The ticket agent asked to see his ticket and tore it up in front of him." Headley also suggests putting all complaints in writing, not just to the airline, but to the DOT, the FAA, your congressman, even the media. "And I wouldn't write to the complaint department. I would write to their president or CEO."

However, you don't have to fly. Like Christopher Meyer, a grad student in the San Francisco Bay Area, you could consider a train ride to Chicago next spring to avoid spending five hours in the air. He isn't afraid of flying. He just hates it. "I feel like it's being among cattle," he says. "It's just an incredibly dehumanizing experience." In fairness, the train trip takes more than 50 hours, and comes with its own discomforts. Or you can always drive. Of course, you won't be as safe on the roads. And there'll be no meal service. And the traffic delays can be murder. It's almost enough to make you want to fly.