Stuck in Atlanta 24 Hours - Airline Says Too Bad For You

My flight from Washington DC to Atlanta landed late. The connection to San Francisco still wasn't due to take off for a few minutes but the airline (AirTran Airways) didn't hold it.

So I go to the counter and ask what I can do? They only have one flight to San Francisco a day, and the next one is in 24 hours.

Can I get on another airline? Try Orbitz, she says.

Can you get me a room? She gives me an 800 number of a discount service.

Can I get some food? There are concession stands in the airport.

Too bad for you. We've already got your money and you're on your own.

There is nothing I can do, they already have my money.

Welcome to the New America. Welcome to the You're On Your Own (YOYO) society. Welcome to corporate domination. Did you know that it used to be illegal for airlines to treat their customers like this? But now it is expected.

We, the People used to be in charge. We set up the legal, financial and physical infrastructure that enables corporations to serve our interests. Why else would we have done that? You know, that pesky "We, the People" thing. Why else would we have set up corporations except to serve us?

But now it is the other way around. Now the corporations are in charge of us. A select few grew fabulously wealthy from the system we set up to serve all the people, and have used that wealth to manipulate the system to bring all the benefits to themselves at the expense of the people.

When are we going to do something about it?

(Note - the airline employees were not nasty, considering who they have to work for and the policies they have to work under. They seemed resigned to having to tell people this stuff. That's another part of this system -- if you want to have enough money to feed your kids and pay the rent (but not get health care) you're forced to serve the corporation, and be their agents in telling people "too bad." There is a harm that comes to people from being compelled to treat others this way. And if you think you have too much integrity to do that, well we can find someone in India who is hungry enough.)

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Comments

[homesteader]

When I used to use a travel agent, she always gave me lots of wiggle room for delayed flights. Which wouldn't have helped a bit if there was only one flight a day. And travel agents are few and far between now.

On the other hand she once booked me on a non-existent very tiny airline. (Were I doing this through one of the major airlines today I would do the same thing--airline had gone out of business quite suddenly)

[LeftRight]

Sounds disturbingly accurate......

[BusGreg]

It's not just the airlines. Just about any large corporation ONLY cares about it's bottom line and does not care about the customer, who after all is the life blood of any business. Neither does the corporate giant give a hoot about the worker bees who make it all possible. Customer service by itself is an oxymoron. Try get a human to explain why my chinese made computer decides to reinstall the HP printer driver once a week. Try to get to talk to someone to explain my american bank policy, when that "customer service person" sounds like Apu from the Simpsons and has no clue as to what I am trying to accomplish. And next time you go and fly away on that shiny silver bird, good luck and bring a good book to read.

[LeftRight]

Thus the reason that we used to regulate industry! Now it's just that we regulate private lives, and let the companies do whatever the hell that they want to do!