I totally agree. My dad always says stuff like “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” or that “you get what you pay for”. All true if you ask me. So if I decide I want to be treated like (left up to the imagination) or that my plane takes off late and I miss my connecting flight and I don´t get treated like a human or given lunch then hey, I fly low cost and live life a little dangerously! Nice weblog btw.

I disagree, that you should expect bad service, whoever said that is a numpty.

The inflight experience though you would expect a lower quality of service.

Delays are part of the low cost adventure. One should be aware of that before booking a €10 flight which wont bring much profit to the airline. However when things do get bad (like if you have to spend the night at the airport) I think the companies should come with better solutions than a glass of water and a sandwich. I’ve only had 2 flights so far on a low cost airline (Wizz Air) and already went up to 3 hours in delays. I’ve got 6 more flights booked for the next 6 months (easyJet, MyAir and Sky Europe). Hopefully the average delay will get shorter.

If you are willing to pay more for your flight then you will get better service. If you pay a low fare to a carrier who is well known to get shoved down the takeoff list when they have problems then you will suffer !

You are right about adequate food and drink rules courtesy of the EU though. It all depends how you complain and how reasonable you are.

Recently I flew from PDX to Frankfurt, flight was overbooked. We were offered a night in a hotel , an upgrade for the next day, and half our money back. Continental , by the way.

The cynic in me says that being stranded at airports may become a business model, if it isn’t already. Think of the profitable services they can sell you? drinks, food, boutique capsule-style hotel rooms (or ‘pods’ as they’re calling them)

Wouldnt surprise me but we want to go on holiday not fannying around in some airport.

Hello Darren,

Please could you contact me regarding this discussion.

We would like to learn more about the EU directive and how this affects travel consumers.

Many thanks

Laura

Nice article, but delays are part of the industry. even if you pay higher prices, there is always aircourier for even cheaper airfares.

hello Darren. iam sorry i should have elaborated. i will try to do so here:
Fly free: the courier route
Did you know that international corporations will
pay for you to fly to Zurich…or Paris…or Rome? All
you have to do in return is agree to carry time-
sensitive business cargo (it could be files or computer
discs, for example) to your destination. You may never
have to touch, let alone actually carry, the bags.
Representatives of the firm that has hired you will
take care of all the dirty work. All you have to do is
check the cargo as your luggage.
It’s called traveling as an air courier. And it’s
perfectly legal. Thousands of travelers do it every
year. As an air courier, you fly like any other
passenger on the plane, enjoying the same comforts and
amenities. There are only two differences. First, you
don’t have any checked luggage (just your carry-on
bags). And second, you don’t pay full fare for your
ticket. In fact, you may not pay anything at all.

I’ve flown as a courier on a couple of occasions, the most memorable being in 1993 when I flew BA return to San Francisco for £90. Memorable because they sent me in 1st Class!

The downer was coming back, I was expecting 1st class again but no, regular economy.

Just wish they’d given me the option as I’d have chosen to return to the UK in 1st class as going to the U.S. is always a joy, coming back to England usually isn’t
(for me anyway)

Darren, they used to always be advertised, can’t remember but I think I found mine through some classifieds in Time Out.

I’d presumed these type of flights had disappeared, due to the low cost airlines in past 10 years and the rise of the internet.

My SF trip didn’t require me to carry anything on the way out, only on return - a white A4 untearable sealed folder. They stipulated that I had to wear a suit and tie otherwise I would be turned away - I didn’t want to chance it so got togged up.

An airline is a business. The consumer climate of the last 30 years combine with deregulation have made the airline business unprofitable. in 2006, the average anual profit for airlines worldwide was 2%. This would simply be unacceptable in any other industry yet that is the life of an airline. Before deregularion, airlines had the support of the national governements and air fares were controled, and thus stayed at a profitable level. Now, airlines compete with one another soley based on cost — not service. This is what the consumer said they wanted. The cost of plane tickets at this point is well below sane margins. But that is what the consumer wanted: the lowest cost possible for travel.
Now we have a very unstable business climate. And service levels are way down. In order to reduce costs, airlines have not only cut meals but they have cut the number of employees they can afford to pay a salary. Now, we have a permanently understaffed business in one of the most stressful industries out there.
Let’s get back to what the airline “owes” when there are delays and you are stranded. If your bank’s website is down for 13 hours and you miss submitting a payment on a bill that is due, how does the bank compensate you? If there is a fire and you are stuck in an elevator for 13 hours, how does the fire department or the building management compensate for your time? All of these things are “force majeure” — things beyond the control of the business operations.
If there is a thunderstorm at the airline’s hub and flights are grounded, how is the airline responsible? And if the air traffic control system gets overloaded with too many flights and slows down schedules, how is that the airline’s fault? If bad weather causes the closure of multiple runways, how is it the airline’s fault that you have to wait on the taramac 6 hours to take off?? The things that go wrong when traveling are generally the result of weather or air traffic control and when the airlines had higher fares and government funding, they could afford to offer the gracious service of compensating passengers for inconvenience. The days of money to burn are over — it is what the consumer asked for: the cheapest airfare. But not even the $20,000 one way ticket in first class is going to get anything extra for force majeure delays. Now, notice how the post from Mario Antoinette says he was compensated for his troubles? Continental did not do that because they have better service. They did it because the flight was overbooked and it is their fault. All airlines will compensate for delays caused by business operation but travelers may have to ask for it if not offered.