Top 12 Complaints About Airline Travel

May 10, 2010

We all have a plethora of things to complain about when it comes to airline travel. I have devoted a lot of time to this blog on that premise and I can’t seem to get away from it. After all, laws wouldn’t change if we didn’t exercise our G-d given rights of free speech, so why not use whatever avenue we can to get our point across.

What upsets you about airline travel? Feel free to vent here with some commentary.

In the meantime, do you ever wonder how your thoughts about airline travel compare with the mass public? Where does majority rule when it comes to customer complaints with the airlines? Well, according to a recent survey from Consumer Reports, fees and unhelpful staff are the two things that annoy air travelers the most. With participants rating the annoyances on a 1-to-10 scale (10 being the most annoying), feesactually took the top two spots among the air-travel gripes.

The next two gripes involved customer-service issues. The survey also returned an interesting result on delays. Respondents actually cited “poor communication about delays” as being more annoying than actual”flight delays.” The message to the airlines seems to be “tell us what’s going on. Don’t insult our intelligence and just treat us like a consumer. Like a person!”

Survey results of Top 12 air-travel gripes (on a 1-to-10 scale)

1. Luggage charges (8.4)
2. Added fees (8.1)
3. Rude or unhelpful staff (7.7)
4. Can’t reach a live service rep (7.6)
5. Poor communication about delays (7.1)
6. Seatmates who hog your space (7.0)
7. Flight delays (6.8)
8. People who hog carry-on space (6.7)
9. Long waits at baggage claim (5.9)
10. Long lines for security or check-in (5.2)
11. Puny/no snacks (5.1)
12. Crying babies, unruly kids (4.9)

Feel free to post your thoughts here. Do you have other complaints? What do you like about traveling? Which of the above do you agree/disagree with?

My favorite part about flying: that moment when the cabin doors are closed and you realize that the seat next to you is unoccupied. Stretch time!

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