Originally Posted by
Cloud1
I get your point and occasionally there is flexibility with checkin - especially if hand baggage only depending on when checkin closes. Flybe check in closes -20 min for hand baggage only so if you were 15 mins late the flight isn’t going on time giving everyone else reason to moan.
Likewise at the gate if the flight waited for everyone that was 15 mins late the doors couldn’t be closed up, pushback clearance request would be delayed and then your flight wouldn’t get away on time anyway.
Passengers are actually in my opinion becoming more and more demanding with very little awareness or consideration to how challenging it is to fly a plane now a days. Not just cost, but it’s so heavily congested now if not on the ground in the air. It is hard to employ people who want to work in the airport. Pressure for on time performance is immense because of compensation culture. Countries around the UK strike whenever they feel like it with France continuing to be the worse. Technical issues happen when aircraft are flown like a bus service - short flights with maybe 5-10 landings or takes offs will ultimately be prone to more potential for tech issues compared to a plane that takes off just twice in a day. All the mechanical movements that take place etc.
If you drive your car around the city all day long changing gear, slowing down, speeding up, turning many corners etc your car will have more natural wear and tear vs doing a single 3 hour motorway trip in a straight line at a more regular speed.
Its a debate that will never be agreed because of expectations and compensation. I blame low cost airlines and the USA compensation culture for it.
Long delays happen and it’s tough, we need to get over ourselves when there are more serious things going on in the world. However what is so important and I fully agree is that how they are handled is key.
15 minute delay though, I wouldn’t even care or probably notice. 35 minute delay if it is acknowledged with a reason then I wouldn’t care. I plan my travel with buffers even when on business to account for these sort of things. Have flown for so many years and so many times I am just not bothered by it anymore.
The compensation culture in this case has less to do with the USA and more to do with the daftly drafted and enforced EU261 rules. The compensation should be amount to the cost of the flight, no more, and no less. As it is someone booked a promotional fare can easily make a large profit out of a 3 hour delay, which taking recompense a step too far.
I despair of people who whinge because on minor delays on rail or air travel. When I get into my car to make the journey from Nottingham to Birmingham I can't guarantee whether that journey is going to take one hour or 2 hours, or anywhere in between, yet nobody (yet) is suggesting that the organisation responsible for the roads, or the person responsible for an accident that results in my delay pays me compensation, and I don't expect compensation from the car manufacturer if I have a breakdown. Yet the circumstances under which compensation can be wrung from airlines (or rail operators) appears to take no account of the law the "sh1t happens".
The problem today is too many non-win no-fee lawyers, and too many keyboard warriors.