Due mainly to WDSPRD SHTY WX for a few weeks, I’ve had to travel by airlines. Further, some domestic commercial flights were booked months in advance (by my partner) for a holiday.
It’s obvious to me that the airlines (I’m talking at least Qantas and Virgin here) advertise cheap seats on supposed scheduled flights that both airlines know are unlikely to occur or have no intention of operating - at least not for the plebs who’ve purchased the cheap seats. The airlines then announce that the fights are cancelled and leave the drones in some god-forsaken corner of the organisation to cop the incoming complaints and sort out alternative flights that usually bear no semblance to the original itinerary.
Out of a number of examples, the domestic flights for the holiday were booked in March for August. The airline (in this case Qantas) then sent an email in May to say the flights in August have been cancelled! WTF? If the original flights were ‘real’, how does Qantas know in May that the flights in August have to be cancelled? What I suspect really happened is that Qantas decided to punt the plebs who’d purchased the cheap seats to whatever flight/s suit Qantas.
Others have pointed out the ‘fine print’, and those others are correct. But it would be better if the ‘fine print’ were more clear and concise: “You pay us, the airline, up front for a seat that may not exist on what appears to be but is only nominally a scheduled flight, and we’ll then decide when and on what day we might condescend to provide a ‘service’ to you in return for your money. You could get stuck somewhere you don’t want to be for hours or even overnight, and if you can’t find somewhere to stay: Stiff sh*t.”
I suppose that while ever people are willing to pay for this level of ‘service’, the airlines will keep taking their money. Glad I’m not paying.
I realise that the airlines, like a lot of other businesses, are having trouble attracting and keeping staff. That’s been an interesting side effect of Covid: A lot of people have realised that life’s short and decided they’ve higher priorities than work, especially if it’s for an employer who treats them like sh*t. Unless and until the rivers of cheap units of production from overseas start running again, the airlines are going to have to spend a lot more money pretending to care about their workers if the airlines want to attract and keep them. Ditto the aged ‘care’ ‘industry’ and public hospitals and …