September 26, 2017

Public unhappy with changes in flying

NBC - Nearly half of Americans and a majority of those over the age of 45 feel that air travel has gotten worse over the last decade, according to a poll completed earlier this month by NBC News and Survey Monkey. “There is a tremendous sense of diminished expectations on behalf of passengers,” says Bill McGee, a one-time airline flight dispatcher and now aviation adviser at Consumer Reports. “The fun went out of it a long time ago. Most of us are just looking for civility and to get through it in the most painless way possible.”

About two of every five respondents over 45 who fly say cramped seats and overcrowding are their main complaints, according to the NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll. The next greatest concerns among all flyers were high ticket prices (cited by 19 percent), extra fees (11 percent), and delays and cancellations (also 11 percent). Charles Leocha, chairman and co-founder of Travelers United, a nonprofit that lobbies on behalf of all travelers, put it bluntly: “It’s like a torture chamber up there.”

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