RESERVATIONS

A couple of Armenian guys came over to the house yesterday to fix our Maytag. Unless your washer has broken lately, you probably don’t know that most of the guys fixing most of the appliances in Southern California are either Armenian or Russian. I have no idea why. But as they worked we enjoyed a friendly chat, during which I was told that my Maytag was the first one to be run by a computer board, and that the workmanship was so poor that Maytag had been driven into bankruptcy by law suits from angry customers. Hmm. News to me. I am beginning to wonder, however, if this isn’t part of a larger pattern in American business.

Since three U. S. airlines skidded off the runway into bankruptcy last week and a fourth is embroiled in a corruption scandal with the F.A.A., American passengers are learning the real meaning of the word reservations. The most disturbing part of last week’s events wasn’t the failure of three airlines – businesses come and go all the time – it was the cavalier attitude they took toward their passengers. Providing them with no advance notice, they left thousands of people stranded, holding worthless tickets, with no way home, and for many, virtually unrecoverable luggage. They continued taking reservations right up until the moment the bankruptcies were announced, and then essentially just closed the windows and walked away.

Today, American Airlines cancelled more than 900 flights, stranding another quarter of a million passengers, in order to comply with minute F.A.A. regulations. Now, this gets a little complicated. Last week a whistle blower at the F.A.A. revealed that Southwest Airlines had been allowed to skip some required inspections (presumably, saving itself some money) because of a “special” relationship it had with a certain F.A.A. inspector. The result of that scandal is that the F.A.A. is now enforcing every regulation to the nth degree, regardless of the hardship this imposes on hundreds of thousands of innocent travelers caught in the middle.

If the government expects us to be comfortable about lining up, taking off our shoes, and flying the friendly skies, there must be some accountability. In the case of the bankrupt airlines, the executives who showed such utter disregard for their passengers should be held responsible. They are guilty of criminal negligence and should be charged in court. The Southwest/F.A.A. scandal speaks for itself. As for today’s flight cancellations, it seems to me that this sudden round of inspections is not about trying to keep passengers safe from accidents, it is about the F.A.A. trying to protect itself from scandal. The top officials at that agency should pay the price for this extraordinary lack of judgement – at the very least with their jobs.

My wife and I are scheduled to fly to Chicago in May for a family wedding. I now have serious reservations about the whole tripo.

a foot on either side