Why Does Flying Suck so Much? | Robert Reich

The root cause, of everything terrible in the world, is ALWAYS GREED!

I genuinely don't understand how not paying flight attendants isn't wage theft. I was shocked when I learned that they are not paid for sooooo much work.

I was raised as an "airline brat." (Both my parents worked for United Airlines.) Mid 60's through the 90's Until the 80's, when we traveled on their flight benefits as a family, we had to wear our best clothes as a matter of employee policy. In the early days, flying was sexy - and fun! The 747-400 was amazing! Once in flight, the "stuards" would come by and ask if we kids would like to take a look at the upstairs lounge - and occasionally even visit the pilots in the cockpit (*sigh - pre 9/11*) Generally speaking, there was lots of room, pillows, blankets, meals, a movie and even a deck of playing cards (and toys!) on request. Heck, the attendants would just offer them. All of it free! And we would occasionally laugh at the meals, but they were really great (by comparison to today). United even maintained its own food service division back then. These days, I take the train if I have a choice.

The airlines refer to it as 'calculated misery.' So if you're uncomfortable, then you will be willing to pay more for 2 inches of extra legroom. They make you as miserable as possible so that you'll pay for relief. By the time I'm done booking my flight, the total cost is close enough for me to go first class. The cost of a bag, the privilege of being able to choose your seat, the cost of interacting with someone at the ticket counter, the cost of printing the damn ticket, etc. So I scrap the economy ticket and upgrade to first class. Sometimes the cost is about the same.

I was an avid flyer for most of my life. i loved flying when i was little, and never dealt with any fear. Even served in the USAF, worked on planes, and got a few rides in them. A few years ago i decided not to fly anymore. Not commercial anyway. it is too expensive, too inconvenient, and now, too unreliable. I'd rather drive or take the train, and I'm not alone. trains that used to be sparsely ridden are now frequently full, and reservations are becoming mandatory, and further in advance. We need to stop subsidizing profitable corporations (welfare queens), and invest in public transport infrastructure. Amtrak should be everywhere, all the time.

As a flight attendant myself for a big airline , I want to thank you for this lovely message on being nicer to each other. Yup...in my airlines , we haven't seen a pay raise in 13 yrs..and just think how much money the company is saving by not paying us during boarding , which is the hardest part of the job. Thank you for this wonderful video. 💖

Great summary of what's wrong with not only airlines, but the whole economy.

I flew for TWA in the 70's and 80's . We weren't paid after we checked in initially for the trip. After the flight took off we were on the clock. The pay was very good, benefits were excellent, especially dental. (got to keep the smile looking good). There was a cap on hours flow per month/ per trip. Management was strict about weight, make up etc. No extreme hairdos. I didn't have any complaints about the job. I did struggle with jet lag flying overseas for a while. I was a zombie till i figured out what worked for me. You couldn't get me on a flight nowadays free.

I recently flew on Contour Airlines, a small company with government subsidies to run less-serviced routes. It was a plane with only 30 seats, and was the only option for Paducah, KY, to the hub of Charlotte, but the price was $69 each way. Flight attendants were funny and laid back but professional, and they had a full basket of all kinds of snacks offered to everyone, as well as drink service. The flight back was delayed because of a mechanical issue, and they were the only airline at that airport, with two daily runs to Charlotte -- that was it. If they didn't fix the plane, no one was going anywhere. We didn't have to ask what was going on -- they kept us fully informed the whole time, ordered pizza for everyone, plus snacks and drinks in the tiny airport. Then they pointed out to us that they were test flying the plane after the repair, and we watched them take off and land three times, before they were okay with making the flight. They were so good to us on there, and it was a great experience.

"Try to be a little nicer to service workers and your fellow passengers – on planes and in life. After all, we're all on this journey together." -- Robert Reich Amen to that Professor.

I knew it! When we have flown on foreign airlines, we’ve been treated so well it’s amazing! In flight meals, leg room, a little kindness…

Oh wow, I could join you on this video. I'm 45, flown a lot both commercial and small planes as a kid, and a lot of commercial planes as an adult. Flying used to be almost like the ultimate version of "the customer is always right", which has morphed into them yelling at us and dragging us off planes. I get that this is a two way street, but it went from being a king to being cattle, something has to give. I now have only flown twice in a decade, meanwhile I have over a hundred flights in the previous decade. Some of that is work, but my wife and I now actively avoid trips that would require flight.

Reagan broke the air traffic controllers union and replaced them with new people. In the past, air traffic control had a steady flow of new people coming in and old people retiring, so they had a mix of experience levels that the new people could learn from. By hiring new people all at once, Reagan created an age gap. People are retiring in droves with lots of new people coming in, who won't be able to learn from those who are more experienced. Yet another reason why Reagan was a disaster.

I was flying from San Jose to Omaha with a layover in Denver. During the layover in Denver Southwest delayed my flight by 1 hour pushing the original departure time of 5pm to 6pm. They continued to delay the flight by 1 hour until midnight when they cancelled it completely, saying the next flight they could get me on to Omaha would be in 2 days (well after the family reunion I was trying to get to). I decided to just fly back to San Jose because I was going to miss the family reunion regardless of what I did. I found a flight back to San Jose that night (which I had to pay for) and was assured that my bags would make it back to the airport I flew out of. I get back to San Jose and they have lost my bags. At this point it is around 2am and there is no one in the airport to talk to about it so I decide to drive home and have them ship my bags to me. There is a mixup at the long term parking because they didn't expect me back so soon and it takes them an hour to find my car and it is a 1.5 hour drive home. I get home at 4:30am and go to sleep. I call Southwest in the morning and explain what had happened. They tell me it will be $100 to ship my bags back to me and deny any requests for compensation aside from 4 drink vouchers and no apology. In the end I ended up spending almost 3 times what I had paid for the original tickets, I didn't get to my family reunion and had one of the worst days of my life.

Lack of competition.

That’s just another reason why I prefer Amtrak. It may in most cases be the only choice for train travel in the US, but it’s not trying to pay stockholders, so the money goes into the operation. No charge for up to two checked bags, two carry-on bags plus a personal item allowed. Plenty of leg room, wider seats, nicely reclining seats, and leg and toe rests in coach. Of course, the main reasons are the scenery and the potential for chatting with others.

You're so correct. In a 42 year career I lived it. Started with the phone company, left after divestiture. Went to work for a regional airline that was merged twice. Started my own shop that I sold after nine years and it was merged. Retired from one of the four telecoms left after several more mergers and acquisitions. Glad to be out of the game. P.S., being a union steward saved me on several occasions.

Had a horror story just last month. I’m a manual wheelchair user, which makes flying challenging at the best of times. For those of you who don’t know, the Americans with disabilities act (ADA) mandates that there be a place onboard to stow a wheelchair, called a wheelchair closet, for planes above 30 seats I think. I was boarding a cross country flight on a plane with 200 seats, so there was indeed a wheelchair closet. I was a good disabled person and informed the airline that I was coming and would need the closet ahead of time and was told that it would be available to me, but when I got to the edge of the jet bridge a flight attendant took one look at me and said “Sorry, you’re going to need to gate check your chair because it won’t fit.” Now, I knew this was BS. I’d literally made the same flight on the same aircraft type six days previous and had stowed my chair in the cabin with no issues. Another important piece of information here is that my chair costs $3400 and wasn’t covered by insurance. The idea of it being manhandled in any way scares the crap out of me, and I’m not leaving my crucial mobility device in the hands of baggage workers unless I absolutely have to. So I looked at this flight attendant, and looked at the wheelchair closet. It was, of course, full of flight crew luggage as it tends to be whenever there’s not a chair onboard. Ah. Mystery solved. I pointed at the closet (which had a wheelchair symbol on it) and said “This one?” She said yes and that she was sure I wouldn’t fit. I said “I made this flight a week ago on another aircraft of the exact same type, and it fit. Let me show you.” I stood up (yes I can stand, not all wheelchair users are paralyzed, I myself have a neurodegenerative disease) and began disassembling my chair. There was some grumbling while the luggage was removed, and I stowed all of my parts except for my seat cushion neatly in the closet. When I finished, I looked at the sour faced flight attendant, smiled, and thanked her for accommodating me while seething internally. What happened to me should never happen, but it happens to wheelchair users and mobility device users all the time. Flight crew, of course, need a place to stow their stuff, and the airlines need to do a better job at cabin design to make sure disabled people and hardworking employees alike all have space, not even to mention regular passengers.

This summer, my wife and I were flying from Aruba to Asheville with a layover in Atlanta. An afternoon thunderstorm caused such a problem for the airline that our flight was canceled. We had to drop hundreds of dollars on cab and hotel accommodations which they wouldn’t reimburse us for because the delay was “weather related” despite other planes flying out that night. Long story short, they booked us on a second flight the next day which also got cancelled and we ended up driving the final leg of the trip. It took an additional 2 days after that to get our bags. Did we get any money refunded? Nope.

Thank you Robert for addressing a pet peeve of mine. I am old enough to remember a better flying experience on so many levels. Recently on my last flight, a TSA agent was yelling at 2 older people who were not doing something properly. It was very uncomfortable to hear her yelling and I could relate to the elders moving too slowly. Flying used to be an adventure, now it’s a nightmare. You have hit the nail on its head! THANK YOU!