The quality of service no longer meets customer requirements, and customers are rebelling. The airlines
and airports have done their best to remove any aspect of comfort or pleasure from air travel, and customers,
the people who actually pay the bills, have had enough.
Entitled attitudes don't help. I ended up with bruised knees on a British Airways flight from the person
ahead of me refusing to negotiate on seat reclining, with the flight attendants refusing to mediate. On a American flight
the passenger next to me went ballistic and very loudly demanded to be reseated, because I was wearing perfume.
On my last long-haul flight (Vancouver to London) I did an on-the-spot upgrade to premium economy and had a good flight. I had
cashed in credit card points for the ticket, so the extra $$$ was money well-spent.
I think diverting is a lousy way to handle customer disputes, but it scares me that the airlines may start accepting this
as part of the cost of doing business...
...laura