at a rolling donut. Though the original Kurt Vonnegut phrase was something more like “take a flying fuck at a rolling donut.” The hole in this instance is customer service, by the way, which if you have flown recently, you already knew.
Did you hear the one about the passenger who was charged an extra $15 by the airline to lose his first checked bag? And another $25 for a second bag mistakenly loaded onto an airliner to Calcutta instead of Cincinnati?
That might sound like a Jay Leno monologue, but a disgruntled frequent flier delivered it at a forum Tuesday in Chicago sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation for consumers to air their gripes.
The message from airlines wasn’t reassuring either. Essentially, they said, if you think it’s bad now, you ain’t seen nothing yet. They warned of shrinking service and higher fees for everything from preassigned seats to bottled water.
Airline representatives defended overbooking flights, saying…
[From You are now free to take a flying leap — chicagotribune.com]
saying: it is your fault for flying with us in the first place. Haven’t you heard of trains, and video-conferencing?
and got to love this claim:
Airlines and government representatives at the forum maintained that a passenger bill of rights, which has never passed Congress, is unnecessary because the industry can regulate itself.
Yeah, right, that’s why everyone who flies and/or works for an airline is so happy all the time.