Page 5 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL MAGAZINE 2020 SPRING EDITION INTERACTIVE

EDITOR’S NOTE

Airline Greed or Opportunity Missed

fter days of dominating the news, Hurricane Irma is On top of that are the shocking, headline-making displays of
taking a backseat to what will be a lengthy recovery corporate greed and arrogance. Who can comprehend the cal-
by areas the powerful storm battered in the Carib- lousness behind the forcible removal of a passenger so that a
Abean and Florida. Now comes the assessment of higher paying flyer could take his seat. Such incidents under-
how all of the key actors, public and corporate, did to aid the score bad management and staffing with untrained, overworked
millions who faced and became victims of Irma’s might. The re- and underpaid personnel.
port card on the role that airlines played is still incomplete, but
by and large, their image took another deserved beating, adding Black eyes for the airline industry during catastrophic events
to an ongoing series of shoot-yourself-in-the-foot actions. It like Irma are avoidable. Most airlines and their crews were
didn’t need to happen that way. heroes; they capped fares, added flights and crews and went
above and beyond to help some very scared and tired people. If
After thousands of complaints about ticket-price gouging in all had reacted this way, the social media buzz would have been
Florida, U.S. Representative Charlie Crist wrote to Secretary of an entirely different story.
Transportation Elaine Chao calling for an investigation of airline
behavior during a crisis. But for some reason for some airlines it was business supply
and demand as usual, allowing computers to force evacuees
Responding to angry constituents, U.S Senators Blumenthal and to stay in harm’s way because they couldn’t afford pricy last
Markey responded immediately, “Airlines certainly have a right minute tickets. Unfortunately natural disasters like this hurri-
to a reasonable return for services rendered and vagaries in cane season are occurring with greater frequency and intensity.
pricing are to be expected; but airlines have no right to impose Clearly it’s time for the airline industry to set some humanitar-
exorbitant, unfair prices on Americans simply trying to get out ian standards for their role during national emergencies to help
of harm’s way.” rather than pick pockets. Maybe there’s a silver lining here,
maybe being a responsible corporate citizen may become fash-
The depth of airline greed was unavoidable on social media ionable again and empathy will overcome computer-generated
where screen shots of soaring ticket prices during evacuations greed.
shows some tickets jumping from $547 to more than $3,200.
Industry supporters suggested that it was business as usual, Maybe. But we’re not holding our breath.
computer generated increases based on supply and demand.
Legal or not, the optics are terrible for an industry enduring
plenty of bad press recently. Even the perception of gouging Ron & Mary James
helpless victims adds to the public’s rage about arbitrary fees
for everything from baggage to blankets.

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