Flying High?

I've spent the last six weeks traveling--by boat, bus, train and plane and all of it went well except the flying. Forget that they don't feed you any more, even on fairly long trips, and you need to take out a second mortgage to buy airport meals. Forget that the seats are shrinking so dramatically in size that when the person in front of you reclines, their head is in your lap, and forget that we're required to report hours before the plane may take off on time. These problems now pale by comparison to the crazy thing that just happened to me.

They actually put me on a plane going to the wrong city! Despite being at the right gate and on a plane with the right flight number, they sent me to Cincinnati instead of Dallas. Who knew such a thing could happen?

And the worst of it was that there was no apology or even concern that there were no more flights out to take us to the correct destination (there were of course several of us to whom this happened), that I had to spend the night in the wrong city, and that I missed an important meeting the next day. Instead, if you can believe this, I was met with irritation at having to deal with the problem they created for us.

How could this happen? Imagine, if you will, five gates crammed together filled with thousands of people all waiting for various over-booked flights, one plane after another being delayed for the big excuse now--mechanical problems, and gate employees who are on automatic pilot when they answer questions, because, believe me, I even verified repeatedly that they were putting us on the right plane.

Now...I certainly don't want to fly on a plane with mechanical problems, but, in my case, a trashcan latch was broken--seriously! Hundreds of people were delayed, inconvenienced (one couple lost all their vacation trip connections), and left stranded because they couldn't figure out how to stow trash generated on a two-hour flight that wasn't even going to serve drinks.

What to do? They have us over the proverbial barrel--don't they? If we need to get someone far or fast, we must fly. And, for the most part, one airline is indistinguishable from another. If they have too many flying (and since they overbook, they often do.), they can throw you off the flight. They charge you now to carry the clothes you need to travel, and now they can send you where you don't want to go!

Anyone have any solutions or are we truly out of luck if we can't travel by land or sea--the only industries which still seem interested in customer retention or service.