Editor's Blog: Beware Traveling Fishermen

[TOP SHOT]

This week, Editor-In-Chief Doug Olander discusses the sorry state of commercial air travel, at least where customer service is concerned.

You can read Doug's blog here: http://www.sportfishingmag.com/blog.jsp

You can log-in and comment below.

[Seth]

How maddening airline employess can be. Why is it so common an experience that someone in the service business could not care less about your situation? They hav this attitude that you are inconveniencing them to have them do their job. I am sure they wonder why all these idiot air travelers want to ruin their day. The problem is that many times these people lack the mental fortitude to do their job, much less show compassion even if feigned. They have the power and want to exercise it at your expense.

[88boat]

Just wanted to comment about a simular incident that occured on a trip with the same airline. I was so angry about my treatment I wrote to the President of the Airline only to receive a letter from him and a personal phone call. I was offered a credit for the flight, a years membership to the airline club and a free ticket on the airline for my trouble. I also received a 25,000 mile bonus of Frequent Flyer miles. I identified my flight number, day of my flight and any names of the people I dealt with that day. Just something to think about when a problem like this occurs.

[Greyfeather]

I have traveled by air since the 1950's and retired several years ago as a pilot for one of the major airlines. First, not all airline employees are jerks, those soon are eliminated. Second, Homeland Security is adding additional problems to the airlines. Third, the board of directers today are looking at the bottom line and not hiring the type of individuals they did 20 to 50 years ago.
I have more than one set of tackle and make arrangements with the people I will be fishing with to send it in advance with Fed-Ex. For those of you who like brown, they go everywhere also, but my choice for service is the one mentioned. I have not lost a single piece of equipment, it is always there and I ship it back when I head home and in a few days it gets there. Then I have a carry on that I roll my clothes and when I get to destination, I have everything I need and no worrys about luggage etc. Expensive, how much is piece of mind?

[Seth]

I completely agree that the quality of employee has decreased over the years. The TSA has created more problems with bureaucracy than they have solved. With the understanding that security is an absolute priority and skilled people are needed in these posts, why are so many TSA employees unfit to handle such a sensitive job. The level of inconsistency is staggering.

[George Woodward]

TSA - it just replaced the airline "security" personnel, some of whom didn't do a good enough job, but what did anyone expect for min wage? Personally, I would have hired retired NYC cops to do this job instead of Andy Frain ushers.

Airline service (if that's what you'd call it) has gone down rapidly since the de-regulation of the industry. Under the old rules they couldn't raise prices or drop service without permission of the CAB. Today, nothing like that exists. It's all about the bottom line.

Consolidation has pretty much rendered the airline business. PanAm, my fav carrier, went down the tubes after Eastern, Midway, Capitol, Air Florida, America West and others. American has the market to Latin America very well locked up and controls the pricing.

[gold_fish]

thanks for the link! Nice read

[TOP SHOT]

Doug has finally found an airline that makes realistic allowances for fishermen in its baggage policy. Read all about it in Doug's blog, and comment below, if you like!

[Seth]

It's good to hear that American Airlines is being more friendly toward anglers. The one bad thing is that AA does not fly everywhere. I hope the airlines, collectively, can some day realize the limitations they place on many of their fishing fliers. The angling community can help by applying pressure to airlines in the hope that they modify their baggage handling procedures.

[Max Mackenzie]

The easiest solution to the air carriage of fishing tackle is to "play the game"

I always fly with British Airways and have no problems carrying equipment. I overcome the percieved baggage problems by using the largest permitted suitcase (BA website gives dimensions). I recommend Globetrotter Safari Range suitcases. Globetrotter also provide a Safari cabin case to he exact permitted international dimensions. In the large suitcase I easily pack 4 sage saltwater 4 pc rods in their aluminium tubes together with several Tibor reels and all necessary tackle. There is still more than enough space for clothing etc. The weight restriction is 32 kgs but beware BA will be reducing this to 23 kgs in Sept 2007.

I frequently fly between Scotland and Thailand and have never encountered any baggage problems.

I trust this may help with what may prove to be only a small problem.

Max