Busted: ExpressJet False Ad for Non-stop Flights - Part 1
I’m not usually upset with customer service issues with airline travel. However, in this instance I had a front row seat to the calamity that a new airline caused to my girfriend today. Without a doubt it was the worst monkey-motion / soup sandwich situation I’ve seen since I left Naval Aviation twelve years ago.
According to the US Gov Department of Transportation site regarding this matter, ‘Direct Flight’ may mean one or more stops enroute.
Yeah? Well I’ve got the right to post my opinion and document the facts behind this completely deceptive practice that I’ve never experienced from any airline carrier.
Click below the fold to read how my girl, our infant daughter, and her mom got screwed by ExpressJet’s nondisclosure.
The ExpressJet “Direct Flight” Debacle
A few months ago my girlfriend (I’ll call her Doctor Girlfriend) decided to check out the rates to book a flight from Sacramento to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Normally, she flys Southwest Airlines but as she was checking out Kayak.com, my favorite super-secret travel site, the one I bought my $200 nonstop r/t SAN - OGG Maui flight from last year, she came across a killer deal from an airline she had never heard of - ExpressJet (NYSE: XJT).
ExpressJet was offering nonstop service from Sacramento directly to Tulsa. Normally Southwest and other airlines require at least one stop, and having a layover really conflicts with her schedule as she would be traveling with her mother who requires a wheelchair. She was skeptical, but still ecstatic as this would be a birthday gift for her mother.
I’m Not Stupid… Direct Flight: What’s The Catch?
Doctor Girlfriend then asked me about ExpressJet. A quick Google found enough information for me to feel safe about recommending; in fact I was thinking about investing in this young upstart for several reasons. First, they have a good model in addressing secondary markets, and second, they have had a good record providing service as Continental Express and Delta Express in plenty of secondary markets across America.
Most importantly, ExpressJet had a very good safety record and have established ground crew maintenance routines. After all, what goes up must come down - it’s just not guaranteed to come down in one piece or at the right destination.
Doctor Girlfriend Examines ExpressJet
I told her it looked good but she is a cautious and wary consumer. Having been burned many times in the travel game she decides to take two crucial steps prior to booking the flight. First, she logged into the ExpressJet site to buy it directly from them.
She checked out their route chart online, and as I copied the screen from their flashy Flash presentation, it clearly shows a direct route from Sacramento to Tulsa. She was elated.
Remember -
- She checked the flight details on kayak.com
- She checked the flight details on xjet.com
Since Doctor Girlfriend works in the medical industry she’s very savvy when it comes to handicapped accessibility. Airlines even have specific government regulation about this matter. She actually called up the company to confirm they would be able to properly handle a wheelchair. I thought this a bit extreme - in this day and age, if it’s on the Internet, it’s accurate. Was I wrong.
Wheelchairs and Airlines - Let the Games Begin!
After dealing for the past thirty years or so with all sorts of stupid people tricks regarding handicapped access with ignorant customer service people, Doctor Girlfriend has become quite the
Verbal Jujitsu master. This means she doesn’t hesitate to cut someone who misses the cluetrain off at the knees. Dr. Girlfriend patiently expressed her concerns to me prior to her phone call to ExpressJet. Handicapped access, it turns out, is one thing she has plenty of horror stories about.
Flight Transfers with Wheelchairs
Ever had to transfer from one concourse to another to make a connecting flight? I remember DFW, I remember BWI, and even O’Hare. I used to fly quite a bit several years ago.
The good times just keep on rolling if you are in a wheelchair. Dr. Girlfriend and her mom have found out the hard way many times what it means to end up having to transfer to a completely different jet - late - and at the opposite end of the airport.
Dr: Girlfriend: “Imagine racing down an airline terminal with carryon baggage and a wheelchair because you didn’t have time to wait for the sad sack to load up his terminal buggy before your next flight comes. Oh, that’s not happening to me if I can help it. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.”
Her least favorite method of transportation on and off airplanes is when they are not parked at a gate. Either a crane lift is required for the whole wheelchair, which is then stowed in baggage after the person is seated, or (not so regularly) someone has to carry the handicapped person up the stairs, through the passageway, and settle them into the seat.
Obviously this has to be accomplished prior to everyone else boarding. Additionally, they may be the first off, or last off depending on how things go at the other end.
Since any carry-on luggage becomes a potential sandbag in the quarter-mile dash, most of the critical items are simply not able to be carried by any normal human. This is only second to that hated problem of lost luggage. Doctor Girlfriend’s family does not live in Tulsa; rather they are a few hours drive away.
The ExpressJet corporate headquarters happily confirmed all the great things about their airline.
- Yes, the flight in question was nonstop and…
- Yes, they did have wheelchair accessibility.
- In fact, Doctor Girlfriend asked and was even told that yes, the jet would be at the gate so they could take the (normal) boarding ramp into the aircraft.
She buys the ticket and we forget about the matter for a few months.
“You’re flying to Tulsa?”
After heading out at zero dark thirty on Sunday morning, I’m excited. This should be a great trip for Doctor Girlfriend, her mom, and our infant daughter. All the MidWesterners get to see the new grand-daughter and today as usual she is very, very cute. Before this the main question they asked was something along the lines of:
“Is he really related to that Derek Jeter ballplayer?!?”
I’m curious about whether this new airline will have what it takes to survive the volatile market. After all, I’ve cashed in my LUV stock last year and I’m looking for getting back into the transportation market.It would be cool to see my expectations met by this
Our first warning was at the counter checking in baggage.
Girlfriend says to agent, immediately following checking the bags in, “You’ve got those bags going to Tulsa, right?
Agent: (deer in headlights look as she whips out a Sharpie and hand writes TUL onto the baggage tags) “You’re flying to Tulsa?”.
Why would she… write… Tulsa… onto the tags…? I’m not getting this - I mean, isn’t this a nonstop flight?
I put it out of my head as we go through the security chaos that ensues with every infant plus nonflying escort (me) plus wheelchair passenger. As Dr. Girlfriend and I start putting our shoes back on, I look around for Mom.
They have her in that frag deflection zone (you know, the blast-proof plexiglass shielded hand search area.
Me: “Good grief, are they actually reaching underneath her to frisk between her and the seat?!?”
General Quarters, General Quarters… ExpressJet and Dr. Girlfriend Go Head to Head
We get up to the gate only to find that the gate screen shows that this flight is going to Albuquerque, with a teeny additional script that says Tulsa. At this point Doctor Girlfriend is momentarily shocked into silent denial.
Dr. Girlfriend has a three month old infant and her mom in the chair, and everyone must get to the destination in one piece and with their bags.
Clearly her interest in a direct flight from SMF to TUL is justified, particularly since lost luggage will mean no baby items and her carry-on is the infant. After all, she already checked with the airline and they verbally confirmed it was a nonstop flight.
Clearly she’s about as tense as piano string. Clearly I’m really hoping that she doesn’t go postal before she gets on that plane.
One must know my girl to know that her silence is the calm before a really big storm.
Dr. Girlfriend: (calmly shaking her head) “No, it’s not stopping in Albuquerque first. This is a nonstop flight.”
I shake my head, thinking the ticket agent is going to become dogmeat. As soon as Doctor Girlfriend’s state of denial lifts she stalks the counter. Oh this gate girl is a real piece of work. Ever see Office Space? Remember Peggy, the Secretary? Yeah, think her but younger and prettier.
Doctor Girlfriend, artist of verbal jujitsu, closes in for the kill. I hear bits and pieces of the conversation…
Gate Girl: Well, you booked online through another company like Travelocity, right?
Dr. Girlfriend: No. I booked through YOUR site after I had called and YOUR headquarters told me this was a direct, nonstop flight!
Ah so! Takedown in less than ninety seconds. Doctor Girlfriend, the Jet Li of verbal jujitsu. Git some!
Gate Girl escalates the issue to the manager, but we waited about twenty minutes for him to come up. He’s all of twenty-five. He makes us wait another five minutes as he busy-works himself around the counter, then looks up and beckons her to come over. Obviously this is a delaying tactic. Eventually she has to leave and board the plane, he reasons, so why not reduce the amount of carnage he has to face.
She gets to the counter and starts in with him while we’re queuing up to get onto the plane. Me, holding the baby, pushing the wheelchair to the front of the line.
Dr. Girlfriend quickly assures the manager that, no, fifty dollars will not even come close to resolving the matter and that she will be in contact with the corporate office.
ExpressJet’s Ground Crew Monkey Motion
But I can’t help but notice that they haven’t pushed the arriving jet back from the gate. It’s been there with no activity for at least half an hour. And they have that exit door going to the stairs open… And the gate girl is escorting a little girl flying alone.. not down the access ramp… but to the exit door.
Me: (to gate girl) “Hey, we have to get boarded with a wheelchair. How’s that going to happen?
Gate Girl (into radio): We need security to gate 31 for a handicapped escort.
Girl’s Mom: (to me) Yeah, they’re going to need security for my daughter in about five minutes!
So the security guy gets here and now we’re going down the elevator.
All that stuff about boarding first? Well, it’s now a footrace across the tarmac to the jet parked about a hundred and fifty yards out.
Security pushing out Mom as Dr. Girlfriend walks alongside. Note infant in arms.
We get to the jet, and now we have another obstacle, we need to get her into it. Now I’m just standing there, carrying all the carry-on items. Standing next to the pilot.
So the pilot is about my age, maybe a few years younger. I’m not too thrilled about this since most of the airline pilots my age that I know have thousands of hours military and then go commercial.This guy looks about as old as the manager did and doesn’t have that military experienced look about him. He looks like a pay it yourself civilian pilot, one that puts about $30k into their training and comes out with about 500 hours in type and less than two thousand hours total flight time.
I don’t trust civilian pilots for a lot of reasons, some valid some not, but I don’t like to fly with them unless they’re rated for a lot more than your average Sunday Flyer. According to the blogs I’ve seen, ExpressJet isn’t exactly pulling the best of the best… of the best.
I checked online later to see what the entry requirements were for ExpressJet; oh, well, I feel much better. Not. I found out the online pilots groups have been saying, “ExpressJet’s hiring just about anyone“.
This pilot seems cool though. And I didn’t know at the time that he probably had less time in the air than I did twelve years ago. He was nice enough. Chats me up about the weather being cooler than yesterday. I practiced my verbal jujitsu on him by responding that cool weather’s a good thing; makes it a lot easier for him to take off with a full load, right?.
Note: This is due to air density / ground speed required, aviation stuff that can get you killed. If you don’t follow the changes during hot weather and overload the aircraft you go down just like Aaliyah did some years back…
So then after establishing my bona fides I ask him why they didn’t go up to the gate. He says there was another jet already there. I told him we had called and been assured that this flight would be at the gate and we wouldn’t have to worry about the wheelchair accessibility. He told me, first, that he hadn’t been informed, and that the other plane had two wheelchairs on it. He was nice about it, but I wasn’t getting that air operations competence vibe that I know matters. Everyone has to work together.
About the time the pilot says this I’m realizing that I’m not seeing as many ground crew working over both the jets at the same time as I would have expected. That made me feel like they were undermanned. Somebody’s cutting corners.
Like the number of wheelchairs on the previous flight even matters. One, two, it doesn’t matter. It’s not why there’s a bird parked at the gate. I’m not saying it, but I’m thinking… Monkey motion… Someone’s not gt their stuff wired tight in the ground crew organization.
First, a little of my background is important to know. I’ve got over 250 carrier traps and nearly nine hundred hours of flight time in a carrier based jet aircraft. I’m not a pilot but I know many military and commercial pilots and I’ve been around aircraft operations since 1989. So I’m familiar with how things are supposed to go. Here are a few pics of me in the jet.
They left one jet at the terminal, hooked up to the tow tractor. They left the other jet off the terminal, hooked up to the tow tractor. A reasonable operations approach with qualified ground crews would be to push back the jet not flying immediately in order to have the departing jet prepped and load at the gate.
Southwest Airlines is a master of this. Sit at any airport while you’re waiting for your next flight and you’ll see what I mean. It’s as close as you can get to the deck of any aircraft carrier in the US Navy’s fleet. It’s a ballet.
So today here at SMF (Sacramento) we’re looking at nonexistant ground crew. That means that not only do the passengers have to suffer a walk outdoors (the temperature was 100 degrees yesterday, but a breezy 67 degrees today) but we’re off and running to get in front of them.
Stairs don’t go well with wheelchairs. Click the image to see the blowup of the inset. Notice that everyone’s walking from that small doorway up to the jet. Real fun, right? Off camera to the left is the security guard, and about thirty other passengers waiting to board. The guard ended up carrying her up the stairs.
What fun. They got everyone on board, everyone made it alive at the other end. I was happy about that, but I’ve got serious doubts about ExpressJet’s ground crew.
My Analysis
Intermediate Maintenance may be top notch, but if they don’t have the right line crews to get this done, eventually something more important will be missed. Add that variable to the young, inexperienced pilots and you’ve got a lawn dart, waiting to happen.
What I want done
Here’s my remedy to this mess: I want her tickets refunded. Yes, refunded. It was a screw job all around, and it was XJET’s fault. It may not be technically illegal, but it was deceptive and/or it was a massive mistake. Either way I’m not so sure I would trust that airline based on what I saw. And you have the pictures to prove it.
If we chalk it up to an operations mistake, that’s understandable. Make it up to us.Prove it was a rare mistake. Give us a free set of tickets and we’ll try it again. But if I look at the monkey motion one more time and I’m not feeling good about the flight, I’ll pull chocks and never come back. I’m fair however. If XJT makes it right, I’ll post about that.
The 411 for you all if you should happen to share a similar personal nightmare:
CONTINENTAL AIRLINES & EXPRESSJET AIRLINES
Ms. Anne Munoz
Director, Customer Care
P.O. Box 4607, NHCCR
Houston, TX 77210-4607
(800) 932-2732
The Aviation Consumer Protection Division (ACPD) operates a complaint handling system for consumers who experience air travel service problems.
Why your state Attorney General’s office can’t help.
Where you can start your airline disability or discrimination complaint procedure.
Airline Accountability Blog- ExpressJet information
Summary
Fellow readers, I’ll keep you posted on what occurs after the letter is written by Dr. Girlfriend to the ExpressJet corporates. I’ll even send them a link to my blog post.
Maybe there will be some action on this. After all, Technorati tags are pretty compelling in the search engines. So are other unhappy ExpressJet customers.
Posted by Charles in Family |
August 13th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
[...] after her late return to Sacramento this evening quite the story to relate. In Part 2 continuing my previous ExpressJet tale, I’ll be sure to post more however what she did relate to me did [...]