Is it just me or has airline travel gotten worse in the last few months?
Coming back from Redmond in November after getting a deep dive from Microsoft on OpsMgr 2007 R2, I got to the airport nice and early, settled in, and … then heard there was “mechanical trouble” with the plane. An hour and a half later, we were advised that the problem could not be resolved short term and we should just all look for another plane. (And this was a full flight.) Oh yeah, and even if we were so lucky to book another flight that day, we had to go to baggage claim to get our luggage then check it back in – which of course meant going through the security check again. I was lucky enough to get on the next flight – many were not – which was also delayed.
So people were missing their connections and getting to where they were supposed to go a day late, hassling with rebooking, and of course just thrilled about going through the security checkpoint again 🙂
I know several people who were trying to fly to Chicago this Sunday morning. The plane had mechanical problems, so they brought out another plane, but it turned out the new plane had mechanical problems as well! What fun. One person I know had to make a connection and decided to just take the next scheduled flight to make his connection in Chicago (good thing, since the original flight would not have been there in time). He made the connection, but his luggage didn’t – that showed up about 24 hours later. Without a change of clothes or even the power cord for his laptop, my friend ended up going to his business meeting on Monday wearing faded jeans and sneakers. At least everyone there had a sense of humor!
I used to enjoy flying, but it seems to have become more of a hassle these days.
What does this have to do with systems and operations management? What if airplanes could be managed like computer systems – so you knew proactively if something was going to fail and could try to resolve the problem quickly? Maybe I’m being simplistic but it sounds pretty good right now. We know airlines use computer systems, they’re supposed to track luggage, passengers, weather, repairs … and yes there are a lot of flights (although many of the larger US airlines have cut back), but it just seems to be getting harder to manage.
Disclaimer: I do not have any immediate relatives working in the airline industry. And I apologize if I offended anyone who does.
