By Irving Leemon, Contributing Columnist
Why is that we continue to put up with the airlines’ treating us like cattle and not like paying customers? We, the general flying public, refuse to stop using airlines that keep us waiting by the hour and not telling us why the delay is occurring, or the projected duration of the problem. If they do not know, let them say so, and then tell the waiting passengers as soon as they do know.
How many people who were trying to fly on United Airlines a couple of weeks ago knew why the delays were happening? How many people were given vouchers on the spot, or quickly reimbursed, for food, hotel rooms, car rentals or train fares? Why don’t the airlines have a separate, more manual, back up system in place, especially for the reclaiming of luggage?
So, the airlines would have to unload and then re-load the luggage after a lengthy delay. Yes, this would add to the delay, especially, the re-screening of that luggage. Many passengers could not get their luggage during the delay and many toiletries cannot be in the carry-on bags due to security concerns. What about airlines paying for their purchase of toiletries? The paying passengers did not cause the problem and certainly did not pay for the inconvenience nor did they expect any additional expenses that they incurred. This incident shows the weakness that we have developed by our over dependence on computers and the Internet.
We are becoming more and more dependent on computers, including hand held devices such as smart phones, and their ability to talk to each other. None of them is very secure, as has been proven time and time again. Hackers have been able to get into airline computers, government, including Department of Defense computers; banking systems, cell phones, and more.
We should stop our ever expanding dependence on computers until we have developed a much more secure way of keeping unwanted people and children out of them. Agree, Disagree?