Why Can't Airlines and Customers Get Along?

Why Can't Airlines and Customers Get Along?

Top of Mind with Julie Rose - Radio Archive, Episode 554 , Segment 1

Episode: Airline Customers, Why We Blame, Reviving Extinct Species

  • May 16, 2017 11:00 pm
  • 17:54 mins

Guest: Henry Harteveldt, Travel Industry Analyst, President of Atmosphere Research Group Conflict between passengers and airline employees seems to be escalating. Just in the last week a complaint went viral from a woman on a United flight who says she was forced to urinate in a cup rather than use the plane lavatory. In the terminal of the Fort Lauderdale Airport, passengers, Spirit Airlines employees, and airport police scuffled over several cancelled flights—all of it caught on video. Often the troubles stem from airlines overbooking flights and shuffling passengers in a less-than-diplomatic fashion. The most memorable being the video of David Dao shrieking and bloody as he was dragged off a United Airlines flight last month when he refused to give up the seat he paid for. United Airlines apologized, but a fuse seems to have been lit. Even US lawmakers are holding Congressional hearings about the state of airline customer service.

Other Segments

Why We Blame Abuse Victims

18m

Guest: Jason Whiting, PhD, Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy, Texas Tech University It might be uncomfortable to admit, but when we hear a news story about someone who was attacked, we might notice ourselves scanning the details to see how the victim was different from us. If we find that they were in a location where we never go, out alone after dark, drinking or doing drugs, we tend to feel safer, like it’s something that could never happen to us—but what we’re really doing is blaming the victim. Therapist Jason Whiting says that even though we do it as a way of protecting ourselves, that’s not to say we should be doing it. Understanding that it happens is important to changing how we think about abuse and violence.

Guest: Jason Whiting, PhD, Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy, Texas Tech University It might be uncomfortable to admit, but when we hear a news story about someone who was attacked, we might notice ourselves scanning the details to see how the victim was different from us. If we find that they were in a location where we never go, out alone after dark, drinking or doing drugs, we tend to feel safer, like it’s something that could never happen to us—but what we’re really doing is blaming the victim. Therapist Jason Whiting says that even though we do it as a way of protecting ourselves, that’s not to say we should be doing it. Understanding that it happens is important to changing how we think about abuse and violence.