Next, when it comes to deicing protocols, while it varies by airport, many airport authorities provide deicing procedures or ground handlers supply this service. It would be impractical at many outstations for an airline to maintain their own deicing/winter ops equipment because the cost would be prohibitive for their limited service to the airport. When relying on the airport or ground handler to perform these functions, there is only so much pushing you can do. It is their operation to run as they please, no matter how much pressure you put on them. Along the same lines, runway snow removal is entirely up to the airport authority and outside the control of an airline. They can only depart once the airport has cleared the snow and deemed the runway safe for ops.

In regards to hotel rooms for stranded passengers. One estimate from the weather issues that plagued the pacific NW and ORD over the past week and half states over 1 million people were effected. If we hypothesize (this will be grossly inaccurate) that 1/5 were required to spend a night at an airport, that would be 200,000 hotel stays. Say the airlines have an average negotiated rate of $55. That would equate $11m in hotel expenses for this one week period for all affected airlines. That is on top of the costs incurred for overtime wages to employees, cost to reposition crews, additional energy costs for ground equipment (more use) other equipment being used more, cost of lost revenue due to canceled reservations or inability for new customers to book flights as they are full with displaced passengers. The costs would be astronomical for a high turnover, low margin business. When you book an airline ticket it is with the understanding that the airline will make all efforts to get you to your final destination in as timely a fashion as possible or offer you a refund. It is specifically listed in all contracts of carriage that the times offered/listed/scheduled can not be guaranteed.

Finally, I do agree that an airline must share as much information as possible and continually update customers even if no further information is available. Honesty and candor are crucial to gaining customer commitment and cooperation. It is always best to explain the situation and the choices the customers have, no matter how uncomfortable or displeasing they may be (such as take the delayed flight to the hub city as once there have more options, but may be stranded).

It is important you look at all perspectives and working parts when analyzing a situation and you seemed to leave the airline perspective out of it.

I feel the issue here boils down to the management. Many of the key airline executives have a Finance or Operations background. And when these folks rise to the top, they’re think of an airline as being in the transport industry, rather than being in the service industry. Hence, the experience tends to be much closer to that of being on Greyhound, rather than at Ritz Clarton. See my point?

And you see a huge difference in airlines that operate differently when it comes to the hiring process. JetBlue didn’t hire almost anyone who had previously worked with an airline. Ditto for Virgin America. And Southwest is very very choosy about its people too. The broth is as good as the cook isn’t it?

The question is why don’t these carriers care enough about this to make it the focal point that we see at these other airlines? That might make for an interesting discussion.