ABOUT THIS COLUMN
There was widespread, noisy dissatisfaction with the airline industry's performance in 1999.
To avert Congressional action,
the major carriers invented their voluntary "Customer First" initiatives. They were hogwash and legally meaningless, but they were the talk of the summer and fall of 1999. With much fanfare, the initiatives went into effect on December 15. The next day, I published a column that focused instead on United's particularly bad 1999 performance and its propensity for blaming passengers for its miserable on-time record and high lost-baggage rates. Even in an industry excoriated for lousy service, United was hitting astonishing lows. The airline kept blaming travelers for its woes--we were carrying on too much baggage, we weren't in our seats early enough before departure--but the truth was that United was unraveling. Wall Street security analysts could see no evil--United told them there was no evil, so they ignored the facts--but investors were souring on United. Its stock, which had been trading north of $100 a share in the palmy days, was selling at around $65 by the end of 1999. -- J.B.

THE AIRLINE BLAME GAME: MEANINGLESS
PROMISES AND EGREGIOUS EXCUSES

BY JOE BRANCATELLI

December 16, 1999 -- It is yesterday's news that the nation's major carriers have begun implementing their cynically self-aggrandizing "customer service" initiatives. We needn't waste another electron on these rhetorical irrelevancies because the airlines have already admitted that the plans are non-binding and unenforceable and leave passengers without rights, recourse or recompense.

So instead of recapping the specifics of promises that the carriers have no intention of keeping, let's focus on some startling statistics--and egregious excuses--from the last year.

It was a year ago that we were first confronted by the tyrannical templates, those rigid devices meant to police the size of our carry-on bags. Championed by United and Delta, these contraptions were supposedly created to improve on-time performance.

As you'll recall, most airlines were blaming their dreary on-time ratings on us, claiming planes were running late because we were carrying too many bags that were too large to fit in overhead bins. If only we piggish business travelers would accept templates and check our bags, Delta and United promised flight delays would be a thing of the past.

Well, guess what, fellow travelers? Templates and carry-on bags don't make a damned bit of difference to on-time performance. We now have proof in the form of a year of cold, hard and irrefutable numbers.

As you can see from the chart below, United's on-time performance was below the industry-wide average during ten of the last twelve months. Worse, United consistently turned in a poorer on-time performance than Continental, which vehemently opposes templates and has enlarged its overhead bins to accommodate extra carry-on bags. United was obsessively installing templates last year while Continental was urging