AIRLINES

I've flown a lot. So much I lost count over the years. I understand traveling can be a headache, and that airline employees are people too and it can be a tough job. But do they understand the passengers are people too? I had the absolute worst experience flying a certain airline over the weekend. I was traveling with my 3 year old son Jack to New Jersey and the trip back on Monday was unbelievable. I stood there and watched a ticket counter clerk literally scream and berate a passenger simply because he didn't know the process. There are self-serve touch-pad computer screens for check-in but then if you're checking luggage you still have to see a clerk. A line had formed because a lot of people don't fly often and they didn't know what to do. This jackass starts admonishing the entire line, "Whaddya all in a line for?! It's self serve!! There's no need to be in a line. You!" He singles out this one poor guy, an inexperienced traveler flying alone. "Where you going!?" He answers him. "Then what the hell are ya standin' there for!!?" I'm talking major yelling here. No paying customer should ever be treated like this. The poor guy tried to explain that he was confused because he had to check luggage and he was waiting for a clerk, and in a way he was right in that he eventually did need one. This clerk went on to just rip him a new one, making fun of him in front of the whole crowd with his obnoxious condescending hollering. I swear to God, on that particular day, every single employee I had contact with from the front ticket counter to the gate to the plane was rude to the point of hostility. And the flight was delayed over three hours. And I had a three year old, who through it all somehow managed to be a better person than any airline employee we came across. I don't know what's going on with the airline industry that they are treating people this way. It seems to me because they get to operate under the protection of federal regulations, where if you simply raise your voice back to them to match their tone they can have you pulled by security and possibly arrested, they've lost all sense of appropriate behavior and business conduct. They are running their own private little dictatorship behind that counter and God help anyone who stands up to it.