Coming through MIA this today I was blessed with the rare treat of deplaning at High E. Those of you who work it or travel it know all to well what a cluster f*&@ High E can be when two wide bodies are scheduled to depart out of side by side gates and all the passengers who will be boarding those planes are clogging the gate area as the the two incoming wide bodies try to deplane. This effectively puts upwards of 900 people pushing and shoving their way through an area with a capacity of 300 – all that’s missing is the Wesson oil!!
Today, it was different, and I couldn’t figure out quite why. The flight in from DFW was flawless, a nice ride and as I prepared for the usual onslaught of bodies inside the terminal, imagine my surprise when there were none, no one but us. Then, I was treated to the reason why.
Also deplaning from DFW were four top brass from HDQ, coming to MIA in preparation to have the wool pulled over their eyes. Local management had diverted all flights away from High E Con, a noted complaint generating hot spot for MIA, so these top brass would not have to experience what goes on in that concourse every day. In short, they did the dirty. The real test will be to see if the corporates fell for it – no doubt they did.
Visiting Miami today they have Daniel P. Garton, EVP, Robert Reding
Executive Vice President – Operations, Thomas W. Horton, Executive Vice President – Finance and Planning and Chief Financial Officer, and Tom Del Valle, Senior Vice President - Airport Services. (You’ll have to excuse my spelling of their names if I’m wrong). Also rumored to be in attendance, Timothy Ahern, Vice President – Airport Services, although he wasn’t on that flight that I saw.
Miami has some serious problems, and local management is without the whereforall to deal with those issues. No one can figure out why Miami had 1900 bag traces in the first ten days of the year so far when they only had 80 last year at this same time. Of course, last year, AA wasn’t taking crap off of MDAA in High E! Customers don’t understand that it’s AA’s tight connecting times that looses their bags, not the baggage handlers. Who in their right mind thinks that inbound international passengers can claim their luggage, clear customs, clear security and make their connection in 40 minutes? Are their bags expected to make it through the system too? AA is the purveyor of it’s own misery in that respect. Local management must know this, yet it’s easier to blame the ramp, the unions, labor in general.
I like to think that this is a sign that corporate is sick of the excuses. I hope so because I can’t use any other AA hub to make my connections and Miami is a mess, a well hidden mess. With any luck, Hazy’s head will roll and they’ll put Marilyn De Voe where they should have put her years ago – as head of MIA. At least she understands the crap passengers have to put up with every day just to traverse MIA, and I think she knows how to listen to labor instead of finding ways to say their ideas at repairing the damage are just employees bitching like current management appears to relish, especially that sorry excuse for a head of passenger service in MIA. Talk about in one ear and out the other! If those raisins he calls balls ever saw the light of day outside his desk drawer, things may actually turn around, but he’s just hanging in there for his pension. Hopefully, he’ll be one that corporate delivers a blow to this week – pension be damned!
MIA employees, find these guys, before they get away, and before local management pulls too much wool over their eyes and talk to them. I think they really want to hear from you, or they wouldn’t be there, but you know local management will hide them from the truth of that mess.
I hope for the day of a MIA where I don’t have to carry on, and can trust my luggage to follow me, trust my flight won’t be delayed by some asshat that couldn’t get out of the bar in time and causes a bag pull, only to show up ten minutes late and still be granted boarding! Most importantly, a MIA with a planner that doesn’t have their head up their fanny and knows when it’s right to hold a flight for 50 connecting passengers, and when not to because the one they have is a cold hearted you-know-what. I’ve missed more connections because of that one person, and countless letters of complaint go unheard. I wipe my butt with the vouchers I have so damn many, I couldn’t possibly ever use them all.
In the meantime, I keep my fingers crossed for Spirit. I hope they make it in their Caribbean bids because people need an alternative to AA and MIA until something is done to clean up the mess.
Today, it was different, and I couldn’t figure out quite why. The flight in from DFW was flawless, a nice ride and as I prepared for the usual onslaught of bodies inside the terminal, imagine my surprise when there were none, no one but us. Then, I was treated to the reason why.
Also deplaning from DFW were four top brass from HDQ, coming to MIA in preparation to have the wool pulled over their eyes. Local management had diverted all flights away from High E Con, a noted complaint generating hot spot for MIA, so these top brass would not have to experience what goes on in that concourse every day. In short, they did the dirty. The real test will be to see if the corporates fell for it – no doubt they did.
Visiting Miami today they have Daniel P. Garton, EVP, Robert Reding
Executive Vice President – Operations, Thomas W. Horton, Executive Vice President – Finance and Planning and Chief Financial Officer, and Tom Del Valle, Senior Vice President - Airport Services. (You’ll have to excuse my spelling of their names if I’m wrong). Also rumored to be in attendance, Timothy Ahern, Vice President – Airport Services, although he wasn’t on that flight that I saw.
Miami has some serious problems, and local management is without the whereforall to deal with those issues. No one can figure out why Miami had 1900 bag traces in the first ten days of the year so far when they only had 80 last year at this same time. Of course, last year, AA wasn’t taking crap off of MDAA in High E! Customers don’t understand that it’s AA’s tight connecting times that looses their bags, not the baggage handlers. Who in their right mind thinks that inbound international passengers can claim their luggage, clear customs, clear security and make their connection in 40 minutes? Are their bags expected to make it through the system too? AA is the purveyor of it’s own misery in that respect. Local management must know this, yet it’s easier to blame the ramp, the unions, labor in general.
I like to think that this is a sign that corporate is sick of the excuses. I hope so because I can’t use any other AA hub to make my connections and Miami is a mess, a well hidden mess. With any luck, Hazy’s head will roll and they’ll put Marilyn De Voe where they should have put her years ago – as head of MIA. At least she understands the crap passengers have to put up with every day just to traverse MIA, and I think she knows how to listen to labor instead of finding ways to say their ideas at repairing the damage are just employees bitching like current management appears to relish, especially that sorry excuse for a head of passenger service in MIA. Talk about in one ear and out the other! If those raisins he calls balls ever saw the light of day outside his desk drawer, things may actually turn around, but he’s just hanging in there for his pension. Hopefully, he’ll be one that corporate delivers a blow to this week – pension be damned!
MIA employees, find these guys, before they get away, and before local management pulls too much wool over their eyes and talk to them. I think they really want to hear from you, or they wouldn’t be there, but you know local management will hide them from the truth of that mess.
I hope for the day of a MIA where I don’t have to carry on, and can trust my luggage to follow me, trust my flight won’t be delayed by some asshat that couldn’t get out of the bar in time and causes a bag pull, only to show up ten minutes late and still be granted boarding! Most importantly, a MIA with a planner that doesn’t have their head up their fanny and knows when it’s right to hold a flight for 50 connecting passengers, and when not to because the one they have is a cold hearted you-know-what. I’ve missed more connections because of that one person, and countless letters of complaint go unheard. I wipe my butt with the vouchers I have so damn many, I couldn’t possibly ever use them all.
In the meantime, I keep my fingers crossed for Spirit. I hope they make it in their Caribbean bids because people need an alternative to AA and MIA until something is done to clean up the mess.
