Airlines got bailouts, while passengers’ flights are delayed or canceled. Where’s Congress?

It was supposed to be a heavenly evening. Too bad it came after the day from hell.

My son graduated with his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin at the tail end of the lockdown phase of the pandemic. A couple of years before, I had asked him what he wanted as a graduation gift: dinner at a Michelin three-star restaurant. I promised him when he eventually graduated that I’d make it happen—once we could.

A restaurant with that rating meant New York, California, Chicago or Washington, D.C. After looking at the options, I chose the last: The Inn at Little Washington, a French-American place an hour outside the district.

This sort of restaurant is a financial commitment, and it’s nonrefundable. To help offset the cost, I used American Airlines points to book the earliest flights of the day and made the reservation for 8:45 p.m. that night, thinking that there was no way it would take 12 hours to get from Texas to northern Virginia.

I was wrong.

My son’s flights were fine. But once I arrived at LaGuardia Airport in New York for my layover, my flight was delayed, then restored, then delayed again, this time with a gate change. I had a gut feeling that it would take a miracle to get to D.C. that day.

In 2020, per the New York Times, the United States handed airlines $25 billion to help them endure the pandemic. According to Business Traveller, American received $4.1 billion, in addition to low-interest loans.

Despite this, flight cancellations in 2022 — a year that should be gangbusters for travel-related companies — might surpass those of 2020. FlightAware and Newsweek reported 121,918 cancellations through the end of June, about 500 more than all of 2021. The July 4 weekend added another 2,200 cancellations and tens of thousands of delays, according to the Associated Press.

Travelers have heard every excuse: ongoing pandemic problems, computer glitches, bad weather, fuel costs. And yes, things have been difficult for a while. But industries across the nation — many that didn’t get $25 billion to keep going — have figured out how to adapt. Why not the airlines? How is an industry in which a substantial number of customers signal their intentions months in advance failing to keep up with demand?

Meanwhile, people are being harmed. Flight crews don’t deserve the stress that delays and cancellations involve. On all three of my flights during my last trip, I heard at least one flight attendant or pilot nearly beg passengers to be patient and not take out their frustrations on the crew.

As for passengers, they’re enduring long lines and constant changes. Not every passenger has the know-how or means to modify plans at the last second or navigate the complicated rebooking process. Not every passenger is a business traveler who can charge an emergency dinner and hotel room to the company card.

Everyday Americans are missing concerts, weddings, reunions and funerals. These are college students who finally saved up enough to backpack in Europe and families that are taking their first vacations in years.

My story ended well. A $161 Amtrak ticket got me from Manhattan to D.C. with plenty of time to spare. I didn’t try to rebook through American because, frankly, the airline had lost my trust. I needed to know for certain that I was going to make it in time.

My flight was canceled so late in the day that I would have missed our reservation. That cancellation could have made me miss one of the best evenings my son and I ever had.

None of this headache ever needed to happen, though. The airlines know the number of passengers booked and planes and crews needed. They know the ebb and flow of the travel season. This summer shouldn’t have caught them by surprise.

It’s time for Congress and the Department of Transportation to make the airlines sweat. We need hearings and regulations. We need expanded passenger rights. And we need more competition — specifically in the form of increased clean, efficient rail transit options.

We the travelers handed the airlines a check for $25 billion. It’s time for us to demand a return for our investment.

Brian Wooddell is a public educator from Fort Worth.