Every year or so, a wave of anti-airline hysteria seems to wash over the nation. It's happening again.
Such a wave broke over us two years ago when Spirit Airlines became the first U.S. carrier to charge passengers for stowing carry-on baggage in the overhead bins. The resulting indignation from pundits and politicians was palpable.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) was moved to demand a promise from other airlines that they wouldn't match Spirit. Some airlines took the pledge.
Then, roughly one year ago, Delta was the culprit for imposing excess-baggage charges on soldiers returning from Afghanistan. The carrier claimed that it was simply following its baggage rules for the military, which allowed three free checked bags with a higher-than-normal weight limit, but that didn't prevent the airline from being blogged into submission.
In no time at all, Delta boosted the baggage limit, and other airlines ran for cover amid a flurry of outraged media reports that the airlines were making "billions" on "extra fees."
This year's bad guy is United. Evidently not satisfied with breaking guitars, the airline now stands accused of breaking up families by discontinuing the practice of offering courtesy preboarding to families with small children.
Never mind that it is merely the latest airline to do so, the carrier and others of its ilk are now being pilloried in the blogosphere for separating mothers from their children by requiring families to pay seat selection fees to guarantee that they will get seats together.
Schumer is again coming to the rescue, advising the Transportation Department that "the onerous nature of the fee may well result in children being separated from their parents -- and out of sight -- to avoid these substantial costs."
He wants the DOT to develop "new guidance for airlines separating children from their parents due to new pricing schemes that place a premium fee on aisle and window seats and serve as an obstacle to consecutive seat assignments." By "guidance" he means a ban.
If seat assignment fees have caused an epidemic of traumatic family separations on the nation's airlines, we are unaware of it. In fact, by all accounts it appears that the nation's flight attendants have been, and remain, pretty resourceful when it comes to rearranging people when the need arises.
Musician Dave Carroll at least had one broken guitar to justify his viral music video about United's baggage handling. Where's the evidence that seat assignment fees have become such a threat to family life that the DOT needs to step in and ban them?
At times like these we wonder why we seem to have a compulsion to demonize the airlines. As consumers and even as travel people, we never seem to give them the benefit of the doubt.
We readily suspect them of the worst. We suspect them of hating their own customers, hating baggage, hating travel agents, hating servicemen, hating families. They seem to bring a lot of this ill will upon themselves, but can any industry really be that hateful?
We would like to think not, particularly since millions of us entrust our lives to the airlines every day.
We would like to believe that the airlines are run by decent folk who simply don't have a clue how to handle their numerous image problems.
If only they could make it easier to keep that hope alive.