Air travel consumer sites are doing more these days than keeping tabs on ticket prices. They also are tapping into the growing resentment among air passengers. The result eventually may give the flying public a voice that the airline industry can’t ignore.
You’d probably expect airline passengers — irritated by a barrage of add-on fees, brusque treatment and increasingly cramped seats in what I like to call Sardine Class — to take to the Internet to fight back.
And you’d be right.
One of my favorite fare-tracking sites is Airfarewatchdog. It’s run by George Hobica, one of the sharper knives in the digital drawer where travel is concerned. Now, they’re doing more than tracking fares. This came to me in this morning’s email:
“Hello Gregory,
Fly somewhere over the weekend? Or in the past six months? Airfarewatchdog invites you to rate your flight. That’s right! Put your travel smarts to work, and help out your fellow passengers. Worst leg room ever? Free cookies? We want to hear all about it! Rate your recent flights today!”
Lots of Web forums allow travelers to rate — or berate — airlines. But when that same site also allows the traveling consumer to track and select the airfare and airline of their choice, the combination has the potential to create a voice on behalf of the paying passenger that the airlines can’t ignore.
Expect to see more of this.
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