Trip to D.C.: Day Three (A Day Late)

Yesterday, the last day of my trip, was pretty uneventful. Thankfully, I was able to finish up all the work I needed to do at our client's office. I've gone on trips like this before, and have had to run around like a mad man the last couple of hours, photocopying and compiling everything so that I could finish the audit back at the office. That's stressful, so it was nice to actually be done on time.

My trip home had me flying from D.C. down to Charlotte to catch a connecting flight back to White Plains, NY. It's been long enough that I think, had I had a few hours to kill, it would have been nice to visit some sites and some friends in Charlotte. I only had 45 minutes, though. Just enough time to use the bathroom, walk to the other side of the airport terminal (Why is it that connecting flights are never ever close by?), talk to Melinda, and update my Facebook status before my flight boarded.

While I was waiting to board, an announcer came on the P.A. system and asked if anyone would be willing to spend the night in Charlotte and fly out the next morning. The airline had apparently oversold the flight. Then a thought occurred to me: What gives the airline the right to break their contract with a customer? I mean, if a person doesn't show up for their flight, the airline will still charge them for their seat, so how come the airline can oversell flights? Didn't the purchase of a ticket guarantee a seat on the plane? I realize airlines need to make money, and that the tactic of overbooking planes is an attempt to ensure that each plane will fly full, but does that make it right?

The airline actually needed three people to give up their seats for this flight. They offered a free round-trip ticket to anywhere in the U.S., a free night's stay in a local hotel, and free dinner and breakfast. So, if they do this whenever there aren't enough seats, does the practice of overbooking flights really make the airline the maximum amount of money? Then, if you realize that flights get more and more expensive the less time there is between the date you book a trip and your travel date, it's no wonder that some flights are half-empty. So, I'm skeptical that airlines are really being wise with their policies. I think a lot more people would be willing to take a spur-of-the-moment trip if they weren't gouged on the prices, thus reducing the need to overbook flights.

But all of that is commentary on the practicality of the way our nation's airlines do business. What I really wonder is this: When did we decide that corporations should have more rights, flexibility, and freedom that actual people? Airlines are just one example, but I'm sure you can think of a million more. There are health insurance companies making medical decisions instead of doctors; late fees and penalties used by banks and credit card companies that can be called nothing other than extreme usury - a practice that every major society in history has deemed unethical; there's one set of car prices dealers use, and one for us regular folks... and the list could go on and on. With all this talk about socialism and the government controlling too much of our lives, I wonder if we ever stop to think that what we have now is, in many ways, corporate socialism - a society where the rights of corporations exceed and come at the expense of the rights of actual citizens. Just look at the bailout spree we're currently undertaking. We're afraid to let corporations fall, but individuals need to fend for themselves. That just seems kind of backwards to me.