The gist:
Airplane full of people. One screaming child won't get in her seat, screams and tries to hit people when they try to pull her out from under the seat in front of her parents, and the pussy-ass parents are shrugging and grinning instead of beating the shit out of the little monster.
AirTran responds by removing the family from the plane, so that it can take off on time. AirTran then gives them the $600 they paid for their tickets, AND gives them three round-trip tickets to anywhere.
And these fucknuggets are complaining that AirTran treated them unfairly.
The commentary: (No, the above was not commentary. It was synopsis.)
An idling 737 (the most commonly used by AirTran), sitting on the ground, burning fuel, costs an airline about $2,776 / hour. (For all of you bastards who always ask me to source everything: http://www.icao.int/icao/en/ro/allpirg/allpirg4/wp28app.pdf, and, in the future, you can feel free to Google it yourself.)
The flight was delayed 15 minutes. That cost the airline $694.The profit margins of airlines is razor thin as it is, thanks to the extra costs of hiring union employees. (In fact, this quarter, AirTran is predicting a loss, which is, for those of you who are either liberal or illiterate, is the opposite of a profit. http://baltimore.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2007/01/01/daily18.html?surround=lfn I know that big, greedy business bother you because they promote the economy, give people jobs, and make people less dependant on the government, but your precious tax theivery has to come from somewhere. Just because it's a business doesn't mean it's hoarding all the money in the world.)
So, anyway, these weak-willed, spineless, useless "parents" have already cost the airline $694. So, how does AirTran respond? They refund $600 in tickets. ($1294 for those keeping track.) They, then, give out three round trip airline tickets (figure at about $200 / each) to the family, AND fly them home for free the next day. (We're looking at $2,500 this family cost a business in just 15 minutes.)
Let's start with the immediate problem. These asshole "parents" are complaining that the airline treated them unfairly, even going on Good Morning America to bitch. FIRST OF ALL, AirTran responded to this incident completely inapporpriately. They SHOULD have locked the little demon and her two DNA donors in the cargo hold with the pets and the luggage, and made them fly there, instead of spending $2,500 on these losers. "Oh, but they don't want a PR nightmare", you bleat. And having the Good Morning America crew turn these dumbasses who don't know how to control their children into "martyrs" is GOOD publicity, then?
ATA's stock goes down because of the bad PR.
Now come some of the longer-term effects. First of all, every scam-artist in the country is going to bring along a screaming brat, and fail to control them, on all airlines, until they are given sweet deals. This will hurt the airlines financially. These assholes who were the first ones are probably going to find a way to sue the airline. And, of course, anyone who's sat on a civil jury knows that you're going to be stuck on there with 7 anti-business communist swine who want to hurt "the man" and will side with the plaintiff. This will hurt the airlines.
News of this will filter outbound. People will stop investing in airlines, 'cuz they're starting to be less of a good return on investment. In order to continue to make ends meet, they'll have to raise prices. This means that fewer people will want to fly, and, businesses in particular, will start to rely more on videoconferencing. So, with fewer travellers, they'll have to start laying off overpaid union slugs. The remaining union slugs, used to not actually doing any work, will protest by not doing as good of a job as they used to. (See Big 3 Automakers thoughout the 70's and 80's.) As a result, more planes will fall from the sky. This will lead to lawsuits, cost of replacing planes, and, eventually, even more bad PR. (See ValueJet (now Airtran) post crash into the swamp.)
People will get laid off. These people will not be able to pump money back into the economy, 'cept what they get from their unemployment insurance, and, eventually, welfare. Taxes will need to be increased to cover the difference. The investors who put their hard earned into the airline will be out that cash, and more skittish about investing in the transportation industry altogether.
One pair of bad parents, mixed with some bleeding-heart, sissy-assed nonsense by a ticketing clerk, will, ultimately, be responsible for a massive downtick in the economy, and widespread unemployment. Good job, assholes.
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