In the not too distant past, flying felt like an event.
Passengers dressed up, meals came with real silverware, and flight attendants smiled like they meant it. Today, air travel feels more like an endurance test with long lines, severely delayed flights, and lost luggage. And airlines respond with an automated apology from a chatbot that never resolves your issue.
If you’ve traveled recently, you’ve probably noticed that the standards, once expected from airlines, have quietly slipped away. Customer service has been replaced by customer deflection. In 2024, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported that nearly one in five U.S. flights arrived late and baggage mishandling climbed above two million incidents. Meanwhile, ticket prices climbed even as airline profits soared.
In the third quarter of 2024, U.S. airlines reported $2.1 billion in net profit, up from $1.6 billion a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
When Efficiency Falls and Profits Soar
Since the pandemic, Americans have heard endless explanations for poor service, including staffing shortages, weather disruptions, and the ever-vague “operational challenges.” Yet many of those excuses don’t explain why passengers are still paying more for worse experiences. Major U.S. carriers have reported record revenues this year, but anyone who’s sat for four hours on a grounded flight knows that reliability has never been lower.
The most frustrating part? For international travelers, there are laws that could help, and some even apply here at home. In Europe, passengers can claim up to $650 (600 euros) when their flight is delayed or canceled under EU Regulation 261. They can also claim compensation for baggage delays or losses under the Montreal Convention, which guarantees up to roughly $2,000 in compensation for missing or damaged luggage. And in the United States, the Department of Transportation (DOT) requires airlines to reimburse travelers up to $4,700 per passenger for lost, delayed, or damaged baggage.
Accountability Shouldn’t Require Bureaucracy
Americans are not asking for more regulation. They’re asking for accountability. The problem is that airlines have no real consequences when it comes to passenger loss or inconvenience, particularly when it comes to flight cancellations and delays. Most people don’t even realize they can claim compensation when things go wrong, especially for international trips where global treaties already protect them. The result? Billions in unclaimed compensation sit on the table every year, while passengers foot the bill for corporate inefficiency.
The Department of Transportation sets some standards for baggage mishandling, but few travelers ever file claims. In most cases, they’re deterred by confusing policies, endless forms, and customer service mazes designed to wear them down. For a supposedly competitive industry, airlines have mastered the art of avoiding competition when it comes to taking responsibility.
Why Market Solutions Beat Government Fixes
Here’s the thing, we don’t need a new federal agency to solve this. What’s needed is innovative tools that let ordinary people stand up for themselves without another layer of bureaucracy. Fortunately, in this day in age, technology can close the gap where regulation has failed.
That’s where companies like AirAdvisor come in. AirAdvisor is the #1 flight and baggage compensation platform, a private-sector solution that helps travelers claim what they’re owed for delayed, canceled, or disrupted flights and lost baggage. Using patent-pending technology, it connects passengers with compensation owed under existing laws like the Montreal Convention, EU261, the US DOT rules and others, and it does it in minutes instead of months. No lawyers. No red tape. Just results.
As Anton Radchenko, AirAdvisor’s CEO, puts it:
“Passengers don’t need more rules, they need real tools. When people understand their rights and have an easy way to act on them, accountability will return to travel.”
Taking Back Control of the Skies
Air travel should be about the freedom to go where you need to go, safely and reliably, without being ignored when things go wrong. The erosion of accountability in the skies mirrors what many Americans feel in other parts of life, with big companies profiting while consumers are left powerless.
But it doesn’t have to stay that way. Every missed connection, every lost bag, every endless delay represents not just inconvenience but hard-earned cash and real, measurable losses that should not fall solely on the traveler. Whether through fair laws or smart private innovation, it’s time the balance shifted back toward the people who actually buy the tickets.
Airlines will keep promising that things are improving, but until passengers start holding them accountable with tools that work in their favor, the only thing flying high will be the excuses.