There’s often more than one way to interpret statistics. For example, when you read that the Department of Transportation received 1,658 consumer complaints about U.S. airlines for March 2000, compared to 980 such complaints for March 1999, you might conclude the airlines provided worse service this year than last.
But when you further read that for March 2000 air-travel consumers also expressed 153 opinions (compared to 60 for March ’99), gave five compliments (compared to two for March ’99) and made 75 requests for information (compared to 49 for March ’99), you might concluded that air-travel consumers are getting better at telling the government what they think. Here are the way those complaints were categorized for March 2000 (March ’99 totals follow in parentheses).
Flight problems: 703 (395)
Customer service: 367 (160)
Baggage: 278 (189)
Reservations/Ticketing/Boarding: 138 (95)*
Refunds: 110 (98)
Oversales: 107 (68)
Disability: 80 (31)*
Fares: 72 (43)
Other: 54 (63)
Tours: 17 (12)
Advertising: 3 (1)
(*Note: Disability did not become a separate category until September ’99; until that time, Disability complaints were counted in the Reservations/Ticketing/Boarding category.)
The department also recorded in March 2000 a total of 170 complaints against foreign airlines, with 26 of the complaints aimed at Air France, 18 at British Airways and 11 each at Allegro Airlines and Lufthansa.
